Popular Woodworking I Can Do That.pdf

“More than hankering after the past, I am worried

about the future. There seems no room left

for Mr. Average; Mr. Expert has ousted him.”

— John Brown

the Anarchist Woodworker,

Welsh chairmaker

I NTRODUCTION

S ECTION 1: Tools

S ECTION 2: Techniques

: Rules for Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . 6

: Measuring Tools . . . . . . . . . . 8

combination square,

tape measure

: Saws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

jigsaw, miter saw, circular saw

: Boring Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

power drill, awl

: Finishing Tools . . . . . . . . . . 36

le, rasp, sander, block plane

: Joinery Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

biscuit joiner, pocket hole jig

: Fastening Tools . . . . . . . . . . 57

hammer, screwdriver

: Workholding. . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Workmate, clamp

: Ripping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

: Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

egg crate shelf joint

S ECTION 3: Materials & Hardware

: Selecting Lumber. . . . . . . . 75

: Piano Hinge . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

are many paths to follow, forks in the road,

dead-ends and shortcuts. It’s a journey that our

forebears would make with the help of a living,

breathing guide: a master, a grandfather, a shop

teacher.

Sadly, the guides are fewer in number today.

And so you are left with people like me to

help. Like the making of meat byproducts, it’s

not a pretty sight. Getting your woodworking

instruction from books, magazines, television

and the occasional class is a slow way to learn a

complex task. In fact, many woodworkers spend a

long time (years!) simply accumulating machines

and tools before they ever build a single piece

of furniture. And when they do begin to build,

they inevitably discover that they actually need

different machines and tools to make what they

really want to make.

So they buy more tools and machines.

I want you to know something important that

doesn’t get said much: There is another way to

begin building furniture. You don’t need a table

saw, a workbench or even a shop. You don’t need

to spend $1,000 to build your rst birdhouse. You

can go to the home center in the morning and

start building something the same day.

I’m not talking about building junk, either.

The difference between a nice-looking set of

bookshelves and a rude assemblage of 2x4s isn’t

a table saw. The difference is cleverness, sound

design and just a wee bit of patience.

To build nice furniture you need a handful

of decent tools that you won’t outgrow. This

document will help you select the right tools that

strike a balance between price and function. You

need to use these tools correctly; we’ll show you

how to use them to build furniture (something

P W

icandothatextras.com

W hen you get started in woodworking there

you rarely nd in the instruction manual). You

need a place to work; a driveway, garage or corner

of the basement will do nicely. You need good

materials; we’ll show you how to get everything

you need from the local home center. And you

need plans and ideas for things to build that look

nice and can be constructed with these tools,

methods and materials.

The plans are in a column featured in every

issue of Popular Woodworking magazine. We

call the column “I Can Do That” because we

want readers to say that (out loud or in their

heads) when they open our magazine to that

page. This document scrolling across your

screen is the instruction manual for every single

project featured in “I Can Do That.” It’s a living

document; as we introduce new techniques or

ideas, we’ll update this manual and load it to the

web site for you to retrieve.

Eventually, we think you’ll outgrow this

manual as your skills improve. I bet you will want

a table saw someday. And a drill press. And a

smoothing plane. When that day comes, however,

you’ll also have a house full of well-proportioned,

well-built projects under your belt. You will be

ready for those awesome tools, and the learning

curve will be mercifully shorter.

If all this sounds like something that a

bunch of idealists cooked up at a corporate

strategy meeting, you’re wrong. Though I had

some carpentry training from my father and

grandfather, I started building furniture on my

back porch in Lexington, Ky., with a very similar

set of tools. Probably the only major difference is

that I had a circular saw instead of a miter saw (I

didn’t know those existed yet). I built a lot of stuff

with my simple setup – some stuff we still have

today and some stuff was long ago abandoned at

the curb or given away.

So this, dear reader, is a valid path.

My only regret in following it is that I wish

that I’d had this manual (or a master) to make

the journey easier.

P W

icandothatextras.com

Christopher Schwarz

chris.schwarz@fwpubs.com

Editor, Popular Woodworking

“The pioneers cleared the forests from Jamestown

to the Mississippi with fewer tools than are stored

in the modern garage.”

— unknown, attributed to

Dwayne Laws

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