Popular Woodworking Editors' Blog

SketchUp is a great free program for planning your work. But there is a tremendous amount of value to it even if you never draw a line. Printing out full size patterns is but one example. We've assembled a collection of models on Google's 3D Warehouse, and have the same collection categorized on our SketchUp Page. Anyone can download and use any of these models absolutely free. Here's an example of how I made a pattern for an ogee bracket foot from one of the latest additions to our collection.



This is a blanket chest made by Glen Huey that graces the cover of our August 2009 issue (on its way to subscribers as I write this). After downloading the model, I went to the Window menu in SketchUp and opened the window named Components. I scrolled down the list until I found the foot I wanted, and dragged it into an empty space in the model window. Sometimes dragging your feet can be a good thing. Then I zoomed in until the foot filled the screen.



I wanted a dead on view from the front, and there are a couple of ways to get it. I added the Standard Views toolbar to my installation, so I simply clicked on the front facing little house. You can also get this view from the Camera menu in SketchUp under Standard Views/Front. Then I went back to the Camera menu and checked Parallel Projection instead of Perspective. Then I picked a style from the Styles window to make the model simply black lines with no background colors.

The next settings I needed are under the File Menu/Document Setup window. Uncheck Fit View to Page and type in the number 1 in both windows under Print Scale. My machine can be a little fussy on this, and I need to highlight both windows before I hit the OK button.



You might need to fiddle with the Print Setup and Printer settings on your computer. Different computers and printers do this a little differently, but the idea is you want the printer to print at 100% and not scale the image to fit the page. If you're trying to print something that won't fit a single page, SketchUp will tile the images on as many pages as it takes. I snapped in a dimension within the model to make checking the scale easier. With the full size pattern in hand I can stick the pattern to a piece of wood with some spray adhesive and start cutting.

This is an incredible time saver and a simple way to transfer outlines from the pages of our magazine to your hunk of wood. If you haven't looked at SketchUp because you don't do your own design work, I urge you to check it out. This is only one of the many things you can do in addition to drawing. If you have a favorite "after the drawing is done" task for SketchUp, share  it by leaving a comment below.

– Robert W. Lang

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 5:39:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [5] 

The August 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking (which is at the printer now) features a Rob Millard article on Federal period inlay.

Rob walks through the steps to cut, sand shade and inlay one-piece bellflowers, dots and stringing to transform an ordinary tapered leg into a stunning work of art that has New York-style design characteristics.

Within the article, Rob explains how he sets the groove for his 3/64" curved stringing. He uses a double-bladed knife that he’s found so helpful that he has decided to produce and sell the tool ($21) through his web site at americanfederalperiod.com. He also describes a set up to create your own twin-blade knife using a couple hobby knives, a very small C-clamp and a few pieces of scrap as shown in the photo below.

And, if you’re a typical woodworker who’s interested in Federal-period work, you’re looking for as much information as possible. To that end, Rob has provided us a portion of his hand-drafted drawings – also available through his web site – of a New York-style leg. Click below to open a PDF of the drawing.

This is a technique you can develop for use on similar legs and other Federal furniture, or apply the technique to any of your work to further pump-up the design.

Check out Rob's video on cuffbanding here.

Millard Leg Drawing.pdf (480.83 KB)

— Glen D. Huey

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 2:27:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1] 

Long-time subscribers are familiar with Steve Shanesy’s work. While he was editor of Popular Woodworking, Steve built everything from a George Nakashima-inspired table to a steel-stringed guitar, not to mention the saw blade box and outfeed tables we still use on our table saw.

Steve had always done turning for furniture work. He’s been working wood since 1980, and was a professional woodworker for 15 years, running high-end furniture shops. He’s turned legs for countless tables, chair spindles, knobs and much more. “Turning allows you to work with a wider range of forms,” says Steve. “I think a turned Sheraton leg is more sophisticated than a square tapered leg, and we see in a finer furniture that split turnings and finials are often incorporated.”

But as Steve began to take on other duties for our parent company and had less time to spend on furniture building, his lathe work took an artistic turn. “I’ve always felt there was a more artistic side that rarely got to be expressed in flat woodworking,” he says. And “turning is something you can do in an evening – you can actually make something from start to finish and feel like you’ve really accomplished something.”

Of course, you have to practice, first. Steve began his journey with Keith Rowley’s book, “Woodturning: A Foundation Course,” and while he recommends the book for all beginning turners, Steve says the best way to learn is to watch an accomplished turner, either on video or in person. So he joined his local turning club, an active group that brings in accomplished turners to teach and demonstrate (and Steve has since become one of those teachers). Plus, the club is a great source for turning stock, which can be difficult to find if you don’t know a guy who knows a guy, he says. The key to good turning, says Steve, is to “practice the basic techniques until you get to the point where you don’t think much about what you’re doing with the tool; instead, you think about the shape you’re trying to create.


“A lot of times, the piece of wood you have will suggest a certain shape because you start with that limitation; then you have to sketch out or imagine the form and focus on that, not on the physical cutting,” he says.

