Shop Blog

I’ve collected tons of drawings of old workbenches, during the years, and most fall into two categories: 1. A typical workbench with typical vises that looks like lots of other workbenches. 2. [...]

This is the last in a series of four posts designed to introduce the woodworker to new tool – SketchUp. SketchUp is a powerful and ideally suited tool for woodworkers who design their own [...]

The most important skill in woodworking is problem-solving, and you don’t develop that skill by following spoon-fed, step-by-step directions. It is also extremely difficult to learn that [...]

Today is Earth Day, but for the purposes of this article, I’m going to call it Dirt Day. As in dirt-simple woodworking techniques and jigs. We have a couple of perspectives, from two [...]

Q & A: How Much Light? Q: My husband wants to turn our basement into a TV room so I have to move my shop to the garage. I want to fix it up right and one of the big…

AS YOU MAY KNOW A FEW BAGS OF THISTLE BOARD FINISH PLASTER MAY  BE LEFT ON A BUILDING SITE ? AFTER THEY HAVE USED WHAT THEY NEED ? REST IS SURPLUS?  IT MAYBE ON A BUILDING LEFT FOR [...]

I have said it before in this blog, actually just a few weeks ago: Japanese have an affinity to perfect everything and take it to a new level.  Even a [...]

Among the most rewarding parts of working for this (and I would assume any) woodworking magazine is to build then write about a project, send an article out into the world, then have pictures [...]

If there is one disadvantage to round bench dogs, it is that they can occasionally rotate as you are clamping something between two dogs or when you are planing against a single dog. It’s a minor [...]

As you know from Monday’s article, I am in the process of setting up shop after a long hiatus from serious woodworking. On the positive side, I’ve discovered that some of the muscle memory is [...]

In the back panel of the project I made for the upcoming August 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine is a small door. Hanging doors on butt hinges is no big deal if you’ve done it a [...]

Some folks spend hours searching Pinterest. My weakness is antique auction web sites. They’re a total time-suck. On these sites, I see photos of furniture that is to be auctioned, a brief [...]