Magazines

John Lloyd, Peter Sefton and Editor Tegan Foley having a closer look at Nathan Millar’s cabinet

In our May issue, we finally bring you details of the winners of our long-running Felder competition, and share their fantastic pieces. In a special four-page feature, we introduce you to the Final Five before going on to show which of them were awarded third, second and first place. Nathan Millar, the overall winner of the competition, graces this month’s front cover, where he is pictured with his prize of the A3-26 planer\thicknesser, as well as his wonderful winning cabinet.

Michael McCrory’s glider bench in Spanish cedar

As spring is finally here and a lot of you will be wanting to get making and back into your workshops, we’ve got a great range of projects for you, including some outdoor builds for you to make just in time for summer. Michael McCrory makes a new glider bench using Spanish cedar to replace one that was made nearly 20 years ago, and Peter Harrison’s Adirondack-style deck chair is designed to be disassembled, so all parts can be carried in a handmade canvas bag. Shaun Newman also returns with a great instrument build, as he begins part 1 of his Appalachian dulcimer, and just in time for spring, Phil Davy shows you how to get your old Workmate looking as good as new, before Les Thorne does his bit for charity by making two bowls: one using a beautiful piece of sweet chestnut burr and the other Robinia, which features a textured rim.

Circles smaller than the router base can be routed without a trammel arm by pivoting through a hole in the router sole

In our technical section, John Bullar returns with the next instalment in his series, which this month sees him looking at routers and router tables. As he shows, these are great tools for shaping edges in furniture making, but they also have a number of other uses too. We also bring you the final part of Peter Bishop’s beginners’ series, the last of which looks at the buying and using of small bandsaws. Peter looks at the various bandsaw options available to the home woodworker and discusses the benefits of knowing what you’re after before you buy - invaluable advice if you’re in the market for a new one.

Jan Waterston’s award-winning ‘Velo’ chair

In terms of other features in ‘People and Places’, we also take a closer look at Jan Waterston’s award-winning ‘Velo’ chair, which won the People’s Choice Wood Award last year, and in ‘End-Grain’, our new series penned by Edward Hopkins, we ask the question: metric or imperial, which is best for woodworking?

The CRT/MK3 router table’s supplied cross-cut fence is well made and allows for great results to be achieved

Andy King has some great new kit on the test bench this month too, including the DeWalt DCP580P2 brushless planer, which he found to be capable of delivering a rock steady and powerful performance, and the Asahi Free-Way coping saw, which is capable of multi-direction cutting. The star performer this month, however, was the Trend CRT/MK3 router table, which although it’s been around for a while, still managed to scoop the full five stars and impressed Andy due to its solid build, the fact it doesn’t contain any unnecessary bells and whistles, and its laminated table and fence cheeks help to elevate it to another level.

We also have a great competition for you from IRWIN, which gives you the chance to win 1 of 8 300mm Medium-Duty One-Handed Bar Clamps & Corner Clamp accessories. Enter online now via our competitions page - good luck! As well as all of our fantastic May content, we also have your usual favourites, including news and courses, letters and makers, a sneak peek at the next issue and much more! Be sure to pick up your copy today, or why not subscribe if you haven’t already!

Enjoy!

Tegan Foley, Editor