The candy machine fits well on the smaller top specified in the Material List But you might prefer to make the larger top instead and use this Pedestal Stand to display a big house plant or other object. Either way, let’s get started making it!

Milling and Gluing

Notice in the Exploded View Drawing that while the small top is an edge-glued panel, the stand’s discs, base and large top are each made up of four sections miter-cut into 45°-45°- 90° triangles that are glued together into blanks to hide the end grain.

I settled on walnut for my project. At the table saw, I started by ripping enough of it and crosscutting it into sections (outlined in the Material List) to make each of the discs and the stand’s base. The two 6″ discs need material ripped to 3″ wide; the 7″ disc needs 3-1/2″-wide stock and the 8″ disc requires 4″-wide stock. Do the same for the stand’s base sections and the larger top, if that’s the top you’ve chosen for your project.

From here, I took all the sections to my miter saw, swiveled it to exactly 45 degrees and miter-cut each section into a triangle. Keep in mind that the “top” of each triangle should be oriented at the edge of the workpiece and centered on the section’s length. The tops of the triangles form a square corner. You may want to test your saw setup on scrap wood first to make sure four triangles will fit together without creating gaps.

Once all those are cut, it’s time to glue together blanks for the discs and base (and large top, if you’re making one). A strap clamp is ideal for this job. Apply a liberal amount of glue to all joints before assembling each group of four triangles, and make sure you don’t overtighten the clamp that co uld push the joints out of alignment! When the blanks dry, scrape off any glue and sand their faces flat. My random orbit sander with 80-grit sandpaper made quick work of that task.

Routing Round Discs

I used Rockler’s Circle Cutting Jig for Compact Routers to turn my square blanks into four discs. To use this jig, first drill a 9/32″ center hole to register the jig’s pivot pin and then set it for each disc’s radius. With a 1/4″ straight bit installed and my compact router mounted on the jig, three progressively deeper passes in a clockwise direction cut through the stock. Secure each disc blank temporarily to a sacrificial board before routing it round. Next, I eased the top and bottom edges of the discs, as well as the flat edges of the base, with a 3/8″ roundover bit. Sand these parts up through the grits to 220 and apply a finish of your choice. I chose hard wax oil.

Off to the Lathe!

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Mount a square blank for the pedestal between lathe centers and turn it into a round cylinder. A spindle roughing-out gouge, like the one shown here, is the best tool for this task.	After marking off the major transitions on the pedestal with a pencil, use a parting tool to bring those areas to correct diameter.

It’s time to turn the pedestal! Start by cutting yours to length, marking the centers of the ends and dimpling those centers with an awl. Mount it on the lathe. I reached for a spindle roughing- out gouge to turn the pedestal blank into a cylinder. Take care to maintain a consistent diameter. Then, I referenced the Pedestal Detail Drawing and used a caliper and parting tool to establish final diameters at all of the key locations on the workpiece.

Check your sizing periodically with a caliper.	Turn the long tapered areas of the pedestal to shape using a spindle roughing-out gouge or a skew chisel. Try to keep the tapers as flat as possible

From there, I used various traditional and carbide-insert lathe tools to turn the pedestal to final shape. While tapering the long top and bottom “straight” areas of the spindle, I found it helpful to reference against a long rule to identify any high or low spots that needed attention. Make these tapers as straight as you can.

A long rule will reveal any high or low spots of your taper cuts.	Here, a spindle gouge shapes a concave recess into the center of each of the spindle’s three middle rings. A round carbide-insert tool is another good option for this shaping step.

The narrow center “ring” details have a slight undercut on each of their top and bottom faces. This creates the illusion that they’re floating. A diamond-shaped carbide-insert tool excelled at reaching into these tight places for me.

The author found a diamond-shaped carbide-insert tool helpful for working inside of the narrow areas between the rings when forming their slight top and bottom undercuts.	Hard wax oil or a shellac-based friction polish applied on the lathe are two quick finish options for this project’s pedestal. Or wait until after final assembly and spray it with an aerosol finish instead.

When the turning is done, sand the pedestal up to 220-grit and apply finish while it’s still mounted on the lathe. If you’re making the small top for this project, glue up a blank for it, cut it to final shape and sand and finish it. I rounded the corners of mine to 1-1/4″ radii at the bandsaw.

Putting the Pieces Together

Install rubber feet on the base, then attach the base and bottom discs to the pedestal with a 4″ lag screw. Counterbore the screwhead.	Install the top two discs on the pedestal with another 4″ lag screw, just as you did for the base and bottom discs.

