Hand Tools: What is Most Common is Most Precious
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 At the beginning of a hand tool class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, one of the students stopped me as I was passing by his bench. I have a question for you, he said. What is this plane for? He held up a chisel plane. I thought it looked really useful, he said, maybe for planing tapers on legs. I knew I was about to break his heart. […]The post Hand Tools: What is Most Common is Most Precious appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 31-Mar-2016
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String Theory
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 I’m nearly done withmy workbench project, I promise! I’ll break down the build soon with plenty of videos and explanations as to the whys and wherefores. I wanted to get the project done before I start sharing it because I hope it will enhance things a bit, seeing the finished article at the start that is. It’ll also give me some time to generate content for the next project with […]The post String Theory appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 31-Mar-2016
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Outdoor Projects
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 For me, nothing says summer like a porch swing. As a kid I would spend hours reading on my parents front porch swing, with my over-sized Labrador sitting next to me. I would hold the swing still so he could jump into it and then I would sit next to him. He was definitely spoiled, and it was probably too much weight for the swing, but it never let us […]The post Outdoor Projects appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 30-Mar-2016
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Woodworking in America 2016: Registration Now Open
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 We’ve just launched the full website for Woodworking in America 2016, September 16-18 in Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, and registration is now open (early bird rates through June 10). This year, we’re delighted to welcome back some familiar faces (Roy Underhill, Mary May, Alf Sharp, Christopher Schwarz, Marc Adams, Wilbur Pan, Freddy Roman, James Hamilton, George Walker, ), as well as some woodworkers and tool makers (and one SketchUp guru) who will […]The post Woodworking in America 2016: Registration Now Open appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 29-Mar-2016
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Smart Coatings
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 It seems like everything is becoming smart these days: smart phones, smart watches, smart cars, smart drugs. There are even smart coatings (paints and finishes). Ive blogged about one already, a coating that uses nanotechnology to create an air barrier that causes liquids such as pee to bounce off walls and cover the perpetrators shoes. There are also coatings that are corrosion resistant, that change colors when hit with different […]The post Smart Coatings appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 29-Mar-2016
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The Myth of Wiping Wet Glue
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 The craft is clogged with so many counter-productive myths and practices that someone could make a career out of a Mythbusters-like approach to woodworking. If I could eliminate one myth from the national wood-consciousness, it would be that you shouldnt wipe off wet glue from a joint and should let it set to a more solid state. Lots of people including glue technologists and working craftsmen have studied […]The post The Myth of Wiping Wet Glue appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:06am on 26-Mar-2016
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Walke Moore Tools Router Plane
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 Recently, we met up with Aaron Moore from Walke Moore Toolsatthe Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Braxton Brewing Co. in Covington, Ky.He have us some insights on the inspiration behind their new router plane, and some of the cool features that you won’t find combined on any other router plane being made today. Check out the video below! Jon RusselburgThe post Walke Moore Tools Router Plane appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 25-Mar-2016
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Troubling Consolidations
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 As in so many other industries, the companies who supply us with paints and finishes are consolidating at a rapid rate. When I started in this field 40 years ago, there were all sorts of local and regional suppliers. Every store carried its own unique brands. Minwax was a very small player. It was just announced that Sherwin-Williams is buying Valspar. In addition to its own brand, Valspar owns Cabot […]The post Troubling Consolidations appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 23-Mar-2016
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A Hardware Store That Will Take You Back in Time
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 Dennis McEvoy and Bart Slutsky of Rogersons Hardware in Hudson NY are doing the herculean job of keeping a great old American hardware store alive, and they are doing it well. Swimming against the stream is fraught with difficulty, but thefive-story building thathas housed Rogersons Hardware since 1830 is a testimony to McEvoy and Slutskys success. In this building there is an unprecedented inventory of rare locks, hinges and varioushardware.There […]The post A Hardware Store That Will Take You Back in Time appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 22-Mar-2016
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Five Lessons from Mid-Century Modern Furniture
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 You can purchase Michael Crow’s DVD “Building Techniques in Mid-century Modern Furniture,” at shopwoodworking.com As a material object, a piece of furniture reflects the taste of its designer, the skill of its maker and larger cultural influences. For example, Shaker furniture shows the elegance of simplicity and the value of using local woods, while Utility furniture derives from post-World-War II scarcity. You don’t need to be a cultural historian […]The post Five Lessons from Mid-Century Modern Furniture appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 22-Mar-2016
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When Rasps Arent Fine (or Small) Enough
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 For curved and sculptural work, nothing beats a good rasp. But there are many times that I need to do precise and fine work that most rasps arent capable of (at least the rasps Ive seen or can afford). So I make my own custom sanding sticks using sticky-back sandpaper from the home center plus some dowels and scraps. Today Im finishing up an English Layout Square for a customer […]The post When Rasps Arent Fine (or Small) Enough appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 21-Mar-2016
