Author name: Enthusiast

Once the “H” frame parts were ready the time came for some ergonomics and design. My handle is quite simple, it includes a few curves that can be cut with a band saw or a coping saw, or chopped out with a chisel. I decided to use a chisel because I wanted to emulate what my students would be doing once they start the project. I believe that a chisel would give them more control than a coping […]

The post Build a Frame Saw Part 4: Shaping the Arms and Finishing the Project appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The first workbench I encountered at Pleasant Hill was a little non-standard by Shaker standards, but the second workbench was unusual by most any measuring stick for modern workbenches. It is a bit Roman, a bit English and has a lot of other interesting details worth thinking about. Let’s take a look at some of them. Why is it Romanesque? The earliest workbenches typically lacked stretchers between the legs. This […]

The post Shaker Workbench No. 2 at Pleasant Hill appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Before 1856 all dyeing, and for that matter, most coloring, whether on cloth or wood, was done using natural materials. Being natural materials, they varied, so it was difficult to predict the color you would get. Most of these dye colorants also faded easily. The breakthrough to a better dye was discovered accidentally by an eighteen-year-old student chemist working in a lab in England. William Perkin was combining chemicals (some […]

The post Synthetic Aniline Dyes: Where Did They Come From? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When most people discuss Shaker workbenches, they conjure up images of massive cabinets with drawers and doors that are topped by a workbench top – plus a tail vise, leg vise and probably a sliding deadman. This form of workbench shows up in many of the East Coast Shaker communities, but in the Western communities, I have yet to see a bench exactly like this. At the Whitewater Shaker village […]

The post Shaker Workbench No. 1 at Pleasant Hill appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I spent last week on vacation at Kentucky Lake. My girlfriend and I wanted to have a week away before she graduates law school in May and goes directly into study mode for the bar exam. We had big dreams of hiking, kayaking and hopefully a little fishing. I didn’t want to even think about woodworking the whole week … but then it rained. We spent most of our time cooped […]

The post Dry Ground and Live Edge appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Our Build a CNC Router course is coming up again in April, and I’m really excited about it. I love building, programming and using CNC routers, but seeing the photos from students in this class is even more fun. So many people have built their own machines over the past year, and they’ve shared photos of the process and their finished projects in the course galleries. The project is fairly […]

The post Build a CNC Router is Back! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.