After learning the basics, Steve began making bowls and hollow forms (also called face plate work), which he says “really focuses your eye on finding the perfect curve or shape. While hollowing can be boring at time, it also shows your skill when you can create a vessel wall that somewhere between 1/8" and 1/16" thick.

Since he got started with artistic turning, Steve has made a couple hundred showpieces, from miniature hollow forms the size of a hen’s egg to 16" platters to wooden jewelry, as well as sculptural forms that are simply fun, which Steve likes because they provide the opportunity to stretch his skills and imagination.

And last year, he was approached by a Cincinnati art gallery owner who offered him a show, at which Steve displayed and sold many of his best pieces. His “flat” skills came in handy, too. “The gallery owner didn’t have the right kind of shelving to display the pieces properly, so I designed a shelving system out of old kitchen doors,” says Steve. It sold, too.

Steve (who is now publisher and editorial director of Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine) still can’t get to the shop as much as he’d like, but he manages a healthy turning session at least every couple of weeks. While most of his work remains artistic, he also finds satisfaction in workaday projects such as tool handles and the oak handle he turned for his garden watering can. “Silly as it is, I really enjoy the wooden knob I turned for my lawnmower shift lever,” he says. You can see more of Steve’s work in the slide show below.

Steve’s new DVD, "Turning Basics for Furniture Makers with Steve Shanesy," will be available later this month.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 1:21:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] 

As a result of studying furniture as much as I did, I developed an eye for what does and doesn’t look right.

This learned skill came in handy while I was building a Shaker cupboard. I found a Watervliet cupboard pictured in Maine Antiques Digest and immediately decided to reproduce the piece (my cupboard is shown at the left). But As I began to create and install the mouldings, I found myself questioning the design of the smallish crown. It didn’t look right to me. (The original design is shown below.)

All in all, the change in the crown moulding made the piece more pleasing to my eye and evidently to the eyes of my customers.

And you think furniture design is not important? I’ll see you at the Woodworking in America Furniture Construction and Design Conference. I’ll be doing my best impression of a baby boomer returning to college. You know, sitting in the front row, gathering all the information I can and screwing up the grading curve. Flash back.

 — Glen D. Huey



Click Here For Conference Information

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 11:14:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [6] 

• Router Essentials In this seven-article series we cover all the basics of router use. From choosing and setting up a tool, to selecting the right bit for the job, to making complex joints, you'll get the router foundations and advanced techniques you need.
• 32 All-time Best Router Tricks Here you'll find the most ingenious time- and money-saving tricks from Popular Woodworking readers.
• 18 Shop-made Jigs From cutting sliding dovetails to perfect circles to precise dados, you'll discover basic and advanced jigs you can easily make to get the most from your routers. Plus, we include complete plans for several workhorse router tables.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009 10:54:10 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] 

I built a customer-ordered Shaker chest of drawers that I planned to deliver over the holiday weekend. Because this project is a future Popular Woodworking article, I had to get an "opener" shot before I left (that's what we call the pretty picture at the start of an article).

Once again I relied on my "Just in time" inventory system. Two days before the shoot I came into the shop to dye the chest. I mixed the dye and was ready to pour the mixture into my spray gun...but I could not find my gun. I seem to have lost my HVLP gun while moving between Marc Adams School of Woodworking (where I taught a class on finishing) and my shop.

I rooted around my shop like a pig hunting for truffles (probably not the best self-description to use). I found nothing. The Apollo Atomizer (A7500QT) spray gun I ordinarily use is on the injured reserve list and is out of the lineup until it's repaired. The older back-up gun I have is missing a few crucial parts that were scavenged to rehab the gun I misplaced. It turns out that I left the gun at the school in Franklin, Ind.

With my back to the wall, I purchased a new Earlex 5000 system for my shop. Popular Woodworking Editor Chris Schwarz has used the Earlex 5000 system and told me it did the job, but it's not the same as the more expensive HVLP units we’ve used. It was my turn to experience any differences.

Here's my take. The Earlex 5000 Spray Station is a two-stage turbine with a bleeder-type gun. I generally use an Apollo 1025 turbine (four-stage unit) with a non-bleeder spray gun. The Earlex is priced just below $300; the Apollo just tops $1,000.

The more stages in your system, the better the power coming from your turbine. The increased power allows the materials (aniline dye, shellac and lacquer, in my case) to be better atomized thus laying down a smoother coat of finish; to offset the lower power you simply thin the materials, but not too much.

A bigger difference is the bleeder gun vs. the non-bleeder gun. A bleeder gun blows air through the gun continuously. Whenever the turbine is turned on, the air blows. A non-bleeder gun allows the air to start and stop with the trigger action. Pull the trigger a little and the air flows.  Pull the trigger a lot to get the material to flow with the air. When you let go of the trigger, it all stops. All my guns are or have been non-bleeder types, so the idea of constant airflow always makes me wonder – I worry about blowing dust into the air and into my finish.

