Build a Backyard Propane Forge

What the heck? Why would I want a forge, I’m a woodworker! Ah, but I have had the pleasure of watching a forge in action (very cool, lots of fire and sparks!) for a number of video shoots creating tools and hardware – and it was fascinating! But I kept coming back to the issue that I don’t have a forge and it seemed like a rather large ask to […]

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Protect Your Outdoor Furniture with Epoxy Feet!

Mother Nature always wins. So when you make outdoor furniture you have two choices: commit to a regular maintenance schedule or come to terms with the weathered gray look. Personally, I don’t like the weathered look so I generally try to make my furniture look “new” for as long as possible. An easy thing you can do to help the cause is to prevent moisture from entering into the legs. Usually, those legs result in end grain being in direct contact with the ground which is a recipe for rot, decay, and eventual failure.

This simple trick requires nothing more than epoxy and masking tape. West System Epoxy is expensive, but the 1 gallon size with pumps will last you for many years! The masking tape I use is standard blue painter’s tape.

Of course, this isn’t a cure-all for all outdoor furniture but it’s at least one more layer of defense against Mother Nature’s wrath!

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Tricks of the Trade: Gas-powered Plane-till Lid

I have a meager collection of handplanes made up of mostly dog-meat users. I like using planes that have history because it’s fun to think about what each might have made during the last 100 years. None of my planes are particularly nice, but I do want to keep them from getting destroyed. For a long time, my planes cluttered my workspace, got knocked around on my bench and were […]

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Back to School

Across the world, students are heading back to school – and some of them are on their way to woodworking schools, like The Krenov School (my alma mater), North Bennet Street School, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and many more. It was only a few years ago that I was gearing up for the same journey – and I have a little list of learning moments (i.e. screwups/mistakes/regrets) that I want […]

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All Hail the Versatile Doe’s Foot

The doe’s foot – a block of wood with a “V” cut into it – is one of the most versatile and cheap appliances for your workbench. I have an article about this little gizmo coming up in the next issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (look for it in the November 2017 issue, or perhaps subscribe). I work with a lot of odd-shaped parts, especially when I build chairs. These […]

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Avoid Damaging Finish with an Electric Polisher and Lambs Wool Pad

I got a call from a piano refinisher who had damaged the new finish he had applied by getting it too hot with an electric polisher. It turned out that he had polished finishes for years without this problem, but this was the first time he used nitrocellulose lacquer. He had used lacquer because his client requested it. What to do now? No finish is perfect. All have upsides and […]

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Shrinking and Stretch—Working Out the Subtle Wrinkles and Kinks

I wanted to show Hannah how a finish shrinks and stretches itself to a surface when you see only brush marks or an unevenness after spraying. Below you see three images but this was after a single spray coat with 2-8 minutes between taking the first shot and the last. Look at the texture in …

Read the full post Shrinking and Stretch—Working Out the Subtle Wrinkles and Kinks on Paul Sellers' Blog.

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