Author name: Enthusiast

A tool rack in your chest is a nice way to keep your chisels, screwdrivers and other tools close at hand and protected from damage. After experimenting with lots of different racks, here’s how I make racks for myself and customers. I start with a length of pine that’s about 1” x 1-1/4” x the interior dimension of the chest. To lay out the holes for a set of five […]

The post Details for a Rack in a Tool Chest appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

There is a phrase in Spanish called “media naranja,” which literally translates to “half orange.” I don’t speak Spanish, so being called this for the first time meant nothing to me. Then I found out what it really meant. It’s a colloquialism for “other half.” So instead of being referred to as someone’s “other half,” some people say “half orange.” I bring this up for one reason. Foreign languages can […]

The post A Community Woodworking Glossary appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In the next issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine I review the Chestnut Tools Universal Sharpener from Lee Valley Tools. I learned about this remarkable and inexpensive little tool from furniture maker Freddy Roman. I was skeptical about it until I got my hands on it. This thing is … well you’ll have to wait for the full review in the magazine. One of the best things it does in my […]

The post File a Scraper with the ‘Universal Sharpener’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

OK – I’m not really looking for someone who can draw a turtle; I need an illustrator who can take over our Tricks and Letters drawings, to develop digitally deliverable images (four to six illustrations per issue, seven issues per year) working from photos and text. And obviously, a solid understanding of woodworking is key. Our long-time and much-beloved illustrator, Mary Jane (MJ) Favorite, has an exciting venture on the […]

The post Can You Draw Skippy the Turtle? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Woodworkers have a reputation for taking matters into their own hands. When something doesn’t work the way you want it to, what do you do? You go to the shop and build something that will. That’s  probably why the website StumpyNubs.com is so popular. Stumpy (whose real name is James Hamilton) makes his mission to solve problems and streamline workflow in the shop by building machines from scratch. You can find […]

The post Build Your Own Tools appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Since I began making Moxon-style vises in 2010, I’m made several dozens for students customers and have made some small changes to the way I build them. Above all, I try to keep my Moxon vises as simple and compact as possible, which is why I haven’t added tables or other gizmos. Here is what my latest one, which ships out today, looks like. The most significant change is that […]

The post Small Changes to my Moxon Vises appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.