Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Open Totes – Stop Hiding the Functional & Beautiful

I don’t like tool chests. There, I said it. Let’s see if I’m struck down by lightning from the woodworking gods. I’ve bought them in the past, built them, understand their logic. Protection from thieves, protection from moisture, protection from metal cancer. But there is something to the concept of “out of sight out of mind.” Besides, the only time I’ve had tools stolen was when burglars walked off with… […]

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Restoring a Shellac Finish

My famous box got bashed about through the years of display and handling. Actually, apart from being dropped on concrete twice, it’s stood up very well, such is shellac. The coats have not worn through anywhere despite being well handled by visitors, but regardless, repairing and restoring  shellac is very quick and easy. Steel wool comes in …

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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Tom’s Dining Room Table

This table was built to accommodate a weekly gathering of friends for dinner. We regularly have 10 people over and needed a table that could extend to fit this size group. It is 74″ x 42″ with breadboard leaves (not shown) to bring it to a total of 96″ long.

The table is loosely based on a pottery barn table as we like the combination of wood and metal for a little industrial touch. We wanted something not quite so rustic as the store version. The entire table is black walnut from a local mill. The top is made of 4 slabs acquired green and left to air dry. They were joined with 1/2″ loose tenons and flattened to 1.75″ thick. The top is 42″W x 96″L. Eleven inch breadboard ends were then cut from each end to act as extension leaves as needed.

The legs are splayed 4 degrees and are made of solid black walnut stock. They are mortised together and also mortised into the top. The metal brackets and turnbuckle assemblies are all handmade as well.

The table is finished with 4 sprayed on coats of Waterlox satin finish, then wet sanded to 1200 grit and one more coat after that.

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Brendan Bernhardt Gaffney: New PWM Managing Editor

I’m delighted to announce that Brendan Bernhardt Gaffney (whom you may know from his ancient rules, sector, calipers and other work at burnHeart) joins the Popular Woodworking team in July as managing editor. He’ll not only be handling the day to day business of running the magazine, but bringing to the job his woodworking and toolmaking experience, and impressive computer skills  – not to mention unbounded creativity. Brendan’s first days as […]

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Denning’s 1891 ‘The Art and Craft of Cabinet-Making’

denning

This reprint of David Denning’s 1891 classic “The Art and Craft of Cabinet-Making,” with a forward by Christopher Schwarz, is a must-read for hand-tool woodworkers, and for anyone who enjoys the history of the craft. I fought long and hard for this one, insisting that it be made to last, and that it be printed and produced entirely within the United States. I wanted the historic book to look and feel […]

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The $500 Maslow CNC Beta Report

The Maslow is not a conventional CNC. It’s kit based, and costs less than $500. $350 if you’ve got a couple of 2” x 4”s and some plywood to throw in. If you’re new to the Maslow, here’s Part One, Two and Three. This started out as a crowd-funded Kickstarter project, which means that the product is still in a development phase. As you can see, the Maslow is rather unique. […]

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The BARN Workbench

The BARN Workbench is named for a community group of woodworkers and other artisans. BARN is the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network located on Bainbridge Island. The island is directly across and a ferry ride away from Seattle. Started by a group of enthusiastic woodworkers, the group has grown to include artisans in a number of interests, including fabric artists, metal workers, jewelers, writers, printers and more. After years of organizing […]

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Monday, May 29, 2017

HVLP for spraying shellac and other finishes

Contactless finishing I generally pick my weapons of attack to match the work battles I encounter so I have learned a few things about finishing through the years. There is no doubt that giving a good finish is critical in an age when furniture makers must no only make  but finish too. Just about the time when …

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Sunday, May 28, 2017

Jigs, guides and templates articles

You can skip the next three paragraphs deliberating on freeform and conformity and get beyond my opening ramblings if you like. Boundaries and open territory undefined It’s funny how we live in cultures where on the one hand we want boundaries, you know, to know what the parameters and limits are, where we stand and …

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John Wilson’s ‘$5 Router Plane’

$5 router plane

This article, by John Wilson (of The Home Shop, which offers Shaker boxes and supplies for making them) first appeared in the August 2005 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. While we’re still calling it the “$5 Router Plane,” it’s possible it will now cost a bit more to make – but likely still less than $10 (plus a bit of shop time). Here is a real-life shop problem: The project calls […]

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Friday, May 26, 2017

The New Background – Friday Live!

