Woodworking Posts

I was in Florida for a few days last week visiting my brother, niece, mom and stepfather. I stayed with my brother, Ian, who, like me (and other family members), inherited some woodworking tools from my grandfather. And as always when visiting with relatives, I pawed through the tools to see what interesting specimens I could find. While my grandfather, Emmett Fitzpatrick, graduated from a trade school with a certificate […]

The post Grandpa’s Shop-made Gunstock Scraper appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Old tool chests typically have two weak spots: the bottom and the hinges. The bottom gets rotted out because tool chests end up in unfriendly, poorly drained areas. That’s why many tool chest bottoms are merely nailed on – so they can easily be replaced. The hinges usually fail because the screws come loose. Many tool chests are made from pine and the lids get a lot of abuse. When […]

The post Improve Your Tool Chest Hinges appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

The two-piece cap iron a unique design and for some it’s a royal PITA; for others it’s a useful addition to a well-tuned bench plane. These days you’ll find them on the Clifton (above) range of planes but before that they were an option provided by Record on the company’s bench planes from the late 1930s until they were dropped in the 1960s. So what was does this option offer? […]

The post Two-piece Cap Irons appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Right now, we’re offering a “kit” that includes just about every page from every woodworking magazine in our store through 2014. In the “20,000 Pages of Woodworking Ultimate Collection,” you get the Popular Woodworking Magazine 1995-2013 DVD (which also includes a bonus video, “Finishes that Pop”), the 2014 Popular Woodworking Magazine compilation CD, the Woodworking Magazine CD, with all 16 issues we published, Woodwork Magazine 1989-2014 DVD, and American Woodworker […]

The post 20,000 Pages of Woodworking, One Low Price appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

When I first began building things, I kept a manila folder in which I stored pages torn from magazines and museum catalogs, as well as photos of pieces (and other things) that inspired me. It was always a jumbled mess – but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; having to shift through the pages and pictures to find a barely remembered thing I thought I’d stashed there often led me […]

The post My Virtual Inspiration Folder appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I use a biscuit joiner for one thing, and one thing only: Cutting slots for the L-shaped wooden “buttons” I use to attach tops to tables (and tops to table-like things such as my kitchen island shown above) and case pieces. The buttons themselves are cut at the table saw, usually out of whatever offcuts I have scattered about, and are about 1-1/4″ x 1″ wide x 2-1/2″ long. (Actually, […]

The post For 1 Job, Biscuit Joiner Can’t be Beat appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.