The result was a fantastic spring afternoon with the Breon family — Emerald, Jade and Teri — getting a chance to see them in action running the band saw mill, turning out stack after stack of hemlock beams and boards. Since the Capital Lumber folks are writing about hemlock for this issue, Rob suggested an easy outdoor companion project featuring the wood. Always eager to build outdoor furnishings, and excited about working with a species I’d never used before, I was immediately on board.

Getting Started

This plant stand is perfect for any deck or patio corner. It features simple rabbets and butt joints, enhanced by strong pocket-hole joinery. Four shelves of varying sizes are just right for displaying flowers or any other flora you want to show off.

As with all projects, give your lumber a good going-over once it’s back in the shop. The hemlock I got was in good shape, but it did have a bit of cupping and a number of knots I’d have to look out for. After picking out the pieces with the best presentation faces, mill the lumber to flatten everything to whatever thickness you prefer. Since 3/4″ stock is readily available, I decided to mill to that thickness here. But if you’re starting with 4/4 stock, you can leave it a bit thicker if you like. Be sure to take any extra thickness into consideration when following the Material List on, and adjust part sizes as needed. After milling, rip the stock to width to eliminate flaws or checking.

Making the Parts

Since they’ll need to be glued up from smaller pieces, create the panels for the shelves first. This is an outdoor project that will be subject to the weather, so a waterproof glue such as Titebond III is a must. Set the clamped-up panels aside to dry.

Create a pattern or template for the curved uprights using the Curved Upright Layout Drawing. Take note that the curve does not start until 3″ from the bottom of the upright. This straight portion will make it easier to cut and install the bottom rails a bit later.

Transfer the pattern to a workpiece. To maximize strength, orient the pattern on the wood so the grain runs in a straight line, tip to tip. Whenever I need to make multiples of curved parts, I like to stack the parts. It saves time, makes cutting and sanding more efficient and ensures that the parts are identical. That’s important for a project like this where you’ll be mounting rails on each side.

To double up the workpieces, I elected to drive 1″ pin nails through the transferred pattern into the stacked parts, which allowed me to work the two curved uprights as a single unit. Once the two pieces are pulled apart and the pin nails removed, the holes left behind are simply too small to be noticeable. A band saw is the best way to cut out the curved uprights. As an alternative, a jigsaw is a bit slower but works just fine. One tip for cutting these on the band saw: Before actually cutting to your pattern line, rough-cut most of the waste away. This will make the doubled-up workpieces lighter and easier to handle for the precise trimming.

With the curved uprights still stacked, smooth out and refine the parts. A spindle sander is great for the inside concave edges. For the outer edges, a disc sander or random orbit sander does the trick quickly and easily. Once the sanding is done, pry the uprights apart and pull out the pin nails. The holes are already minuscule, but here’s another tip: You can make those pin holes virtually disappear by putting a drop of water on each one. The water swells the wood fibers, closing them up.

Cut the two rear uprights to size, and mill a 3/8″ x 3/8″ rabbet on the back edge of each. You can do this with a dado blade installed in your table saw or a straight bit in a router table. Since I was only cutting two rabbets, I elected to simply use the rabbeting ledge on my jointer.

Riding the Rails

Cut the four rails for each side to width. The bottom rails, which form the plant stand’s base, are 2-3/4″ wide, while the other three pairs of rails are 2″. Trim the bottom rails to length, per the Material List, then use a band saw or jigsaw to cut a decorative curve on their undersides.

Now you can drill holes for pocket screws on the ends of each bottom rail. Note that the pocket holes for this and all other joinery is done on the back faces where they won’t be seen when the plant stand is in use.

Typically, pocket holes are drilled with the grain on rails oriented at 90 degrees, so the screws go into the face or edge grain of the opposing piece. In this design, the upper pocket holes are drilled across the grain of the rear upright, with the screws going into the top of the curved upright instead. The grain is angled here, so the screws are still going across the grain for a joint that’s plenty strong, but the pocket holes are far easier to drill in the straight rear upright than the curved one.