Today we have a cool new background for the show as phase two of my garage conversion is underway. Of course, we also have the usual Q&A. Here’s the rundown!

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How to Fix a Split Seat

One of the most exciting (and frightening) aspects of building a Windsor-style chair is the ever-present possibility that you will split the seat when you drive the legs home. I always tell students: Keep hitting the leg’s tenon into its mortise until the very next strike will split the seat. Then stop. This is not always possible. Today, I split a seat twice. Both splits occurred in mortises for the […]

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Handworks 2017, Day 2

  After Handworks 2017 wrapped up last Saturday, I took a few days off work as we wended our way back across the plains to Cincinnati (yes – I actually spent an entire three days doing almost nothing one might consider productive…and it was glorious). But it’s hardly fair to call Handworks “work.” It was a delight to not only see and try out the hand tools from so many […]

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Thursday, May 25, 2017

Dismantling the Past

As a general thing I find undoing another man’s work humbling. You tap parts apart, break glue lines a man joined together a hundred or two hundred years ago and there you find a chisel cut and a man’s name written in cursive script that flows in a way most young men and women no …

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VIDEO: Frank Klausz – Home Tour & String Inlay Advice

Frank Klausz has created many beautiful furniture pieces in his lifetime, and one of the features he enjoys using is string inlay. In this short video, Frank takes us on a tour of his home, pointing out a number of the pieces he has made. He highlights a china cabinet in his dining room for its special inlay features, then takes us into the shop to show us how it’s […]

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Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Use a Drill to Shape a Chair Seat

Though I’ve built a lot of chairs, I don’t own an adze, which is used to roughly shape a plank seat so it has a buttocks-shaped depression. I also don’t own any of the typical power-tool solutions, such as an angle grinder outfitted with a special cutter for seats. Instead, I have a scorp, which is like a drawknife that was bent around a telephone pole. It’s much slower in […]

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Dan’s Fold-a-way Drafting Table

I was a structural draftsman for many years before there were computers and CAD systems. Over the years I’ve tried a variety of CAD programs but always return to my old drafting skills. Woodworking had always been a hobby to me, but since retiring I’ve turned that hobby into a full time business. I learned early on that producing working drawings for my projects and designs greatly increased my capabilities and helped to minimize the difficulties encountered making complex connections.

For me, once I’ve gone through all the dimensioning and design steps drawing the entire project and visualize building it on paper, I pretty much have committed the entire project to memory. It’s then much easier to move forward and build the piece with minimal complications and few references to the drawings.

Over the years I drew on a variety of drafting tables and knew what type suited my needs the best. I have limited office space so I knew I have to have a table that would fold up and minimize the foot print and therefore save space when not in use. I’ve always liked the simplicity, lines and functionality of arts and crafts style furniture and have closely followed the work of the masters of that movement in the early twentieth century.

My table has a folding top and legs that are piano hinged to the supporting frame. The top lifts up, the legs fold in and the top then drops down for compact storage. The table is made of red oak with a dark mission stain and sprayed lacquer finish. All of the joinery is done with traditional mortise and tenon joints. The top is made of 3/4″ Baltic birch plywood with a red oak band. I finished the top off with a standard drafting pad and a Mayline parallel bar. The pencil tray was salvaged off of an old drafting table I found in the trash.

The legs are the most unique feature of the table. The two leg frames are 1 1/2″ square red oak pieces with a suspended circular piece. The legs are a representation of the work done on this table…straight lines, square corners, angles and circles.

