In Shop Blog

We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.

While I love printed magazines and books, I am a huge fan of electronic books and magazines – especially when doing research on a project or technique. Plus, pdfs allow me to carry an entire woodworking library on my laptop, which is handy for traveling.

So I am eager to get my hands on a new DVD from Popular Woodworking Magazine that has all the issues from 1995 to 2012 in pdf format. Previously, the magazine’s electronic library went back to 2000 – so the editors have added another six years of issues to their library.

On one hand, I’m buying this DVD selfishly because it covers the early years I worked at the magazine – I was hired in 1996. So a lot of my ridiculous early work is in these issues. This was back when I had short hair, no beard and wore contacts. I’m barely recognizable.

But in addition to the entertainment value, there are a lot of really good stories in these issues. During this era, the magazine was focused more on projects than on technique. And we covered a lot of skill levels – from dead-nuts beginners to more advanced woodworkers. You’ll see a lot of biscuits and screws in these pages, but also a Chippendale secretary, some great modern furniture from Jim Stuard and fantastic early American stuff from Glen Huey and Troy Sexton.

And for the price, you can’t beat it. It’s less than $76 (with free domestic shipping) for a ton of pure woodworking information.

The only downside is that the early issues aren’t searchable by keyword. But they have provided a master table of contents for each of those issues that you can use to search them. It’s not perfect, but it works. (And if you have Adobe Acrobat you can use its OCR function to add keyword searches to the files.)

It’s a quibble, really, on a great product. You can order it from the store here. It’s in stock.

— Christopher Schwarz


Product Recommendations

Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.

Recent Posts
Showing 7 comments
  • Megan Fitzpatrick

    We also have 1995-1999 on CD, for $31.47.

    Andyman, I’m afraid the collection doesn’t include WM – but I think we’ve just reordered the all-issue CD for that, too (it should be in the store soon…and if it’s not, send me an email. I have a couple extra copies of that lying about). And of course, the hardbound collections of Woodworking Magazine look great on a coffee table…

  • stubby

    Megan sent out a link to the 1995-1999 cd ,thankfully, since I too have the 2000-2010 cd.
    Happy New Year Everyone!!

    http://www.shopwoodworking.com/popular-woodworking-1995-1999-cd/?lid=MFpwbl123012

  • pmiller@mdareserves.com

    Chris – I also just ordered to 2000 – 2010 collection. It seems like a bit of confused marketing to offer both. Is there a way to upgrade? Or I can return the 2000 – 2010 unopened and just re-order. Thanks, and Happy New Year.

  • NormB29

    So what happens to those of us who recently purchased the 2000-2010 collection? Can we up grade or do we have to buy all over again. I’d rather use that 80 bucks on some oak or pine.

  • wwtom

    Chris – ditto Andyman’s question. And do you know if there will be an electronic version of this for tablets? Thanks…Tom H

  • Andyman

    Very nice! Does this include “Woodworking Magazine” in addition to “Popular Woodworking” and “Popular Woodworking Magazine”?

Start typing and press Enter to search