Dan Shapiro's Blog

My walnut dining room table needs a little tinge of red. I’ve been mulling over how I’m going to do that for a while, and per my usual habit, I’m going to share my thoughts and findings with you.

I found a real gem I had to share. It’s called “Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish”, by Bob Flexner. It’s been out of print for a while, and copies were going for $30 and up, but it was recently reissued as a paperback.

I’ve been preparing to finish my dining room table project — finish in both senses of the word. I poked around and discovered Behlen’s Rockhard Table Top Varnish. The folks at Behlen were kind enough to provide me with a gallon of varnish and a quart of reducer. It arrived a few days ago, and…

Another tip from guest-author Brian. –dan I share my garage shop with the washer and dryer, and recently my wife has been threatening to stop doing the laundry if she continued to…

Just thought I’d put in my 2 cents on Li-Ion batteries. To sum it up, they rock. I’m pretty sure that current tools use Ni-Mh not Ni-Cad. So the Ni-Cad argument is outdated anyway.

Well, I’m a bit behind on Safety Month, but since every month should be Safety Month in the workshop, I’m going to share my favorite safety device to date: The Grip-Tite magnetic feather board. This little gem is the invention of Jerry Jaksha, a hobbyist woodworker like you and me who was willing to go…

When you get lots of lumber, you’ll sometimes find small areas with really cool figure. I usually cut these out and play with them–split them in half and glue them back together to make bookmatched box tops, for example. Someday I’ll get my bandsaw set up to resaw them properly, but in the meantime, you…

The good news is that Milwaukee are introducing a new line of 28 volt lithium-ion battery powered cordless tools. The bad news is that stalwart Milwaukee is now another TTI brand.

You can slap this finish on in a night. It’s tough, scratch-resistant, alcohol and water resistant, and it goes on great over trouble woods like cocobolo. And you can get almost everything you need from the Jolly Orange Giant for under $20. Here’s how it works.

Woodshop News was kind enough to run an article on Nothing Severed Yet in its January issue.