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woo D eRA F T

MAG A Z I N E

•

APR I LIM A Y 2009

CONTENTS PROJECTS, TECHNIQUES, AND PRODUCTS

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locate the dadoes of the support plate onto the Jack supports. Lock them In place With Confirmat screws.

With the workpiece snug to the fence. lower the outer sleeve ends over the hidden bit using the alignment lines as a guide. Well-placed reference lines for the bit edges and slot ends let you accurately rout matching slots.

Ensure that it's flush with the bottom edges of the sleeve a~embly. 1\'ow drive the screws. Slip the remaining jack sup port onto the fixed support. Square the support assembly with the ~upport plate (0) as shown in Photo 0 and secure it with Confirmat scrcws. (Note: You'll need to unscrew the plate later in order to fasten the lower sleeve to the base.) 9 Face-glue and plane enough stock for a t'- thick block, Crosscut and rip the lam ination to 3)/. x 6" for the jack's top plate (E). Orill a 5/.~_ diameter ho le 'n" deep where shown in the Top pla le Detail in Figure 3. Apply a J" -wide pied Drill Bit

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About Our Builder/Designer Designer: Ben Svec's contributions to Woodcraft Magazine also include tile A-Frame Mobile Clamp Rack (FeblMar 2009) design, and four projects he desig ned and built, the latest being Ille Heirloom Pendulum Cradle and Pendulum Doll Cradle (Oct/Nov 2008), Ben operates Falls MillWOrk, a small custom furn iture and cabinet shop in Kelley, Iowa, Build er: Retired research technician Bill Sands spends a lot of time in his Parkersburg, West Virginia, workshop (fealured in the Dec D8/Jan 09 issue), teaclles Iland 1001 and joinery classes at the local WoodcraM store, and instructs the West Virginia University-Parkersburg wood

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W O ODC R A F T M AGAZI N E

31

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pring is in the air, and it's time to spend some quality time outside- sitting down, of course! To serve this purpose, why not make a great outdoor bench that you can "plant" in the garden or on a patio? Th is dassically-inspired bench is fun to make, and it's constructed using a

weather-resistant wood. We chose cypress, because it's inexpensive, readily available. and known for its weather resistance. Other insect- and decayresistant woods include redwood and cedar. For solid joinery, we chose mortise and tenon. To build your skill set, we'll show how to mill the mortises with a router and a pair of edge guides, but you can also use a bench top mortiser or employ the loose-tenon routing jig on page 28 to bore the 32

WOODCRMT MAGAZINE

mortise half of the joint. You can use a jig on both mating parts of the joint and replace the more time-eating traditional tenon with a loose one. As long as your joints fit snugly, nobody-not even your bench- will detect the difference.

Note: Check out the Convenience-Plus Buying Guide on page 39 for a list of the materials and tools used to build the bench.

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Figure 1 Leg and side assembly

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:-;1 Face-glue 6/4 boards to create stock thick enough to make parts A-J. (See the Cut List for reference.) USl' a foam roller to spread the glue evenly, then space the damps to ensure uniform pressure over the hoards. 2 Plane the front legs (A), back legs (B), and crest rail (I) to 21/2" thick. Continue planing the arms (e), side seat rails (D), front seat rail lF), back seat rail (G), center seat rail (H), and lower back rail OJ to 2" thick. Plane the stretchers (El to l}f' thick. (Note that the stock for the back legs (B) o eed~ to be 6" wide). Leave the back legs (8) over-width, hut cut the rest of the parts (A, C- J) to the finished sizes. LeaYe the arms (C) ao(l crest rail (I ) square for now. 3 Thickness enough 5/4 5tIXk to make

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three %"-thick back slats (K) aod ~ix seat slats (M, N ). Finally, thickness 6/4 stock to make ten B4 "-thick back posts (Ll. Leave these parts oversized for now; trim them to final width and length after assembling the bench frame.

