Author name: Enthusiast

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.

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Lacquer is a very versatile finish, especially because of its widely understood easy application in different weather conditions. You can speed up or slow down the drying by adding the right thinners. Not so widely understood is the range of colors – the amount of yellowing (or “oranging”) of the various types of lacquer. For example, nitrocellulose lacquer adds a noticeable darkening or slight orange coloring to the wood. This […]

The post Lacquers Vary in Coloring appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I have a love-hate relationship with “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” the book (now in its eighth printing) that inspired our new “Make a Traditional English Tool Chest” DVD set and download video with Christopher Schwarz. You see, that’s the book that gave him the impetus to step down as editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine, to devote all his work-related energy to Lost Art Press. And while I eventually got his […]

The post ‘Make a Traditional English Tool Chest’ appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.