With all holes drilled in the rear uprights for the bottom rails and curved uprights, assemble the two side frames. Each completed frame resembles a right triangle with a curved hypotenuse. As you did with glue, choose stainless steel or coated pocket screws rated for outdoor use for assembling these joints.

The dimensions for the three upper rails in the Material List – reflected by the distance between the rear and curved uprights – are measured directly off of the actual plant stand here. But let’s face it: A major part of this project consists of a pair of curved components nearly 6′ long. No matter how carefully you enlarge and transfer the pattern, wood movement and tiny differences in cutting or sanding the curves can introduce slight variations. For that reason, use the supplied lengths for the upper three rails as a guide, and cut them slightly longer. Then, fine-tune the lengths based on measuring off of your completed side frames.

Start by locating the rails on the frames at 15-3/4″ intervals, measuring from the top edge of the bottom rail, to evenly space the shelves. Using a carpenter’s square registering on the rear upright, extend the square across both sides of the frame and mark a line on both sides.

With each rail location marked, use the frame itself to trace the actual length onto the upper rails. (The top sides of the rails will be shorter due to the curve.) Do this by placing the rails underneath the side frame and in position so you can trace not only the rail length but also the front curve onto each rail.

Cut the rails a hair longer than your traced lines and refine the slight curve on a disc sander. Do this carefully; you don’t want to sand too much. Best practice here is to sand a little and do a test fit, then repeat as necessary for a perfect fit on your rail layout lines.

As with the bottom rail, drill pocket holes in the ends of each rail, but with a slight difference required by the curved upright. For the lower middle rail, drill two pocket holes located and spaced as you would for any pocket-screw joint. The curve is very slight here, so it doesn’t really affect the joint. For the upper middle and top rails, however, the curve gets sharper. Either shift the two pocket holes a bit lower on the rail, or just use a single pocket screw at the bottom of the rail. The curve at the top of the rail would leave too thin a separation between rail and upright, and the screw could pull through.

You’ll note that in the photos that I haven’t cut the curve on the rail undersides. While I could have cut those curves on the band saw, a jigsaw also works, so I’ll show that here. The trouble is that the rails are fairly short and narrow, which makes securing the parts difficult when using a jigsaw.

Instead, go ahead and install the rails before cutting their under curves. Once in place, it becomes much easier to use a jigsaw.

Assembling the Framework and Shelves

Putting the two side frames together is straightforward. Run a bead of waterproof glue along the rabbets and fit the two together at 90 degrees, then secure with exterior screws. Remember, one of the rear uprights is 3/8″ narrower than the other to take into account the rabbets. Be sure to assemble these correctly so each side of the combined rear uprights measures 3-1/4″ wide.

Now let’s make the shelves. Remove your panels from their clamps and sand them smooth, top and bottom. With a compass or trammel, scribe an arc matching the radius of each shelf, per the Shelves Drawing. Now, place the tip of a carpenter’s square on the pivot mark from the compass and pencil in the sides; where the square intersects the arc is where the edges of the shelves are, forming their rear 90-degree corner. Easy. If knots are present, pivot the square to try to avoid them.

Cut out each shelf using a band saw or jigsaw, then sand the edges true and smooth. Using your square once again, mark positioning lines on the inside of the assembled frames where the shelves will go. I opted for a slight reveal at the top of each shelf, so I drew my lines 1/8″ below the top of each rail.

Place the frame assembly on a worktable. Starting on one shelf, run a bead of glue along its straight edges and clamp it into place onto your position lines on the rails. Then countersink and drive screws through the back of the stand and into the shelf’s flat edges to secure it. Repeat with each shelf until all four are installed. Scrub away any excess wet glue before it dries or wait until it gets rubbery and scrape it off.

