Wash off NMP Residue
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 Heres a caution when stripping paint or finish from furniture or woodwork. Most of the newer safer strippers are sold in plastic containers and contain the solvent n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) as the active ingredient. This solvent is relatively expensive, so manufacturers often mix in other solvents to reduce the cost. But its the NMP that does the majority of the work. NMP has less solvent strength than methylene chloride and […]The post Wash off NMP Residue appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:04am on 30-Jun-2016
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Danish Campaign Chest (The Afterword)
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 When I build a piece for a customer I show them the drawing and build it (mostly) to the print. But when I build a spec piece, such as this modern campaign chest, the customer is my eyeballs. And so this is the part about design that doesnt get talked about much: If something bugs you about a piece youve made, fix it or destroy it. I am happy to […]The post Danish Campaign Chest (The Afterword) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 29-Jun-2016
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Restoring a Vintage Saw Part 1: Assessing the Damage
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 Now that I have been at Popular Woodworking for a while, and finally settling into my new home (Apartment), its time to do some actual woodworking. While its true that I have a laundry list of furniture that I want to build (or my better half wants built), I think I will wait a bit longer to get started on that list. Instead, I decided I would restore an old […]The post Restoring a Vintage Saw Part 1: Assessing the Damage appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 28-Jun-2016
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Green Wood and Roubo Workbenches, Part 2
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 Seasoned, well-dried wood is good, but not for all things. For the last two years Ive been editing a book called Woodworking in Estonia, which is about the pre-industrial woodworking cultural heritage of a small Northern European nation. The book is not a review of the historical literature sprinkled with speculation about how people worked. Instead, the author spent his entire life interviewing people who still worked in traditional ways, […]The post Green Wood and Roubo Workbenches, Part 2 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:05am on 26-Jun-2016
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A Roubo Workbench from Green Wood
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 Here is a question that has been going through my mind for more than a decade: When an 18th-century French woodworker started building a workbench, what was the moisture content of the wood? Had it been seasoned for many years? Freshly cut? Something between? Lots of modern people have speculated about the answer, but I have yet to find an historical source that answers the question to my satisfaction. A.J. […]The post A Roubo Workbench from Green Wood appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 25-Jun-2016
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Finish Choices for a Wood Deck
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 Its that time of year and you may be thinking about how to take care of your wood deck. Heres the easy way to approach it, at least for decks made of rot-resistant woods such as redwood, cedar, pressure-treated, or one of several jungle woods including ipe. If youre OK with the wood turning gray within a year or two, dont put anything on it. These woods resist rotting for […]The post Finish Choices for a Wood Deck appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 24-Jun-2016
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How to Buy Lumber for Workbenches
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 Looking for ways to save money when building your workbench? Here’s some great advice for saving on lumber for your bench. (Excerpted from “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use, Revised Edition” by Christopher Schwarz). Iuse a lot of construction lumber in my projects not only for workbenches but for furniture projects as well. If you carefully select your lumber you can end up with very nice […]The post How to Buy Lumber for Workbenches appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 23-Jun-2016
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No One Right Way
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 There’s a thread on the “Neaderthal Haven” forum on Sawmill Creek right now that reminded me about my first editor’s note (in the June 2013 issue my goodness; no wonder my hair is now gray!). I was going to respond thereupon, but I don’t think I have anything more to say than what I already wrote. So I might as well post that three years on in this […]The post No One Right Way appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 22-Jun-2016
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Build a Frame Saw Part 5: Wrap up
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 A few months ago I blogged about plans for a frame saw design that was equipped with a hack saw blade. I explained how I intended to build this saw with my seventh grade class, focusing on excavating mortises and shaping tenons, using hand tools only. Now that the school year has ended, I can show you some of the final products. I also want to reveal that I did […]The post Build a Frame Saw Part 5: Wrap up appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 22-Jun-2016
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Cast Your Ballots in the 2016 PWM Excellence Awards
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 The entry period for the 2016 PWM Excellence Awards has closed it’s time to cast your ballots for the Readers’ Choice awards in each of the five categories (Boxes & Smalls; Seating; Tables; Casework, Cabinets & Bookshelves; Miscellaneous). Voting runs through 11:59 p.m., June 24. The Readers’ Choice winners in each category (the project with the highest number of votes in each) will be featured in the November 2016 […]The post Cast Your Ballots in the 2016 PWM Excellence Awards appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 21-Jun-2016
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Yes, You Need a Jointer and a Jack
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 I suspect this will ruffle a few feathers, but so be it. Ive been asked a lot lately if one really needs a jack and a jointer plane. Several well-respected woodworkers and writers now teach that you can prepare all your stock for finishing with only one bench plane, a smoothing plane, if you use machine-prepared stock. I suppose thats true in the same way that I could write all […]The post Yes, You Need a Jointer and a Jack appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 19-Jun-2016
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Congrats to Allen Moon, PWM 2016 Workshop Makeover Winner!
