Author name: Enthusiast

The Shaper Origin looks like a router but acts like a CNC. Up to now, CNCs were large, heavy, complicated tools that take up a lot of space in a shop. The Shaper Origin is something quite different. It’s a hand-held, easy-to-use CNC that you take to your work instead of the other way around. I had the opportunity to try one of the prototypes in 2016 and, now that […]

The post Hands-on With The Shaper Origin – Exclusive Review appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

There’s really no substitute for a nice, dialed-in shooting board. It’s a bench appliance that every woodworker with a handplane should have for sneaking up to a line and making perfect miters. When I saw this particular trick in the archive, I thought I’d build it and see how well it worked. The build is very simple – the adjustable shooting board sits in a snug dado. I took two passes […]

The post Tricks of the Trade: Adjustable Shooting Board appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’m not easily riled. But if you want to get me worked up, then make a casual comment on a piece of woodworking that you’ve never built or dealt with. Case-in-point: I’ve been using a metal planing stop (as shown above) for more than 12 years. It is the foundation of everything I do at the bench. Yet, if I ever show its teeth in an article or on the […]

The post Shut Up & Build (or Just Shut Up) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

On Nov. 22 I posted an explanation of how cooler temperatures slow the drying of all finishes. Well, the opposite is also true. Warmer temperatures, especially with the aid of air movement, speed the drying of all finishes. The example of why this information is helpful came in the form of a question from a woodworker. He had made the cabinet pictured and finished the inside with oil, specifically Liberon […]

The post Air Movement and Heat Speed the Drying of Finishes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

One of my current jobs involves adding some cabinets to a kitchen in a 1912 house. Luckily, the kitchen still has its original built-in, which guided the design of the new pieces. “Hang on,” you may be wondering. “What do you mean, ‘its original built-in,’ singular? Surely there would have been a set of built-ins.” No, there would not. Most kitchens of that era had just a single cabinet, if […]

The post A Stroke of Luck While Refinishing a Wooden Counter appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

No book giveaway this week. Instead I’m giving away $100 Lee Valley gift card to one lucky winner! Thanks for all the great comments each Friday throughout the year – it’s been fun to read all the smart, funny stuff you guys have posted and hear about what you’re working on. We’ll probably get another giveaway or two in before the end of the year, but I wanted to give […]

The post Friday Giveaway appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.