Make the leg

1 Referring to Figure 1, make a fullsized drawing for the side on a piece of ,;." -thick plywood (Photo A). Include all the joinery. The drawing make~ it easier to layout the joints and measure the sloping angle at the bench back. 2 Make a pattern for the back legs (B), using another piece of 1/4" plywood. Bandsaw or jigsaw the pattern, and smooth its edges with sandpaper. Use the pattern to draw the shape of the leg onto the leg stock a.~ shown in Photo B. 3 Cut the back legs (B) to rough shape

Use the leg template to layout the back legs. Align the template with a stra ight edge of the stOCk.

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on the handsaw, staying about 1ft, ' outside the pencil line. Use a stationary belt sander or hand plane to work up to your line on the front of the leg. (Note: Save the wedge-shaped offcuts. You'll use them as damping caul~ during assembly.) 4 Using your table saw, set the rip fence to 2if.t, raise the blade to full height, and trim the rear face of the back leg as shown in Photo C. Stop when the fon....ard-mo~t part of the blade-the teeth dosest to the tabletop--touches the intersecting angle. Carefully turn off the saw, then flip the leg end to end and make a second cut in similar fashioll.

SAFETY ALEUT: When makirJg stopped cuts on the table saw, keep the workpiece firmly against the fence as yOl/lurn off the StIW. Make aTtain that the blade has

Keep the leg front against the fence. Stop the saw when the blade touches the bottom inside corner. WOO D CR A FT M ,o..G AZI N E

33

Rout the mortise in two passes using a handheld router and straightedge attachment. registering the edge guide on both faces to ensure that the mort ise Is cen tered on the stock.

come to a complne stop before flipping the workpiece. Thi$ proves /0 be an ideal application for a leg-operated power safety switch. Remove the remaining ridge from the inside corner with a chi~ l . Smooth all the faces with ISO-grit sandpaper.

Cut the mortises, and then the tenons

1 layout and cut the mortises in the legs (A. 8), arms (C), Stat rails (F. G), crest rail (I ), and lower back. rail (I). Refer to the spacing in Figure 1 and the slat and post mortise layout in Figure 2 . To cut the I"-wide mortises in all the parts, except the seat rails

Square the rounded ends of your mortises with a chisel. Marking the mortise depth on the chisel's back Is an easy way to gauge you r progress.

(F. G ), I used a handheld router, a Yl" upcut spiral bit. and a commercial edge guide. Set the fence to rout one half of the mortise, then turn the stock around, register the guide ag.1inst the opposite side of the stock, and rout the second half (Photo D). Square the double-rounded ends with a chisel as shown in Photo E. 2 Mortise in the front and back seat rails (F. G) by damping both rails together and then damping a straightedge madt: from a piece of J/,~ MDF or ptywood across the stock (Photo F). Reset the straightedge aftet' the first cui to complete the 1"-wide mortises. Use a chisel to square off the rounded ends of the mortises.

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Clamp a scrap straightedge over both front and back seat ralls to rou t the cross-grain mortises.

Wi th a dado sled and stopblock you

can cut tenons on long pieces with control and preciSion.

~ferring to Figures 1 and 5 , lay out the tenons to mat!;h your mortises. Notl: that the knons on the front (A) and back (B) legs are mirror images of each other; make sure you lay them Oul correctly before cutting. 4 Use your table saw and a dado blade 10 cut the tenons o n the front legs (A), back legs (8), side seat rails (D), strelchl:rs (E), front seat rails (F), back seat rails (G), center seat rails (H). and lower back rail (I). To do this tenon work. you can u se a jig or simply lay the stock flat on the table saw and use a crosscut sled to carry tile parts over the dado blade, as shown in Photo G. APR1li M ... 2009

