There is a downside to buying lumber from a guy’s garage.Ã? Retail, the 12/4 walnut and 8/4 walnut I scored from the garage would have cost me more than $400....
Our magazine’s workshop is an odd duck. In some ways it’s equipped better than some commercial shops (with our eleventy-billion new routers) I’ve been in, but it lacks sorely in...
One common question we get from readers is what happens to the tools we test and the projects we build. The assumption, I think, is that we live a life...
I always enjoy tours of tool factories to see people (or robots) make things that are useful to my work. How a company can harness hundreds of minds and hands...
After finishing college, two of my closest friends joined the Peace Corps and were posted to rural Morocco. But within a year they were back in the United States: 20...
In China, 2005 was the year of the rooster. In our shop, 2005 was the year of the anvil. We built a guillotine out of framing material and dropped anvils...
Trestle tables have always looked notoriously spindly and rickety to my eye. Compared to a traditional apron table, there’s just not much material there. Add to the fact that they...
I get called a Luddite all the time for my affection for hand tools (Recent quip from spouse: “You know, we own a blender for a good reason”). I certainly...
I am just now starting to acquire the tools necessary to do some woodworking, but the money is very tight right now; so I’ve started looking some local flea markets....
Sometimes a craftsman-made tool surfaces that is just plain mysterious and wondrous. Today I spent the morning with Carl Bilderback, a semi-retired Chicago-area carpenter who has an astonishing [...]
