During those long, cold winters I spent growing up along the shores of Lake Vermilion in the far north of Minnesota, one of the ways that we wiled away the long dark evenings was playing cribbage. Young or old, it made no difference. It is such a popular pastime “up North,” that I would not be surprised if it was the primary way most of my friends learned to count and to add. (One of the ways you earn points in cribbage is by combining cards that add up to 15 or 31.) I can still hear someone counting out “that’s 15 for two and a pair is four!” If you can believe it, this design was originally sent to us from a person who lives even further north than where I grew up. Bruce Beatty, a fire department training officer and woodworker from Orangeville, Ontario.

A beginner can make this woodworking project, and using the cribbage board drilling-guide template from Rockler makes drilling the holes a snap. One of the best features of this cribbage board is the built-in storage space for your playing cards and cribbage pegs, but you could simplify this project even more by only making the playing surface and storing your cards and pegs separately.

Starting with the Middle

Using Bruce’s CAD drawings as my starting point, I quickly did what all woodworkers do when working from a plan supplied by someone else: I changed it! After a couple of test cuts in 3/4″ stock, I was worried that the recess that stores the cards could become a problem. When I routed the recess, the amount of material remaining seemed a little too thin for my liking. I could, of course, make that piece from 7/8″-thick stock, but it looked a bit bulky. So, after a bit of noodling, I decided to rout the card recess completely through the 3/4″ stock and glue a 1/4″-thick piece of black walnut to the bottom as a base. To my eyes, that dark base visually anchored the cribbage board to the table and provided a nice three-layered look to the project. (You can choose either solution.) I also decided to use a pivot hinge and included a small magnet to keep the board closed.

With those choices made, I went ahead and cut blanks from which to form the three pieces that make up the cribbage board: the core, base and playing surface (pieces 1, 2 and 3). You can find the sizes for the blanks in the Material List on the following page. While the choice is up to you, I made the base from walnut, the core from cherry lumber and the playing surface from maple.

You have another choice to make now: if you are going to make several cribbage boards (say, perhaps to give away as presents…) I recommend that you make two separate templates — one sized for the core and base, and one for the playing surface. If you are only going to make one or two cribbage boards, simply make the template for the core. (You can lay out and make the playing surface easily enough without resorting to pattern routing if you are only making a few of these cribbage boards.)

The core template needs to locate the positions of the rotating hinge, the peg storage hole, magnet hole and the card storage recess I talked about earlier. And the best way to make the card recess hole includes pattern routing as one of the steps. Look to the Drawings on the following page to give you all the dimensions and locations for these details. Consider this as a tip: I made my templates from 1/2″ MDF because it is easy to work with and inexpensive. But more than that, 1/2″ thickness, in my opinion, is better than 1/4″ for pattern routing with a bearing-guided router bit because the bearing can be shielded within the thickness of the MDF. Take your time and make the template (or templates) accurately…any mistakes here will show up on your finished project.

Making Some Sawdust

Grab the core blank you cut earlier and the core template and trace the shape onto your blank. As shown in the photo above, if your blank is a bit oversized, align the template with two edges of the blank when you trace the shape, so it will reduce your cutting on the band saw.

When you’ve completed the band saw cut, step over to your drill press to bore a 1/2″-deep hole for peg storage and a two-step hole for the pivot hinge. When forming this two-step hole with Forstner bits, make the shallowest hole (5/8″ diameter by 1/16″ deep) first. Then you can easily align the deeper hole (3/8″ diameter by 3/8″ deep) by using the spur depression left by the first Forstner bit. Go ahead and drill the small hole for the magnet at this time, too.

Next, drill out the four corners of the card recess as shown in the photo. I used a handheld jigsaw to remove most of the waste from the card recess. When that is done, use a couple of pieces of two-sided carpet tape (not too much!) to secure the core template onto the core. Then chuck a 1/2″ bearing-guided pattern routing bit into your router table.