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58

WOODC RAFT MAGAZINE

A ~f> Il / M .Y

2009

Make the hand mirror in 10 easy steps

1 Plane a 6"-widc piece of stock (we used basswood) to %" thick. Rip and crosscut a blank from the stock to 5 x 12", Draw a centerline down the length of the blank and an intersecting line across the grain 31ft in from one end. Continue the lines onlo the edges. 2 From scrap l(." MDF (mediumdensity fiberboard), cut a hand-mirror template blank to 5 x 12", and a mirror-recess template to 5 x 7", 3 Next, strike centerlines across the length and width of the mirror-recess template and extend them onto the edges. Now center your beveled oval mirror over the top face of the template blank and scribe the mirror shape. (Doing this customizes the recess to

your particular mirror, because they arc not all alike.)

4

Drill a blade start hole in the mirrorrecess template and slTolisaw out the oval

waste, cutting just inside the scribed line as shown in Photo A. Use an oscillating !ipindle sander or a dowel wrapped with sandpaper to sand to the (utline. 5 Usc double-faced tapt' to adhere the mirror-recess template to the hand-mirror wood blank, aligning the indexing lines on

the edge and flushing three edges. Then chuck a pattern bit with no more than '/4" rut length into your table-mounted router.

Raise the bit and rout the recess in 1/16" increments in the mirror blank using the template as a guide as shown in Photo B. Carefully remove the template. 6 Make two copies of the full-sized

Chip-Carved Hand Mirror Pattern

on page 76 and spray-adhere one to the MDF hand-mirror template blank, aligning the index marks. (Save the other pattern for later.) Kow handsaw the hand-mirror template to shape, cutting just outside the cutline as shown in Photo C . Sand to the cutline then reestablish the indexing marks on the template'~ edges as ~hown in the Inset, below. 7 Peel the paper pattern from the MDf hand-mirror template and place the template on the recessed face of the wood hand -mirror blank, aligning the index marks. Transfer this shape onto the wood blank with a pencil. Now, handsaw just outside the (utline on the blank. Next, align and adhere the handmirror template 10 the wood handmirror blank with double-faced tape.

Workpiece

B Thread Ihe blade through the blade start hole and cut just inside t he oval cutline.

Lower the template and workpiece over the bit and rout the perimeter of the recess in small increments to a depth just beyond the mirror's thickness. Clean out the waste.

Pattern bit

Using a narrow bandsaw blade, cut around the patterned blank, crealing the hand-mirror template, Carefully sand the cutout to complete the shape and remark the index lines (Inset). www.WOODc;. ..... M~(;A1J~E.CO ...

WOODCR A FT M AG AZ INE

50

Figure 1

Mirror placement

D Using a double-bearing flush-trim bit, template-rout the hand-minor workpiece, raising or lowering the bit and f lipping the p ieces as needed, so you only cut with the grain.

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Install a double-bearing flush-lrim bit in your table-mounted router, raising the

Flip the template and workpiece so that the template is on the top, and complete

around the fronl hand-mirror handle only, stopping where shown in FIgure 1.

bit's bottom bearing jmt aoove the table. With the template on the bottom, rout

routing with the grain. Remove the template from the hand mirror. 9 Lightly sand all the edges of the face of the mirror. 10 Using a 1/4" round-over bit in yo ur table-mounted router, rout around the back face of the hand mirror and

Nou: If you made the hand mirror out of a figured wood and don't intend to c/tip-carve it, apply a finish of choice to the exposed surfaces and install the beveled mirror with mirror mastic to complete the project.

with the grain in a downhill dirl'Ction to avoid tear*out as shown in Photo D. Stop when you've routed all th... downhill grain. Lower the bit until the upper

bearing measures J/~" above the surface.