Adding an Outdoor-tough Finish

Hemlock is an attractive, durable wood, and you can leave it unfinished if you like. However, a protective coat or two of clear exterior finish will make it even more resistant to weathering while also popping the grain and enriching the wood’s tone. I used a clear water-sealing finish, but any deck stain will work just fine for coloring your plant stand, if you wish.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Outdoor Corner Plant Stand appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

My kennel here is made of solid cherry hardwood. I think it looks like a piece of furniture. Its door flips open and slides into a pocket inside the kennel, using Rockler’s EZ Pocket Door Slides. The project is built around a plastic tray and a cushion, so there’s no wooden bottom to the kennel. That way, if something messy happens inside, it’s easy to remove the mess and clean the area.

One detail here is either a benefit or a flaw: the kennel is obviously made of wood. If your dog is a chewer, this is not the best solution. But worse case scenario, the good news is that the slats are replaceable. Still, consider yourself warned, because this project takes a good bit of time and effort to complete, so evaluate your dog’s chewing tendencies before you build.

Get Ready for Some Table Saw Time!

The kennel consists of 31 different pieces and 85 total parts, by my count. As my shop buddy, Woodworker’s Journal Senior Art Director, Jeff Jacobson, pointed out, the key to building this project is staying organized.

Nearly the entire kennel is built using the table saw to do the machining. I opted for 1-3/4″-thick cherry lumber, surfaced on two sides, for the lion’s share of the construction. You can purchase it in that dimension at Rockler stores as I did. Or you can order some 8/4 lumber and surface it to thickness. After using my miter saw to break the lumber down into manageable pieces, I jointed one edge of the boards and got busy on my table saw.

I ripped the side frame stiles to width before heading back to the miter saw to cut the pieces to their exact length. Repeat this process for making a pair of 1-1/4″-thick stiles for the end frame and door now, too. Then I examined the thicker stiles to see which ones looked the best and chose those for the front of the carcass, on either side of where the door will hang.

Next, I sketched where the grooves will be plowed on the stiles to help keep their orientation clear. Note that all the stiles have full-length grooves along their inside edges to fit the ends of the rails. The rear stiles of the side frames also have a groove on an adjacent face so they can attach to the end frame with loose tenons. The end frame stiles have a groove along both long edges — one groove to house the rails and another to fit the loose tenons. To plow all of these 1/4″-wide grooves, I switched to a full-thickness saw blade and made them each in a pair of side-by-side cuts. Those on the end frame and the door also need to be centered on the stock thickness.

Lots of Notches Come Next

As I mentioned initially, the slats of the kennel are replaceable. To make the housings that hold the slats, I decided to cut 3/8″-deep notches into 5/8″-thick stock that would be used to form the top and center rails for the two side frames, the end frame and the door. Start with rail blanks that are overly long and twice as wide as the various rails will be in the end. After machining the stock, you’ll rip them in two and then glue them together into doubled-up rails with 3/4″-square, centered slat mortises. It’s a slick trick.

I used a Rockler Cross Lap Jig to form the slat notches. You will find the layout for the notches in the drawings. Mount a 3/4″-wide dado blade in the table saw and adjust the key on the jig to match the blade width. Offset the key by the 2″ space between the notches, and lock it in place.

Now measure to the center of your first rail blank and mark a line. Mark another line in the center where the dado head cuts through the jig’s backer board.

Put a piece of stock up against the jig face to clear the jig registration key, and cut the center notch on the rail material. Now, you can use the registration key to locate the remaining notches on the board.

I recommend that you machine all the notches in all the rails while you have this jig set up on the table saw. That will help you stay organized!

Set those parts aside for the moment so you can rip and crosscut the slats from 3/4″ stock, making certain that they fit the notches you just formed in the rails. They should slide easily in the notches; too tight and you will have trouble later.

Now it’s time to rip those rail blanks in two and glue them together to form the rails. Glue up all the rails and scrape off the squeeze-out when it gets rubbery. Clear away any excess glue inside the slat mortises at the same time so that it won’t obstruct the slats.

When the glue has cured, it’s time to carefully cut the rails to length, keeping the notches properly centered. I did that by inserting a “drop” piece of the slat material into the center slat mortise and then measuring half the length of the rail to each side of center.

