Author name: Enthusiast

How I Make Parts Using Hybrid Woodworking Techniques In previous posts, I wrote about what led me to get my own CNC. Now that I have one, a couple of questions come up. What’s changed in how I do my work? What do I do with a CNC? In the next two posts, I’ll explain how I previously made furniture using a combination of power and hand tools and how […]

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Perhaps it’s because I’ve become a father myself – or maybe it’s just a sign of getting older – but I’ve found myself thinking fondly of old toys. I’m not talking about the Transformers, Stretch Armstrongs and Star Wars figures of my youth (though, I love those toys with all my heart). Those kinds of toys are special in their own way with their wonderfully cheap plastic and bright colors, […]

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I got a call recently from a friend who runs a mid-size woodworking shop. He was making several dozen walnut tables for a restaurant and finishing them with pre-catalyzed lacquer. He sent off a sample of the finish to the restaurant owner, who came back with an objection. The restaurant had hired a professional potter to make the dishes (nice!). And the plates and bowls scratched the finish when they […]

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Let’s continue the story of my student Chad’s coffee table built at a live edge class at Peters Valley. In this entry I will show how we found a convenient way to trace the shape of the shelf, cut it and connect it to the legs. Because the shelf was intended to span an irregular trapezoid-shaped gap between the four legs, it had to be custom cut. We had to devise […]

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Show off your woodworking skills at your next dinner party with these beautiful hardwood kitchen utensils (instructions excerpted from “The Woodworker’s Kitchen: 24 Projects You Can Make” by A.J. Hamler). Hardwood kitchen utensils, often called treenware, are a staple of high-end craft markets and upscale kitchen shops. Guess what? As elegant as these are, they’re not difficult to create at all. Cherry is probably the most popular wood used for […]

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I’ve had bad days wrestling with my sketchbook where it was impossible for me to draw anything but junk. Junk I didn’t want to build and junk that no one would ever buy. Sometimes I leave those stepchild pages in my sketchbook as a reminder of how awful I am. Sometimes I crumple the pages up because someone might see the drawing if I die before destroying the evidence. And […]

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