Here in the 21st century, I found the “Westy” design impossible to improve upon, with the possible exception of the material from which to build it. Mr. Lee made use of wide white pine boards common in upstate New York in his era. But I was curious about the woodworking properties of thermo-treated lumber — which is purported to be exceptionally rot-resistant. Don’t confuse this lumber with chemically treated stock: it remains natural wood.

Thermo-treated Hardwood — Machining Tips from the Author

About 15 years ago, forest product folks in Finland developed a high-temperature processing treatment for softwoods with the goal of increasing its durability. They succeeded quite well. By heating the wood from 415° to 450°F. in anoxic (oxygen-free to avoid combustion!) conditions, the sugars and other organic components of the wood break down, with the result that bacteria and mold do not grow on the fibers well at all. In other words, in exterior uses, rotting does not occur for an exceptionally long time — and, properly sealed and cared for, never. After the softwood process was successful, they expanded it to hardwoods.

Working with this heat-treated wood required a bit of adjustment. It is more brittle and the fibers on the edges break off easily…into your hands as splinters, for example. It also needs to stay in clamps longer to achieve a rock-solid bond. Because the treatment leaves it more dense as well as brittle, drilling properly sized clearance and pilot holes for screw fasteners is a must. And use sharp tools!

But those details aside, the impressive thing about this product is that it remains simply wood. No chemical treatments to leach into the environment and no special tools are required. It is darker than non-treated wood of the same species. Cost? It is only a dollar or so per board foot more expensive than its non-treated counterpart.

Repeatability and Accuracy

Have you noticed how outdoor furniture tends to travel in groups? (Flocks, herds, coveys … I am unsure what to call the aggregations.) That’s because we like to sit outside communally with family and friends. For that reason, when I decided to build our version of the Westport chair, I chose to make 1/2″-thick MDF templates for all of the shaped parts. Now I can easily build two, three or even an entire flock of chairs. But even if you choose to build a single Westy, I recommend working from templates. They allow you to fair the curves and refine your radii without ruining expensive stock.

In addition to the part dimensions in the Material List, we’ve provided drawings that will help you lay out the templates for the chair. While I always advise folks to be precise in their woodworking efforts, don’t fret overmuch regarding the shapes of the curved pieces.

The most important thing to achieve is a graceful, pleasing shape to the arms and other shaped parts. As you can see in the top photo at right, I laid out the template shapes by using the old trick of a flexed thin strip of wood to define my curves. For other radii, I used a handheld compass.

As I noted earlier, I built our chair from thermo-treated red oak, but this time-tested design will work well with cedar, cypress or any other type of wood that holds up well in outdoor use. Similarly, use a good quality waterproof glue — I chose Titebond® III — for any butt-joined lamination that you will need, such as for the back and the seat.

Building from the Bottom Up

Regardless of which material you make the chair from, the legs and arm supports (pieces 1 to 3) have straight lines that are easily made on a table saw. The front legs have a 12° bevel on their forward edges, and notches with the same interior angle (see the Drawings). I made each notch by holding the beveled edge of the leg flat on the table saw top and raising the saw blade to 15/16″, then nibbling the notch clean.

This technique forms the proper angle in each notch. To make the rear legs, I traced their shape onto the stock using a template, and then cut the shape out using a sled on the table saw. Note the grain direction indicated on the Template Diagram.

To get the 12° angle on the leg’s front ends, I raised the blade on the table saw, held the end square to the blade and slid the saw’s miter gauge up to the leg, adjusting it to the angle of the leg. Then I cranked the saw blade over to 12° and cut the angle onto the rear leg as shown in the Elevation Drawings. Repeat the process for the other rear leg.

Now go ahead and cut out the stretchers (pieces 4 and 5). The lower stretcher is simply sticked up; the curved stretcher has a curve cut into its bottom edge. It also has an angled top edge and ends. All these details are found in the Drawings.