That brings us to final assembly. I attached screw-on rubber feet to the base to protect the floor and create a shadow line there. Now use two #14 x 4″ lag screws to attach each stack of discs and the base to the pedestal. Be sure to first drill a pilot hole and a counterbore to recess the lag screw heads before driving the fasteners home. I grabbed several long #8 wood screws to attach the base of the candy machine and the top panel to the top disc.

The author mounted the candy machine’s metal base and top panel to the stand’s top disc by driving #8 x 1″ screws down through the parts.	If the top surface of your pedestal stand’s top will be visible, drive #8 x 1-1/2” screws through the upper discs from below to install it in order to hide the screwheads.

Once that was done, I could finally check this project off the to-do list! Now we’ve got a proper wooden stand for our family’s candy machine, and my new benchtop lathe tackled its first big turning job with flying colors!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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This interior shutter project has a lot going for it, including excellent light transmission that doesn’t compromise privacy and simple modular construction. You can use almost any wood for these shutters, but typically it’s best to either match or complement your existing woodwork. I used vertical-grain pine that has a naturally attractive ribbon pattern and a medium ivory color. It’s also easy to work and relatively inexpensive. A translucent shoji-style fiberglass material works well for the screen, but there are a number of other materials you can use, such as rice paper and plastic-coated paper.

Keep in mind that this is a millwork project, so it doesn’t require quite the high level of workman-ship you might devote to a furniture project. The thickness and width of the parts work for most window sizes, so you only need to adjust the length. For very large windows, you might want to scale up the size of the parts or add more lattice strips to the grid. The variations on this project are almost infinite, so you’ll likely want to add your own special touches.

Measure, Mill, Join Frames

You’ll need to start by measuring your window casing and checking it for square. Measure the exact opening, then subtract about a quarter inch from the sides and top/bottom to allow a little room for swing clearance and space for the hinges. (Most carpentry isn’t as precise as your woodworking, so you may need to make some adjustments after you assemble the frames.) For large windows or ganged windows, consider making bifold or multiple shutters to span the area.

Because this project lends itself to mass production, it’s best to mill the frame parts for all the windows you intend to cover before doing any joinery, to ensure consistency. (Read on to learn more about making the lattice strips.) A jointer and planer are almost a necessity to achieve straight, square and uniform stock. You might want to sand the parts lightly before you start the joinery.

There’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to joinery. I used a Festool Domino to make floating mortise-and-tenon joints. This tool can quickly make strong, precise joints. However, a biscuit joiner is just as fast and makes acceptably strong joints. You can also attain very good results with dowels or pocket-hole screws.

Once you’ve glued and clamped the frames, you can sand them with 150-grit paper. Be sure to ease the edges enough so they won’t splinter, but don’t round them too much. If your shutters are a matching pair like this project, mark the top edges with arrows that point to the front and inside stile edges. This will serve to keep the shutters paired and correctly oriented. Check the bare frames in the window casing to be sure they fit with some room to spare and make necessary adjustments. If the fit is too tight, trim the inside stile edges that form the closure between the shutters.

Now is as good a time as any to cut the translucent screen material. This should be done before fastening any lattice parts inside the frame because the bare frame serves as a pattern. The easiest way is to lay the frame on top of the screen material and trace around the inside with a pencil; then use a metal straightedge and a utility knife to cut the material.

Make Lattice Strips and Router Jig

If there’s a fussy part of this project, it’s making the lattice. The 3/8″ x 3/8″ lattice strips must be uniform, and the half-lap joints that form the grid must be precisely made. There are a number of ways to make the strips, but I’ve found that using a band saw and a planer is efficient and it keeps waste and dust to a minimum.

First, rip wide pieces from 3″ or 4″ stock roughly 7/16″ thick. Next, rip 7/16″-square strips from these pieces. Now you need to remove the saw marks and mill the strips to exactly 3/8″ square. Run the strips through your planer, making four total passes: the first two on perpendicular sides of the strips to remove about 1/32″ and then a third and fourth pass on the opposite sides for the final 3/8″ dimension. The strips might not be perfectly square, but the deviation with pieces this small will be insignificant — try making a few practice pieces first. (If your planer won’t adjust down to 3/8″, you can make a subbase out of particleboard or MDF to fit under the planer’s cutterhead.) Make more pieces than you’ll need because you’ll unavoidably have some ruined pieces.