Trim the card recess opening as shown. Then you can shape the outside of the core in the same manner. Cutting the curved shape at the end of the board with a router bit can be a bit tricky. You may be better off just sanding it smooth to your marked line, although I did OK by climb-cutting around the radius. Pop the template off of the core and set it aside for now.

Building on the Base

Grab the base blank that you made earlier. Use the core (or, if you wish, the core template) to trace its shape onto the base blank. Use the band saw to cut the base to shape, but stay outside of the lines by a strong 1/16″ and set it aside with the core.

It’s now time to move on to the playing surface. If you made a template for this piece, grab it and the blank you cut earlier and go through the same shaping process you did with the core. (But don’t drill the peg holes yet; just make the outside shape.) If you did not make a template, you have a bit more layout to do, but it shouldn’t take long. Once the piece is shaped, grab the drilling jig you ordered and the self-centering drill bit and head over to the drill press. (What’s that? You didn’t order the drilling jig and bit? What are you, crazy? Let me strongly affirm, here and now, that you should not try to make this project without the jig…sorry. It is simply too hard to get all those holes placed properly without it. There are 260 or so holes to drill — that’s a lot of alignment!)

Again, reach for the double-sided tape and secure the drilling jig to the playing surface. Chuck the bit in the drill press and start drilling. But go slow! Even with the jig as a guide, I found that I had to take my time and be very deliberate about this process. It was also useful to free any tiny wood chips that clog the centering sleeve on the drill bit.

When that was done, I bored the pivot hinge hole on the back of the playing surface and the magnet washer hole and set it aside. Grabbing the core one more time, I chucked a 3/4″ cove-cutting bit into a handheld router and shaped the finger opening on the edge of the card recess as shown in the photo, center right. Then I glued the base onto the core and let the glue cure. Once the glue was dry, I used the pattern-routing bit to trim the base to perfectly match the core.

You are almost done. Changing out the pattern-routing bit in the router table for a large chamfer bit in the router table, I shaped the top edge of the core so that the inside of the chamfered profile matched the size of the playing surface. With that cut completed, lower the chamfer bit and shape the top edge of the playing surface with a slight bevel. Now it’s time for sanding. Work up through the grits to at least 180, but I recommend 220-grit. With this done, take a moment to secure the magnet and washer in their holes with five-minute epoxy.

For finish on this project, I used a natural Watco oil. Try not to get too much into the peg holes — even though that is hard to avoid. Three coats of oil and a rubdown with some paste wax, and you’ll have a proper finish on your gameboard.

The last thing you need to do is assemble the two pieces by driving the pivot hinge into the core and tapping the playing surface down onto the hinge. You’ll notice that the magnet pulls the two pieces into alignment when you get them close to the right spot. Nifty, huh?

Now all you need to do is find a partner and a deck of cards, and you’ll have yourself a game going in no time! Fifteen for two, anyone?

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Cribbage Board Project Parts and Accessories

Rockler JIG-IT Track Style Cribbage Board Drilling Template #34540
3/8″ Roto Hinge #36244
Self-Centering Bit #69007
Wooden Pegs #21741
3/8″ Magnet #32907
3/8″ Magnet Washer #38348

The post PROJECT: Cribbage Board appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Rolf didn’t have children, but he did have a strong interest in boats. He and his dad were sailors. Rolf decided that we should make some boats, and I said “Why not.” I should preface this by saying that we were doing production work at the time — so it was not too surprising that after an evening’s work, we had about 50 wooden boats: a fleet that included both the precursor to this little tugboat, plus a flotilla of small sailboats.

When it came time to select a simple-tomake toy for our pages in this issue, that little boat drifted forth from the dark reaches of my memory. It is a sweet little craft, and as I have indicated already, you can make a pile of them in no time.

