Author name: Enthusiast

A year ago I wrote about the demise of America’s clamp manufacturers and my choice to try a few inexpensive alternatives for the obsolete Pony, Wetzler and the like. We decided to buy a few types of Harbor Freight clamps and give them a try. A year of use has passed and here are my thoughts on the matter. Harbor Freight F-Clamps. We got six small clamps and I have […]

The post Harbor Freight Clamps One Year Later appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Inventables is hosting a contest for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs. Their CNC, the X-Carve, has been a go-to machine for many startups and hobbyists for years. It’s great to see them giving back to the community and inspiring makers to produce video content at the same time. They have two categories, each eligible to win a X-Carve Business Bundle. The first is for “Individuals who do not own an X-Carve.” You have […]

The post Win an X-Carve CNC from Inventables appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In the December 2017 Popular Woodworking article called “Digital Artistry… How five masterful makers integrate CNC and CAD technology into their woodworking”, five professional woodworkers showed how they’ve added digital woodworking skills and tools to their traditional, hybrid and hand tool woodworking skill sets. The makers are Darrell Peart, Curtis Erpelding, Bob Spangler, David Myka and myself. All of us have traditional woodworking backgrounds but have embraced new technologies as […]

The post The Power of User Groups – How to Learn CNC appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The sled we use the most in our shop is the one shown here. I built it five years ago, and it is as accurate as the day I made it. I built it in response to my frustrations with fancy sliding tables, Jim-crack miter gauges and other silly devices used to crosscut wood at 90°. This sled and my panel-cutting sled handle all of my crosscutting needs. Here’s how […]

The post Crosscutting Sled – Just 5 Pieces of Wood appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I learned this in engineering school and soon found out it worked for my router. It is called the “right-hand thumb rule.” When trying to remember which way your router bit is spinning so you can feed the wood in the correct direction, you can use the right-hand thumb rule. Pretend your right hand is a router and your thumb is the router bit. If you are holding the router […]

The post Which Way Does the Router Spin? – Tricks of the Trade appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I recently posted a video to our YouTube channel that discussed proper tightening of a saw blade nut (hand tightened is usually enough) and was surprised by the number of comments not on the focus of the video, but on the splitter shown on our Powermatic 66. I apologize for getting a bit technical (tool nerd!), but this is worth a bit of discussion. First, our Powermatic 66 table saw has […]

The post Aftermarket Splitters & Riving Knives for Powermatic 66 Table Saw appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.