We have a sales professional at the Woodsmith Store who has strived to learn all he can about the hardware woodworkers use on their projects. His name is Dave Fremming and tonight, Dave will talk about hinges and how to rout a mortise for and install a butt hinge.

As usual, Dave will offer many timely tips and insights about both the shop-made jig he uses to make hinge mortises, as well as the Rockler JIG IT mortising jig (photo below right) that is sold at the Woodsmith Store.

There is one bonus download for tonight. It comes from ShopNotes Issue No. 74: Hinge Mortising Jig

There’s also a short article on how to use it: Using the Hinge Mortising Jig

A little over five years ago, Woodsmith magazine expanded from 36 to 52 pages. The majority of the new pages are devoted to several new departments and features. The shorter articles provide detailed information on tools, jigs and fixtures, small shop solutions, and finishing. The change was so successful that our sister publication ShopNotes decided to go to fifty-two pages per issue as well.

New departments in ShopNotes like “Mastering the Table Saw,” “Router Workshop,” and “Hands-On Technique” brought an exciting focus to woodworking tips and techniques that is unavailable in almost every other woodworking publication out there.

One of the side benefits of these two-page articles has been the added focus to the Woodsmith Woodworking Seminars at the Woodsmith Store. It turns out that many of the two-page department articles translate perfectly into 1-hour seminars! Tonight’s seminar is a great example.

The seminar, “Crosscutting Secrets — Setup, Sleds, & Saw Blades,” features many of the techniques and tips described in detail in the article. “Getting the Perfect Crosscut” was originally published in ShopNotes Issue No. 97.

There is one two-page bonus download from ShopNotes No. 95: Crosscutting Wide Panels

Hope you can be there.

So far, so good. The workbench that we built last fall is holding up well. It hasn’t had any hard usage yet, but it will soon. Randy Maxey has a couple of hands-on workshops coming up in a few weeks. One is on rehabbing a hand plane (3/28) and the second is on using (4/4), so I expect it will be put to the test then. By the way, there are still a few openings for these workshops. Contact the customer service desk at the Woodsmith Store for details.

Many of you wanted an update as soon as I figured out what kind of mobile base system will work best for this huge workbench. Well, the sad fact is, I haven’t come up with one. So far, we’ve been using the pallet jack regularly. There are a couple of good solutions, but they require two people or attaching something permanently to the bench base and I’m not happy with either. So for now, if you’re building this bench, plan on not moving it much. Unless you have a pallet jack handy!

Joel

Our regularly scheduled presenter for this week’s seminar, Garry Rowe, has called in sick! In his place, we have a gentleman from the Des Moines Woodworker’s Association — Turners group, named Andy Klindt. He’ll be talking about turnings spindles as planned and it should be a good experience having someone new again as a presenter.

There are no bonus downloads this week.

We are fortunate to have an expert scroll saw artist living and working here in Central Iowa. His name is Rick Hutcheson and although I’ve gotten in trouble in the past for throwing around the label “expert,” in this case I believe I’m safe in applying the label to Rick.

Rick has written dozens of articles about scroll sawing, he owns one of the largest collections of scroll saws anywhere, and he knows what he’s talking about. He doesn’t work for August Home Publishing, but we’re proud to have him as a presenter and I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from tonight’s seminar. Hope to see you there.

You can learn more about Rick’s work and his scroll collection by visiting his website: Rick’s Scrollsaw. Rick has lots of patterns on his website. Here is the learning tool that Rick showed last night: Learn Scrap

Rescheduled from February 24th:

Susanne Elson, Faux Finishing and Painting Professional, Fun & Elegance

Susanne can be reached at shelson4@mchsi.com, or by phone at 515-707-2094

Sponsored by the Des Moines Woodworkers Association, March 20th, 21st, and 22nd, 2009 at the Woodsmith Store

Visit www.dmwoodworkers.com for more information

Dave Fremming, Sales Associate, Woodsmith Store

Phil Huber, Senior Editor, ShopNotes Magazine

Carol Beronich, Assistant Editor, Woodsmith Magazine