Author name: Enthusiast

You can’t really talk about repairing antique furniture without explaining hide glue because it was the glue used on almost all furniture made before the 1950s. So, with this post I’m introducing what I hope will be a series of posts in the coming months on hide glue. I’ve written about hide glue many times, including in Popular Woodworking (Aug., 2007; reprinted in “Flexner on Finishing”), and I show its […]

The post Hide Glue Part 1: Overview and Introduction appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

After working with woodworkers all over the world for short periods of time and (in some cases) many years, I can say these four words that might make your woodworking easier: Clean up your crap. I’m not a natural neatnik, but when it comes to working in the shop, every day ends up with me putting away the tools I’m not in the middle of using and sweeping up the […]

The post Coming Clean About Being Clean appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The Maslow $500 CNC kit No doubt about it, the Maslow CNC is unique. Let’s start with the detail that got your attention. Yes, the price of the Maslow really is $500. Actually, it could be had for as little as $350 if you have a couple of sheets of plywood, a few 2×4’s and a couple of bricks laying around. More about those bricks later. Next, let’s state the […]

The post The $500 Maslow CNC appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I was teaching a hands-on finishing class, including spraying, a while back when a student brought me a spray gun he had bought a year before from another teacher who was selling a line of spray guns. The spray gun wasn’t working right and he couldn’t figure out why. We fixed the problems, but I remember thinking, why didn’t he contact the teacher who sold him the gun? He went […]

The post Caution When Buying a Spray Gun appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The structure and design of our waterfall coffee table was really simple, with only one truly original element – the front turned leg. The other leg as well as the tabletop, is a live edge slab mitered and reconnected in a 90 degree joint that is reinforced with domino keys. Turning the Leg I began by searching for an appropriate piece of hardwood. During a short visit to the area […]

The post Live Edge Maple and Turned Walnut Waterfall Coffee Table: The Turned Leg appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

It will be among my enduring regrets that I didn’t arrange things to tag along on our recent visit to  Wendell Castle’s home and studio. The video team, along with American furniture scholar Oscar Fitzgerald (he was on our on-screen interviewer), spent a couple days in New York at Castle’s home and studio to film our latest “Legends” video: “Woodworking Legends: An Interview with Wendell Castle.” In case you don’t […]

The post Wendell Castle on his Creative Process appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.