A completed piece of furniture provides a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that people who don’t make furniture miss out on. I suppose it’s like most things in life that take dedicated effort and practice; those who have been there … Continue reading
In a few weeks I’ll be traveling to Maine to teach a week long SketchUp class for woodworkers at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. The class will be held September 8-12, 2014. There are still a few spots open, so … Continue reading
I’ve written before about Dean Mattson and his work as a shop teacher at North Salem High School in Salem, Oregon. Shortly after meeting him online, I published “The Future of Woodshop, Win, Win, Win.” That inspired me to travel … Continue reading
Last week I was honored to be a guest at a chair building class at the Chidwick School of Fine Woodworking in Stevensville, Montana. Most classes at Chidwick’s are comprised of guys in their fifties whose lives are pretty well … Continue reading
This post is adapted from my book “Bob Lang’s Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker”. The book details reasonable options to enable readers to make decisions that make sense for them. Good information about hanging cabinet doors is hard to find, and I … Continue reading
This is the season for high school graduation, and after the parties are over it’s time to adjust to the real world. Kids fresh out of school don’t have a lot of good choices. It’s either off to college, the … Continue reading
This post is adapted from my book “Bob Lang’s Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker”. The book details reasonable options to enable readers to make decisions that make sense for them. Good information about hanging cabinet doors is hard to find, and I … Continue reading
When I was sitting in my high school geometry class I wouldn’t have believed you if you had told me that one day I would standing in front of the class, suggesting that geometry was not only useful, but interesting … Continue reading
“Bob Lang’s Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker” has been one of my most successful books since it was published in 2006. It’s been reprinted several times (an unusual occurrence for a woodworking book in this day and age) and about a year … Continue reading
With the release of SketchUp 2014 come a couple of options for drawing arcs. In the past arcs were drawn by selecting a start point, an end point and then specifying a “bulge” distance. That’s a useful way to draw … Continue reading
One of the ways SketchUp resembles woodworking is that it’s easy to get caught up in messing around with the tools and never get any real work done. In my classes this year I only hinted at the ability to … Continue reading
The good folks at SketchUp recently released an updated version of my favorite 3D modeling program. As with previous versions of SketchUp there are two versions, the free for personal use “SketchUp Make” and the more advanced version “SketchUp Pro”. … Continue reading
A few years ago, Glen Huey and I traveled to Winston Salem, North Carolina to visit MESDA and do research for a book of measured drawings of early southern American furniture. MESDA is different from most museums and their collection … Continue reading
One of the fundamental skills of woodworking is sharpening, and the often seen recommendation to use a jig plays to one of the fundamental character traits of most woodworkers. If you can sell a beginning woodworker on the idea that … Continue reading
In my post on making a template for through mortises, I used a full-sized paper pattern that I printed from a SketchUp model. A reader posed the logical and obvious question “can you print a full-size pattern from the free … Continue reading
Jigs and templates are common in professional woodworking shops, as well as common topics in woodworking books, magazines and blogs. A good jig will do two things; make the work better and get the work done faster. If you … Continue reading
“Building Blocks of SketchUp” is a different sort of book. It’s designed to be read on your computer while you practice in SketchUp. Within the pages are embedded video lessons that reinforce the text and screen shot images. It’s independently … Continue reading
SketchUp is a great tool to quickly draw parts for furniture and cabinet projects. Even better is the fact that if you know how to organize all the bits and pieces of the model you hardly need to draw at … Continue reading
New SketchUp Book, “Building Blocks of SketchUp” Now Available for Download “Building Blocks of SketchUp” is the best way to learn the basics of 3D Modeling with SketchUp. With 260 pages of illustrated text, with 50 embedded video lessons this … Continue reading
I think of a SketchUp model as a resource for building the real thing. Making the model is like a dress rehearsal, you go through all the steps of the process, and you can solve problems with the Undo command, … Continue reading
