Author name: Enthusiast

A lot of woodworking problems can be avoided simply by monitoring the relative humidity in your shop with a simple and inexpensive hygrometer. In most areas of the United States, the target relative humidity for inside buildings is 35 to 45 percent, though that will vary if you live in a desert or a swamp. So if your shop is in the garage, your basement or the neighborhood cave, you […]

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A dedicated sharpening station makes your work so much easier, but since leaving the magazine in 2011 I’ve never had the space (or a sink) for one. One day I saw this $20 boot tray at my home center and I knew exactly what to do. I cut a piece of masonite to fit in the bottom and turned it into a great sharpening station that lives under my workbench. […]

The post Anarchist’s 2016 Gift Guide, Day 2: Boot Tray for Sharpening appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Well-made high-carbon scissors are a joy to use and are indispensable in my shop for cutting paper patterns to shape, trimming veneer and 100 other tasks. For years I used junky office scissors but finally got my hands on a pair of traditional hot-forged dress makers shears from Clauss. Despite their reasonable cost (less than $20), they are like wielding a custom tool. They are perfectly balanced, polished and properly […]

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A few years ago, we published some books to help build your dream home. We covered subjects like home construction, remodeling and backyard buildings. They didn’t really fit with the mission of Popular Woodworking Books but were great books with excellent information – and so we ended up publishing them under the Betterway Books imprint. The bestselling of these books is “The Complete Guide to Contracting Your Home” by Kent Lester & […]

The post Build Your Dream Home: This Book Can Help appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The most common questions that I hear are about how to go about learning to use digital woodworking tools? And, as woodworkers how do you use these tools to get the best out of them? In this post and the one following, I’ll point out different ways to learn how to use these tools. First an overall view. Then some suggestions on different ways to learn how to use digital tools. […]

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Now that Thanksgiving is over and all of my pants seemed to have shrunk, it’s time to get back to work. I made a quick SketchUp model of the traveling tool chest that I’ve decided to build in case of roadside emergencies. The Plan I’m going to build the disaster tool chest out of pine and cover it with milk paint to match my Dutch chest. It’s going in the back of […]

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