One of my woodworking instructors years ago liked to reassure students by saying “Anyone can build furniture, but it takes real skill to fix mistakes.” Here’s how I went about fixing mistakes on a recent commission. A few weeks ago I wrote about using bending ply for the skin of a table support frame that…

Mr. Robinson saw the signs in 1967, and I lived it in the 70’s building restaurant fixtures and lots of furniture out of plastic laminates. Laminates were everywhere. Durable, colorful, pliable, inexpensive – genius! Laminate work covered my pocket money for “beverages”, cars and dates through high school, and helped foot the bill for a bunch…

Video: How I use a grid system to make digital woodworking easier CNCs are wonderful machines. For woodworkers who want to combine traditional woodworking with digital techniques, they can do all kinds of useful tasks. But, they can be challenging tools to master. Certainly, the technology is intimidating for some, but even if it’s not,…

Three-legged folding stools need a “tri-bolt” to allow the legs to fold in and out. Years ago, Tandy Leather offered an inexpensive tri-bolt, but it has been absent from the company’s inventory for several years. Thanks to an email from a friend, I discovered they Tandy is now stocking the tri-bolts again in three finishes…

Laying out accurate angles on your work is critical. So it’s funny to me that we spend $100 on a Starrett square for 90°, then spend $1.59 on a plastic school protractor for every angle that isn’t 90°. Lucky for us, we don’t have to spend $100 to get a protractor that is accurate enough…

I’m a big fan of a soap finish for certain projects. It doesn’t provide a lot of protection to wooden objects, but it is completely safe, easy to apply and quick to repair. But this week I encountered some difficulty with the finish that caused me to ask: Can soap flakes go bad? First off,…

Video: How I use a grid system to make digital woodworking easier CNCs are wonderful machines. For woodworkers who want to combine traditional woodworking with digital techniques, they can do all kinds of useful tasks. But, they can be challenging tools to master. Certainly, the technology is intimidating for some, but even if it’s not,…

In this video, I take Popular Woodworking readers on a tour of my custom 38″ x 72″ x 10″,  twin-spindle CNC.  Over the last few years, I’ve written several articles and dozens of blog posts for Popular Woodworking Magazine. I often include photos of my own CNC. Because my machine is a bit unusual and…

Teaching is a two-way street. It’s not just for students. As an instructor, you get to peek into the many different ways students use their tools. Since one of the things I teach is digital woodworking, after much observation and conversation a number of patterns have emerged about CNC setup. The first is that the…

  The Marc Adams School of Woodworking, located just outside of Indianapolis, IN. celebrates its 25th year. Popular Woodworking video producer David Thiel took the opportunity to sit down with founder Marc Adams to chat about his decision to open a woodworking school. Hear Marc’s eye-opening story on why he became a teacher, rather than…

  Popular Woodworking’s editor Andrew Zoellner talks with Austin, TX arborist Jesse Neumann about the life of urban trees and what Austin is doing to care for them during their lives and afterlives. Tune in and learn more about the urban forest.     The Afterlife of Trees is Popular Woodworking’s podcast for woodworkers, artists…

Skateboarding is a childhood obsession of a few members of the PW team. In this episode of Afterlife of Trees, we talk to a Cincinnati-based custom longboard builders, Jeff Risinger and Val Woodham, whose stunning skateboards are also works of art. We then speak to Martinus Pool of Adrian Martinus Custom Woodworking – artists who…

There are a few drawing tools I find myself using no matter what I’m working on in SketchUp. One of those is the Move tool. It lets me position objects exactly where I want them, but it’s also great for making copies. There are a few ways to copy objects with the Move tool, and…

A student wrote and asked me this paraphrased question: “Can you give me some suggestions for drawing these irregular tenons into the legs? If the mortises were rectangular I would simply use the Rectangle tool to trace one onto the face of the leg and Push/Pull it to depth.” I exaggerated his tenon in the…

Whenever I take on a new cabinet or built-in project, I like to model it in SketchUp. I sometimes have trouble visualizing how things are going to fit together, and an accurate 3D model helps me think through a project thoroughly before I start. Often, I like to go even further with a model, using it to…