Making the Hull

To look their best, the hull, cabin and smokestack (pieces 1, 2 and 3) should be made from different species of wood. We chose Douglas fir for the hulls that we made so many years ago, because we had it on hand. This time, I used birch lumber. Use the full-size pattern make templates for the hull and the cabin. Start making the hull by tracing its shape on a properly sized piece of 1-3⁄4″-thick stock. Step over to your band saw and set the table to a 30° angle. I recommend a 1/4″-wide or narrower band saw blade for this cut. Any wider and the shape at the stern (back of the boat for you landlubbers) would be harder to cut. With a slow, controlled pace, cut out the hull. If you are going to make a few of these toys, line them up and cut them out one after the other. Your next stop is at a power sander of some sort. I have a 4 x 24 oscillating belt sander that worked great for this task. A vertical disk sander would likely work just as well. Get busy and remove all the saw marks from the cut you just made. If your saw blade cuts similar to mine, the stern of your boat will need a little extra attention to clean things up.

After the hull is sanded smooth, you need to shape the top edge of the boat. A 3/8″ bearing guided roundover bit chucked into a router table will do this job nicely. Set the bit high enough to cut into the “deck” of your boat. Be careful here, because the angled shape of the hull will exaggerate this cut. Work up to it in steps. The result of this operation is that you will clean up the edge and form a shape that looks a bit like a boat’s rub rail.

As just makes sense, when you complete each component of the boat, take a few minutes and sand it smooth, removing any machine marks or defects. I used a palm sander for this task.

Building Above Decks

Now you can move on to the cabin. I made mine from 3/4″ walnut, to visually separate it from the hull. It is quick and easy to make on the band saw, but you could use a table saw to form it if you so choose. (Again, if you are making a whole fleet, go ahead and chop them out by the dozen.) Sand the edges and then move over to the drill press. Bore a 1″-diameter hole 1/2″ deep with a Forstner bit in the location shown in the Drawing, although the exact location is not critical as long as it looks good.

Secure the cabin to the hull with a water-resistant glue like Titebond® II or III. You can glue and clamp the cabin in place if you’d like — or you can cheat like I did and use a 1″ brad nail as a “clamp,” driven down through the hole you just bored in the cabin.

The last part to make is the smokestack. In this model, I used a 1″-diameter cherry dowel. I once again used my band saw. This time, I set my miter gauge to a 15° angle and used an auxiliary fence and stop combination to control the length of the cut. After the smokestack was cut to length, I sanded the top smooth, removing the saw marks. To secure the smokestack in the hole I had prepared for it, I simply squirted an appropriate amount of glue into the hole, then stuck the piece into the hole…I rotated it a bit back and forth, and then just left it to dry with the angle of the stack adjusted properly. Then, to prevent any possible future choking hazard, I drove a small brad into the stack.

After the glue cured, all that was left to do was to complete the last bit of sanding on the boat. Well, there is one more thing — the finish. I suppose there are several good types of product you could apply to this toy that would do the job well. There might even be an argument for not applying any finish at all. My personal preference for this sort of toy is to use mineral oil (sold as Butcher Block Oil). It is completely nontoxic, and you can reapply it any time you like. I just slather mineral oil all over the toy and let it soak in and dry for a day or so.

Click Here to Download the Materials List and Drawings.

The post PROJECT: Make a Model Tugboat appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

When a new couch and loveseat for our living room dictated a new coffee table to fit the L-shaped arrangement, she knew what was important. She often watches TV from that vantage point and wanted to be able to rest her legs on the table, in lieu of a vetoed recliner.

We have an eclectic mix of furniture styles in our home — mostly pieces that I’ve built. The common theme is simplicity and clean lines. Modern, Shaker, Scandinavian, Arts and Crafts designs — all with a minimum of ornamentation — share our space and aesthetic.

Clearly a light-looking turned-leg Shaker table or an airy Danish Modern design was not going to cut it. This piece had to be physically and visually substantial — it needed to support at least
two pairs of feet and not move under the load — as well as not look so delicate as to discourage informal kick-back comfort.

