Author name: Enthusiast

After the 2015 election, I did what every sane American did: I eliminated the annoying people from my social media feeds on both the left and the right who had become singularly obsessed with politics. And then I took another healthy step: I eliminated feeds from the “fake perfectionists.” Who are the “fake perfectionists?” You probably know them. They are the people who post beautiful photos of their work on […]

The post Failing Daily Since 1993 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Responding to my post last week on the demise of woodworking clamps made in the U.S., a few readers pointed out that the well has not completely dried out. Yes, we have probably lost the big names in casting, forging and milling of clamps, but a few smaller manufacturers have survived, in addition to new makers who have released some interesting stuff in the last few years. Milwaukee Tool and […]

The post Surviving U.S.-made Woodworking Clamps & Clamp Care appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It’s always fun to see the new books arrive. Popular Woodworking Books’ latest release “Simple & Stylish Woodworking: 20 Projects for Your Home” officially releases in mid-April. It’s a compilation of small projects that make great home accents. Selected from the archives of Popular Woodworking, these projects allow you to learn new skills and get in some practice on smaller scale builds before committing to a larger piece of furniture. The […]

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When starting in woodworking I couldn’t afford a good set of trammel points. I had my grandfather’s set, but it didn’t lock down well. Then one day woodworker Troy Sexton showed me how he drew large arcs and I realized that I already owned an effective trammel. Troy uses a yardstick (or meter stick if you are metric). Then he bores holes at all the locations where he wants to […]

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“Popular Workbenches” is often suggested as a title revision for the magazine, given the number of workbench plans we’ve offered over the years. And it’s true that we have published a generous number of them – but every one is different! And given that a worksurface of some kind is integral to any workshop, well, it’s a perennially important topic. So in this post, just for fun (and to procrastinate […]

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Digital woodworking comes with a lot of moving parts: new hardware; new software; new methods and skills. But it’s the machinery itself that gets most of the attention. CNCs, Laser Cutters and 3D printers are all impressive machines. Watching them work, and the resulting precision, is the main focus of this new way of woodworking. With all that amazing machinery magically moving around, it’s easy to miss the most important […]

The post Creating in CAD: Variations on a Theme appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.