Woodworking Posts

One of the perks of working at Popular Woodworking is the unlimited access to the decades of content in our library. The shear number of books, magazines and videos that I have access to is remarkable. Brendan Gaffney started at the magazine about three months after me and it’s not uncommon to see one of our monitors running a video from videos.popularwoodworking.com in the background while we work. There’s just […]

The post Live at Lunch! Build a Sturdy Workbench is LIVE on Facebook appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

My progress on the dugout chair has been stymied by rains from two hurricanes, building two Campaign bookshelves and laying out a forthcoming book on carving by Mary May. But today I fired up my angle grinder to remove the rotted interior of this silver maple. I don’t have a ton of experience with an angle grinder. But if you’ve used an electric router, then you’ll quickly get comfortable with […]

The post Dugout Chair Part 6, Remove the Rot appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I moved to Kentucky/Cincinnati on July 1st, and by the 15th of the month, I was already starting out on building the furniture for my new house here. Josselyn (my partner) and I had committed to leaving behind the cheap, second-hand furniture we had bought since leaving college years ago, and in doing so, arrived without a dining table, dining chairs, coffee table or a proper bedroom set. So, for […]

The post Five Lessons from the Staked Chair Project appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

One of my best woodworking tools is one I don’t write about much: my sketchbook. It’s an inexpensive spiral-bound thing I get at the grocery store, right by the romance novels. It’s always in my bag when I travel, and it’s on my lap when I’m “encouraged” to watch “Project Runway” with my lovely wife. I keep a mechanical pencil clipped to its metal spirals and use it to solve […]

The post Sketch Your Way to Better Designs appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The circumference of a 12” bowl (2πr) is about 38”. Multiply that to a lathe’s speed and you’ll realize that wood turners are making almost a mile of shavings a minute. I think it’s fair to say that turners sharpen more than any other woodworkers. Like other areas of the craft, religious sects have developed around sharpening in the turning world. Yet few fanatics outside of skew maniacs ever discuss […]

The post Diamonds are a Turner’s Best Friend: My Favorite Slipstone appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

You may recall that I have a brother who comes up with some very unusual finish problems. This one’s a beauty. As with many people, my brother has a deck attached to his house. The house is located in the Northwest, and last winter the snow remained on the ground for three months. When it had melted off, the deck, which had been finished with a deck stain, was decorated […]

The post How I got Rid of Leaf and Pine Needle Stains on a Deck appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.