I’ve hauled my tool chest all over the United States and Canada, and I remain impressed – deeply impressed – by how it has handled all the miles. I’ve even dropped it from a height of 36” – fully loaded – onto concrete. One corner of the chest’s dust seal splintered a bit, but the … Read more
I’ve been working on a cherry and bird’s-eye maple entry table for the October 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, and as I was installing the upper drawer stretcher I remembered how puzzled I was when faced with cutting my first one. It’s just a single dovetail cut on the end of the stretcher that … Read more
From time to time I hear someone comment about a woodworking practice that runs totally contrary to what I’ve been taught. One of these is what kind of wood surface yields the strongest joint when using wood glues, typically white or yellow glue, but also hide glue. This came up a few weeks ago. And … Read more
Slideshow: Keyed Miter Joints I like the decorative effect that keyed miter joints lend to an otherwise simple box. But they also add a great deal of strength to a notoriously weak joint. Here’s a quick slideshow on cutting and installing keys in miter joints using a very simple jig featured in the August … Read more
I’ve written before about my love of stringed packing tape – it deepens and matures every day. Here’s a short slideshow I put together on one of its best uses: gluing up small boxes. Using clamps to glue up any small box is tricky and almost always frustrating. The clamps are too large for the … Read more
I like Morris chairs – Lord knows I’ve built enough of them to change my middle name to “Morrie.” But this evening I finished up work on a chair that is lighter in weight (less than 10 lbs.), just as masculine (leather!) and is (gasp) even more comfortable. It’s called a Roorkhee Chair, and it … Read more
Because chairs take abuse like a rented mule, the simple mortise-and-tenon joint is sometimes not enough. In traditional Windsor chair construction, the legs and spindles are attached to the plank seat using tenons that are cone-shaped along their lengths. So the mortises have to be the same shape. These tapered joints are clever. The more … Read more
