September/October 2021

September/October 2021 Issue Preview

With any luck, Fall 2021 will involve workers returning to corporate spaces and students to in-person classes, as the impact of the global pandemic lessens. Still, many of you may continue to work from home at least a few days each week. If you do, we’re sharing two very different options for standing desk projects in this issue. And if someone in your household sews, our Compact Sewing Cabinet might be just the ticket to enhance that home-based craft!

Tool Battery Charging Cabinet: Here’s an easy-to-build project that will help you stow a bunch of chargers and batteries and keep them ready for action, in one convenient place.

Hexagon Tall Table: Sarah Listi, an up-and-coming social media influencer, builds a spacious table with Beadlock joints that’s tall enough to be a kitchen island or a standing desk.

Sit/Stand Desk: Standing while working can be a healthy alternative to sitting at a desk for hours on end. This contemporary project will make both of those options viable.

Compact Sewing Cabinet: Rockler’s sewing machine lift hardware enhances the convenience of this fold-out, hard-working workstation.

Woodturning: Need to turn 6 ft spindles on a small lathe? It might seem impossible, but not if you incorporate mortise-and-tenon joints into the design. Ernie Conover explains how to do it.

Tool Tutorial: Personal Protective Equipment such as hearing protection or safety glasses doesn’t just keep you safer in the shop. It also can make your woodworking more pleasant. A.J. Hamler covers the range of PPE gear to keep in mind in this helpful primer.

Tool Preview: Laguna Tools has a brand-new benchtop planer! See how the PX|12 puts a new spin on carbide-insert cutterheads.

Hardworking Woods: Thousands of acres of American chestnut trees in the eastern U.S. were lost to a devastating blight in the early 20th century. While those native stands are almost a forgotten memory, this phoenix of trees may one day rise from the ashes.

Shop Talk: The Hardwood Forestry Fund is helping Minnesota’s DNR restore forests along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Read how a donation from Rockler is helping to make it happen.

Buying Lumber: Just what does “green” lumber mean, and what in the world would you use it for? Learn why past and present woodworkers have found scores of uses for unseasoned wood.

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