Miter joints can be a real source of frustration. The pieces need to be the exact length and the cut surfaces need to be as close to perfect as you can get them. If they don’t look great right off the saw, use a shooting board and a plane, or rub the surfaces on a … Read more
In 2006, as I began my first round at Popular Woodworking Magazine (PWM), I was told I had to build a workbench. Even with then editor Christopher Schwarz chest deep in workbench publications, it wasn’t a mandate as much as it was a necessity. In the PWM shop, there was no usable bench empty and … Read more
Tool snobs beware: This post is about an inexpensive tool that is useful for woodworking and without an ounce of style or charm. In the cabinet industry, plastic laminate files are used for filing the edges of plastic laminate after trimming with a router. In that world, they are a consumable item and are purchased … Read more
It’s not often you get a chance to use egg-crate joinery in period furniture work. In fact, building the Carolina cellarette in the February 2013 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine is the first time I have used if I remember correctly. When the time came to build bottle dividers for the bottom of the case, … Read more
By Christopher Schwarz From the Spring 2004 issue of Woodworking Magazine, pages 8-11 When I was taught to cut rabbets in my first woodworking class, we made them with two cuts on the table saw. You’ve probably seen this technique in books and magazines before. For the first cut, the work is flat on the … Read more
Joinery is one of the most important skills to have as a woodworker, and it’s also one of the most talked about, demonstrated and addressed. Now, you can get a complete library of joinery resources – 20 different items for less than $90, in Popular Woodworking’s Joinery Made Easy Value Pack. Read more
In the world of design, you read a lot about the acceptance or rejection of symmetry. Wait, wait. Don’t go away. This blog entry, by the way, has to do with Audrey Hepburn’s gorgeous face. You can reject symmetry in design based on the fact that human beings are decidedly not symmetrical. A perfectly symmetrical … Read more
