Author name: Enthusiast

Tools and Supplies Used

Micro Jig GRR-Rippers
Kreg Trak and Stop (Tablesaw Sled)
2 7/8″ Forstner Bit
GRR-Rip Block
1/4″ Round Over Bit
Festool Orbital Sander
Minwax Lacquer Spray, Satin
Leather used was picked up from a local art scrap store….

Here’s a tip that you will thank me for if you aren’t already doing it. When you want to secure the lid on a paint, stain or finish can, step on it rather than hammer it closed. Using your body weight to close the can has two advantages. First, you don’t have to have a hammer handy. Your foot is always with you. Second, and more importantly, you don’t risk […]

The post Step on a Can to Close It appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When you’re building casework, your parts really need dead square ends if you hope to fit drawers, dividers or a gallery inside. I don’t trust any table saw gizmo to give me square cuts. And I don’t trust my shooting board, either. The only thing I trust is a square that has been tested for accuracy. To check my carcase parts, I have a couple of huge Starrett squares that […]

The post Check Squareness on Big Pieces appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Before I developed the tool tote project, I did some online research and discovered that there are two major trends in the design of simple wooden totes: (A) Those whose tall end-walls flank the side walls and (B) those whose side-walls flank the end-walls. This raised the question: Which of the two designs would better suit our project? When I design a project for my students, especially when teaching my young […]

The post Build a Tool Tote With Your Kids: Part 2 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I have a confession to make. I am not a hand tool woodworker…but I want to be. I have only been around power tools for most of my life. I worked for a contractor through college. The only hand tools we used in my shop class were a rasp and a file. The furniture business that I worked for only used hand tools for precision work (but at times, oh how I […]

The post ‘Intro to Hand Tools’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Sometimes I feel the need to test myself, particularly when it comes to crap I say and crap I do. For many years I’ve contended that using handplanes is faster in almost every workshop situation – versus even a random-orbit, DA and drum sander. (I’ve not faced an industrial wide-belt sander. Yet.) Recently I bought a nice drum sander for dimensioning thin lams for a big load of bent lamination […]

The post Faster and Better and Healthier and…. appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.