An Arts and Crafts design seemed to fit all our requirements. The top could be thick enough to be substantive and the substructure could be constructed to suggest rock-solidity. We decided on a trestle design to maximize the visual weight of the support structure. Legs, rails, slats, beveled support beams … all were part of the A&C vocabulary I could use.

To keep the trestles from looking monolithic, I decided to use setbacks and shadow lines to break up the visual mass and give the eye something to play with. This, in turn, dictated making it from stock of varying thickness. For ease of measurement and construction as well as convenience in setting up all the mortise, tenon and groove locations, I decided to use multiples of 1/4″ for the setbacks and 1/2″ for the stock. So, 2″ legs, 1″ rails and 1/2″ slats would result in 1/2″ setbacks between legs and rails and 1/4″ between rails and slats. The beveled support beams for the top would be 1-1/2″ thick and continue the 1/4″ relationship to the top rails. The top would be 1-1/4″ thick, plenty massive for doubling as a footstool, but perfectly proportionate to the rest of the piece.

Now, designing with these thicknesses is easy enough; sourcing the stock is another matter, especially with the added consideration of using quarter-sawn white oak with its distinctive ray flake figure. The legs, for instance, needed to be 2″ thick and show quartersawn faces on all four sides; however, a quarter-sawn piece of oak will only show ray flake on two sides. Since a thick slab of plainsawn oak will show ray flake on its thickness, I didn’t need to find thick quarter-sawn oak — a thick plain-sawn piece would provide quarter-sawn surfaces along its edges. And since I wanted to veneer the plain-sawn faces, 2″ stock would have wound up too thick. Luckily, a better solution presented itself: I found some nice surfaced, 1-3/4″-thick plainsawn lumber. Resawing 1/8″-thick veneers from quartersawn stock and applying them to the flatsawn faces would result in 2″-square legs with quarter-sawn faces all around.

Likewise, I wanted 1″ quarter-sawn stock for the rails, and this is not a common finished size either. I could have milled 5/4 stock to 1″ finished thickness, but this seemed wasteful, especially since 1/2″ quartersawn stock is easy to find. I opted to build the 1″ pieces up from laminated 1/2″ stock and buy enough to make the 1/2″ slats as well.

For the top, I definitely needed quarter-sawn stock, and it needed to be 1-1/4″ thick. Building up this stock would have resulted in very visible seams on the edges, so I decided to put all my milling time and energy into surfacing 6/4 rough stock down to 1-1/4″ for the top. My favorite lumberyard had a pallet full of 6/4 quarter sawn boards; picking through them yielded two with good figure and enough width and length to make four 6″ x 40″ pieces to glue up into the 24″ x 40″ finished-size top.

Start Machining with the Legs

I began with the legs. I sawed four pieces from my 1-3⁄4″-thick lumber, 15″ long and 2-1/16″ wide, allowing extra length to square up the ends and a little extra width to clean up the glue lines on the jointer after laminating the veneers onto the plainsawn faces. While I was at it, I sawed a couple of extra “test legs” exactly 2″ wide to use for setting up the mortises and the grooves for the slats. (Since I was only interested in the 2″ width and I was not veneering or jointing these test pieces, I didn’t need any extra width.)

Next were the veneers for the flat-sawn faces. I resawed 1/2″-thick quarter-sawn stock into roughly 3/16″ veneers on my table saw, and then cleaned them up, bringing them down to 1/8″ thickness with my planer. As I planed them, I tested them on the legs until the finished thickness was exactly 2″. I then cut them to the same 15″ x 2-1/16″ size as the legs, and I glued them to the legs. I used all the clamps I own to ensure that the seams were tight all along their length. Later, when I was ready to assemble, I would bevel their edges to hide the veneers. I wanted square edges to reference the mortises and grooves I was about to machine.

After jointing and cutting the legs to finished size and sanding them to 100- grit, I moved to the mortising machine to cut the mortises for the bottom rails. Since these were through mortises and I didn’t want to cut them from both sides, I clamped a 1/2″ sacrificial board to the mortiser’s table and adjusted the bit to plunge about 1/8″ into it; this also helped ensure that the bottoms of the mortises wouldn’t chip out. Even so, I always put the “show” surfaces up as I cut. My experience is that the top surface ends up with the cleanest cuts.