Once you have that marked, you can stick two matching rails together with the slat piece in their same mortises and cut the rails to length simultaneously. This gives you the proper sized rails and perfectly located mortises.

Remember those grooves you plowed earlier on the stiles? Now we’re going to raise some 1/4″-long, 1/4″-thick stub tenons on the rail ends (see the Drawings) that will fit into those grooves. This is another table saw task, although you could do it on a router table, too.

When that’s done, use the placement of those stub tenons to locate grooves in the bottom of the center rails and the top of the bottom rails. These grooves will capture the raised panels that we will be making shortly.

In addition to those grooves, on the top edge of the top rails you’ll need to form a 3/4″-wide by 1/4″-deep centered recess to accept the retaining caps. The caps will hold the slats down and in place.

Testing the Fit and Keeping Organized

Next up is making the solid raised panels (pieces 6, 13 and 22) that surround the bottom of the kennel. Use 1/2″-thick stock and cut the various pieces to width and length. I raised a rectangular field in these panels in a two-step table saw process. First, I used a tenoning jig to slice across the grain on both ends of each panel.

With that done on all four panels, I set up the saw with some featherboards and cut a pair of long rabbets along the length of the panels to complete the raised area. Sand the saw marks smooth and dry-fit the panels in their grooves.

If all looks good, glue and clamp the rails and stiles of each frame together, but be sure to allow the raised panels to “float” in their bottom grooves without glue so they can expand and contract. Don’t put the slats in place just yet.

While you are waiting for the glue to cure, make the slat retaining caps (pieces 8, 15 and 24), filler strips (pieces 7, 16 and 25) and a pair of loose tenons (pieces 17) for attaching the end frame to the side frames. These are all 1/4″-thick pieces of wood, so some care needs to be taken as you cut them.

I used Rockler’s Thin Rip Tablesaw Jig, which kept the part thicknesses uniform. Don’t cut these pieces to length just yet. The front top and bottom rails (pieces 26) are next. Rip and crosscut them to length and width from 3/4″ stock, then use a pocket-hole jig to bore two screw pockets into each rail end.

Putting It All Together

It’s time to assemble the carcass! Spread glue on the two loose tenons, insert them into their grooves in the end frame and then bring the side and end frames together with the tenons seating in their side frame grooves. Pocket-screw the front top and bottom rails to the side frame stiles, checking to be sure the carcass assembly is square.

As you wait for the glue to cure, it’s time to prepare the stock for the kennel’s top panel. I chose to make it out of solid lumber, as I wanted a real “furniture” feel to the project. But veneer- covered plywood with solid-wood edging would work just as well. Cut the cherry to rough length, and then use a jointer and planer to create 3/4″-thick pieces with flat, parallel faces and dead-straight 90-degree edges.

With that done, lay your stock out on a flat surface and “compose” the top. When you are happy with the grain arrangement, glue and clamp the top together. I used Rockler’s Deluxe Panel Clamps for this job, because they work great to keep the edges aligned and the panel flat.

Unclamp the carcass when the glue dries because it’s time to hang the door on the EZ Pocket Door Slide hardware. It is pretty straightforward on this project, as you mount the slides right to the side frame rails. Choose whether you want the door to open on the left or right. After doing that, I positioned the slides and then eyeballed their setback. Attach the hinges to the slide mounting plates, then transfer the placement of the hinge cups to the door.

These are 40 mm-diameter cups for Rockler’s Thick Inset Pocket/Flipper Door Hinge Kit, and I bored them on a drill press. With that done, I temporarily mounted the door. It fit pretty well, but I wanted the reveals around the door to be even, so I took it to the table saw and trimmed it down just a hair. Once it fit perfectly, I completed the installation. I also crosscut and installed all the filler strips to fill the open grooves in the kennel’s carcass and door stiles.

