Tool Lubrication & Asher's First Eggbeater Hand Drill - Part 2
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 Giving a toddler an open-geared eggbeater hand drill is risky business because the gears can pinch their fingers and ultimately scare them away from woodworking tools for a while. Therefore, the logical solution is an enclosed-gear drill. Many companies used to make them (see the Stanley Continental No748A, and Stanley 610 for example) but since practically almost all of our drilling industry went corded then electric cordless, the number of […]The post Tool Lubrication & Asher's First Eggbeater Hand Drill - Part 2 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 31-Jan-2017
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CNC Tooling Basics, Part 2: End Mill & Router Bit Design
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 As I mentioned in my “CNC Tooling Basics for Woodworkers” post, there are a lot of little details that go into the design of CNC end mills and router bits. Only a few are important for most digital woodworkers, so, this is a streamlined primer focused on the basic details you need to know when choosing router bits and end mills for use on a CNC. First, a diagram of […]The post CNC Tooling Basics, Part 2: End Mill & Router Bit Design appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 28-Jan-2017
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Learn About Jointer Knives From Doug Dale
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 In the video below, Doug Dale discusses the evolution of jointer knives, and shows how he changes the segmented cutters on a helical head.If you've ever been to the Marc Adams School of Woodworking outside Indianapolis, you've surely met Doug - he's been an instructor there for more than a decade, and is charge of keeping []The post Learn About Jointer Knives From Doug Dale appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 27-Jan-2017
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Coming Soon: A Handmade Dustpan
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 Almost every plastic or aluminum dustpan I've used has been disappointing. The aluminum ones bend too easily and make it impossible to capture fine dust. And plastic ones are just that: plasticy. So like any half-decent woodworker, I set out this fall to build my own. Shopmade dustpans were once a common sight, so it's not like my idea is original. But finding plans for a rotating dustpan with a […]The post Coming Soon: A Handmade Dustpan appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:04am on 26-Jan-2017
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Workshop Setup & Handplanes: Two Books on the Horizon
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 One of my resolutions for the new year is to post more updates about our progress with book projects and share tips or ideas I learn from them … and so, aquick update from your friendly neighborhood book editor: We have a couple ofgreat titlescoming down the pike.I'm currently editing “The Practical Workshop” which covers workshop setup, organization and optimizing your workspace. The book is compiled from our magazine archives […]The post Workshop Setup & Handplanes: Two Books on the Horizon appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:04am on 26-Jan-2017
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Tommy Mac's Toolbox
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 Combine power and hand tools to improve your joinery skills. by Thomas J. MacDonald first published in the December 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine Building a toolbox much like this one was a real turning point in my woodworking career. It was 1999 and I had begun classes at Boston's North Bennet Street School's Cabinet and Furniture Making program. At the time, I was a pretty good carpenter and […]The post Tommy Mac's Toolbox appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 25-Jan-2017
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Stop Spelching with an Unlikely Ally: Sandpaper
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 When you shoot end grain with a handplane, you have to be wary of spelching - when the end grain breaks off at the end of your stroke. There are several ways to avoid spelching; one of the quick ways is to use sandpaper. This trick works best when you are just trying to clean up some end grain by removing tool marks. If you are instead trying to correct […]The post Stop Spelching with an Unlikely Ally: Sandpaper appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 22-Jan-2017
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Cool Nailmaking Video from Austria
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 Blacksmith Peter Ross recently sent me a link to the video below that shows production nailmaking of shoe nails in a town in Austria. These guys are working at breakneck speed - forget those modern videos you see of amateur smiths working in their garages. If you've never read about pre-industrial nail production, it was a hard life. In the United Kingdom and its colonies, nailmaking was many times a […]The post Cool Nailmaking Video from Austria appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 22-Jan-2017
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CNC Tooling Basics for Woodworkers
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 Part One: Questions & Answers about Mills & Bits Yes, the topic of CNC mills can be complicated. Because of the overwhelming minutiae of design detail and a bewildering number of choices, there's more than enough to intimidate any CNC user. But, it doesn't have to be that way. Fortunately, woodworkers have a fairly narrow focus: Cutting wood on a CNC. We have special considerations to consider but the good […]The post CNC Tooling Basics for Woodworkers appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 22-Jan-2017