To achieve absolute uniformity from leg to leg, I marked the mortise location carefully on one test leg, set the machine up for the first plunge cut and clamped a stop to the fence. I then made a test cut and, when everything was accurate, I made the first cut in all the legs, butting them against the stop before repositioning the marked leg for the second cut and resetting the stop. Two tips for accurate mortises with a mortiser: first, make the two end cuts first and then make the intermediate cuts in between them (to avoid drift that might move the final end cut out of position) and second, clamp the workpiece solidly to the fence for every cut with a C-clamp (the hold-down on the machine does not always hold securely, making the bit difficult to withdraw and possibly causing slop). I cut the mortises in my other test leg at this time, too.

At this point, I cut and laminated the top and bottom rails from my 1/2″ stock (allowing a little extra length and width for cleanup), jointed them and cut them to length. As before with the legs, I made up a couple of extra test pieces.

The next step is plowing the grooves that hold the slats in the inner faces of the legs and the rails. I used a dado blade in the table saw for this (be sure to use a throat plate with an opening of appropriate size for the dado blade), configuring the blade for a 1/2″-wide cut to match the mortises in the legs. Here is where the consistent thickness of stock really began to pay off. It was easy to set the fence exactly 3/4″ from the blade to keep the grooves exactly centered in the legs. I set the depth of cut to 1/4″ and plowed a test groove in one of my test legs to see if everything was accurate. I didn’t need to set up any stops for this cut, since the legs were already mortised. Because the groove is full length until it joins the through mortise, I could simply start the cut at the upper end and look down into the mortise as the blade entered it, stopping the cut once the groove fully intersected the mortise. I reset the fence to 1/4″ from the blade, tested it on my test rails, and plowed the centered groove full-length in the rails.

Making the Rails and Slats

While the dado blade was on the saw, I used it to cut the exposed tenons on the lower rails and the stub tenons on the upper rails in multiple passes. Again, the consistency of stock thickness and reveals paid off, as the same 1/4″ depth served for the shoulders of all the tenons. I made test cuts in my test pieces and the real cuts in the rails when the fit was accurate.

Now for the slats in the trestles. These would be inset into the groove I made in the legs and rails. I had to tweak things a little — as the board’s 1/2″ was a trifle fatter than the dado blade’s 1/2″ dimension. A quick pass through the planer fixed that in a snap. With the planer set for the right thickness to fit the grooves, I also planed a 24″-long scrap piece of 1/2″ stock from which to make the spacer pieces that would go between the slats. Since the slats were less than 10″ long and 2″ wide, I had plenty of area within my stock from which to select the best grain figure. I chose a piece for the four curved outer slats that had a slope to the figure that complemented the curve. With the selection process done, I cut these and the stiles to 2″ wide. Then I carefully measured the space between the top and bottom rails (8-5/8″) and added 1/2″ for the top and bottom grooves (9-1/8″ total) and cut them to just a tiny bit shorter than this measurement — I have tried to bang home rails that were just a hair too long for the available space, and I do not want to try that again!

I cut the curves on the outer stiles in two operations, first ripping the bottom to 1-3⁄8″ about 2/3 of the way up on the table saw and then cutting the curve to the full 2″ at the top on the band saw, using the first one as a pattern for the rest. I stopped the curve 1/4″ from the top, leaving the part that would go into the groove straight. This way the visible top of the slat would be full-width and the filler pieces there would not have to be cut to an angle.

When I orignally considered the slats, I thought about the spacing between them and how it impacted the layout of the mortises for the stretchers, which are centered on the two spaces adjacent to the center slat. The 1-1/4″ spacing resulted in a pleasing space between the mortises so I cut two spacer pieces to that length, centered the middle slat in the space, fit the filler pieces on either side and made reference marks from the center of each spacer for laying out the stretchers’ mortises. The outer spaces between the slats would need to be wider, because 1/4″ of the outer slats is inset into the leg grooves — an arrangement that I thought would look good.

