Taking Woodworking Classes on what You Already Know
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 Continuing education should be a priority in your life especially in areas such as favorite hobbies! The longer you travel down the path of a particular subject, however, you gain more knowledge and might feel a bit more advanced than available offerings. Many classes seem targeted toward beginners. But as woodworkers, I think we’re lucky because in addition to raw knowledge, there is a kinetic aspect to our education. […]The post Taking Woodworking Classes on what You Already Know appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:22am on 29-Aug-2015
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Woodworking in America 2015 Message Board
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 I’ve had a barrage of questions lately (not a surprise, given that we’re at T-28 days and counting) about how folks can get in touch with others who are attending Woodworking in America 2015 (Sept. 27-27, in Kansas City, Mo.). So, for lack of a better fast and effective way to do it, I’ve created a “sticky post” atop Popular Woodworking’s Facebook page it will stay there until the […]The post Woodworking in America 2015 Message Board appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:22am on 29-Aug-2015
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Creating SketchUp Models from Pictures
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 The ideal way to create SketchUp models of furniturefrom pictures is to take front-on and end-on views with a digital camera. Also take overall measurements. Then the .jpg images can then be imported to SketchUp and placed on the Red/ Blue and Green/Blue planes and scaled. From there it is a simple matter of drawing over top of the images and reconstructing the furniture piece. One of my students sent […]The post Creating SketchUp Models from Pictures appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:22am on 29-Aug-2015
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Making & Fitting Doors
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 Imagine walking up a path to a beautiful home, only to see that the front “door” is actually a moldy shower curtain nailed to the frame. Or compare the sound of a door closing on a 1987 Yugo versus a 2015 S550 Mercedes. A door is a first impression so make yoursa good one. “Making & Fitting Doors,” a new digital magazine featuring eight articles from thePopular Woodworking Magazine […]The post Making & Fitting Doors appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:20am on 26-Aug-2015
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Upside Down Tool Usage
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 We have these adages in the woodworking world: Hand-tool woodworkers prefer taking the tool to the wood, power-tool users prefer taking the wood to the tool; Westerners operate on the push, Easterners on the pull. I’m here to say we need an adage for a technique I’ve been finding extremely useful. Let’s call it the Australian way: Using tools upside down. These past weeks I’ve been making lots of small […]The post Upside Down Tool Usage appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:20am on 26-Aug-2015
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The Best Design for a Round Mallet, Part 2: My Family of Mallets
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 After splitting my mallet log into quarters (see part one of this project by clicking here) I turned to the lathe work. I produced four different mallets, each one with its own unique handle. I turned the first and the second handles identical, then altered one of them into a hexagonal shape. I was curious to see if this handle would feel better in my hand, theorizing that because in […]The post The Best Design for a Round Mallet, Part 2: My Family of Mallets appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:06am on 22-Aug-2015
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Toilet Paper & Workbenches
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 I recently saw a post on Facebook that vindicated what Ive been telling people for years. Seems the original 1800s patent for the toilet paper dispenser shows the roll with the paper feeding over the top. Victory! What does this have to do with woodworking? Well, one of the most common discussions Ive been involved with is on the best workbench. Now dont get me wrong, I applaud and encourage […]The post Toilet Paper & Workbenches appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:06am on 22-Aug-2015
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An Interview with James Hamilton
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 James Hamilton is the mastermind behind the popular Stumpy Nubs web site, which offers a range of online videos dedicated to spending some quality time in the shop, with a particular emphasis on creating homemade woodworking machines, tools and jigs. Hamilton is constantly looking for ways to streamline, organize and improve workshops and makes it his mission to help others do the same. His new book, “The Homemade Workshop,” […]The post An Interview with James Hamilton appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 3:06am on 22-Aug-2015
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Portable Tool Box Build
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 After posting this image of a tool box on Facebook, I soon had many comments such as, “Made one of these 30-odd years ago at college during my apprenticeship,” and “Made one of those in 1975 before I went to uni.” Freddy Romanhad also picked one up. It’s not a common design within the books I have. I’m not sure exactly why that is, but I’d speculate that perhaps it’s […]The post Portable Tool Box Build appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:48am on 20-Aug-2015
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The Hand Tool Olympics: Sawdust, Fun & $2,500 in Prizes
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 London, 2012 Usain Bolt runs the 100-meter dash in 9.63 seconds. Mexico City, 1968 Bob Beamon flies 29′, 2″ in the long jump. Berlin, 1936 Jessie Owens wins four gold medals. Impressive Olympic feats but can they saw straight? Cut a dovetail? Forget therunners and jumpers and gymnasts the real Olympic competitors will be at the Hand Tool Olympics at Woodworking in America 2015, Sept. 25-27 […]The post The Hand Tool Olympics: Sawdust, Fun & $2,500 in Prizes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:47am on 19-Aug-2015
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What Do You Call a Group of Woodworkers? A Grove!