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More on Silicone Oil

Silicone contamination causing fish eye doesn’t only come from consumers using silicone-containing furniture polishes on their furniture as I’ve been discussing in my last two posts. It can also come from hand and body lotions and from overspray if you use an aerosol polish in your shop to make the furniture you’ve just finished look better. The problem is that no manufacturers of any products I’m familiar with list silicone […]

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Re Easy Angled Tenons Article In Fine Woodworking

A few years ago a contributor to Fine Woodworking, Jeff Miller, made a horrendous blunder in stating that in-line tenons were commonly used in chair making by furniture makers because they were stronger. His assertion was untrue, and I felt I needed to help balance out the issue at the time. It’s this kind of flawed comment that shapes …

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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Yellow Dusters-Don’t Believe the National Trust

Biting Back The yellow duster is unbeatable for trapping dust, taking it outdoors safely and shaking it out to the four winds. Its fibrous soft fibres are the very thing that make it work the best. I am guessing that these National Trust leaders and advisers are not of the generation that actually dusted much of anything …

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Laying Out Dovetails with Christopher Schwarz

Look for new videos from Popular Woodworking every Tuesday and Thursday. We’ll post videos about what we’re up to around the shop, teaching videos from some of our favorite friends and some fun stuff from the woodworking world. Cutting dovetails is certainly a worthwhile skill. But before you can make the first cut, the skill of laying out dovetails comes first. Christopher Schwarz makes this often complicated process simple using […]

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Monday, May 22, 2017

Inlaying With a Difference

It’s not conventional but it works more quickly and effectively than any other method I know of. You can transfer the outcome to all manner of wood work for decoration or as in this case make it a standalone piece. We created a good-looking bookmark in minutes and without using anything more than handsaws, planes and a …

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Saturday, May 20, 2017

Handworks 2017, Day 1

I’m in Amana, Iowa this weekend for the Handworks 2017, and it’s a bit of a madhouse (but in a good way). It’s difficult to estimate the number of people, because the event is spread over five buildings in this historic German village, with hand tool makers, woodworking schools, timber framing, chairmakers, blacksmiths and more. I also haven’t gotten to see too many of the tools up close, because I’ve […]

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Digital Woodworking Classes

Learning about CNCs at the Marc Adam’s School of Woodworking Furniture manufacturers and large cabinets shops have been using digital tools and CNCs for decades. But, for hobbyists and small to medium shops, digital woodworking is just now getting started. Being a new kind of woodworking, it’s certainly different. That means there are new things to learn. A few weeks ago, I taught two classes at the Marc Adams School […]

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Friday, May 19, 2017

Plane Blade Angles & Drawer Slides – Friday Live!

Today we’re discussing what various plane blade angles do as well as the benefits and drawbacks of wood slides. Of course, we’ll have tons of other topics and here’s the rundown:

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Book Giveaway: Building Boxes

Building Boxes

I recently completed a box project that I did as practice for hand-cutting dovetails (a new skill for me that I plan to use for a furniture build in the not too distant future). Personally I like to feel like I’m making something when I practice instead of just cutting and recutting on a practice board (though I did do a little bit of that as well before starting my box). But […]

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How to Make a Half-lap Dovetail–A New Video and a New Method

There are different preferences and traditional ways to make hand cut dovetails and then there is a way that adds one extra step but removes all need for the conventional use of marking or cutting gauges; methods normally associated with laying out both through and half-lap dovetails. When I first saw the video played back to me, …

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Thursday, May 18, 2017

Bob’s Re-purposed Redwood Table

I was asked by my wife to build a table to go behind our couch in the family room. Having some 2-1/2″ thick redwood boards recycled from a above ground water tank, I decided to re-purpose these boards into this table. All boards were surfaced planed and jointed to 2-3/8″ thick. All joints are mortise and tenon. I integrated two 110v-USB plugs in the top to power small table lamps and to allow charging station for iPhone or iPads. Table legs and stretcher have mild curves inspired by your trestle table.