You can use a table saw to make the half-lap joints, but I think a router jig is more accurate and makes cleaner joints. The half-lap routing jig is simple and easy to make with MDF or particleboard and a few bits of hardware. There are two basic parts: the base and the router carriage. The base has a thin hardboard fence attached to it to align to workpieces so they’re perpendicular to the router carriage. The router carriage is adjustable for different stock thickness with the carriage bolts and should be made to fit your router (or at least the guide rails positioned for your router’s base). Adhere sandpaper or self-adhesive abrasive strips to the carriage bottom to prevent stock from shifting. To ensure that the jig makes accurate cuts, all the parts should be square, the carriage bolt holes should align perfectly in the base and router carriage, and the fence on the base should be perpendicular to the slot in the router carriage. The fence should be the last piece you install because it’s dependent on how the base and router carriage are aligned. Finally, run the router into the fence with a 3/8″ bit to create an alignment mark.

Cut Half-lap Joints

There are several tips that can increase your success in cutting the half-lap joints. You should cut all the strips to the exact length before you cut the joints. Use the shutter frames to determine the fit, and you might want to make dedicated sets of strips for each frame in case there are slight dimensional differences.

Once you cut the strips, use masking tape to gang them together with the ends perfectly flush. Mark the joint locations in pencil, and then scribe the joint lines with a utility knife. This will help prevent any chipping or tearout from the router. When you place the ganged strips in the jig, be sure they’re abutting the fence, that the joint lines correspond with the router alignment mark on the fence and that the carriage bolts are securely tightened. Also, place an extra piece of lattice to the outside of the ganged pieces to help balance the height of the router carriage.

Rout the joints with a 3/8″ straight bit and make the cuts in two passes while keeping the router pressed against the guide rails. Work carefully and don’t force the router through the cut. Use dust collection if your router has it. It will enable you to see the start and stop of the cut much more easily.

Assemble the Lattice

You’ll assemble the front lattice in the frame and the rear lattice as a standalone unit. The rear lattice acts as a retainer for the screen material and provides visual balance when the shutters are open.

Begin by marking the 1/8″ setback guidelines for the front lattice inset with a combination square and pencil. Before you start, make a dry run to ensure the grid strips fit properly in the frame. The strips don’t need to be glued; pin nails provide all the needed fastening.

The holes made by the nails are so small they’re almost invisible, and don’t need to be filled. Attach the vertical lattice strips to the stiles then the horizontal ones to the rails. Now you can add the inside vertical strips with a little glue in the joints followed by the horizontal strips.

The rear lattice goes together the same way with glue in all the joints, but it’s not permanently attached to the frame. You just need to check that it fits flush over the front grid and isn’t too large (or small) for the frame. To fasten the front and rear grids together, you need to bore screw holes and countersinks for #4 x 5/8″ brass screws through the rear grid into the four inside grid intersections. Install the screws to cut the threads before you finish and assemble the shutters.

With the grids completed, now is a good time to set the hinge positions. The shutter hinges have removable pins so they work on the left or right side. Unless your shutters are very large or heavy, stick with two hinges on each side. Three or more hinges can cause binding and complicate installation. It’s important that the screw holes are perfectly centered to keep the hinges aligned. I used a self-centering Insty-Drive bit for this purpose. Remove the hinges before finishing.

Finish, Assemble, Install Shutters

Sand the assemblies with 150-grit paper and be sure to ease all sharp edges. There’s no need to sand too much or with a finer grit paper — the finish will hide many imperfections. Thoroughly clean off all the dust before applying finish.

Because the shutters are next to windows, they’re exposed to more light and temperature variations than other woodwork in your home. A film finish will help reduce seasonal wood movement and protect the wood from wear and tear. I brushed on two coats of a clear waterborne interior finish and opted not to stain because the natural color of the wood was appealing without alteration. For a smooth finish, sand lightly with 320-grit paper between coats to remove dust nibs.

Once the finish has cured, install the screen material. The fiberglass shoji that I used is stiff enough so that no glue, tape or staples were needed to retain it in the frame. But you might need to fasten thin paper screen to the back of the front grid if it doesn’t stay put. Install the rear grid over the screen and install the brass screws; then reinstall the hinges.

Installing the shutters isn’t difficult, but there are a few steps you can take to reduce any possible frustration. Use a thin spacer between the window casing and the shutter to eliminate the possibility of binding. The hinges also have a slotted hole to allow for vertical adjustment, so use only this hole until you’ve installed the opposing shutter and can align the pair. If the shutters are a little twisted in the frame, you can try moving one of the hinges slightly out to compensate. And if the gap where the shutters meet isn’t even, use a shim behind the hinge leaf. When the shutters seem reasonably well-aligned, install the rest of the screws. I installed a magnetic touch latch to retain the shutters. It eliminates the need for knobs to open and close the shutters to maintain a clean appearance.