Making the Beams

I turned my attention to the beams that would support the top. I had enough 1-3/4″ stock remaining to make them (again with the quartersawn faces on the thickness), and I milled them down to 1-1/2″ thick. I cut the beams 2″ wide to match the legs and to a final length of 23″. The bevels on the beams start 2″ from the ends and taper down to 1/4″. I cut them vertically on the table saw, clamping them to a purpose-built jig that rides on the fence. At this point, I began to think about how to attach the top and decided that pocket-hole screws were my best option. So, before going any further, I clamped a couple of long scrap pieces to the drill press table to hold the beams securely at an angle relative to the drill bit, tweaked them a bit to center them and leave a sufficient thickness of wood for the screws to bear on, and bored five pocket holes in the inside face of each beam with a 3/8″ Forstner bit. I then went back and drilled oversize holes for the screws centered in the pockets — it allows for seasonal movement in the top.

With the dry-fitting done, I disassembled the trestles and laid out the mortises for the stretchers. I centered them on the reference marks I had taken from the spacer pieces, starting them 7/8″ from the top of the bottom rails to leave a little step-down when the 3/4″ shelf was installed. These details are shown in the Drawings. I made the stretchers from 3/4″ stock, since their thickness isn’t visible. I cut the tenons with my dado blade, then laid out and cut the 3/8″-wide by 3/4″-long mortises for the wedges that lock the stretchers in place. As is standard practice, mortises extend just a hair inside the thickness of the lower rails, so the wedges pull the stretchers tight.

Final Assembly

In the last steps before final assembly, I sanded everything to 220-grit and routed the bevels on the edges and bottoms of the legs and on the ends of the exposed tenons on the bottom rails and stretchers.

I started by gluing the lower rails into the legs, carefully brushing glue on only the 2″ of the tenons that would be buried in the legs’ mortises. I then glued the outer edges of the outer slats (but not the tops and bottoms) into the grooves on the legs. I centered the middle slat in the groove but did not glue it, but I did glue my 1-1/4″-long spacers into the grooves on either side — making sure they were centered over the mortises below. I added the next two slats, again without glue, and finally I could measure and cut the remaining spacer lengths exactly. These spacers are approximately 1-1/2″, but this distance may vary slightly.

Then I added the top rail and did the same process over again on top (the outer filler pieces on the top are, of course, narrower than those on the bottom) and clamped the whole thing up. When the trestle assemblies were dry, I decided which sides looked best and would face out…and I glued the top support beams to the top rails. They are flush with the legs and present an even overhang on both sides (pocket holes to the inside). I clamped them tight, drilled countersunk screw holes centered on each leg and screwed the beams down to the legs. To keep the three middle slats from rattling if they ever shrank, I shot a brad into the top and bottom of each from the back side of the top and bottom rails. Finally, I glued the stretchers into the mortises on the bottom rails and clamped the assembly overnight. I left room next to the clamps to fit and glue in the wedges in the stretchers’ mortises.

The shelf came next. I chose some nicely figured 3/4″ boards and edge-glued them up into the 8-3/8″-wide shelf. When they were dry and finish-sanded to 220-grit, I cut the shelf to final length, placed it on top of the stretchers, centered it so it hit just inside the outer edges of the 2nd and 4th slats in the trestles and clamped it in place. I then flipped the assembly over, cut two shelf blocks to the width of the space between the stretchers (with the grain running the same direction as the shelf), spread glue on one end of each (keeping the glue in the center so it wouldn’t squeeze out and stick the blocks to the stretchers or the bottom rails) and dropped them into the space, tight against the inside faces of the bottom rails. Once the glue set, I took the shelf off and drilled countersunk holes to screw the blocking to the shelf on from the bottom. The shelf simply drops into
place — gravity keeps it there nicely.

