Author name: Enthusiast

If there is a defining image that says woodworking, a silhouette that most would identify with, then it’s likely the Bailey-style outline of a plane would be top of the list. Gracing many a business card, letterhead or sign on a van, it’s all around.  A mark of the plane’s success is the very fact it’s burned into the minds of many in wider society as something good about woodworking. […]

The post Before the Archetype appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You’d think after 20 years of doing anything it would start to get a little stale. Tell that to Roy Underhill! We recently put together his 21st through 31st seasons in a kit and I’ve got to tell you, Roy’s still hitting on all cylinders. I don’t mean to come off sounding like a commercial, but I guess that’s where I am. It’s hard not to be excited. These seasons […]

The post A New Decade of Roy Underhill! appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The doors on the rest of my kitchen cabinets were constructed with stub tenons. But the pantry doors that I (finally) hung over my holiday break are 82″ tall and will get used a lot (the pantry shelves were built in part to house boxes of kitty litter); stub tenons aren’t up to the task. So, for these, I cut traditional mortise-and-tenon joints. The poplar rails and stiles are 3/4″ […]

The post Doors Built to Last (Though They Probably Needn’t Be) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

During the last two weeks, I’ve been perfecting my impression of the common garden slug. I’ve become quite good at it. Pretty much the only thing woodworking-related I’ve accomplished is to hang the doors on the pantry shelves I built just before Thanksgiving. I’m not done fitting them, mind you (if only I’d made each 1/16″ narrower, darn it!). I’ve been feeling too lazy to take them back down to […]

The post A Supremely Lazy Holiday appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

This week I am finishing up the carcase for a special tool chest for an upcoming pair of articles in Popular Woodworking Magazine and I turned my attention to the lifts – the handles you use to grab the chest when you have to move it. There are three common ways to create chest lifts. You can use metallic hardware, you can make “beckets” with rope or you can make […]

The post Make ‘Dog Bone’ Chest Lifts appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

“Could I do it,” I thought? A half-reasonable set of through-dovetails in thre minutes? Needless to say, I could not do it the first time of asking (and if you are interested you can watch my best attempt below). But the lessons to be drawn, reflections and the benefits of such a challenge are beyond a quick set of dovetails in pine. Here are some of my thoughts. An analogy would be […]

The post 3-Minute Dovetail – Pointless? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.