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 Congratulations to Allen Moon of Pelham AL! Allen was chosen as the winner of the Popular Woodworking Magazine 2016 Workshop Makeover Giveaway. Allen won a new workshopstocked with more than $9,200 of tools from Jet, Bessey and Woodpeckers. Allen is retired after more than 45 years in the healthcare industry. He is also a private pilot, has been woodworking since his teens and would love to have a CNC machine […]The post Congrats to Allen Moon, PWM 2016 Workshop Makeover Winner! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 18-Jun-2016
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Removing a Black Scrape on a Car
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 While visiting my son and daughter-in-law, I noticed that she had a pretty ugly black scrape on the side of her car. She had gotten it when she backed out of a tight parking space and rubbed up against the plastic back bumper on a truck. I decided to win points by removing it. I had to decide between two methods, abrading it off or dissolving it off. Both came […]The post Removing a Black Scrape on a Car appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 18-Jun-2016
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Final Design Brief No. 6: The Danish Campaign Chest
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 I dont think much about the joinery for a piece until I have the form and details all settled. I do this because I want the joinery and the style of the piece to match. What do I mean by this? We have an excellent cabinetmaker in our area who builds gorgeous Shaker reproductions. But when you open the drawers, they are running on Blum metal slides. Open the doors […]The post Final Design Brief No. 6: The Danish Campaign Chest appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 17-Jun-2016
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T-shirt Brushes for Shellacand Oil Finishes
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 Every successful project should culminate at the finish line. And in the case of our seventh, eigth and ninth grade classes the finish (line) is made mainly of shellac. I like to use shellac because it is very forgiving for students’ mistakes. It dries fast and its components are mostly (if not totally) natural. To apply shellac successfully I came up with this protocol. Our shellac is kept in a […]The post T-shirt Brushes for Shellacand Oil Finishes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 14-Jun-2016
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Making a Workbench Part 3: PVA Glue
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 In the third partof this workbench build I get around to gluing up the leg frames. I thought I’d take a moment to mention a couple of details about this phase of the project. Throughout this build I’ve been using bog standard PVA (polyvinyl acetate) wood glue. I’ve always gotten along really well with PVA glue, I know it’s limits, know the timbers that don’t react to well to it […]The post Making a Workbench – Part 3: PVA Glue appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 11-Jun-2016
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Finish for Wooden Pens
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 I got a question about finishes for turned wooden pens. Full disclosure: Ive never turned a pen. Nor have I turned a bowl. My experience with the lathe has been turning parts for furniture Im restoring. But I know a bit about finishes, so I think I can answer the question. The pen turner said he didnt like using cyanoacrylate (CA) glue because it made the wood look too much […]The post Finish for Wooden Pens appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 11-Jun-2016
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2016 PWM Excellence Awards 8 Days & Counting
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 Have you entered your best work(s) yet in the 2016 PWM Excellence Awards? There are but eight days left to do so (the submission period closes at 11:59:59 p.m. EDT on June 17), then we’ll collect reader votes June 20-24. The grand-prize winner gets a check for US$1,000, the winner in each of the five categories, and the overall Readers’ Choice winner, get a gift certificate to ShopWoodworking.com plus, […]The post 2016 PWM Excellence Awards 8 Days & Counting appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 10-Jun-2016
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Design Brief No. 5: The Danish Campaign Chest
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 When you set out to design a piece of furniture, dont be surprised if you end up designing four or five pieces in the same vein. With this campaign chest, I ended up with three separate designs: A Baltic birch plywood version with round stainless steel pulls and a base that uses 4 casters. A more Japanese/Chinese version with recessed round pulls (shown in the previous entry) and sled feet […]The post Design Brief No. 5: The Danish Campaign Chest appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 09-Jun-2016
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Turning the Roy Underhill Way
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 The August 2016 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine mails to subscribers this week and features two articles on pedal-powered pole lathes. First, a hatless Roy Underhill walks you through steps to building a portable, adjustable, powerful and (considering he uses construction-grade lumber) affordable foot-powered lathe. And a few pages later, Jarrod Stone Dahl shows you how to make handled vessels using a pole lathes unique reciprocating motion. You can check […]The post Turning the Roy Underhill Way appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 09-Jun-2016
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How to Avoid Runs & Sags
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 One of the biggest problems woodworkers have is runs and sags drying in their finishes, especially with slower drying finishes such as varnish (including polyurethane and wiping varnish) and water-based finish. They can also happen in shellac, though it dries faster. The remedy is simple. You should never have runs or sags drying in your finish whether youre brushing or spraying. The way to achieve this level of perfection is […]The post How to Avoid Runs & Sags appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 07-Jun-2016
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Crackle Lacquer
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 A friend called me the other day with a question. He was matching a crackle-lacquer finish from the 1980s and wanted to know how this finish is made and how to apply it. Crackle lacquer is lacquer with so much solid material, usually silica, added that there isnt enough binder (lacquer) remaining to glue all the solid particles together. The result is that the lacquer cracks when it dries and […]The post Crackle Lacquer appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 07-Jun-2016
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Spray Booth for a Small Shop
