Author name: Enthusiast

There are lots of ways to get around not having a sliding deadman – sometimes called a “board jack” – on your workbench. For the last 15 months I have been working on a bench without a deadman or a tail vise, so I am always looking out for novel solutions. This weekend a woodworker named Adrian from Toronto sent me some photos of a clever bench accessory he spotted […]

The post A Basque Planing Support appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’ve been in the shop for about two hours this morning and the first task I faced was clearing out a jammed dust-collection pipe above the jointer. A dirty, dusty job, but it had to be done. So it was a good test of the Elipse P100 Respirator I recently bought from Highland Woodworking ($30 plus shipping). Then, I had some 3/4″ plywood to cut up for one last kitchen […]

The post Elipse P100 Respirator: First Impressions appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

As many of you correctly guessed, Woodworking in America 2015 will be in downtown Kansas City, Mo., Sept 25-27. The main venue is the Crown Center. Stay tuned for more! –Megan Fitzpatrick  

The post Kansas City, Here We Come appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

For experienced woodworkers, it’s easy to ignore tool reviews and say: “I just buy the brands that have served me well.” But what if you know little about the different brands? When I was growing up, Skil made fantastic circular saws. Black & Decker made good drills. Craftsman put its name on some good machinery. Delta was unassailable on the quality of its table saws and band saws. Are those […]

The post How to Read & Write Tool Reviews, Part 3 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

We’ve just put together a 10-hour collection of 17 of Roy Underhill’s shop projects from “The Woodwright’s Shop.” (“In the Shop with Roy: Workbenches, Tools, Storage & More” is available now to order on DVD; the download option will be up shortly). With this collection, you’ll get the following episodes: #402 A Spring Pole Lathe; #604 A Folding Lathe; #1402 The Carpenter’s Tool Box; #1412 The Williamsburg Blacksmiths; #1501 Sharpening […]

The post ‘In the Shop with Roy’ (And a Close Look at Some Cool Stuff) appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Most tool reviews aren’t really reviews. They’re press releases dressed up with a lab coat and a clipboard to look respectable. For experienced woodworkers, these faux-reviews are easy to spot and ignore. What are the signs? They’re missing key information about the tool’s place in the market compared to its competitors. Even more telling, the writer wields statistics to discuss the tool (14.4-volt batteries with an intelligent trickle-charger) but omits […]

The post How I Read Tool Reviews (And Write Them), Part 2 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.