Shop Blog

Own of our best students at the Eliot House Woodshop was Philip Hendrix. Philip was a graduate student in computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering who demonstrated real passion, not [...]

Should I Run My Tablesaw on 120 or 240 Volts?   Q: My contractor’s saw pops a breaker every once in a while, and that’s driving me crazy. I noticed that its motor can be wired [...]

Tips For Applying Tee Molding Looking for a quick, easy way to put a durable edge on a project? By Brad Holden Tee molding might be the perfect answer. Installation could not be simpler: just [...]

Tubular Storage Here’s my solution for storing skinny things like wood trim and edge banding. I bought a 12-in.-dia. by 8-ft.-long cardboard concrete form at a home center for about $14. I [...]

Glue-Up Helper I've always struggled with the rubber bands I use to hold jewelry box sides square and steady during glue-up. The biggest pain in the neck was cleaning the glue squeeze-out [...]

“Safety first” is a good saying, but sometimes it’s tempting to believe that safety is just a box at the top of a mental checklist – the “check it off and move on” [...]

Just in time for a last-minute Christmas gift (probably for yourself, if you’re reading this blog), we have all seven issues of Popular Woodworking Magazine from 2013 on CD. (Place your [...]

We’ve just about finished loading the “online extras” for the February 2014 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine – so take a look at what’s coming up. The issue will be [...]

Eleven months ago, two planemakers decided to each build a scrub plane simultaneously and share progress pictures along the way. It was later dubbed the Scrub Plane Build-Off. The two planemakers [...]

I’ve been pushing at the borders of my woodworking knowledge lately. I can feel a growth spurt coming on. For me, that growth will entail a move from the “building boxes” camp (mostly [...]

Every time I purchase lacquer at a professional paint store, I have the following conversation. Me: “Could you put that gallon in the paint-mixing machine for a couple minutes? That will save me [...]

Reshaping the Skew Chisel An alternate shape minimizes dig-ins. By Alan Lacer Years ago, an old professional spindle turner showed me a different way to sharpen a skew. When I tried it, I was [...]