Shop Blog

I probably shouldn’t share these here, because I copied the images from another site: Flavorwire (my daily stop for cool stuff on the Interwebs). But I couldn’t resist, because these [...]

Snap-On Soft Jaws I’ve been using an old metal-working vise in my shop for years. Occasionally I really do need a metal-working vise, but most often I use it to hold drawer sides up high [...]

OK, I know I wrote that I would tell more about the Darlington chest (June 2013 cover project) next week. But I have three big reveals, so I had to share another bit yet this week. And this post [...]

Small Parts Organizer I’ve designed a small-parts chest that’s as useful as it is simple to make. I’ve found those disposable, plastic containers for leftovers are ideal for small parts, such as [...]

Q & A: Sawing Aluminum Q: Can I cut aluminum with my chop saw? A: Yes.Most carbide blades work fine for occasionally cutting aluminum, but we recommend using a special, non-ferrous [...]

Comfortable Dovetails Like the majority of wokbenches, mine is fine for planing but too low for cutting dovetails without prolonged stooping. My answer is to clamp a heavy backing board, as shown [...]

Woodworking, like fishing, covers a lot of territory, so the audience for our magazine and web site is a diverse lot. When I learned how to make stuff out of wood, the Internet didn’t exist [...]

All woodworking stories are – by definition – somewhat sappy. This one is even more so. The day I met Steve Shanesy I was a burned-out writer, designer and editor. I was managing a newspaper that [...]

This week I’m at Acanthus Workshop LLC teaching a class in which we are building the cover project from the June issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, the Hannah Darlington Chest. Tuesday [...]

Normal 0 0 1 377 2153 17 4 2644 11.1282 0 0 0 I recently attended the JLC Live event in Providence, RI. It's an event for builders and remodelers. Since Festool was showcasing some new tools [...]

A student wrote me and asked how I might go about drawing a Dough Box in SketchUp. He sent me a hyperlink to a miniature which he wanted to scale up and build. I brought the picture into SketchUp [...]

Q & A: Warped Wood Woes Q: I ordered a milled piece of ebony through the mail last winter. It looked great upon arrival, but after a few days it was so warped and twisted that I [...]