Drilling: 1, 2, 3

Once you have completed those machining steps, you can start drilling counterbored holes for your first dry assembly. An important note for those who choose to use this treated lumber: I found it more brittle than non-treated wood, so for that reason I procured a really good quality countersink bit set which came with plug cutters. It cost a goodly sum, but it worked so well that, to me, the cost was worth it. Another thing I did was to use three drill/drivers as I worked: one with the countersink bit to make the counterbore and the clearance hole, the next with the properly sized drill bit for the pilot hole and the third with a Robertson (square-drive) bit. I know that having three cordless drill/drivers might seem a bit overboard, but I have to say it was a sweet deal. The screws I used in this project were stainless steel #7, 1-5/8″ with square-drive trim heads.

For each front leg assembly, counterbore and drill your pilot holes, then attach the arm support to the front legs using screws alone — no glue just yet. In the same way, secure the lower stretcher to the front legs in the notches that you nibbled earlier (no glue). The distance between the front legs is 20-3/4″. With that done, stand up the subassembly on a flat surface like a workbench or table saw table and grab one of the rear legs. Clamp the rear leg in position, holding it back 7/8″ from the forward edge of the front leg. Counterbore, drill and secure the rear leg to the front leg, then repeat the process for the other rear leg. Now you can test fit the curved stretcher to see if its angles line up properly. When it fits well, secure it as you have with the other parts (see the Exploded View for suggested screw locations). With the leg subassembly done, set it aside and move on to the next set of parts.

Making the Back, Seat and Arms

You are on the home stretch now, with just a few remaining parts to make (pieces 6 through 9). Because they are pretty wide, your back and seat will almost certainly need to be glued up. I composed the back
panel from a lighter center plank with darker boards on either side. The seat was glued up from boards that were essentially the same color.

Starting with the back, I traced its shape onto the stock with a white pencil. Stepping to the band saw, I cut out the shape, staying just outside of the line. Then, with the help of a 12° ramp and a handheld jigsaw, I cut the compound angle onto the bottom of the blank. Now I was ready to attach the template to the back blank with double-sided tape, and to use a pattern routing bit and a handheld router to complete the shape of the back. I followed the same steps to make the arms.

Securing the back to the leg subassembly would be more easily done with a helper to hold it in place — I substituted clamps and muttered threats instead. When you have the back properly positioned, use the three-step drill-and-screw process described earlier to temporarily mount it in place.

There are a whole lot of angles going on in this chair, and I found that despite my best efforts, I was a degree off here and there as I assembled it. For that reason, I located the rear back support by using a level placed on top of the front leg stretching to the back — I marked a line on each edge of the back and mounted the support. Here, I just countersunk the holes for the back support (not covering them with plugs).

The next step was to make and fit the seat. As you will see from the Drawings, the seat has rounded back corners and notches in the front corners. Those notches have angled rear aspects (across the thickness of the seat) to accept the front legs. I cut those notches with a hand saw. The back edge of the seat is angled to abut cleanly with the back. When you’ve fitted the seat in place nicely, counterbore and secure it with screws.

Completing the Last Details

By now you should be an expert at the bore, drill and screw sequence, so attaching the arms to the chair should go quickly…again, all of this assembly so far has been without gluing anything in place permanently. The reason is that you are going to take the whole chair apart now and sand it smooth. I also recommend a 1/8″ roundover bit on the edges of the arms, seat (except at the notches) and the back (except where it meets the rear legs). On the rest of the chair, I broke the edges with sandpaper, sanding up to 150-grit.

Reassembling the chair went smoothly. I applied glue to the legs subassembly (including where it joins the back), but nowhere else. I took care to drive the screws securely home and then put the chair aside. At the drill press, I made a bunch of plugs and then used the band saw to “resaw” them from the blank.

I glued them in place with Titebond III and let the glue cure. A sharp chisel and disk sander made quick work of flattening the plugs, and the chair was done, except for the applying the finish.

After packing the feet with epoxy, I applied three coats of General Finishes 450 exterior varnish — it has UV protectors that will help keep the color of the wood from shifting in the sunlight.

In the end, I was so pleased with the chair. It is a piece of American history, and it was fun to build and comfortable to sit in. That’s a win, win, win in my book for sure.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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The overall dimensions are readily adapted to different sizes and heights, according to how the table is to be used and where you plan to place it. My first version was for the end of a couch, to support a reading lamp with a shelf below to accommodate magazines. It had not the hint of a curve anywhere in sight — probably an overreaction to having spent the last half-dozen years building boats and dealing with complex, winding surfaces. I liked the table well enough, but soon reverted to old habits and made a second version with curved sides, convex for the top and concave for the shelf below. This is not only more elegant but also gives a little more room on the top surface.