What Wayne Uses The hand-mirror carving was executed entirely with

••

the two WB Premier Chip-Carving Knives ("Culling" and ·stab") designed specifically for chip carving. Like other Chip-carving knives, they are bolh made 01 high carbon tool stoo (not stainless) and tempered to hOld an edge Iooger. The cutting-knife blade is angled downward lor a more comfortable carving position and tapered to easity execute tight corners wtlile maintaining blade strength. All cllips are removed with the cutting knife. TIle stab knife has a notched tip and long cutting edge for precision stabs or incisions. Rather than remove wood, the stab knife decorates, enhances, and accents the designs made by the cutting knife. Both knives have easi/y--held cocobolo handles for hours of comfortable carving. There are three criteria for chip-carving knives 10 function at peak performance: the cutting edges must be maintained straight and Sharp, the blades ITllIst be shaped properly, and they must be highly poliShed (honed) to be able to flow easily through the wood. See The Compiete Guide to Chip Carving by WEr-jf"Ie Barton for more on this subject.

6Q

WOOOCRA FT MAGAZINE

A~Il'LlMAY

20QI/

Elevate your hand mirror with a chip-carved design A hand mirror serves as an excellent chip-carving project that you can easily hold when carving. It features an interesting shape with many design possibilities, and decorating a functional object like this defines what chip carving is all about. This particular design illustrates a c.ontrast of positive motifs. The chip~ defining the area around an ; mage-such as lhe leaf- are removed. giving the appearance of the leaf being relieved with negative mOlif~. The design is incised, or cut, into the wood. This mixture of contrasting motifs gives a delightfully intcre:;ting design to a well-proportioned hand mirror. Better still, you can carve it all with just two chip-carving knives. (See sidebar, "What Wayne Uses," on page 60.)

1 ('.,enter and trace the 5e(ond full-

Copy Of trace the pattern on the back of the hand mirror, making sure you center it on the Workpiece.

sized chip-carved pattern un page 76 onto the back of the hand-mirror blank using graphite paper (which can be easily erased) under the pattern. Avoid using carbon paper, for it is not easily removed from the wood. Define the lines as needed with a pencil (as shown in Photo E) and a compass employing soft lead. Grade B does nicely. This layout is the road map that will guide your carving along smoothly.

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If you're unsure of how a particular molil will look or how to carve it. make a second tracing on a scrap piece of basswood and '1'\1 it few practiCe cuts before commlHmg to your project.

2

Remove the larger chips first with the cutting knife as shown in Photo F. holding the blade at an approximate angle of 65°. To hold this approximate angle constant, keep the first knuckle of the thumb against thc knife handle at all times. Do not carve in a ~potato peeling" fashion. A shallow angle does not show the carving well while an angle that's too steep will WWW.WOOO

AfTMAGAl liE

1101

Remove larger chips first. making angled stop cuts and opposing slices with the cutting knife, make removing chips difficult. With a little practic~, you'll soon be able· to determine the difference. With the exception of the smaller threecornered chip~, the piece being carved is normally rotated for each cut made, to relieve a chip. In this design, the larger chips are within the circle

defining the flower. It is recommended 10 remove these first. VVhen preparing to cut a chip that is next to one already carved out, make the first cut next to the removed chip with the point of the blade aimed away from the removcd chip. This helps prevent cracking or splitting wood intended to be k~pt. WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE

111

3

Remove the triangular chips in the border by cutting out the larger ones first, then the small ones. Cut only as deep as is necessary to remove chips.

When using the stab knife, thrust downward d6ep enough to make a strong impression and then rock the blade back to the desired length.

