Q & A: Clean Up Squeeze Out
Q: I saw one of those woodworking wizards on television the other day. As I watched the guy build a three-day project in 30 minutes, I noticed he washed off glue squeeze out with a wet cloth [...]
An Intro to New Features of SketchUp 2015 for Woodworkers
This video contains several excerpts from a 1-hour, detailed video about the new features of SketchUp Make 2015 being created by Joe Zeh. That video will be for sale at ShopWoodworking.com soon, [...]
2 Ways to Warm up For Dovetails (Without Cutting One)
My dovetails are always at their best if I warm up before sawing. But I’ll be honest – when I am pressed for time I have no patience to cut an entire joint, much less prep the wood for a …
Edge & Surface Treatments — Tips and Tricks
From Popular Woodworking’s “The Ultimate Router Guide”... Routers were developed to cut moulded shapes in wood. Although their workshop role has expanded (greatly) during the [...]
Beyond The Vise: Planing Boards
On several occasions I’ve taught hand tool woodworking in locations that weren’t really setup for it. The challenge I faced was hand planing workpiece faces on tables or workbenches that didn’t [...]
In Search of the Perfect Wax Finish
My four-decade-long desire to identify, understand, replicate and develop new analogs to historic furniture-making materials has led me on some interesting quests and situations. Included in [...]
Sharpening Shortcuts
It goes without saying that there is a renewed interest in hand tool woodworking, and much has been written on the topic, and that’s great because there really is a lot to know about these [...]
Beyond The Vise: Workholding For Hand Tools
Why go beyond the vise? While most workbenches include a vise, it’s not always effective for all hand tool work. Things get even more difficult if you don’t have a good vise, or are [...]
Rohlfs & Stickley: A Case of Flowery Inspiration
Darrell Peart raised an interesting questions during my recent web seminar on “Unkown Arts & Crafts” for Popular Woodworking University. He noted the similarities between one of Rohlfs’ [...]
Maps for Your Journey
The search for design inspiration is a journey down many different roads, some of them fruitful and some dead-end. One of our goals within Popular Woodworking University’s online classes is to [...]
Hand Drafting Skill-builder FAQ
Q: Is there ever a time in the hand drafting process when you use paper with lines on it, such as graph paper? A: If I am out in the field and do not have a portable drafting setup, then …
Dovetail Joints: How Tight is Too Tight?
Last weekend I built a dovetailed campaign-style officer’s trunk for the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association and several of the members were shocked when I drove the carcase dovetails [...]
