Author name: Enthusiast

One of the great things about handwork is that 90° is not the most critical angle. While absolute 90° is a holy setting on machinery, 87° or 93° is just as easy to cut with a handsaw, plane or chisel. And so sometimes hand-tool users (myself included) denigrate absolute 90° as something reserved for beginners, Arts & Crafts enthusiasts and machinists. After years of working by both hand and machine, […]

The post How to Make 90° Your Best Friend appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

As with most things in woodworking, there’s more than one way to fit doors and drawers. Nothing beats a hand plane for precision, flexibility, and speed when you have a solid bench and vise. A table saw can also do the trick — quite well, in fact, even for tapered cuts. But what about those times when you’re working in a shop (or on a job site) with a less-than-solid workbench and […]

The post Fitting Doors & Drawer Faces With a Router appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Anyone who has introduced a square to young students or beginner woodworkers knows the challenges of teaching them how to control the tool and maintain it square to the edge of the workpiece during use. The main problem for the inexperienced woodworker is to keep the square where they intended. As the student slides their pencil or marking knife down the ruler, problems begin. The further away they slide the […]

The post How to Increase the Holding Power of a Square appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’ve told you the three main ways to deal with silicone contamination in my May 10 post: clean the wood well with solvent or an alkali soap before applying the finish; seal the wood with shellac; and/or add silicone oil (fish-eye flow out, fish-eye eliminator, Smoothie) to the finish. There’s a fourth way I didn’t mention because it’s much harder to pull off. But thinking of it reminds me of […]

The post Even More on Silicone Oil & a Finishing Lesson appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’m dead chuffed to announce that, commencing next week, the inimitable Nancy Hiller will be a regular contributor the PWM Shop Blog. She’ll be sharing techniques and tips from her more than 30 years of experience as a professional furniture maker and cabinetmaker – a journey on which she embarked (with several fascinating detours along the way) after dropping out of Cambridge and training as a furniture maker in the City […]

The post Welcome Nancy Hiller to the PW Shop Blog appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Popular Woodworking Books has just reprinted the classic text “The Art and Craft of Cabinet-Making” by David Denning (1891) in a beautiful edition at a great price. If you are at all interested in historical woodworking methods, you should stop reading this blog entry and buy the book. It’s only $36 (with free domestic shipping). That’s a lot less money than original copies fetch, and this reprint is actually nicer […]

The post Denning: Get it Before it’s Gone appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.