Placing the legs at the outside corners with no overhang makes this table very stable. The overall height depends on how you plan to use it — beside a chair, couch, bed or otherwise. I’d be wary of making the height more than about one and a half times the width. A 16″ x 16″ table, for example, should not be more than 23 to 24 inches high. The placement of the lower shelf depends on what you plan to keep on it — magazines, nighttime reading, or whatever. For stability, the heavier the item, the lower the shelf should be placed, but you’ll find that somewhere within the middle third looks right. This shelf is an essential part of the structure, so don’t be tempted to omit it to save time and material.

To keep such unsupported surfaces flat, you need to select well-seasoned wood in a species not prone to excessive shrinkage or warping. The grain lines run diagonally, from corner to corner, not parallel to a side, so they intersect each of the four edges at an angle closer to 45° than 90°. This minimizes seasonal movement, reducing the risk of glue failure and the edging strips parting company with the top. Note that the grain direction of the top is at right angles to that in the lower shelf, providing a pleasing asymmetry.

The rosewood edging has two functions: it both covers the end grain and defines the horizontal planes. The edge is raised a fraction above the top surface to act as a stop (sailors call them “fiddles”) to prevent things sliding off. This may seem an unnecessary detail, but for those of us living in earthquake country, it makes sense. I used the profile shown to avoid making a 90° corner where dust and dirt are sure to collect.

Selecting Your Table Species

I used teak for my table, but you could also use any close-grained wood such as cherry, walnut or maple, or a harder variety of softwood such as Douglas fir, preferably vertical grain or close to it. Avoid using wide, flatsawn boards because they are more likely to warp. If that is all you have, cut the boards into 5- or 6-inch widths and glue them up with alternating grain patterns.

Constructing the Top, Shelf

The first step is to make accurate patterns in thin plywood of the top and lower shelf, including the cutouts for each leg. Because the upper and lower shelves are different shapes, you need to make a pattern for each one. Make sure the square cutouts for the four legs match exactly in both patterns — otherwise the table will be hard to assemble and the legs may be skewed out of line.

Since I was using 11-inch-wide boards and wanted the grain to run diagonally, I cut four triangular pieces and one rectangular piece and planed them to the finished thickness of 13/16″. I then hand-planed the long edges (I have no jointer in my island workshop) and glued them to a center board to make a square. You can make a plywood jig or clamp them diagonally, so you can apply enough pressure to get a good glue joint.

After gluing them up, I finished smoothing the boards with a cabinet scraper and a random-orbit sander.

The next step is to cut the two pieces to exact squares (the top is larger than the shelf because it is convex; the lower, concave). Draw a diagonal line, corner to corner, then pencil in the square and trace the patterns. The square shapes will make the leg cutouts easier to register for sawing, next. Use a knife, rather than a pencil, to accurately scribe the leg cuts.

It is much quicker and more accurate to cut the notches for the legs on a table saw before band sawing the curves. With a sharp crosscut blade installed, set the rip fence and use it as an index so the notches will be identically sized. You will need to change this setup for the shelf. Keep in mind that the structural integrity of this table is dependent on the fit of these eight joints. Ill-bred people have been known to put their feet up on low tables — or even sit on them.

Detailing the Top and Shelf

Cut the curves for the top and shelf (pieces 1 and 2) on a band saw, then smooth the sawn edges so they are ready for gluing. A disc sander is a quick way to clean up the convex curves, but for the concave edges, a spokeshave and contoured sanding block is your best bet. Be sure to keep the offcuts; they will come in handy as clamping pads when gluing on the edging strips.

When using an expensive, exotic wood such as rosewood, ebony, or teak for edge strips (pieces 3), I plane one edge of a wide board smooth, clean it up with sandpaper, then cut the strip free on the table saw using a thin-kerf, carbide-tipped blade. A lightly set featherboard helps to keep the work against the fence. Plane the sawn edge of the original stock again and make another rip cut to produce anotherstrip. Repeat until you have sufficient edging.