You might wonder, will those slides and hinges get tangled up with my dog? The answer is probably yes, so we put a safety panel (piece 27) in place, mounted to two supports (pieces 28). The cherry supports have 1/4″ grooves plowed along their length to capture the safety panel and are secured to the carcass with pocket-hole screws.

The panel is 1/4″-thick plywood. The panel is the last thing you mount in the kennel. Finally, cut a couple of cleats and glue them in place at the top front and back of the carcass. You’ll use them to attach the top panel. Drill elongated holes through them for 1-1/4″ screws.

Cut the kennel’s top panel to final size and then get out the sander … yup, you are going to make some sawdust. Sand the top smooth and up to 180-grit. Take the door off so you can do the same thing to all surfaces of the carcass, door and slats.

When I got done sanding, I applied three coats of aerosol shellac to all the parts. Shellac is food-safe and worry-free if your little buddy decides to snack on some of the slats. Then I inserted the slats into their mortises and cut the retaining caps to length. I set those in place before attaching the top and door.

I mounted a small catch on the door, but it turned out I needed a stronger one, because dogs can actually push pretty hard to get out. You’ll want to be able to latch the door securely.

I’m pleased with this kennel’s furniture quality, and my dog has taken to the new digs without a bark of complaint!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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While mitered and regular half-lap joints can be made any number of ways, Rockler’s new Router Table Half Lap Jig makes quick work of them with a spiral upcut bit. You’ll need to mill eight of these joints to build this mirror frame, so we’ll put this innovative jig to use here as a helpful introduction to its capabilities.

Preparing Narrow Frame Stock

Joint and plane a piece of 4/4 hardwood flat and square along its width and length, and reduce the board’s thickness to 3/4″. I decided to use bird’s eye maple for the primary parts of this project, because its attractive “spotted” grain pattern is sure to capture attention! But you can select any hardwood that suits your preference and budget. A piece of 5″ x 36″ stock will be sufficient for making the frame’s top, bottom, sides, rail and stile. Because the components of this modified mirror frame project are so narrow — just 1-1/8″ wide — choose your stock carefully. Give the wood at least a few days to acclimate to your shop before surfacing it to help minimize potential twisting, bowing or cupping.

Next, rip workpieces for the top, bottom, two sides, rail and stile to 1-1/4″ wide, and give the parts a night to allow for any minor warpage that might still occur along their length after ripping them. The next day, flatten one edge of each on the jointer again, and rip these parts to their final 1-1/8″ width.

Crosscut two frame workpieces to 12-3/8″ long for the top and bottom of the mirror frame. Crosscut two more to 22-1/2″ long for the sides of the frame. These side pieces are overly long because their ends will be mitered; the extra length will allow you a margin for error when sawing those angles. Crosscut the frame’s rail and stile to rough length, too — leave these at least 1/4″ longer than necessary.

Study the Exploded View Drawing to familiarize yourself with the mitered half-laps that form the corner joints of this picture frame. Notice that the top and bottom frame members (pieces 1) have 3/8″-deep recesses with a 45-degree shoulder on each end of the parts, and these recesses are removed from the front faces of the workpieces. The back tongue of the half-lap remains square on the end. Conversely, the side frame workpieces (pieces 2) have mitered ends. A 3/8″-deep recess is removed from the back faces of these frame parts instead, creating a front-facing mitered tongue with a square shoulder. The front and back tongues of the four corners of the mirror frame overlap to create strong mitered half-lap face grain joints.

At your table saw, set the fence on a crosscut sled or a miter gauge carefully to 45 degrees, and miter-cut the ends of the side frame pieces. Or, use a miter saw to make these cuts instead. Have these cuts trim the side frame workpieces to their final 21-7/8″ lengths. Do not miter-cut the ends of the top and bottom frame pieces.