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Roubo Moulding Planes with Caleb James
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 In theApril 2016 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine,Caleb James gives us a look into his take theRoubo moulding plane. If you haven’t picked up your copy,then you are missing out on a great article. We met up with Caleb atthe Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Braxton Brewing Co. in Covington, Ky., last weekend. There, he spoke with us about some of the features of his Roubo moulding planes. Check out […]The post Roubo Moulding Planes with Caleb James appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 19-Mar-2016
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The Wonderful Everyday
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 Shop time has been limited in recent weeks, but that’s normal for most of us and perfectly fine. I’ve been keeping the house quiet during the weekends as my wife is coming to the end of a course with a final flurry of assignments. That means plenty of child-friendly activities! I decided to take a punt on a local museum to mix things up a bit. Although I’ve visited local […]The post The Wonderful Everyday appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 18-Mar-2016
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Steve Voigt on Using Wooden Planes
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 Steve Voigt, a maker of superb double-iron wooden planes, was one of the many exhibitors at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Braxton Brewing Co. in Covington, Ky., last weekend. You can read more about him in this post on the Lost Art Press blog but before you click through, take a few minutes to watch this short video we shot on site amidst the hustle and bustle of […]The post Steve Voigt on Using Wooden Planes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 18-Mar-2016
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Build a Frame Saw Part 4: Shaping the Arms and Finishing the Project
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 Once the H frame parts were ready the time camefor some ergonomics and design. My handle is quite simple, it includes a few curves that can be cut with a band saw or a coping saw, orchopped outwith a chisel. I decided to use a chisel becauseI wanted to emulate what my students would be doing once they startthe project. I believe that a chisel would give themmorecontrol thana coping […]The post Build a Frame Saw Part 4: Shaping the Arms and Finishing the Project appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 17-Mar-2016
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Synthetic Aniline Dyes: Where Did They Come From?
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 Before 1856 all dyeing, and for that matter, most coloring, whether on cloth or wood, was done using natural materials. Being natural materials, they varied, so it was difficult to predict the color you would get. Most of these dye colorants also faded easily. The breakthrough to a better dye was discovered accidentally by an eighteen-year-old student chemist working in a lab in England. William Perkin was combining chemicals (some […]The post Synthetic Aniline Dyes: Where Did They Come From? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 16-Mar-2016
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Synthetic Aniline Dyes: Where Did They Come From?
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Before 1856 all dyeing, and for that matter, most coloring, whether on cloth or wood, was done using natural materials. Being natural materials, they varied, so it was difficult to predict the color you would get. Most of these dye colorants also faded easily. The breakthrough to a better dye was discovered accidentally by an eighteen-year-old student chemist working in a lab in England. William Perkin was combining chemicals (some […]The post Synthetic Aniline Dyes: Where Did They Come From? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 16-Mar-2016
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Shaker Workbench No. 2 at Pleasant Hill
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 The first workbench I encountered at Pleasant Hill was a little non-standard by Shaker standards, but the second workbench was unusual by most any measuring stick for modern workbenches. It is a bit Roman, a bit English and has a lot of other interesting details worth thinking about. Lets take a look at some of them. Why is it Romanesque? The earliest workbenches typically lacked stretchers between the legs. This […]The post Shaker Workbench No. 2 at Pleasant Hill appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 16-Mar-2016
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Shaker Workbench No. 1 at Pleasant Hill
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 When most people discuss Shaker workbenches, they conjure up images of massive cabinets with drawers and doors that are topped by a workbench top plus a tail vise, leg vise and probably a sliding deadman. This form of workbench shows up in many of the East Coast Shaker communities, but in the Western communities, I have yet to see a bench exactly like this. At the Whitewater Shaker village […]The post Shaker Workbench No. 1 at Pleasant Hill appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:05am on 15-Mar-2016
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Dry Ground and Live Edge
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 I spent last week on vacation at Kentucky Lake. My girlfriend and I wanted to have a week away before she graduates law school in May and goes directly into study mode for the bar exam. We had big dreams of hiking, kayaking and hopefully a little fishing. I didnt want to even think about woodworking the whole week … but then it rained. We spent most of our timecooped […]The post Dry Ground and Live Edge appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:05am on 15-Mar-2016
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Build a CNC Router is Back!
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 Our Build a CNC Router course is coming up again in April, and Im really excited about it. I love building, programming and using CNC routers, but seeing the photos from students in this class is even more fun. So many people have built their own machines over the past year, and theyve shared photos of the process and their finished projects in the course galleries. The project is fairly […]The post Build a CNC Router is Back! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 12-Mar-2016
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Lacquers Vary in Coloring
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 Lacquer is a very versatile finish, especially because of its widely understood easy application in different weather conditions. You can speed up or slow down the drying by adding the right thinners. Not so widely understood is the range of colors the amount of yellowing (or oranging) of the various types of lacquer. For example, nitrocellulose lacquer adds a noticeable darkening or slight orange coloring to the wood.
