Author name: Enthusiast

Every successful project should culminate at the finish line. And in the case of our seventh, eigth and ninth grade classes the finish (line) is made mainly of shellac. I like to use shellac because it is very forgiving for students’ mistakes. It dries fast and its components are mostly (if not totally) natural. To apply shellac successfully I came up with this protocol. Our shellac is kept in a […]

The post T-shirt “Brushes” for Shellac and Oil Finishes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I got a question about finishes for turned wooden pens. Full disclosure: I’ve never turned a pen. Nor have I turned a bowl. My experience with the lathe has been turning parts for furniture I’m restoring. But I know a bit about finishes, so I think I can answer the question. The pen turner said he didn’t like using cyanoacrylate (CA) glue because it made the wood look too much […]

The post Finish for Wooden Pens appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In the third part of this workbench build I get around to gluing up the leg frames. I thought I’d take a moment to mention a couple of details about this phase of the project. Throughout this build I’ve been using bog standard PVA (polyvinyl acetate) wood glue. I’ve always gotten along really well with PVA glue, I know it’s limits, know the timbers that don’t react to well to it […]

The post Making a Workbench – Part 3: PVA Glue appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Have you entered you best work(s) yet in the 2016 PWM Excellence Awards? There are but eight days left to do so (the submission period closes at 11:59:59 p.m. EDT on June 17), then we’ll collect reader votes June 20-24. The grand-prize winner gets a check for US$1,000, the winner in each of the five categories, and the overall Readers’ Choice winner, get a gift certificate to ShopWoodworking.com – plus, […]

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When you set out to design a piece of furniture, don’t be surprised if you end up designing four or five pieces in the same vein. With this campaign chest, I ended up with three separate designs: A Baltic birch plywood version with round stainless steel pulls and a base that uses 4” casters. A more Japanese/Chinese version with recessed round pulls (shown in the previous entry) and sled feet […]

The post Design Brief No. 5: The Danish Campaign Chest appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.