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 Thanks toBill Lattanzio, we now have a collective noun to describe a gathering of woodworkers a “grove.” Bill was the first of several readers who suggested “grove” as the most appropriate term for a group of woodworkers. The blue-ribbon task force advisory panel steering committee I chaired also selected “grove” as the winning entry. Webster’s New World College Dictionary (The official dictionary of Popular Woodworking) defines a grove as: […]The post What Do You Call a Group of Woodworkers? A Grove! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:47am on 19-Aug-2015
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A (Still) Better Way to Plane Chair Seats
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 For many years Ive used the following trick to plane irregular-shaped objects: Screw a square block to the underside of the piece and then clamp that block in my face vise. Its a trick that I showed in my 2007 book Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use. (Psst, the second edition is coming out later this year.) I find it especially useful for planing up the seats […]The post A (Still) Better Way to Plane Chair Seats appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:47am on 19-Aug-2015
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Mutton Tallow Tool Lube As Seen on Instagram
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 In case you don’t follow rarewoods.us (also known as Travis Knapp) on Instagram, I share with you this cool (and inexpensive) tool lube solution he’s now offering: mutton tallow in a tube. For just $5, you get the convenience of keeping your hands clean while swiping greasy tallow (greasy is good!) on your plane, sawplate…whatever you have that needs to get slickery for better work. Tallow doesn’t interfere with glue […]The post Mutton Tallow Tool Lube As Seen on Instagram appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:34am on 18-Aug-2015
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The Best Design For a Round Mallet, Part 1
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 What is the best design for a round mallet? It has to do the job, feel good in your hand and remain comfortable as you use it. Three weeks ago, while at Peters Valley, I had a chance to make a few mallets and try out their feel and comfort levels. Round mallets are easily turned on the lathe (although the 4th graders in my school carve them out […]The post The Best Design For a Round Mallet, Part 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:34am on 18-Aug-2015
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You and Your Puny Moxon Vises
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 We all know that Joseph Moxon didnt invent the Moxon vise. But perhaps the Italians did? I spent a fatigue-fueled weekend researching some red herrings and stumbled on this circa 1300 hand-drawn illustration of the construction of Noahs Ark. I found the plate in Les Rabots, a fantastic modern book on handplanes in French. (Someone should really translate it; please dont ask me to do it.) The drawing from Northern […]The post You and Your Puny Moxon Vises appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:19am on 17-Aug-2015
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Turn a Paper Towel Holder & More with Tim Yoder
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 I came to the Popular Woodworking team with an interest in woodworking, but since working here, I seem to have been drawn specifically to woodturning. I find it fascinating, and as with any craftsmanship, it is inspiring to see the passion and care someone puts into a piece, regardless of its use or size. In fact, ever since Editor Megan Fitzpatrick offhandedly mentioned bringing in an experienced turning teacher to […]The post Turn a Paper Towel Holder & More with Tim Yoder appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:18am on 15-Aug-2015
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Romanticizing Tools (Without Shame)
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 I learned how to make tools from two places: 1.With Hammer in Hand (The book about the Dominy workshop) and 2. American museum tool collections. When I looked at these collections, I saw an overwhelming majority of tools in which clearly aesthetics were an afterthought. Plain grain (stability), few decorative embellishments and apathy toward surface refinement were ubiquitous characteristics. There are always exceptions of course, but those exceptional examples are […]The post Romanticizing Tools (Without Shame) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:18am on 14-Aug-2015
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What Do You Call a Gathering of Woodworkers?