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 In the December, 2001 issue of Popular Woodworking (issue # 125) I wrote about how to construct a simple but safe home spray booth. This article was reproduced in my book, Flexner on Finishing. But what if you have more space, do a lot of finishing and would like to have something more like what professionals use but still dont want to devote that much space? This sounds pretty much […]The post Spray Booth for a Small Shop appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 07-Jun-2016
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Popular Woodworking Videos Free Month
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 In 1997 my parents built a new house. I was a rambunctious child, and my dad figured out a way to get me out of his hair for a while so he could work. He gave me a long board, a hammer and a box of nails. I spent days just hammering nails into one board, as content as I could be. When the luster of the hammer wore off, […]The post Popular Woodworking Videos Free Month appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 07-Jun-2016
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Deck Coatings that Fail
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 In the last few years at least three major coatings suppliers have introduced deck coatings that have failed often enough so they have generated a number of class-action lawsuits against the companies. You may have seen ads for these products: Behr Deckover, Olympic Rescue-It and Rust-Oleum Deck Restore. You may have even used one of these products. When I first saw one of the ads, I knew exactly what was […]The post Deck Coatings that Fail appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 07-Jun-2016
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More on Smart Coatings
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 Smart coatings fascinate me. In an earlier postI told you about a paint that uses nanotechnology to cause pee to bounce off walls back onto the shoes of the perp. In another postI told you about a coating that self-heals when exposed to heat or UV light. Here are a few more smart coatings Ive come across. Researchers at the University of Reading in the U.K. have developed a self-healing […]The post More on Smart Coatings appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 04-Jun-2016
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Show Us Your Best Dovetail Tricks
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 The furniture record shows us that “perfect dovetails” is a modern mania. As the photos of antiques above prove, even some of the ugliest joints will stay together for a very long time indeed (perhaps with a nail or two for good measure). But James Krenov? He ruined us. Nowadays, we strive for cutting perfect dovetails, right off the saw. So, how do you get there? Practice…lots of practice. And […]The post Show Us Your Best Dovetail Tricks appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 04-Jun-2016
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Video: Level a Chair la Christopher Schwarz
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 About a year-and-a-half ago, Christopher Schwarz got a bunch of woodworkers together for a sawbench building party at John Hoffman’s house outside Indianapolis. Chris was using us as guinea pigs for an upcoming class he was teaching on the subject, and to work out a few final explanatory notes for his “Compound Angles, No Math” article (in the June 2015 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine) and his “Anarchist’s Design Book” […]The post Video: Level a Chair la Christopher Schwarz appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 03-Jun-2016
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Design Brief No. 4: The Danish Campaign Chest
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 Unlike other furniture designers, I have a handicap. When I design something I am burdened by 15 years of designing furniture for a magazine audience. During those years, I sought to simplify construction and ornament on every piece so that we could fit it into a six- to eight-page article in the magazine. That meant doing away with details that no one saw, designing joints that required the fewest number […]The post Design Brief No. 4: The Danish Campaign Chest appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 03-Jun-2016
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Crackle Lacquer
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A friend called me the other day with a question. He was matching a crackle-lacquer finish from the 1980s and wanted to know how this finish is made and how to apply it. Crackle lacquer is lacquer with so much solid material, usually silica, added that there isnt enough binder (lacquer) remaining to glue all the solid particles together. The result is that the lacquer cracks when it dries and […]The post Crackle Lacquer appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:07am on 02-Jun-2016
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Build a Pocket-Hole Jig Picture Frame
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 A few weeks ago, I was asked to builda frame for a 36 x 40 map of northern Kentucky. I had some leftover maple and decided to build the frame quickly with a pocket-hole jig. It may not be the most sought afterjoint, and some woodworkers may turn their noses at pocket holes, but it can be an extremely useful joint and can be hidden behind the frame. Ripping& Rabbets […]The post Build a Pocket-Hole Jig Picture Frame appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:07am on 02-Jun-2016
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May Kits: Get em While Theyre Well-priced!
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 We’ve some “kits” left over from May collections of items on like subjects offered together at an attractive price (and we typically put together only 50 to 100 of each collection…so get ’em while you can)! First up, the “Mid-Century Furniture Collection,” with the book “Mid-Century Modern Furniture: Shop Drawings & Techniques for Making 29 Projects,” and the DVDs “Step-by-Step Mid-Century Modern Coffee Table” and “Building Techniques for Mid-Century […]The post May ‘Kits:’ Get ’em While They’re Well-priced! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:07am on 02-Jun-2016
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Reading and Working with the Grain, a Simple Tip.
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 Perhaps the most important characteristic of wood is its grain. And grain orientation is undoubtedly the most critical consideration for charting a plan for cutting, milling and shaping wood. Therefore, reading the grain is paramount for good woodworking. When possible, we should always strive for planing, chiseling, rasping and gouging with the grain and not against it. Due to the critical importance of this guideline, the inverse, “going against the […]The post Reading and Working with the Grain, a Simple Tip. appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 01-Jun-2016
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