Our cover story for the August 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine is “Bow-front Entry Table” by Matthew Teague. This elegant little project is the perfect introduction to working with curves and veneer – one that won’t break the bank; the veneer is done using an inexpensive hand-pumped vacuum press designed originally for making skateboards. Add a touch of classic detail to your work with “Acanthus Leaf,” which offers a 16-step guide to carving the design into a table leg, as well as short history lesson on the iconic motif. Get ready for the mighty “Gizmozilla.” This (non-radioactive) build-it-yourself woodshop beast is primarily a router-mortising fixture, but it also acts as a Moxon-style vise to speedily cuts tenons – and it makes repetitive stop cuts a breeze. The portable “Roorkhee Chair” helped imperial British soldiers move around the battlefield in comfort and style; Christopher Schwarz’s reproduction will help you do the same, even if the battlefield is more like a mosquito-y barbecue than the Boer Wars. James Mursell, founder of The Windsor Workshop, gives you the skinny on “Spokeshaves,” versatile wood-shaping tools that too often go under-used. Finally, feed your inner woodworking historian as Bob Flexner explains how “Drawers Date Furniture.”
In this month’s Tool Test, we take a look at “Veritas’s New Top Secret Steel,” the “Festool Domino XL DF 700,” and the “M-Power CRB7 Combination Router Base.”
In this month’s I Can Do That, Megan Fitzpatrick builds a sturdy Shaker Carry Box with attractive notched and nailed joints. In Arts & Mysteries, Adam Cherubini teaches you to design your tool storage from the inside out in “A Chest for Every Woodworker.” George R. Walker explains how small changes can make a big difference in your designs, as well as help train your eye in “Honing in on Proportions,” this month’s Design Matters column. In a new column that reveals the basics for good woodworking, Woodworking Essentials, Robert W. Lang explains the importance of putting the “The Right Wood in the Right Spot.” The big secret: An up-close examination of the end grain. And finally in End Grain, Wilbur Pan reflects on his Asian upbringing and how it has shaped his views on the Japanese woodworking tradition in “It Comes Down to the Cut.” And of course you’ll find Letters and Tricks of the Trade.