Author name: Enthusiast

Picture a military vehicle such as the tank shown. To help disguise it, it is painted with colors that blend in with the surrounding landscape. Problem is, the vehicle might move to a different landscape during battle, leaving it more exposed. So researchers in Australia have come up with a coating that changes colors to match the new environment within seconds. The concept imitates nature – for example, a chameleon’s […]

The post Smart Coatings: on Land and Sea appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Question: Why Not Make More Than One? For every digital woodworker, sooner or later you’re going ask yourself an important question: If you’re going to the trouble of making something, why not make more than one while you’re at it? In the previous post, I gave an example of CNC part making by showing a shape being cut out of a board. It was a simple triangle, but it demonstrated […]

The post Making Multiple Furniture Parts appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I don’t like gizmos that tray to make one tool (like a drill press) do the job of another tool (like a hollow-chisel mortiser). The results are usually sub-optimal. But the Milwaukee Right-angle Attachment is the grand exception. I’ve received a few questions about this tool because I am shown using it in the November 2016 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. I’ve owned this attachment for about five years and […]

The post The Milwaukee Right-angle Attachment appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Ron Hock has a long association with the fine woodworking program at the College of the Redwoods (CR), which is soon to become The Krenov School under the administration of Mendocino College. Both the school and Ron are in Fort Bragg, Calif., where Ron started a knife-making business in 1981. He was soon thereafter asked by CR students if he could make plane irons for them, so he did.* Ron […]

The post The Krenov School: A Conversation with Laura Mays & Ron Hock appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The newest “Woodturning with Tim Yoder” DVD is here, and season three is shaping up to be a good one. Tim has a lot of great projects, and I find myself learning new skills and techniques with each new episode. In both the Lichtenberg Fractal Burned Vessel and Cosmic Clouds Platter episodes, Tim steps away from the lathe (after the project is turned, of course) to show viewers how to make […]

The post Woodturning with Tim Yoder Season 3: Episodes 1-6 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In continuation of the story of our live edge waterfall coffee table, today I will show a way to accurately cut a miter joint on a live edge slab with a circular saw. If you do not have a table saw you can use a circular saw pushed against a clamped guide to saw the miter. To ensure an accurate miter you will have to saw at 45 degrees across a path […]

The post Creating a Waterfall Joint With a Portable Circular Saw appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.