Glue the edging strips to the tabletop and shelf blanks and let them run past an inch or so at each end. It’s an easy matter to trim them flush on a disc sander when fitting the legs at a later stage. Before applying glue, have a dry run by clamping up a pair of strips, smooth face out, using the appropriate offcuts as backing blocks Raising the edge around the top surface is a nice detail but adds more work. You may want to make the strips flush with the top surfaces instead.

When the glue has cured, trim the edging roughly to length and glue the second pair of strips on in the same way. Do exactly the same with the lower shelf, letting the strips run by the leg cutouts to be trimmed later.

There is some unavoidable squeeze-out, so if you are using raised edging, pick a glue that’s easily removed.

Making the Legs

Since the legs (pieces 4) have no taper, they can be sawn out on the table saw directly and then planed to their finished size. Saw one corner to 45° as shown on the Drawing and clean it up with a hand plane. If you have a disc sander, this is a good time to finish-sand the top and bottom of each leg.

Drilling for Screws

You can attach the legs using 2-1/2″ brass or stainless-steel wood screws (pieces 5) or threaded inserts and bronze machine screws. Running wood screws into end grain can be a bit risky, so the machine screw option could be a very good idea, even though it’s considerably more work. You’ll need inserts with a #10-20 thread, preferably stainless steel, because the brass ones tend to strip and then there is no getting them in or out.

Whichever type of fastening you choose, you’ll need to make yourself the simple cradle jig. Clamp it to the drill press table so the bit is exactly centered on the “V” cutout. Mark the location of the tabletop and shelf screw holes in one leg, then set stops so each leg will be identical. Drill holes for the screws and then, with the leg still cradled, bore a countersink for the screw heads in each of the legs.

Fastening the Legs

First, make a 3/8″ gauge block to ensure uniformity and then lay a leg across the top of the bench. Clamp the tabletop vertically in the vise. Position both parts so the leg projects the thickness of the gauge block and clamp the leg down to the benchtop. Drill a pilot hole into the tabletop for the size of screw you are using. If using a threaded insert, remove the leg and drill a shallow hole of appropriate diameter and screw the insert in place. Replace the leg, install the screw and rotate the top, repeating the procedure with the other legs.

To fasten the shelf, place the table upside down on the bench and cut four strips to support the shelf at the correct height. Wrap a few loops of sturdy string around the legs, insert a short stick and wind the stick end over end to tighten the string until the shelf is securely locked in place. (This ancient device is known as a Spanish windlass.) Drill pilot holes as you did before, and drive the attachment screws. Or, remove the shelf and install the threaded inserts if you’re using them instead of wood screws.

The final step for threaded inserts is to lay the table sideways on the floor, one leg resting horizontally on a piece of carpet, and drive the machine screws home. I use a brace and screwdriver bit for the final tightening because it gives more control. With a bit of luck (and practice) one can usually stop before the screw shears off or the threaded insert pulls out.

Finishing

Before applying finish, I gave the top surface a final hand sanding in the direction of the grain. I used Watco® oil penetrating sealer, which must be wiped off with a cotton rag while wet. A day or two later, I applied a second coat, wiping it off as before. It’s a durable finish, proof against most spills, and it’s easily renewed as necessary. The final step is a thorough waxing and polishing.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Designing a substantial piece of furniture with moving parts capable of bearing around 500-lb. loads without tipping over and landing on an innocent party became the goal. Jeff Jacobson and Larry Stoiaken noodled through several ideas, after which Jeff came through with CAD drawings. That’s when I got busy and put together a full-size mock-up in MDF — always a good idea when working through a new design. In this case we especially needed to try out the moving parts and determine how best to anchor the cabinet to the wall or floor. (Actually a good idea with any large or tippy cabinet with a 60″ TV, even if it does not have a slide-out section!)

At the end of the process, we settled on the configuration you see above, where the entire top glided out with the center console, creating a large, stable surface that presented an unbroken visual line at the top of the cabinet. The center console needed to be large enough to contain most, if not all, sizes of electronic media components, and obviously strong enough to handle the weight of everything. We chose two Accuride glides rated for 500 pounds for the sides of the console and two Accuride 250-pound glides beneath it. These provide around 1,500 pounds of load-bearing strength, allowing us to support not just the TV monitor and components but perhaps even a safe and a boat motor … just in case!