Entire table was sanded to 220 grit, then finished with Minwax polyurethane satin finish-8 coats. Table is 15″ wide, 32″ tall and 64″ long. I enjoyed making this table and have been asked to make two more for my daughters. Its the best reward ever for a woodworker when your work is appreciated by family. Having fun making sawdust!

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The Silly Side of Chad Stanton – Host of I Can Do That!

Look for new videos from Popular Woodworking every Tuesday and Thursday. We’ll post videos about what we’re up to around the shop, teaching videos from some of our favorite friends and some fun stuff from the woodworking world. Many of the viewers of our I Can Do That! videos know host Chad Stanton from his Big Chopperoo videos and wonder why he’s not dancing on I Can Do That. Trust us, […]

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Quick Plane Tips (Pun Intended)

I was a boy when I first saw it. George planed the board flat and it looked flat to me. What did I know? Life was different then I think. 15 years olds, in a workshop filled with adult men, I knew then I didn’t know anything; at least not much worth knowing. The oak …

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Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Joseph Walsh: Genius Furniture Maker and Artist, Now on Display in New York City – Part 2

One of the most impressive pieces of furniture in the show is a tall, pod-like cabinet that was commissioned by a wrist-watch collector. To house the collection, Joseph built a stacked cluster of drawers that pivot out on arms of bronze and stainless steel. It is not surprising that the drawer mechanism is as beautiful as the piece itself. The watch trays are lined with pear wood and individually sculptured […]

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Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Friendly Handworks Advice

If you’re headed to Handworks in Iowa this weekend, please do stop by the Lost Art Press and Crucible booths in the Festhalle to say hello. Your editor, Megan Fitzpatrick, has volunteered to give us a hand when she isn’t off exploring the amazing show. If this is your first Handworks, here are a few tips for making the most of the show. Bring cash. Credit card readers sometimes have […]

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Why You Need a Sharp, Steely Leader

Lt. Col. Hal Moore was credited with saving most of his men in the first major conflict of the Vietnam War at the Battle of la Drang. He was able to drop his men into the middle of an enemy stronghold – the only escape was straight up via helicopter. His company persevered. One virtue he instilled in his soldiers was that “there’s always one more thing you can do to increase […]

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Sunday, May 14, 2017

Happy Mother’s Day to All Woodworking Moms (and Moms of Woodworkers)

spice chest

While my mother isn’t a woodworker, I do have her to thank for my love of the craft. She collects antique furniture, and started doing so back when such things were more affordable and easy to find at yard sales. I also appreciate fine furniture, which I can only assume is a result of the furniture in my childhood home I wasn’t supposed to touch! But I can’t afford it unless I […]

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Friday, May 12, 2017

A Saw Binds

A saw binds in its cut and the man tugs it from the wood then throws it far across the shop like a Frisbee. Bouncing from the brick it lands deep in dust behind the strafe sander. He curses the saw and a big man walks over to him, grabs him by the throat and says, “Don’t …

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Monster C Clamp & Finishing Purpleheart – Friday Live!

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Japanese Sliding-lid Box

sliding lid box opener

This clever and simple piece is great for storing tools, toys or a kimono by Christopher Schwarz from the December 2015 issue While picking though a table of vintage Japanese tools for sale in 2013, I spotted this sliding-lid box under the vendor’s table; it was blackened by age, soot and rust. Despite its scars, however, the box was still graceful and functional. The owner, a Japanese carpenter, wouldn’t part […]

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Book Giveaway: Mid-Century Modern Furniture Plans

Mid-Century Modern Furniture Plans

This week’s book giveaway is for Michael Crow’s “Mid-Century Modern Furniture: Shop Drawings & Techniques for Making 29 Projects.” The book includes mid-century modern furniture plans for a number of great projects by designers like Hans Wegner, George Nelson, Borge Mogensen, George Nakashima, Finn Juhl and others. We published this book a couple of years ago and lately I’ve been revisiting it because I’m currently working on Michael’s new book – a book […]