If you’re like me, once you’ve built a few of these shutters, you’ll want to make more sets for other rooms in your home. They’ll help keep your rooms light and airy even on the most dreary days.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Theoretically, you can make a track as long as you like by joining shorter tracks together. Most tracks have square ends that are suitable for joining, but it pays to double-check. Whenever joining tracks, use a reliable straightedge to ensure that they join straight and true before tightening down the connectors.

For most track saw cuts you need to go all the way through the material, which means anything underneath is also going to get cut. To protect workbenches and floors (and prevent serious damage to blades on concrete), get a sheet of rigid foam insulation. It acts as a solid, sturdy sacrificial base you can use repeatedly with no damage to your bench or blades.

Track saws already deliver arguably the cleanest cuts around. But some materials, such as laminate countertops or plywood with paper-thin veneer, are still prone to tearout and splintering. To help prevent this, before making a full-depth cut in the workpiece, do a shallow scoring cut about 1/16″ deep. Then, lower the blade to make the full cut.

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These systems, like the Kreg Accu-Cut kit, use an adapter plate matched to the supplied tracks. The adjustable plate accepts your circular saw and holds it onto the plate with a series of small adjustable clamps. Once mounted, your saw slides smoothly on the track just the same as a “real” track saw.

As long as we’re talking adapters, there also are adapters that extend the usefulness of a track saw system to routers and jigsaws. Some track saw brands offer adapters (Festool, for example, has track adapters for their own routers and jigsaws), but you’ll find plenty available from third-party sources.

Router adapters are the easiest to find, with many made specifically for particular router makes and models and compatible with the most popular tracks. Setup couldn’t be easier and requires only that you remove the existing baseplate and replace it with the adapter plate. Once secured, the router rides the track smoothly and in a perfectly straight line.

Jigsaw adapters aren’t quite as numerous, but it’s very easy to make your own. If your jigsaw is equipped with a removable plastic shoe, simply purchase an extra shoe to use in combination with an easier-to-find router adapter. A generic router adapter that’s flat and not shaped for a specific router brand works best.

You can see how I’ve tricked out my DeWALT jigsaw. I lined up the extra DeWALT shoe and just glued it in place atop the router adapter. Any glue or plastics will work fine for this task.

As with the router (and track saw, of course), the cut is perfectly straight every time.

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Again, this could be done on the table saw with smaller workpieces. But when the stock becomes exceptionally long or wide, it’s better for the work to be stationary and fully supported on a workbench or other surface. A regular circular saw used with a clamped guide is a possibility, but a track saw’s plunge action speeds the operation up considerably and delivers better cuts with less splintering.

The key is to set up an easy jig. Here, I’ve simply pin-nailed a pair of 3/4″-thick guides to a sheet of ply, spaced so my 3/4″-thick workpiece can slide smoothly between them, while the track has a nice, wide surface for support. With the workpiece lined up to the edge of the jig guide, I made a starting cut near the workpiece end that extends slightly across both guide pieces. This becomes the registration cut.

Now, without moving the workpiece in the jig, reset the track for the second cut at the desired spacing between the kerf cuts, ensuring that it’s parallel to that first cut. Make the second cut and let the saw spin down. Slide the workpiece forward until the new cut lines up with the registration cut and make another pass. Continue the cut/slide/ cut/slide process until the workpiece kerfs are complete.

The finished workpiece bends with little effort, and the outside surface of the curve is nice and smooth. Keep in mind that a tighter bend radius requires narrower spacing between the kerfs, while a larger radius can get away with wider kerf spacing.

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Once again, it’s easier to take the saw to the work, and while you could cut 45-degree joints with a circular saw, the accuracy of a track saw makes it the perfect tool for the job. We’ll demonstrate the process with a smaller workpiece here, but the same process works with almost any length workpiece.

Measure and mark the workpiece where you want the joint edge, and line up the track. As with all narrow track cuts, clamping the track is a good idea. Tilt the blade to make a 45-degree cut and cut across the workpiece on your marks.

Remove the workpiece from under the track and set it aside. Then, take the new offcut piece you just created, flip it around and arrange the track exactly along the angled edge you just cut. There was a thin, unavoidable kerf created by the first cut, but with the track lined up carefully against the angle of the original cut, the kerf at the joint isn’t enlarged, allowing for the closest grain match possible. You can see in the bottom left photo how the spalted grain continues from one piece to the other.

Once the two mitered pieces are mated, the waterfall effect can be stunning.

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Echoing the take-the-saw-to-the-work mantra, once the slab is supported on a bench or other work surface, there’s no wrangling at all during the cut. You may need to make the cut in two passes for slabs that exceed the saw’s maximum cutting depth.