C.arving from the inside of the design outward, remove the three-cornered chips comprising the border around the diamond next. Cut from corner to corner on each of the three sides. Remove the larger of these chips first (closest to the circle) and the smaller ones second, as shown in Photo G. 4 Switching to the stab knife, thrust downward to make the flower accents, holding the knife as shown in Photo H. The length of the stabbed impression is determined by how far the knife is rocked back inlo the wood. Return to the cutting knife. Recause the cutting angle is held constant, the width of all chips will determine the depth of all cuts. Avoid CUlling any deeper than necessary to remove chips. Cut too deeply and you'll undercut and lift out wood meant to remain. S Next remove the waste around the positive leaves as shown in Photo I. Again, to prevent splitting the wood, make the first cut around the leaf itself, tracing its edge with the blade. The relieving cut that will release all the chips surrounding the leaf is made by cutting along the geometric shape in which the leaf is contained. When cutting the leaf veins, remove the center vein first, then the side veins leading into the lobes. 6 ('.arve the outer ring by making the outer cut first. This avoids the risk of splitting the wood closest to the decorative pattern. Now, make the opposing inside-angled cut as shown in Photo J to create the oval V-groove. ~

When cutting a nog or straIght border line, never look at the blade. ~ Keep your eye abollt one-half Inch g,. In front of the blade and let your eye j: "pull~ the blade along.

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Slice al009 the cUNing outline of the leaf first, then back-cut to relieve the leaf and remove the Chips. 62

WOODCRAFT MAGAZINE

Cut out the V-groove oval ring , doing the outside angled cut first.

Finally, chip-carve the handle design on both sides of the workpiece. This motif is in the form of a negative or incised fan, contrasting nicely with the positive-image leaves. Make the first cuts at the top of the fan nearest the oval as shown in Photo K. These cuts will act as the stop cuts used in Step 8.

Begin cutting the fan, making the cuts at the top of the fan sections first.

About Expert ChipCarver Wayne Barton Wayne Barton of Park Ridge, Illinois, was introduced to woodcarving at age five by his Norwegian grandfather. He received formal training in Brienz, Switzerland, the WOOdcarving center of tllat country. For more than 30 years he has devoted himself to the advancement of chip carving and is recognized as the driving force behind this carving style in the United States. Wayne authored seven best-sell ing books on the subject and has developed two of the most popular chip-carving knives used today. In addition, Wayne is the founder of the Alpine School of Woodcarving, Ltd., the oldest establishment in North America dedicated to the education, teaching, and encouragement of Chip carving. His carvings are sought-after by collectors and can be found in private collections around the wOrld. For more on Wayne's techniques and patterns, pick up his illustrated books, The Complete Guide to Chip Carving and Chip Carving Design and Pattern Sourcebook.

Convenlence

Relieve the fan designs by incising the wood at opposing angles and lifting out the waste Chips.

8 Make the relieving cuts of the handle fan designs, ensuring that you don't cause the wood to split while running with the grain when removing chips (Photo L). 9 Clean off all leftover pencil lines, and then apply three thin coats of satin polyurethane, lightly sanding between coats with 220-grit sandpaper to remove raised grain. Wayne chose polyurethane for its hardness and durability, since the mirror will likely be handled fr("quently. Now, press the beveled mirror in the recess, securing it with a few small dabs of mirror mastic. Weight the mirror down for a solid bond . ... www

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WO ODC RA FT lA AGAZ I NE

63

A three-prong attack for sanding less By Craig Godsey and Joe Hurst·Wajszczuk

C

urls. stripes, flecks, and eyes in wood can be attributed

to many faclors, hut they

have at least three- things in common. FirM, most are difficult to machine without tearing out l.trge chunks. Second. woodworkers will pay more fo r the pleasure (or pain ) of working with them. Last, but not lea~t, any frustration disappears the instant you

apply the first Co.'11 of finish.

A d rum sander can help big-time. but there afC other ways to achieve the same smooth surfaces for less money, and with less dust . The secret: a combination of becoming more

proficient with tools you already own. and maki ng a fe\\I minor investments to tackle the major troublemakers. Following is a simple three-pronged approach (Plans A, B, and C). The benefit to thest lies in their simplicity

and flexibility. Wild wood will alw.lYS be a wild card; what works on o ne board may not apply to another. In most cases start wi t h Plan A ~fore B or C. but you can adjust t h~ plan to !iuit. Should you encounter figure that fights back. yo u can always fall back to the: last resort-sandi ng.

