Table of contents for Issue 147 in ShopNotes Magazine

This issue is a love letter to plywood. It all starts with the three projects on page 26 that Dillon designed. They trace their origins to a set of projects first featured in issue 78. One of the goals of these is to create a range of workshop “furniture” to outfit a work space with storage solutions, benches, stands, and carts. Plywood allows you to cut flat panels quickly. Dillon shared with me how he approached the design process, trying to use the strengths of plywood to their fullest. As you read the article, you’ll see the result of that study time. The projects come together quickly, are built sturdy, and look good as well. Chris grabbed the baton and came up with a shop cart (page 34) inspired by…

A router table has to be one of the most frequently used tools in our shop. From cutting joinery to shaping edges and corners, there are many things that a router table excels at. Unfortunately, one of those things is also making a mess. Router bits kick up a lot of dust and chips, especially if you’re using something like an ogee bit or cutting joinery for a case. As a solution, Chris Fitch and Marc Hopkins (our Creative Director and Shop Manager, respectively) designed this router table fence. Their focus was to create a reliable fence that could be adapted to any router table and dust collection system. As you can see on the next page, it’s a relatively simple design that puts function over form. Hardwood and plywood…

When a woodworker hears the word hand plane, the first image that most of us visualize is that of a bench plane. And, I think that’s fair. Most of us were (or will be) introduced to either a bench or block plane as the first real “hand tool” in our shop. However, as a woodworker that tries to blend equal amounts of hand tools and power tools, I think there’s another class of hand planes that most people are aware of, but may not know exactly where they would be used in the shop. I refer to these as joinery planes. When I use the term joinery plane, you would expect that these are planes that cut joinery. And yes, that’s certainly true, but more often than not, I’m actually…

As woodworkers, we deal with a surprising amount of metal. The metal might take the form of the steel in our chisels and power tools, or the screws, hinges, and knobs that adorn a project. It’s the last items on that list that I want to focus on here. How we deal with these necessary bits and bobs reveals a lot about our woodworking personality. I’m sure a lot of us have memories of a grandparent with an old metal coffee can filled with random stuff. They were unable to throw away anything that might be of use someday. I know several woodworkers who like to have the whole hardware store in their shop. For them it’s better to be prepared than to be caught short. Most of us fall…

Most every woodworker I know dreams of building beautifully detailed shop furniture. Pieces that show off wood selection and joinery skills. There’s nothing wrong with such dreams — but oftentimes your budget is standing in the way, slowly wagging a finger that says, “No way, not yet.” So here we’re offering an alternative that won’t bruise your wallet too much, and yet provides you with a basic shop that lets you get to work. First, a workstation for daily tasks. Then a cabinet with plenty of storage. Following that up is a workbench that gives you a surface to tackle projects big and small. We did invest in decent hardware — Euro hinges and full-extension drawer slides. Quality hardware is always worth the investment (it can be reused). Let’s start…

Building the plywood projects on page 26 reminded me that navigating large sheets of plywood can be a challenge — regardless of the size of your shop. But here you’ll find answers, tips, and tricks on how to deal with this ubiquitous material. First, we’ll look at storing and moving plywood around without damaging the goods, or your back, and avoiding splinters along the way. Then we’ll examine some tactics for both rough-cutting the material down to size, then honing in on chipout-free final pieces. Let’s start by getting the plywood safely in the shop. STORAGE I like to cut up the plywood for my project right away. But there are times I can’t always do that. So I came up with a way to store plywood sheets nice and…