In using the Earlex unit, no junk found its way into my finish. The two-stage turbine worked fine after I thinned my lacquer (the viscosity of the water-based dye and the shellac thinned to a 1-1/2 pound cut was plenty to spray). I did have to work the spray pattern a bit differently than when I use the more expensive HVLP setup. I noticed the fan spray pattern on the Earlex gun was a little "dry" at the center of the fan, or more fluid was being pushed to the outside of the pattern. I had to keep the spray of the fan at a tighter overlap to get even coverage. If I moved as aggressively, as I do with the Apollo setup, a distinct streak would appear. (This is also why I change the fan-spray direction with each coat – spray one coat moving horizontally then the next coat with a vertical movement.)

I’m impressed with the Earlex 5000 system. It is a perfect starter unit and certainly a candidate for the woodworker who desires to spray finish, but doesn’t want the cost of the unit to equal that of a new 8" jointer. I would have no issues working with this system. However, due to the number of projects I finish each year, I think I’ll dedicate my Earlex HVLP unit to aniline dye and I’ll stick with my Apollo unit for my topcoat finishes.

I have to get that gun fixed!

— Glen D. Huey

Friday, May 29, 2009 1:17:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2] 

Hand tools and power tools – or should it read hand tools vs. power tools. Look at it this way: When the power goes out, you can keep going with your hand tools – either in the moonlight or the sunlight. Of course we now have battery-powered tools...

Jim Tolpin is an interesting fellow. He began his woodworking career in Maine building wooden boats. For those of you that have built wooden boats, helped to build a boat or have just read books about building boats, you'll understand that there isn't a straight line to be found. Hand tools were used almost exclusively, so Jim says this experience was invaluable to his woodworking education, and that good old hand-on experience is certainly the best teacher – if you can learn quickly and not make too many big mistakes, you can keep your job.

Then Jim moved to the West coast in the early 1970s to seek more boat-building opportunities. He found them, plus the chance to start his own cabinetmaking business. That's where the power tools came into use. Making lots of the same thing (say, cabinet sides) is best done using a table saw, where you can set a fence and let 'er rip, so to speak.

After a few years of running his own, mostly one-man shop. Jim came up with ways to streamline his woodworking business – from getting clients, keeping the money flowing, organizing his shop, building the projects and delivering and installing the cabinets. He decided that he would write this all down, which he did. It became his first book, "Working at Woodworking." Jim said that he wrote this book as a way of getting himself organized, then thought, "Why not help others to avoid all the mistakes he had made?"

When I had my own woodworking business, I bought his book. I didn't know who Jim Tolpin was, but as I stood in the bookstore thumbing through the pages of "Working at Woodworking," I knew this was the book that would help me get organized (19 years later, I'm still trying to "get organized", but that's another story). I was struggling to keep things afloat, the work wasn't getting done as efficiently as it could, and I was working too many hours for  too little pay.

Fast forward a few years. To give it the new life it deserved, "Working at Woodworking" was retitled, revised and updated by Jim with color photos, new illustrations and even more information. Jim Tolpin's Guide to Becoming a Professional Cabinetmaker was born. It's now the go-to book for all woodworkers who want to start their own successful businesses.

One of the power tools Jim recommends woodworkers to buy first is a table saw. In his book, Table Saw Magic, 2nd Edition, Jim shows you why. The table saw can take the place of a shaper and, in most cases, the band saw. Yes, the table saw can cut circles, make mouldings, cut crisp miters, hack through rough lumber, make raised panels, mortise-and-tenon joints (yes, even the mortises), sand boards – and it has been known to slice bread. "Table Saw Magic" gives you all the information needed to keep your table saw running smoothly and doing all kinds of tricks you didn't think it knew how to do.

Woodworker's BookShop is featuring both of these books right now, so purchase them while the sale lasts. You'll be glad you did.

Jim decided that writing could be way to make a living without having to lift tons of wood every day. It was a good decision, both for him and all us who have purchased and read his books. Jim has gone on to write a dozen books about woodworking, which have sold over 750,000 copies combined.

A couple years ago, Jim and some of his buddies started a The Port Townsend School of Woodworking, in Port Townsend, Wash. Jim teaches classes on how to care for and use woodworking hand tools. He knows what he's talking about, having learned from all those years of boat building.

One thing I should mention about Jim – he reads every book he can find about woodworking – from 100-year old texts to books on the latest new tool or technique. Name a title and he's probably read it – and more than likely has it in his personal library.

It's been a pleasure for us here at Popular Woodworking Books to work with Jim. We have two more books from him in the works (one about why cottages are so warm and inviting as homes, and the other about the care, feeding and how-tos of woodworking hand tools.) Both books are due out in 2010.

If you attend Woodworking in America: Furniture Construction and Design (Aug 14-16 in Pheasant Run, Ill.), you'll have the chance to meet Jim and learn how the design of your projects drives the construction techniques – and how the choice of power tools or hand tools can change the process.

— Jim Stack, Senior Editor, Popular Woodworking books

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 9:19:32 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]