Routing Mitered Half-Laps

Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig has a repositionable fence for plowing square or 45-degree half-laps accurately and safely. It requires the use of a 1/2″-diameter upcut spiral bit to remove the waste material on both halves of the joints. And to that end, you will be removing exactly half the stock thickness to create the overlapping connections. So, take some time now to mark the side frame workpieces on their back faces and outside edges with square layout lines to indicate the recessed areas that will be removed next to form the half-lap joints. It also helps avoid confusion if you mark the waste areas with X’s. Mark the top and bottom frame workpieces as well with a 45-degree layout line on each end on the front faces of these parts. Then mark the outer edges of these waste areas with layout lines to show how much stock must be removed there.

Step over to your router table and install the upcut spiral bit in it. Carefully follow the instructions that come with Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig to set the bit height accordingly. The process involves using two test pieces that match the thickness of your frame stock and routing a matching rabbet into the end of each one. Adjusting the size of these rabbets until their tongues meet in the middle when the rabbets are fitted together ensures that the router bit will cut to the exact center of your frame workpiece thickness.

Next, set the fence on Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig to the 90-degree position. Rout away the waste on the back side of the frame side pieces at each end of the parts to form the four mitered tongues of the half lap joints. Be careful when approaching the shoulders of these joint cuts to not rout too far; trim just to your layout lines.

Now swivel the fence on the jig to 45 degrees. With the workpieces oriented face-down, carefully cut the mitered recesses on the top and bottom frame parts, removing all the waste material you laid out initially.

When all four mitered half-laps are routed, set the four frame parts together to check the fit of the joints. Ideally, the edges and faces of the joints should meet flush when fitted together. If they don’t, carefully consider how the joint fit could be improved. If the joints don’t quite close completely, you might be able to adjust their fit by routing away a sliver of more material from the shoulders of the cuts.

Adding the Rail and Stile

Install a strap clamp around the frame to draw the corner joints together tightly. Take a measurement of the outer width of the frame; this is the length to crosscut the rail to, so do that now. Then, on the front face of the rail, lay out a 1-1/8″-long x 3/8″-deep recess on both ends, and mark these waste areas with X’s.

Now refer to the Frame (Front View) Drawing to mark the rail’s location on the back face of the frame side pieces. Remove the strap clamp and disassemble the frame so you can lay out these 3/8″-deep dadoes where the tongues on the ends of the rails will fit into the frame sides.

Head back to the router table to mill the “regular” half-lap joints on the side frame pieces and the ends of the rail. This time, the fence on Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig remains in the 90-degree position for removing the waste on all three workpieces. Be careful when approaching the layout lines during routing to avoid cutting away too much of the layout lines. The goal is for the rail to fit snugly between the two frame side pieces, with the seams of the half-lap joints meeting flush. Any gaps between the ends of the rail and the frame sides will be really obvious on the front of the frame when it’s assembled.

Dry-assemble the parts again so you know exactly how long the stile needs to be, and crosscut it to this length. Then repeat the layout process for centering the stile between the frame sides — it sets the 4-1/2″-wide openings for the two 5×7 photo spaces in the frame. As with the rail, lay out the stile so the tongues of its half-lap joints will be on the back of the stile, not the front. Mark the back faces of the frame bottom and the rail for 1-1/8″-wide, 3/8″-deep dadoes to house the stile. Rout these two half-lap joints in the three frame parts.

With all the joinery cuts done, go ahead and glue the top, bottom, sides, rail and stile together. Use the strap clamp and small clamps at each joint to hold the parts together while the glue cures.

When the frame comes out of the clamps, clean off all excess glue and sand the faces and edges up through the grits to 180. Then install a rabbeting bit that cuts 1/2″-wide rabbets in the router table, and set its cutting height to 1/4″. With the back of the mirror frame facing down, plow a rabbet around the inside edges of the frame in the mirror area only to begin creating the recess for the mirror backer piece. Reset the bit to 3/8″ high and make a second routing pass to deepen this backer piece recess.

Now switch to a rabbeting bit that cuts 1/4″-wide rabbets and set it to about 1/2″ cutting height (the exact depth will depend on the thickness of the mirror glass you’ve chosen). Make a third routing pass around the mirror opening to create a deeper “step” at the bottom of the recess for the mirror itself. Creating a larger opening for the backer than for the mirror will enable you to install the backer with brad or pin nails driven into the frame around the mirror, which will strengthen the frame as well as hold the mirror in place.