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 It’s a “pride” of lions, “murder” of crows, “gaggle” of geese and “pod” of dolphins. So what, then, is the proper term for a gathering of woodworkers? We’re gearing up for the 2015 Woodworking in America conference next month, so whatever you call a group of woodworkers, you’ll find them Sept. 25-27 at the Sheraton Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo. You can still register for the classes, conversations and […]The post What Do You Call a Gathering of Woodworkers? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:18am on 14-Aug-2015
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Toshio Odate: Woodworking Legend
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 I count myself among the luckier people in the world for having had the chance to hang out with Toshio Odate and Laure Olender for a couple of days in Connecticut. Sure, we were there to film “Woodworking Legends: An Interview with Toshio Odate” (and “Talking Japanese Tools with Toshio Odate“), but it felt quite a bit like a vacation with friends (except for that mike I had attached to […]The post Toshio Odate: Woodworking Legend appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:17am on 13-Aug-2015
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Improve the Comfort & Feel of Your Tool Handles
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 I use round-head mallets almost all of the time. I find that they are very effective in driving my gouges and chisels decisively into the wood. There are cases where I prefer to use rectangular-head hammers and mallets, but most of the time I reach for one of my rounds. I bought my first rounds from William Alden back in 1998. They were turned from hard tropical wood and their […]The post Improve the Comfort & Feel of Your Tool Handles appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:17am on 13-Aug-2015
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Off the Grid: Variations on a Mid-Century Modern Bookcase
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 Theres something very graphical about the design of the Mid-Century Modern Bookcase I built for the October 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Viewed head on, the arrangement of dividers and shelves suggests a grid-based page layout. Although the analogy falls a bit short (the short divider is placed in such a way to form irregularly-spaced columns), I can imagine a graphic designer trained in the International Typographic Style applying […]The post Off the Grid: Variations on a Mid-Century Modern Bookcase appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:16am on 12-Aug-2015
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Freddy Roman at Woodworking in America 2015
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 If you read Don Williams’ blog, you already know that he lost a fight a with a wheelbarrow. Unfortunately, Don broke his hip last week, and while the doctors have given him every indication of a full recovery, he won’t be 100-percent healed by Woodworking in America (it is, after all, just more than a month away). Don will, I’m glad to say, still be joining us at the conference […]The post Freddy Roman at Woodworking in America 2015 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:16am on 12-Aug-2015
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Stock Preparation By Hand
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 I decided to avoid giving a written comprehensive lesson in how to prepare stock by hand (although I did record a video for you to watch see below). I want to instead discuss the mindset of the process and things to consider with the aim of maximising your time in the shop. If you want the full written process you could do worse than read any decent woodworking book […]The post Stock Preparation By Hand appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:10am on 11-Aug-2015
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Peter Follansbee: Rebuilding the Past
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 One of my favorite parts of teaching woodworking is showing up at a school the day before my class begins to see what the previous instructor is doing. Today I arrived at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking in Manchester, Conn., to find Peter Follansbee teaching the final day of a long class (months!) in building a reproduction of a piece from the Strong-Howard House in Windsor, Conn. The piece […]The post Peter Follansbee: Rebuilding the Past appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:09am on 10-Aug-2015
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Not Just Another Moxon Vise
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 There are lots of great vendors making Moxon-style vises for sale (see a partial list at the end of this entry). But now you can add Nick Dombrowski to that list; and to me, thats a huge deal. Nick is the wood-machining genius behind Lake Erie Toolworks, which makes stunning wooden-thread vises. I have installed dozens of his vises on benches and have one on my Roubo. Nicks wooden screws […]The post Not Just Another Moxon Vise appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:06am on 07-Aug-2015
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Get in Touch with your Woodworking Feelings
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 Today I want to talk about feelings. The warm fuzzies we get from our craft. The soul-lifting, Chi enhancing, conscious-expanding personal development we get from woodworking. How the mere act of taking what nature has provided us in the form of resources and abilities to expand the hum <insert record scratch sound clip here> Emotional gobbledygook notwithstanding, developing a feel for woodworking is an important experience that will enhance not […]The post Get in Touch with your Woodworking Feelings appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:04am on 06-Aug-2015
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Workshop Companion & Practical Woodworker Collection
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 In a new “mini-kit” (although with 25 books included, it’s not really so “mini”), we’re bookending the 20th century. In this kit you’ll get all four volumes of the early 20th-century book “The Practical Woodworker” edited by Bernard E. Jones (in paperback), and all 21 books (on DVD) from Nick Engler’s beloved “The Workshop Companion” series. “The Practical Woodworker,” in the words of its editor, seeks “(T)o instruct the reader […]The post ‘Workshop Companion’ & ‘Practical Woodworker’ Collection appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:03am on 04-Aug-2015
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World of Woodcraft
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I foresee a real paradigm shift in the craft hobbies coming in the very near future that could dramatically swell the ranks of the clan we call woodworkers, and possibly preserve the knowledge we lose with every generation that passes. Its something Ive been really excited about for the past few years as Ive watched this technology grow past the embryo stage especially when you consider the possibilities for […]The post World of Woodcraft appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 2:03am on 04-Aug-2015
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