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Finish for Maloof-style chair
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 I got a call from a fellow who made a Sam Maloof-style chair and screwed up the finish using Maloof's formula. I thought, how can you screw up a Maloof finish? Maloof combined three products - polyurethane, linseed oil and tung oil - to give him the look he liked on his chairs. Then he wiped on and wiped off several coats of the finish, rubbing each coat with his […]The post Finish for Maloof-style chair appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 21-Jan-2017
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Tool Lubrication & Asher's First Eggbeater Hand Drill - Part 1
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 Asher, who turned two last week, shows a promising appetite for woodworking tools. He is a frequent visitor to my home shop, where he examines the tools that he can reach. Mainly he's drawn to clamps, bench bulls and, recently, a great looking Stanley Handymanhand drill that I salvaged from the trash two months ago. When I say I salvaged from the trash I mean I actually picked it up […]The post Tool Lubrication & Asher's First Eggbeater Hand Drill - Part 1 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 21-Jan-2017
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Sharpen a Scraper - Ron Hock Shows You How
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 Sometimes, a smoothing plane just can't get things smooth enough (think reversing grain) - and if you're a handplane user, you probably prefer not to pick up the sandpaper (thought it's sometimes unavoidable). In that case, you turn to the handy card scraper. A scraper can perform miracles that a plane cannot…except that Ron Hock says once you turn a burr on the business edge of a scraper, you've basically […]The post Sharpen a Scraper - Ron Hock Shows You How appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 20-Jan-2017
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2-Day Contest: Wall Shelf Build-Off from Chris Wong
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 Chris Wong of Flair Woodworks has set up another fun 2-day “build-off” for January 28 & 29 - and this time, it's for a wall shelf. The idea is to have all participants simultaneously build a piece over a 48-hour period and share pictures along the way. A similar contest in 2013 - the Shop Stool Build-Off - was a lot of fun. I followed along over the weekend on […]The post 2-Day Contest: Wall Shelf Build-Off from Chris Wong appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 20-Jan-2017
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Traditional Danish Workbench
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 I was thrilled to see the article by Bill Rainford in the current issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine in which he gives directions for making a traditional Danish workbench. It's been a long time (more than three decades) since Tage Frid provided these directions, and lots of new people have taken up woodworking in the meantime. For my money, this Danish style is the most user-friendly of all workbench styles […]The post Traditional Danish Workbench appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 18-Jan-2017
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The Best Way to Stamp Your Work or Tools
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 A name stamp is a great investment to mark your tools as your own, especially if you attend woodworking classes or work in a shop with others. It's also a good way to stamp your finished workpieces for posterity. Most woodworkers, however, approach the task like Thor might. They raise their hammer high and swing a mighty blow against the stamp to do the deed in one whack. And they […]The post The Best Way to Stamp Your Work or Tools appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 16-Jan-2017
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So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
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 I was cooking breakfast for a few friends at my family's house on Lake Barkley when I received the call offering me the online editor position for Popular Woodworking Magazine. I was beyond ecstatic. My friends woke up, we hugged long enough to feel uncomfortable and celebrated that night. After years of working hard and dreaming, I finally landed the job I was working for. I've been rewriting this post […]The post So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 14-Jan-2017
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Table Saw Setup in my Near FutureI Hope
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 Most of my house rehab work to this point has been destruction rather than construction. For that, I've used a small kit a hand-held tools, both hand and power. I've gone through probably 50 blades on my reciprocating saw (there were a lot of plaster walls and inappropriate mid-century built-ins to take out), used up many multi-tool E-cut blades and spent a lot of quality time with my sledgehammer and […]The post Table Saw Setup in my Near Future…I Hope appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 13-Jan-2017
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Use Hardboard Templates Instead of Prototypes
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 If I had the extra time and material, I'd build a full-blown prototype of every new design I create. Prototypes let you see in three-dimensions all the mistakes and awkwardness you cannot see on a two-dimensional plan. And fixing the design is usually obvious when you have a prototype on your workbench. As much as I love prototypes, they are not always necessary or even possible. So here is what […]The post Use Hardboard Templates Instead of Prototypes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 13-Jan-2017
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Woodworking in America 2018