The key to this whole design is access, so we decided not to put a back on any of the casework to help move that goal forward. We also chose a large, double-barrel grommet to fit through the top behind the TV, for cable and wire access. Once we figured all that out, and picked out the drawer glides, pulls and adjustable feet, material selection was a piece of cake!

SAFETY NOTICE!

This cabinet must be attached to the wall and the TV must be secured to the top of the cabinet. Use the locking pin to avoid accidental roll-out.

Kicking It Off

Developing a cutting list was easy, too: we simply took measurements from our mock-up, another benefit of a prototype approach to woodworking design.

There are several major parts to this project. The plinth, or base, holds everything off the ground. The two side drawer cabinets share a common base panel that covers the plinth and becomes an attaching point for the bottom glides on the center console. The center console is attached to a sub-top that’s flush with the casework beneath it, and this in turn is attached to the solid cherry top which overhangs the casework by 2-1/2″ at the ends and 5/8″ at the front.

I started with the easy stuff. I built the plinth using solid cherry for the front and sides for durability on these high traffic parts and cherry veneered plywood for the back and middle parts. You can find all the dimensions for these pieces in the Material List on the facing page.

I decided to spline the mitered front corners and plowed dadoes for the cross members, then used a fun little trick called glue blocks to reinforce all the corners. As woodworkers through the ages can attest, glue blocks deliver amazing strength with just a small amount of effort and material. I glued and clamped the plinth together and then allowed the glue to cure.

Once everything was set, I mounted six heavy-duty lifting levelers to the front and back — it is important to have the ability to level a big piece of casework like this — without using old carpenter’s shims in your living room!

Before I went any further with the casework, I decided to glue up the top. It is a bit out of sequence, but I could come back to it as I waited for other clamped and glued subassemblies to cure. The top is a simple, butt-glued panel. After I jointed and planed the stock, I examined the grain patterns and composed the pieces. I glued the top together and then set it aside for future attention, once I had built everything else.

Cabinet Parts

The plywood components for the drawer cabinets were next on the agenda. I put a sharp saw blade paired with a zero-clearance insert in the table saw and started ripping and crosscutting pieces — again, look to the Material List for their sizes. All the panels’ exposed edges got banding of 1/4″ solid cherry before final sizing and spline cutting. The joinery for all these carcass parts was butt joints and biscuits. Take your time to lay out the biscuit locations carefully, and you will save yourself a lot of misery.

In addition to the biscuit locations, there is a long notch cut out on the back edge of the carcass bottom. The notch is there to allow power cords and other sorts of wiring access to the center sliding console. Look to the Elevation Drawing for the location of the notch. I used a Forstner bit at either end of the notch and then cut the rest of it away with a jigsaw.

One of the most important pieces on this cabinet is the carcass rear stringer that runs the whole length of this subassembly. It sits in notches on the vertical dividers and is biscuited into each carcass end.

This stringer is the means by which you attach this cabinet to the wall, which you must do to safely operate the sliding console. If you don’t attach it to the wall, the whole cabinet will tip over and your expensive equipment will end up in a landfill somewhere.

With all the machining done for the carcass, I performed a final test fit. Everything was jake, so I took the time to sand all the pieces before final assembly. I clamped the subassembly together and set it aside while I went on to build the center console. (Do you see a pattern here?) Although it could go without saying, I am not going to risk it: make every effort to be certain you have clamped up the carcass square and true. Remember, you can’t reverse a glue-up step.

The Electrified Slide

The sliding center console is the heart of this project’s design. Even so, it is pretty much bread-and-butter casework construction, just as you did with the carcass. Once again, the cherry veneered plywood pieces have solid cherry lipping on their exposed edges. The exception for that is the face frame area. The center console needed to allow for the thickness of the heavy-duty slides (they are so robustly made that they are 3/4″ thick compared to the standard slide thickness of 1/2″!), so Jeff designed a face frame to fit into the center of the case to hide that unsightly hardware. It sits in the same plane as the drawer faces, which overlay the casework behind them. He also added a center vertical divider for additional strength, allowing us to eliminate any fixed shelving and giving you even more options in loading up the electronic stuff into your “ultimate” media cabinet.