Bird's-Eye, Curly, and Crotch, Oh My! Meet the cantankerous culprits commonly found in some: nalive American hardwoods. Bird's-Eye--Localized indentations of growth rings run ning pe~dicular to the surface. Prone to popping o ut.

1M

WOOOCP:AFT "''''OAlINE

Curly-Grain that undubtes at

Crotch-Where limbs branch out

right angles to the wood's surface:. A th ickness pla ner's favorite chew toy.

on a trunk. creating a Oamc-liU appearance. Diverging grain creates surfacing and jointing issues..

Power Planing Summary

Speed: Fast. Skill: Easy. Surface Quality: Great to gosh-awful. Notes: With sharp knives, lighl cuts, and a little luck, you can usually keep tear-out to a correctable level.

Plan A: Master your machines Following an initial flattening on the jointer (where some tear-out is acceptable) most boards are then fed through a planer. This is where figured woods start fighting back. Adding a back-bevel to your knives or upgrading to a spiral cutterhead jointer can help, but these casier and less expensive alternatives can improve your equipment while achieving more satisfactory resull~. Stan with a fresh set of sharp planer knives. Next, set the cutterhead to make super-light cuts, hetween l/ll" and Vu". Feed the stock into the planer so that the grain runs downhill, but if you encounter major tear-out, try feeding the "wrong" end first. With figured boards, all bets are off. You can also try feeding narrow boards in at an angle. Skewing a

board effectively lowers the cutting angle, like walking diagonally up a hitl. This is the opposite approach to back-beveling, which actually increases the cutting angle (see Figure 1: Angle of Attack on page 66), but in some cases it works. Welting the stock is a cheap and surprisingly effective solution as well, A basic SO/50 mix of fabric softener and water helps soften and swell the wood's surface fibers, so that they cut more easily and tear less, as shown in the bottom photo below. Simply spray then wait a few minules for the water to sink in before planing. These tips will reduce tear-oul you would otherwise expect from a thickness planer, but may not eliminate it completely. From here, you can use Plans B or C to do localized cleanups, or spend some quality time with your sander and resulting dust.

Smoother Sawn Edges

Toor-oul at the pntor isn't always a major problem when flattening face-grain, but it can be trOLb!esome when preparing edges for a glue-up. Back-~ed knives and/or skewing

the stoc:.k can tame some tear-out, but a .simpler solution is to stick -..vith your saw. With a good tXade, like Freud's Gtue lXie Rip (Wcxx:lcraft >1825271), and a carrier ooard like the one Shown aboVe, you can achieve a

glue-ready )Oint regardless of grain. To make this jig, you'K need a cartier board slPghtty wider than your stock. a straight scrapwood fence, and a few holddowns. Screw the fence to your carrier board so that

the stock hangs over the edge. Once you obtain one straight edge, you can rip the board wIThout tile jig to 'joint" the opposite edge.

Treated

Misting tough boards with a water and fabric SOftener SOlUtion softens surface fibers so that knives do more Slicing than tearing. '11'1/'1/ W OOOC~AFl M AGAZIIH.CO"

Hand-Powered Planing Summary Speed : Depends on the size of yo ur stock. Skill: Learn how to sharpen , and you're halfway there. Surface Quality: Minor tear-ollt likely, but less with experience.

Notes: Requires practice, but plant'S tell yo u when to change yo ur attack before you tea r out too much.