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posted at: 12:00am on 11-Mar-2016
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Make a Traditional English Tool Chest
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 I have a love-hate relationship with “The Anarchists Tool Chest,” the book (now in its eighth printing) that inspired our new “Make a Traditional English Tool Chest” DVD set and download video with Christopher Schwarz. You see, thats the book that gave him the impetus to step down as editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine, to devote all his work-related energy to Lost Art Press. And while I eventually got his […]The post ‘Make a Traditional English Tool Chest’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 10-Mar-2016
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Build a Frame Saw Part 3: Lay Out & Cut the Tenons
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 Click here for Part 1 of the frame saw build, and here for Part 2. The central (compression) beam tenons are 5/8 long and 1-3/4 wide (see enlarged drawing at the bottom of this post). The thickness of the tenons, as well as their centric (or in the case of a mistake,off-centric) location should be traced from the mortise it will be housed in. The layout work begins when you […]The post Build a Frame Saw Part 3: Lay Out & Cut the Tenons appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 08-Mar-2016
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Murphys Oil Soap: A Most Unusual Story
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 During my career refinishing furniture, Murphys Oil Soap has morphed from a regionally available natural soap made with potassium hydroxide (similar to lye) and vegetable oil (instead of animal fat) to a nationally available and very popular furniture-care product. I watched this transformation happen and find the story fascinating. I find it fascinating because furniture and woodwork dont get dirty very often and washing them often with soap and water […]The post Murphy’s Oil Soap: A Most Unusual Story appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 05-Mar-2016
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You Can Own the Rulers of the Ancient World
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 How we measure the world around us is a reflection of how our society interacts with the world. To wit: The metric system is, in my opinion, the most efficient way to gauge everything around us. And that is exactly why I dislike it so. It is a system based on base-10 efficiency and little else. If you spend any time investigating ancient measurement systems, you find that they are […]The post You Can Own the Rulers of the Ancient World appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 04-Mar-2016
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You Can Own the Rulers of the Ancient World
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How we measure the world around us is a reflection of how our society interacts with the world. To wit: The metric system is, in my opinion, the most efficient way to gauge everything around us. And that is exactly why I dislike it so. It is a system based on base-10 efficiency and little else. If you spend any time investigating ancient measurement systems, you find that they are […]The post You Can Own the Rulers of the Ancient World appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 04-Mar-2016
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A Little Glimpse at Woodworking in America 2016
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 I now have 99.9 percent of the speakers and sessions nailed down (and yes, we actually have a session on nails) for Woodworking in America 2016 (September 16-18 in Greater Cincinnati) , and the conference staff is busy getting the web site ready to launch for registration (which is projected to open at the tail end of March…but don’t hold me to that!) and getting all the top-notch marketplace folks […]The post A Little Glimpse at Woodworking in America 2016 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 04-Mar-2016
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The Amazing Finger-jointed Block System
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 As a kid I had every manner of toys that allowed me to build stuff, from my grandfathers set of wooden blocks to Lincoln Logs, LEGO, Spinwelder, Girder and Panel, Erector sets and on and on. But I never had Crandalls Improved Building Blocks for Children. This fascinating system of components is based on the machine-made finger joint to allow children to build anything in their imagination with the help […]The post The Amazing Finger-jointed Block System appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 04-Mar-2016
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Stanleys Workbench
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 It’s funny how a project idea can come out of left field. I had no long burning plan or urge to make our son Stanley a workbench and give him a selection of tools. I’ve never wanted to force my children in any direction; I’d like them to make up their own minds on what they want to do. However, there is a balance to be struck. Woodworking is how […]The post Stanley’s Workbench appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 03-Mar-2016
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Beware VOC-Compliant Solvents
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 Southern California has the strictest VOC laws in the country. These laws have forced manufacturers to change the ingredients they use in paints and finishes, and even eliminate some for example, oil paint and varnish. They have also done the same with solvents. For example, you cant buy naphtha anymore, a solvent I find very useful for cleaning oil and wax from a surface without having to wait 10 […]The post Beware VOC-Compliant Solvents appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 02-Mar-2016
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Beware VOC-Compliant Solvents
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Southern California has the strictest VOC laws in the country. These laws have forced manufacturers to change the ingredients they use in paints and finishes, and even eliminate some for example, oil paint and varnish. They have also done the same with solvents. For example, you cant buy naphtha anymore, a solvent I find very useful for cleaning oil and wax from a surface without having to wait 10 […]The post Beware VOC-Compliant Solvents appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 02-Mar-2016
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Robust Connections
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 Apart from a lack of time, the shop the workbench project is progressing well. The leg frames are glued up and I’m working on the aprons at the moment. On the last bench I made I used some heavy gauge screws and the aprons were made flush with the legs. This time I’m creating a dado in the apron and having it proud of the leg frame. Although the screws […]The post Robust Connections appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 01-Mar-2016
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