I biscuit-joined, sanded and assembled the console in the same manner as the carcass, with the additional step of drilling shelf-pin holes. See the Drawings for the locations of the holes. Like the other plywood pieces, the shelving is simply edge-banded and sanded smooth. The limited size of these shelves means they won’t sag over time; otherwise I’d have suggested solid wood shelving.

As I mentioned before, the glue stage step is irreversible, so the dry-fit pre-assembly step cannot be done too carefully. Take your time, apply the clamps as you would if you were using glue, and then test for square. When everything fits perfectly, go ahead and do the glue-up.

When the glue has cured, set this subassembly aside, too. (You will be getting a pretty big pile of “set asides” by now!)

At this point, I went back to work on the carcass subassembly, building and fitting the drawers using the Accuride drawer slides. In this instance, the drawer construction was simple: 1/2″ Baltic plywood rabbeted at the corners. I glued the joints and drove trim nails into the corners. The bottoms were 1/4″ Baltic plywood panels captured fully within a dadoed housing. Look to the Drawings for the details of these simple drawers. One detail you will notice is that the sides of the drawers are shallow, which allows for easy finger access when grabbing your favorite movie or game cartridge.

The drawer faces are made from solid cherry lumber and are attached with screws driven from the inside of the drawer boxes. Getting these faces to line up with each other and the face frame of the center console proved to be the most challenging woodworking task of the entire project, in my opinion. I’m great at making hand-cut dovetailed and hand planed fitted drawers — it’s the easy stuff I sometimes struggle with. Be patient and as accurate as you can. Fortunately, with a 1/8″ reveal you have some room for trimming and fitting. I was grateful for that reveal, I can tell you.

Demanding Drawer Slides

I installed all the of the slide hardware basically by the numbers, meaning I use the manufacturer’s specs and make my measurements precise. The drawer slides on the drawers (as opposed to the console) fully disengage, and I was able to mount each slide part to its mating surface on the drawer and cabinet sides. I simply measured, taking into account all offsets, then precisely marked and screwed them in place. For the aluminum drawer handles, I made a template out of scrap 1/4″ birch plywood, clamped it to the drawer face with a backer block and drilled straight through for the mounting screws. Easy breezy…

That was the drawers…the center console, however, has the Accuride super heavy-duty slides that do not come apart into two pieces, which made things a bit more complicated. After noodling over the challenge, I started out by setting the bottom slides (which are detachable) to the carcass bottom and the adjoining bottom of the center console — again, doing it by the numbers to manufacturer’s specs: all of the required offsets, etc., which are basically built into the casework. I attached the big glides to the vertical dividers of the carcass and then blocked and shimmed up the center console to connect with the carcass at just the right spot. I connected the smaller glides, pushed the center in a little ways and checked my marks against the screw holes on the slides (wow, good job!) and fastened it down. Then it was time to test it out: I can’t begin to tell you how nice it worked, better than the drawers. I even impressed myself on this little step of the job; it was far easier than I anticipated.

Driving It Home

It was now time to start thinking about finishing this project off. Remember the top that has been waiting patiently on the sidelines? There was some work left to do on it. I first hand planed it with a #07 beater plane of Rob’s, then started at about 80-grit with a Festool 6″ random orbital (sorry, purists … you’ll notice the drawers are pinned also). I cut and shaped the top before the final sanding, then gave it a coat of Watco® before setting it aside again to start getting the casework prepped and ready for finishing. I needed to work on the reveals some more, getting all the lines looking straight. I eased all the edges along with a final clean-up scuff sanding using 220-grit paper before tacking and rubbing in a coat of Watco. A penetrating oil finish on cherry brings out the grain like no other treatment, in my opinion. Even if you are going to apply a durable topcoat like polyurethane, I would still recommend taking the time to apply a coal of oil before the poly.

After an overnight dry, I mated the top to the sub-top of the center console, simply screwed in place but with elongated holes at the front and middle to allow for movement of the cherry top.

Next I drilled holes for the grommet hardware through the top and the subtop. I confess to a bit of anxiety; I was using a really big bit on a really nice top! After the holes were drilled, I used a jigsaw to connect the holes for the grommet. Following that, I drilled the 3/8″ hole for the locking pin. This dowel keeps young children from “accidentally” pulling the console forward unsupervised.