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 The title above is not a typo. May of this year marks the third bi-annual Handworks, an event that draws more than 2,000 woodworkers to Iowa every two years for two fun days of trying out the best in hand tools and hanging out with like-minded folks (I'll be one of them). I know that Woodworking in America is an investment. Not only is there a fee to attend (we […]The post Woodworking in America 2018 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:03am on 13-Jan-2017
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Shape a Mallet Out of a Branch Part 2
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 After cutting the branch to length, sawing around the neck and chipping away most of the wood around the handle, the time comes to grab a half-round rasp and begin rounding over the handle. Once the handle looks cylindrical enough I ask my students to imagine what kind of handle they want to form. I show them some mallet drawings and together we choose the one that best suits them. […]The post Shape a Mallet Out of a Branch Part 2 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:00am on 12-Jan-2017
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Cutting Tools for Digital Woodworking
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 When woodworkers talk about their favorite hand tools, they might mention a treasured handplane perhaps a superb pre-WWII Stanley Bedrock smoother outfitted with a Ron Hock blade or a beautiful set of hand forged Fujihiro chisels. A hybrid woodworker might have a Felder combination machine with a slider and tilting shaper or perhaps a carefully restored and finely tuned antique 16 Oliver jointer. The point here is clear. Woodworkers […]The post Cutting Tools for Digital Woodworking appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 10-Jan-2017
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Screwing up the Finish Won't Ruin Your Project
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 I say this often. I've written it many times. Maybe I get the insight from the many years I've spent refinishing furniture. No matter how good or how careful you are, stuff still happens, and you have to strip off what you've done and start over. Every professional or semi-professional refinisher knows this because they've had to do it. But woodworkers making new projects usually don't do that much finishing, […]The post Screwing up the Finish Won't Ruin Your Project appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 10-Jan-2017
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2016 December to Remember Winners
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 It's the beginning of a new year, and that means that our December to Remember Holiday Sweepstakes has come to an end. Thanks to everyone who entered and shared with their friends. Congratulations to all of the winners! You can see who won each prize below. And be sure to sign up for our 2017 Workshop Makeover Giveaway here… Day 1 –Lee Valley Tools $100 Gift Card Peter Smith MA […]The post 2016 December to Remember Winners appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:05am on 06-Jan-2017
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Stripping with a Heat Gun
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 Some finishes are impenetrable by any stripper. That's when you turn to stripping with a heat gun. My daughter-in-law found a dining table she really loved and wanted to refinish it. I was visiting, so naturally, she asked me how to remove the old finish, which was damaged. It turned out that the table was a reproduction made in Asia, nice enough looking, and well enough made, but the finish was []The post Stripping with a Heat Gun appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:02am on 05-Jan-2017
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How to Shape a Mallet Out of a Branch
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 To initiate our fourth graders into woodworking, we offer them a branch and show them how to shape it into a mallet. The branch-mallet is a great project to introduce students of any age to woodworking. It familiarizes them to saws, chisels, gouges, rasps and sandpaper. And, once finished, they can use the tool on their futureprojects or just proudly take it home and place it on the mantel or […]The post How to Shape a Mallet Out of a Branch appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 04-Jan-2017
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Woe be it to the Double-Wide Workbench
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 Perhaps it's the American love for excess. But no matter how many examples I cite or pleas I make, most beginning woodworkers seek to build workbenches that are entirely too wide. Most historical workbenches are 18 to 22 wide - and they are that wide for functional reasons that I'll explain in a minute. And yet, sawyers I know who cut slabs for benches are regularly asked for 32-wide slabs […]The post Woe be it to the Double-Wide Workbench appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:01am on 04-Jan-2017
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Up Your Game with the 'Make Pretty'
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 When you make furniture in order to eat or meet a deadline (such as birthdays), it's difficult to stop yourself from crossing the finish line as soon as possible. Years ago I discovered that taking a day to simply make pretty did wonders for my work. What's make pretty? It's an expression I first heard from chairmaker Peter Galbert to describe how he fusses all the little details of his […]The post Up Your Game with the 'Make Pretty' appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.
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posted at: 12:06am on 02-Jan-2017
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