Woodworking Posts

Over the years, we have amassed a huge collection of handy tips from the Tricks of the Trade column in our magazine. We recently started to film some of these tricks in the Pop Wood shop to give a little personality to the pages that you are so familiar with. Our hope is to bring these great tips to our online audience in a new way. If you have a […]

The post Tricks of the Trade: Make an Arc Drawing Jig appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Hand-tool woodworkers love mutton tallow as a lubricant for saws, auger bits and the soles of our handplanes. A smidge of the stuff will make your tool slide easier – and your shop will smell like lambchops. But because of animal-rights concerns, mutton tallow is shunned by some woodworkers. (They already shun paraffin because it is made by Big Oil.) In 2016, a start-up corporation tried to make mutton tallow […]

The post Anarchist’s 2017 Gift Guide, Day 3: No-Kill ‘Mutton’ Tallow appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You might think I’m kidding. I am absolutely not. This year, a tape dispenser for my blue tape is the nicest thing I’ve added to my shop. Like many woodworkers, I use blue painter’s tape for many tasks, from taping down small repairs to marking out joinery to shimming things square. For years I simply pulled it off the roll. You know the drill: Find the end of the tape, […]

The post Anarchist’s 2017 Gift Guide, Day 2: Tape Dispenser appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I don’t know about you, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday – it’s all about the food and mostly free of consumerism…except, of course, for the “Black Friday” sales that start at crazy hours… I will not be at any of those sales. I will be sitting around a table I built (in the one dining chair I’ve built) having a great time with friends and eating what I hope is […]

The post Great American Furniture appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Every year, I write up a gift guide that discusses the small items that have made a big difference in my shop.  These are items that are ideal for gifts – it’s difficult to ask your toddlers for an Altendorf table saw for Christmas. I hope that these items are useful to you. If you have any complaints about this gift guide, please submit it here. The first item is […]

The post Anarchist’s 2017 Gift Guide, Day 1: Kershaw Knife appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I better start off with a warning. If you haven’t already figured it out, I’m kind of a nut about patterns. Long before I owned a CNC, I made hundreds of them. As a furniture maker, I really use and rely on them. The rule in my shop is that if you need to make two of anything or if there’s even the slightest chance you might make something again, […]

The post Turn Patterns Into Super Story Sticks appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.