Making the first cut is straightforward. As an example, let’s use a 2-1/2″-thick slab of pine for a bench seat project that will have a live edge in the front but a squared back edge. To cut the slab to width, first measure and mark the workpiece and set the track appropriately to cut that back edge. Don’t be tempted to do the first cut as deep as you can, but rather make both cuts fairly equal by setting the saw’s depth to a bit more than half the slab’s thickness.

Now, you could have drawn a cut line all the way around the slab, but there’s no need. Flip the slab over to expose the uncut side (the only juggling you have to do), then slip thin pieces of wood or other material snuggly into the exposed kerf on each end to act as registers for the cut. Slide the track’s cutting edge carefully up against the registers, and bingo, you’ve exactly matched the cut on the other side.

Make the second pass to complete the cut. If you’ve done this correctly, there should be very little or even no “seam” where the two cuts overlapped. A light sanding will remove this easily, leaving a cleanly cut edge.

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For the longest time, there was only one track saw brand out there. Festool invented the category in the early 1960s and then owned the market for decades. The company refined the tool in the early ’80s, adding a plunge-cut action to the tool as well as incorporating a trim strip on the track edge that minimizes splintering. It took more than 40 years, but other manufacturers caught on and finally began producing their own versions of the track saw in the early 2000s. Today, virtually every major tool brand has one or more models.

You could describe track saws as ordinary circular saws on steroids, but that doesn’t accurately convey how useful they can be. While circular saws — and table saws, of course — are the cutting champs, track saws can handle certain tasks better, safer, faster and more accurately. Let’s look at some of these ways.

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Always keep the sander moving without forcing it. This not only makes smoothing more uniform and allows dust to be evenly collected, but it also helps prevent scratching or digging in. Done correctly, a sander should glide lightly over the work.

In terms of feed speed, here’s a good rule of thumb: move a random orbit or orbital sander over the workpiece at no faster than about one foot per second.

Uneven panel surfaces and tabletop glue-ups may need special attention, and this is often where tilting the sander is tempting. Although possible to effectively level a panel with a random orbit sander, it’s time-consuming and invites error. Instead, this is a good place to call in a belt sander with its large, flat pad that more easily bridges high spots.

First, locate all the high spots. Use a raking light to show where light sneaks under a reliable straightedge. High spots will be dark, with light shining on each side. Use a pencil to mark the high spots as you move the straightedge over the surface.

Cut the speed on your belt sander way down, and sand diagonally over the high spots to remove the pencil marks. Stop frequently and recheck with your straightedge to monitor your leveling and find remaining high spots.

Once the high spots are leveled, sand with the grain to remove diagonal scratches. Again, keep the speed down and the sander moving, overlapping with each pass. The goal here is making a uniform surface, not finish sanding, so go with a light touch.

The last step is to recheck for high spots with your straightedge. Any remaining spots should be small. Hand-sanding with an extra- long sanding block works best to level these stragglers, followed by smoothing through all the grits with a finish sander.

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Even better is to replace the bag or canister with a direct hookup to a shop vacuum or dust-collection system. Adapters like Rockler’s Dust Right FlexiPort system are extremely helpful for connecting most sander models.

For finish-sanding or polishing, high speed is great. But for most other sanding chores, constantly running sanders at their top speed can prematurely wear out abrasives, unexpectedly over-sand delicate workpieces, overheat motors, raise vibration, cause the sander to dig in and even make the tool harder to control. All quality sanders have speed controls these days. Don’t neglect them.

Two other poor techniques go hand in hand. The first is the oh-so-tempting practice of tilting the sander on-edge to quickly level glue joints or joinery. Yes, it works, but the odds of a poor result are high. It’s deceptively easy to sand a depression into the material. It also retards the spinning mechanism of a random orbit sander, defeating the whole purpose, and it invites swirls and scratching. Do this a lot, and you’ll also wear out the mechanics that make random orbits possible.

For the same reasons, don’t force the sander down into the work. Too much pressure overstresses the motor, slows down the random orbit pattern and causes swirls and scratching. Excess heat shortens the life of sandpaper and encourages clogging. Instead, hold the sander tightly enough for control, but let the weight of your hand and the sander itself do the work.

All woodworkers know to “work through the grits” for a gradual smoothing, but it’s easy to skip the important step of cleaning the workpiece between grits. No matter how efficient your dust collection is, dust always adheres to the surface along with loosened grit. The next-higher grit simply grinds this all into the surface. Always brush — or better yet, vacuum — the surface thoroughly between grits.

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