I then gave it all a light rubdown with #0000 steel wool, tacked the surfaces clean and applied another coat of Watco Danish oil.

This was a very fun, very cool project to work on. I don’t think it’s a groundbreaking achievement in the world of fine woodworking, but it sure offered up a number of challenging elements to bang my head against, some beautiful wood to use and cool moving parts! Imagine the ease with which you’ll reconnect your Xbox or new amplifier, Blu-ray or an “old style” DVD player to your system, with no chiropractor bills for your efforts or shorted-out components!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials Lists.

Hard to Find Hardware

Heavy-duty Drawer Slides (1 pr.) #31416
Accuride Drawer Slides (5 pr.) #32482
Drawer Pulls (4) #23331
Heavy-duty Levelers (2 packs) #81239
Hex Wrench for Levelers (1) #81253
Black 1/4” Pin Support (1) #22781

The post PROJECT: Slide-out Media Center appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

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Slide-out Media Center: Never throw your back out again when trying to reach behind your TV and DVD player. This piece features a unique sliding center section and top to provide instant access to all of your wiring

Occasional Table: A table that’s perfect for any occasion, featuring easy assembly and a flexible design

Westport Chair: A classic design (it inspired the Adirondack chair) and thermotreated wood create a great place for outdoor relaxation

Techniques

Woodturning: Mark Sfirri disdains symmetry: the off-kilter turning whiz produces multi-axis, asymmetrical pieces

Art of Design, Part III: Our master woodworker covers the architectural elements of good casegoods design

Skill Builder: Drill press maintenance

Finishing: The Achilles’ Heel of Outdoor Furniture Projects

Reviews

Tool Review: Stacked dado blades

READ THIS ISSUE:

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

Lubricate the Drill Chuck

Lubricate ChuckTo keep the chuck’s jaws operating smoothly essential to proper bit centering apply a little drying lubricant, such as Boeshied T-9®, inside of the chuck: First, turn the chuck’s shell until the jaws are fully open and blow the inside clean with a burst of compressed air (wear goggles to keep flying dust out of your eyes). Spray or squirt some lubricant up inside and tighten and loosen the jaws a few times while the excess lube drips out. Wipe off any residue with a clean rag.

Vibration and Belt Wear

A worn belt or bent or out-of-balance pulleys can be a source of annoying noise and vibration. Check the belt by unplugging the drill press, removing the machine’s head cover and doing a visual inspection of the belt while rotating it by hand. If it has any cracks, ply separations or lumpy sections, replace it right away. If the belt appears normal, check to make sure its tension is correct. You should just be able to deflect it slightly (about 1/4-inch to 3/8-inch) by pressing in the middle, between the pulleys. If it’s too loose or too tight, reset the tension following the directions in your machine’s manual (Note: belt tightness on drill presses with mechanical variable speed isn’t adjusted this way; consult your machine’s manual).

Now, with the head cover still off, plug in the drill press, don a face shield and run the motor on its highest speed. Look carefully at the belt and pulleys: They should run smoothly and not generate significant noise. If the belt oscillates excessively, causing periodic vibration, check its tension again and reset it if necessary. Watch the rim of both pulleys as they spin. If there’s a visible wobble, turn the drill press off and unplug it, then make sure the setscrew(s) that secure the pulleys to their shafts are tight. Also do a visual inspection to see if the rims on one or both pulleys are bent. If they are, replace them. If a rumbling or growling sound is coming from the pulleys, the drill press’s bearings may be worn or dirty and should be replaced a job best done by a machinery specialist.

For more great tool maintenance tips, PLUS complete step-by-step video instructions of how to:

• Check the Spindle and Chuck
• Checking for Runout
• Set the Table Square
• Aligning Laser Sights

Order the Power Tool Maintenance DVD!

CLICK HERE to take a closer look at this DVD.

This interactive DVD-ROM will show you the fundamental maintenance procedures for seven major woodworking power tools: the table saw, jointer, drill press, dust collector, air compressor, pneumatic nailer and even a moisture meter. You’ll get step-by-step instructions, over 150 photos and over 60 minutes of video from experts Sandor Nagyszalanczy and Chris Marshall, Senior Editor of Woodworker’s Journal magazine.

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