Xmas Roundup: Woodworker's Night Before Christmas, Keeping Warm in the Woodshop, Easy Way to Cut Plywood

Yes, the smell of Christmas is in the air… At ToolCrib we’re rounding up our top tools of 2009, top plans of 2009 and wondering if there’s still time to make anything on the last minute Christmas Gift Plans roundup…

And we hope you enjoy this roundup of links, a few of which are holiday-related ;)

1) ‘Twas some time before Christmas…

Twas some time before Christmas, when all through the shop
I was just so darned busy, I thought I would drop!

The gift list was hung by the workbench with care
“If we don’t ship these soon, they’ll never get there!”

2) Keeping Warm in the Woodshop
“I take my furnace for granted. Although I leave the heat off when I’m not working, my little forced air furnace can bring the temps up from the mid 30s to a balmy 62 in about 15 minutes flat. It’s a wonderful luxury, and it isn’t much bigger than an air conditioner.”

3) An Ezee Way to Cut Plywood
“How do you manage to cut it into your desired sizes pieces without either endangering yourself, or throwing out your back. A 7 core , 4?x8? sheet of 3/4 Plywood is heavy and very awkward to handle. Your options really come down to two choices.”

4) Video: Fixing Nakashima’s Leg
“When dealing with a piece bearing the kind of provenance of a Nakashima original, the question becomes whether to “restore” or “repair.” You be the judge.”

5) Winning An Uphill Battle With Your Saw
“I see a lot of people using a western style (cut on push) dovetail saw having trouble starting the cut and then continuing smoothly onwards. The reason almost never has to do with the saw. Most people seem start a cut with the saw resting on the trailing edge of the work (fig 1).”

6) Building a Table Top Breadboard
“There are many designs for breadboards. In this case I’ve chosen one that uses a continuous tongue length and wood screws. Of course, the breadboard connection must accommodate top expansion/contraction. I’ve incorporated a slotted shank hole for the wood screws for this purpose.”

7) Save Components For Future Use
“After you’ve gone to the effort to draw things that you might use again such as molding profiles, hardware, frame and panel doors, save those components to make them easy to retrieve later. Here are the steps to create local collections for your components.”

8) How Far Apart Should Biscuits Be Spaced?
“When using biscuits, you should always use the largest biscuits you can. In most cases, you’ll use a #20 biscuit, but if this is too large, you can try a #10 or even #0 biscuit (for the smallest joints). Your biscuit joiner should be adjustable to accommodate all three common biscuit sizes.”

9) A Large TV Cabinet
“We have been working on this cabinet for a couple of weeks now… it is a deceptively simple looking piece but there were subtle complications that emerged during the shop drawing/final design process regarding the sliding doors, the depth of the equipment and wires, the exterior speakers… etc…”
http://dorsetcustomfurniture.blogspot.com/2009/12/tv-cbinet-update.html

10) What Tools Are on Your Holiday Wish List?
This is a snippet from the contest over at Fine Woodworking: “The holiday season is upon us! What tools and woodworking items are you putting on your wish list? Post a comment below for a chance to win one of three giveaway prizes: A 2009 Fine Woodworking archive DVD-ROM ($149.95 value) or one of two sets of bench cookies. Winners will be selected at random.”