Author name: Enthusiast

Lacquer is such a wonderful and versatile finish. I think every professional I’ve talked to who has used lacquer and other finishes (with good exhaust, of course) loves lacquer. There are lots of reasons for this, including reduced runs and sags, relative ease of control in different weather conditions with the solvents available, relative ease of repair, and lacquer’s excellent rubbing qualities. But here’s a plus you may not have thought […]

The post Lacquer is Easy to Clean from a Spray Gun appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Router table cabinets can be a waste of space. This compact, vise-mounted unit stores easily and is just the right size. by David Thiel April 2005 Popular Woodworking Magazine I think it might have been seeing a $1,000 router table setup at a recent woodworking show (it’s very cool, but $1,000?). Or maybe it was realizing that our shop’s router table’s cabinet mostly takes up space and fills with dust. […]

The post One-weekend Router Table appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In the late ’80s and early ’90s you could visit a strip club and it wouldn’t be sleazy. The reason: Mike Tyson. He would simply walk through opponents with devastating power in the first few rounds. Nobody wanted to order the expensive pay-per-view at home with the odds of it being over in seconds. So the strip clubs could collect a door fee, a two-drink minimum and be done with […]

The post Don’t Fight the Work – Body Mechanics in the Shop appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It won’t come as much of a surprise that woodworkers are frequently good at more than one thing. Sometimes it’s necessary, other times it’s just for fun. I was in Hillsborough, N.C., last week working with Elia Bizzarri on two new videos and we started talking about what music to use. He asked if we’d like him and a few of his friends to play something. “Yes!” was the easy […]

The post Elia Bizzarri: Multi-talented Woodworker appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

On my first visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York I saw, among the monumental and famous pieces, a small item that captured my eye. It was so impressive that I even decided to buy a postcard with a picture of it. This was a spherical shaped miniature wooden box that, once opened, displayed an intricate biblical scene that shocked me with its complexity and level […]

The post Dutch Boxwood Bead Boxes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

After the worst Thursday on record, I awoke the next morning and resolved to sort out this stool. I needed more maple, so I headed to Frank Paxton Hardwoods and found the perfect board waiting for me. Straight. Clear. Flat. Reasonably priced. So I assumed I’d get into a car accident on the way home. (No collisions.) I milled the new seat, assuming it would be case hardened and twist […]

The post Call it Done (For Now) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.