Woodworking Posts

Among the many great people I’ve met while on staff at Popular Woodworking Magazine (PWM), one of my favorites is Carl Bilderback. Carl is a retired carpenter who has extraordinary skills with both hand and power tools (and he has vast collections of both), and a deep and abiding passion for the craft. He’s an active member of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Assn., and spends a lot of time driving […]

The post Thank You Carl Bilderback appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I will be teaching a week-long SketchUp class  September 8-12, 2014 at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. If you want to get a better understanding of the 3D modeling program we use here at Popular Woodworking Magazine, this is your opportunity. As in all my SketchUp classes, we start with a thorough understanding of the basics of how the program works, and by the end of the […]

The post SketchUp Class With Bob Lang, Sept. 8-12 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Last week while teaching a class at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking on building the Connecticut lowboy from the February 2014 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (#209) to seven excellent woodworkers (read more about the class here), I was asked to take a trip into New York city to the Metropolitan Museum (the Met for short). Of course, it took only minutes for me to say, “Hell yes.” To […]

The post A Great Museum Book for Free appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Very quickly after getting serious about woodworking I realized, if I wanted to make more than simple projects with square or tapered legs, I needed to develop my skills in two major areas beyond joinery. Not that there’s anything wrong with simple forms, but I wanted to push my skills well beyond the boundaries pieces like that could offer. In order to step things up, I had to learn how to turn […]

The post Carve Like a Master appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Woodworking as a craft is one of mankind’s oldest uses of technology, and each generation has passed along knowledge about how to, when to and why to. Technology has changed within the craft itself and the way in which information moves from older to younger. A lot of things that used to be made out of wood are now constructed of different materials, but woodworking is still an important part […]

The post Preparing Woodworkers for a Brighter Future appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’ve worked out of a traditional floor chest since 1997 when I built my first cover project for Popular Woodworking Magazine. It’s not that I’ve always been monogamous, however. I’ve tried all manner of wall chests, tool racks, rolling cabinets, soft-sided bags and suitcases as ways to contain, protect and limit my tools. But I have always come back to my floor chest. Here’s why. Nothing else gives me the […]

The post Tool Chests, 1997-2014 appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.