Lower the same 1/4″ rabbeting bit to 1/4″ cutting height, and this time rout recesses around both picture frame openings in the back face of the frame. Then raise the bit to 1/2″ to deepen these recesses. Finish up this work by squaring up the rounded corners of the mirror and photo recesses with a sharp chisel.

Applying Decorative Beaded Moldings

You could choose to leave the outer edges of the frame as they are in order to see the edges of the lap joints you’ve made. But a banding of beaded moldings around the frame will add even more pizzazz. I made them from lacewood using Rockler’s Edge Beading Router Bit with a 1/8″-radius bead profile in the router table.

Rout the profile into the face of a couple long pieces of 3/4″-thick x 2″-wide stock — sufficiently long to create the four pieces of molding you’ll need to wrap around the frame. Make two routing passes into opposite long edges of the same face of each molding workpiece.

Now rip both of these profiled edges free, with the table saw’s rip fence set 5/16″ away from the blade, to create long strips of molding with a tiny recess next to the beaded edge. Sand these strips lightly to remove any routed burn marks or irregularities. Carefully miter-cut them into four pieces to wrap around the outer edges of the frame; arrange the molding so the larger beaded edge will be on the outside and the recess abuts the frame. Install the moldings with glue and 3/4″-long pin nails.

Installing Mirror, Photos and Backers

Cut three backer boards from 1/8″- or 1/4″-thick hardboard or MDF to fit the photo and mirror recesses. Insert the glass and mirror into their openings, and choose a couple of photos.

I installed the mirror backer with 1/2″-long, 23-gauge pin nails driven through the backer, about 1/8″ in from its edges. I switched to short beads of hot-melt glue for attaching the photo backers to the frame. It offers enough strength to hold the backers in place but also is fairly easy to peel off, should the photos need to be changed in the future.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Cherry Dog Kennel: Fido doesn’t have to settle for a metal or plastic dog crate, because your woodworking skills can raise that bar considerably if you build our version of an all-wood kennel. Even better, it’ll disguise its true purpose beautifully as an end table.

Memento Mirror Frame: This attractive accent offers one final reflection before you head out the door, and a pair of 5×7 photo openings can lift your spirits at the same time! A new router table jig from Rockler makes its cross-lap joints fun and easy to mill.

Outdoor Corner Plant Stand: Curves and more curves adorn this four-shelved organizer. If you build it from an outdoor-suitable wood, it offers plenty of space to display your summer plants on a patio or deck.

Woodworking Basics: Our third installment of a new four-part series for beginners will have you building a walnut wall shelf while honing your skills at cutting and fairing matching curves.

Modern Shop Hand Tools: A piece of steel, sharpened and burnished well, becomes an excellent micro-plane. It’s called a cabinet or card scraper, and every woodworker should benefit from its versatility. Let our expert enlighten you in his article and “More on the Web” video.

Simplifying Bit Setups: Keyhole slots are the most durable option for hanging large photo frames or plaques. They’re also easy to rout with the right template, guide bushing and bit from Rockler. We’ll show you how here.

Advanced Power Tool Techniques: A jointer is no one-trick pony! A.J. Hamler explains how to use it for tapering table legs and milling rabbets as well as taking the twist out of gnarly boards.

Tool Preview: Festool cuts the cord with its all-new 36-volt Kapex KSC 60 Sliding Compound Miter Saw. We take a closer look at its features.

Hardworking Hardware: A flipper door is the perfect solution for this issue’s “Cherry Dog Kennel,” and Rockler’s EZ Pocket Door Slide hardware makes that possible.

The post Woodworker’s Journal – July/August 2023 appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Diablo Tools Reusable Angled Hand Sanding Block

Milwaukee M18 FUEL 3″ x 18″ Belt Sander

Oneida Air Systems Dust Deputy Low-Pro

Rockler 3″ Pocket Rule

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