Author name: Enthusiast

As you likely know, every month we offer a deeply discounted collection of books, CDs/DVDs and downloads as the “Kit of the Month.” Typically, we group these around a theme (workbenches, router joniery, shop projects, tables) but this month, my brain is the sole subject around which the choices coalesce. I chose 11 of my favorite items from the store (retail value of around $300) that we’re offering for $105. […]

The post ‘Fitz’s Picks’ for February appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When I teach dovetailing to a class, one of the common questions is why I saw out the majority of the waste between the tails and pins, instead of chopping with a chisel. The simple answer is: That’s how I learned to do it, I’m fast at it and coping saws are easier to sharpen than chisels (the last part is a bit of a joke, by the way). There’s […]

The post Sawing Out Dovetail Waste appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Glen Huey (pictured above), Chuck Bender, Bob Lang and I got the shop maybe halfway done in yesterday’s frenzy of cleaning and reorganizing, but we did run into a couple problems. Neglecting to measure, for example. (Yes, we took the vise off, then had no trouble getting that bench into the storeroom.) We moved the miter saw rack off the back wall where the garage door will go (soon, I […]

The post Shop Cleanup Project: Waiting for a Thaw appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I spent some time this past weekend at The Woodworking Shows in Columbus, Ohio. First off, trekking to the show is much better now that Columbus is an hour and a half away (as opposed to the 7 hours it took to get there when I lived outside Philadelphia). The second thing that struck me about the show as I arrived was the size of the crowd. It was huge. […]

The post The 2014 Columbus Woodworking Show appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

In the short video posted last Thursday (1/30/2014), Christopher Schwarz talks about chisels. At the tail end of the clip, he talks about butt chisels where he mentions that these chisels are shorter and have great balance when knocking out dovetail waste, but you use a bench chisel for that, too. So why do we have butt chisels? The term is said to originate from the carpenter trade where short […]

The post Butt Chisels & Butt Mortise Planes appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Jacques writes: I have your workbench book, and I am currently working on my version of the French bench. I had soft maple cut down from my woods, so I had it sawn, and I am working with it for the top. For the legs, a friend of mine gave me four beams that are about 9″ x 9″, out of some resinous wood. They are cracked and dry (must […]

The post Can Workbench Legs be too Big? appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.