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CNC Tooling Basics — Mills & Bits for Cutting Wood Parts

In this series on mills and bits for digital woodworkers, I introduced the basics of end mill and router bit design. If you missed it, here’s the introduction and parts one, two and three. With the basics completed, it’s time to focus on which mills work best for specific purposes. One of the best uses for a CNC is for cutting parts so, let’s see what mills and bits work […]

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Build Your Practical Workshop

Practical Workshop

  In this excerpt from “The Practical Workshop: A Woodworker’s Guide to Workbenches, Layout & Tools,” Christopher Schwarz discusses how the book can help you build your practical workshop quickly and effectively – so you can spend less time setting up your space and more time woodworking.  Over the years I’ve seen some of the most incredible (and humble) workshops all over the planet. Human nature being what it is, it’s easiest to […]

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Thursday, May 11, 2017

VIDEO: How to Remove White Rings & Haze From Finishes and Furniture

Removing white ring from furniture

There’s nothing quite as annoying as having a cherished piece of furniture that ends up with a white ring from an errant glass or cup. Many of us end up living with the problem and cursing under our breath, but you don’t have to do that anymore. Josh Klein has the answer. In this short video, part of 10 Essential Furniture Repairs, Josh walks us through the steps to fix […]

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Better Glue Joints

  by Lonnie Bird pages 39-41 From the November 2004 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine Much of woodworking is joinery: An edge-to-edge joint is used to join two or more boards to create a tabletop, dovetails are carefully cut and fit to create a box for a chest of drawers. And the corners of a door frame are joined with a mortise-and-tenon joint. However, whether it’s a simple butt joint or a […]

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Wednesday, May 10, 2017

How to Refinish Wood After Using Pledge

In my last posting on May 2, I mentioned that furniture polishes containing silicone have a bad reputation. Nevertheless, they are very popular with consumers. I thought I should go into a little more explanation for this seeming contradiction, and also address some of the questions I got. Back in the 1970s, when I started my furniture making and restoration shop, one of the first things I learned from suppliers […]

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Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Ray’s Writing Table

With my son now in college we needed a writing desk for him to do his school work. Searching the internet, I found this beautiful specimen. Using pine boards and maple ply from the home store, I built this. I discovered many new things in woodworking. The legs are tapered (my first use of a tapering jig) and the top is trimmed in pine edging. Until now I have generally used edge banding on table edges. This has given me the confidence to use solid edging from now on.

I used General Finishes Java stain on the edging and frame, and spray lacquered the finish using an aerosol spray can on the frame and then brush lacquered the top. I discovered I do not like to use brushing lacquer. The top came out streaky and rough. It’s going to take a lot more buffing out. If anyone has suggestions how to improve that I’m listening. I truly understand why Marc’s go-to finish is wiping varnish. I normally use GF Arm-R-Seal myself but wanted to try something different. I’m not sure I’ll do brushing lacquer ever again, but the spray was not too bad. After doing this desk, my wife now wants a matching chair. Maybe it’s time for a guild membership…

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Casework Joinery Reference Graphic

I had to duck under a retired diving flag that indicated a low beam under the oldest part of what is now our 140-year-old farmhouse, as I followed the seller during a walk-through. Lit by a couple of buzzing fluorescent fixtures, he showed me the remains of his workshop that he had mostly given away in preparing the house for sale. What was left was a wall of fasteners – old coffee […]

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Monday, May 8, 2017

Aldi Drill-driver Under Test

You don’t see me too often extolling the merits of power equipment but one piece of equipment i use enough in the day to day of life is a battery-driven drill-driver. I like them because they are a one hand operation, leaving my free hand to hold the work. It doesn’t mean I  am abandoning …

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