Making the Top

Making the top was a straightforward job of planing, jointing, ripping, gluing and crosscutting. It is worth reflecting on milling roughsawn lumber, however. It is something of a Forrest Gump process, in that “you’re never sure what you’re going to get.” It’s easy to find quartersawn 6/4 stock at a decent lumberyard, and the figure is often dimly visible through the rough surface, but the final look will only be revealed in the milling process. Also possibly revealed will be knots, voids, cracks, splits, whorls and other impediments to clear lengths and widths that go into a top that will be the star attraction of a piece like this. So it’s important to get stock as wide as possible, consistent with the final dimensions of the top (I needed four 6″-wide by 40″-long boards) to allow for piecing the top together. By that I mean matching the grain harmoniously from board to board and working around defects. If one plank winds up narrower than ideal, it’s good to have another that’s wider to compensate. In this case, to make the grain match, I settled on two 6-1/2″ inner planks and two 5-1/2″ outers, and even so, there was only one way the boards went together into a pleasing composition.

I like to glue a big, thick piece like this into as close to final dimension as possible, since trimming it can be awkward…and wrestling a thick, 50-lb. plank over a table saw can be dangerous. It turned out that I glued it up to exact width and only about 1/4″ over length for squaring up. In my opinion, that is a job best done with a straight bit in a router run along a clamped straightedge.

Here’s a tip for screwing the top in place. The trestles are linked together only at the bottom by the stretchers and will likely move a bit at the top when driving the pocket-hole screws home because they go in at an angle, no matter how firmly you clamp the top to the stretchers. Use a couple of 36″ bar clamps bridging the top rails to keep them in alignment while driving the screws.

Finishing

To finish the piece, I took a page from a previous Woodworker’s Journal and mimicked the traditional fumed Arts and Crafts finish with General Finishes wipe-on gel stain in Antique Walnut, followed by a satin polyurethane topcoat. The self-leveling wipe-on topcoat is especially convenient on a piece with this many surface planes, reveals and exposed tenons and wedges. I finished it off with dark Briwax and buffed it for a nice antique-looking sheen.

The piece has been in service for about a month now, and my wife reports that not only is it a beautiful looking coffee table, but a solid footrest as well.

Click Here to Download the Materials List and Drawings.

Mike Stevesand is a woodworking hobbyist.

The post PROJECT: Build a Mission Coffee Table appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Our Google SketchUp design contest received quite a few submissions. These are the category winners, including the overall winner, who received the honor of having his project built by Woodworker’s Journal staff and featured in the magazine. He also gets to keep the actual project — he’s one ahead on holiday gift-making!

Adjustable Sawhorse by Harold Bowern from Brampton, Ontario:

Magazine Rack by Kyle Ely from Monroe Township, Pennsylvania:

Spice Rack & Utensil Holder by Joe Johns from Ronan, Montana:

The post Google SketchUp Design Contest Winners appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Mission Coffee Table: Setbacks and shadow lines add style to a substantial piece

Rootin’ Tootin’ Tugboat: Contrasting wood species add eye-catching delight to a simple toy for the tub or the floor

Cribbage Board: Our SketchUp contest winner’s gameboard design makes a winning gift, with onboard storage

Trammel-Jig Trivets: A pivoting jig offers options for routing out a variety of trivets

Techniques

Woodturning: Three-legged stool teaches turning techniques

Skill Builder: Caring for your dust collector

Finishing: Products for easy furniture facelifts

READ THIS ISSUE:

The post Woodworker’s Journal – November/December 2011 appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

If you don’t have your copy yet and you’d like to know what we’ve packed into the issue this time out, this video from Field Editor Chris Marshall and Editor in Chief Rob Johnstone will bring you up to speed.

You can check out a digital version of the issue by clicking here, or you can buy the issue through our online store.

Matt Becker
Internet Production Coordinator

The post November/December 2011 Issue Preview appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

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