Plan B: Break out the block plane There will come a lime when you'll need to pull the plug. Han d planes afe mOTe than a nostalgic return to

the good old days. Hand tools shift your perception from your eyes to your fingertips; you'll feel changes

in grain direction long before you tear too much. The plane's blade is narrower th an yo u r plane r's knives, wh ich m eans m ore work fo r you, b ut, due to the blade's width , you

can switch directions several times across the width of a board to deal

with gnarly grain reversals. A suitable sm ooth ing solution may already be in your apron o r toolbox. Any well-tu nt'd block plane offers flexibili ty that you won', get from a bench plane. The d ifference rests in the orientation of the blade. Bevel-up planes, such as one-handed blocks, and spe.::ialty planes, such as the LieNielsen's low-angle jack, support the blade right down to the surface of the wood. This mi nimizes vibration, or chatter, that can occur when slicing through dense stock. But, the most significant advan tage to the bevel-up design is that you can regrind the blade to change the tool to suit your stock. You don't need a degree in wood science to appreciate the basic principles behind cutting angles. Lower arIgles slice but sometimes split; higher angles slice and scrape. To see the relationship between bevel and pitch, refer to Agure 1, above, right, Invest in a few extra blades, and you'll discover how a few degrees can make a big difference. 66

W OODCRA FT MAGAZINE

Straight out of the box, most block planes start with a 25° grind. This angle is good for slicing cuts, end grain and most long-grain wo rk, but can tear out figured stock. Closing the mouth controls some tear-out by holdi ng down fibers until they reach the blade, but grinding a different bevel changes everything.. As shown, grinding a 35° bevel changes the pitch to 4? This angle is similar to a standard beveldown bench plane. Add another 50 to the bevel and you now have a highangle plane that's capable of cutting th rough most woods with very little tear-out. You can try even steeper bevels (or grind off the bevel entirely to create a scraper plane), but as your pitch approaches 60", the blade hecomes a real pain to push. Considering the effort and the loss of surface clarity, your best bet is switching in a toothed blade (below) or going to Plan C.

Figure 1 ANGLE OF ATIACK (AoA)

Bed ,lingle - Blade Ang'e

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ADA

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3r ADA: Gocxl for End Grain

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ADA: One-handed Bench Plane

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52" (to sr )ADA H\ll

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PROBLEM-SOLVING PRODUCTS Continued from page 68

S'll" from bit tip to the back of driver) means that it ",,1.11 fit into snug spaces while letting you see what you're doing. I noticed that the Triton spins more slowly than my cordless drill (T estimate its no-load ~peed at about 180 rpm). This difference might be a drawback for some, but I found thdlthe slower speed provided more control. This helps prc,"cnl the bit from stripping a scrtW head, driving a fastener too

deeply, or slippi ng out of the screw and

marring your workpiece. The 3.6-volt driver provided decent torque (turning force), The manual lists the torque at 39 inch-poundsenough to drive a #6 X I Vt" screw into a doubled thickness of %" Baltic birch plywood without the henefit of a pilot hole. I was able to drive 52 of these screws on a single dlarge. You expect better "mileage" when driving screws into pilot holes. The driver has an automatic shah lock, which means that you can uS
BEST APPLICATIONS: The Trilon is ideally suited for working in light quarters, such as installing drawer slides and other hardware. Its compact size also rivals the light-quarters capability of a right-angle driver, which ohen costs three limes as much. Lithium-ion batteries hold a charge for a longer period of time than other battery types, so you're not likely to

Your Projects Deserve It!

find il dead, even if you've been out of the workshop for a couple of months. The friction-fit chuck holds driver bits well enough, but it did not fare well with hex-shank drill bits. Pulling back on the driver would leave the drill in the wood.

TESTER'S TAKE: The ]"k of a quick-release I;huck virtually disqualifies the tool for use as a drill. (Olher compact drill/drivers !>porl quick-release chucks, but to be fair, also I;ost several times more.) That ~id, the Triton doesn't advertise itself as a drill/driver, simply a driver. The drivel' is quite useful for installing hinges, slides, and knobs, and this one can do that for II reasonable amount of time. It might also be II boon for folks with wrist problems who have a tough time using a standard screwdriver. AI $40, the Tri[()n driver is worth stashing in a kitchen drawer or 3 out of 5 biScuits shop apron.

••• 00

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