When you write and publish a book independently, you don’t need to worry about the bean counters or the salesmen. You can do what you want. In “Building Blocks of SketchUp” I tried to write the book I would have … Continue reading
Buying a book to learn how to use software is often a necessary evil. You can only get so far by poking around and seeing what happens when you push different buttons. A good book can save you a lot … Continue reading
Update, October 15, 2013: “Building Blocks of SketchUp” is now available as a digital download. CLICK HERE TO ORDER! SketchUp is a wonderful piece of software for designing, visualizing and planning just about anything. Some people catch on to SketchUp … Continue reading
With the release of SketchUp 2013, many of the tool icon images changed. What hasn’t changed is that for efficient work in SketchUp, you should be using keyboard shortcuts instead of clicking on the icons in the toolbars, at least … Continue reading
One of the most important lessons I have learned in teaching people how to make 3D models in SketchUp is that different people learn in different ways. It’s a huge mistake for anyone involved in teaching or writing about how … Continue reading
Last Wednesday evening I spent about an hour chatting with Dyami, Chris and Tom from the Modern Woodworkers Association. They recorded the conversation about SketchUp, my day job at Popular Woodworking Magazine, my books old an new, Arts & Crafts … Continue reading
The Chinese stool pictured at left is one of the most popular magazine projects I’ve made. It’s been about 4 years since the first one, and I still receive photos from readers and see folks building them online on a … Continue reading
One of the things I don’t like about magazine articles is the lack of photos of the finished project. There simply isn’t room for more than one “beauty shot” within the six or eight allotted pages. I’ve had the cover … Continue reading
This chair, the Gustav Stickley No. 369 Morris chair is one of the most iconic of his designs. I like it when complex things can be simplified, but I seem to like it more when something that appears simple at … Continue reading
This clock was originally designed in 1895 by British architect and designer C.F.A. Voysey. The best known version is painted, but there are also examples in ebony and oak with inlaid faces. The clock in the video is featured as … Continue reading
Picking a favorite project is like deciding which of your children you love the most. Picking my favorite kid would be easy, I only have the one. Among all the things I’ve made from wood, the Byrdcliffe Linen Press is … Continue reading
DVD — “Build an Arts & Crafts Mantle Clock” is no longer available. Click Here for Photos of the Finished Clock The project I recently completed, a reproduction of a C.F.A. Voysey mantel clock in alternate materials was one of … Continue reading
When I was a self employed furniture maker and cabinetmaker I didn’t have much choice about what I would build, it was mostly a matter of what a client wanted and was willing to pay for. For the last 9 … Continue reading
Here is one of my favorite moves in SketchUp, exploding and redefining components to move geometry from one component to another. If you don’t speak SketchUp fluently, that means I can take an existing tenon from a table apron and … Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago, I was the special guest in the WoodCentral chatroom, taking questions on Arts & Crafts furniture and trying to keep up. A transcript of the March 11, 2013 chat is now available online at WoodCentral. … Continue reading
One of the things I like most about building reproductions is that it takes me out of familiar territory and puts me in a place where the easy way out isn’t an option. If left to my own devices, I … Continue reading
On Monday night, March 11, I’ll be staying up late for a live chat on WoodCentral. It gets underway at 9:30pm EST and goes until my fingers won’t type anymore. The topic is Arts & Crafts furniture, so if you … Continue reading
I recently received the following question from a reader, and as it is asked often it makes sense to post the answer here. At first glance it is a technical question, but my answer veers off into philosophy, and bounces … Continue reading
Last fall we spent four days teaching SketchUp to a group of woodworkers from the Gwinnet Woodworkers Association in Atlanta, Georgia. The group was enthusiastic enough to establish a SketchUp special interest group within the club. They meet regularly, and … Continue reading
Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp is approaching its third birthday. It’s a unique work; it really isn’t a book although there are almost 200 pages to it. It comes on a disc in PDF format and what makes it different is … Continue reading