All posts tagged: Woodworking

Asa Christiana’s “Build Stuff With Wood”

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There is no question what this book is about. The title is super direct; super simple: Build Stuff With Wood. Asa Christiana’s new book from Taunton Press could one day become a “must have” book for aspiring woodworkers. Why? The mission of this book is to help woodworking newbies gain confidence and new skills by building stuff that looks good and requires only basic tools. This isn’t a book about building bird houses (not that there is anything wrong with that). Rather the projects are simple, varied and have been designed with a dose of style. Yet, the thirteen projects are a natural progression of skill and material choice and are meant to move the woodworker along in his/her path with sawdust. Asa Christiana is best known for his time as editor of Fine Woodworking magazine. As such Asa rubbed elbows with some of the finest woodworkers around. Hence the forward by Nick Offerman who wrote the cover article for Fine Woodworking #222, Nov/Dec, 2012. Concerning Asa, Nick Offerman compared the editor of perhaps the …

Free Woodworking Plan: Build a Modern Kitchen Cupboard

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Today, I launch my fourteenth woodworking plan titled You Can Build a Modern Kitchen Cupboard. The design of this cupboard started out as a traditional cupboard, but then slowly turned modern with the addition of birdseye maple as an accent wood to the painted pine and plywood. The contemporary door and drawer pulls are illustrated in a contrasting cherry wood, the little extension of the center face frame style and the curved ends to the cupboard top complete the modern look. You Can Build a Modern Kitchen Cupboard is a fully illustrated 30 page document and includes multiple exploded views, a cut list and material cutting diagram for the plywood components. There is also a detailed SketchUp model available for download. Let’s take a look at some sample pages… The Modern Kitchen Cupboard is rated as a moderate skill level project due to the mortise and tenon joinery along with the raised panel in the doors. But, you could substitute more simple joinery for the M & T and the panels in the door don’t …

The Modern Kitchen Cupboard – The Making of Page 26

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When I begin creating a new woodworking plan, each page usually goes through an exhaustive multi-step process before I call it finished and begin thinking about the next page. This is the reason a single plan can take two or three months to complete. For my current plan, You Can Build a Modern Kitchen Cupboard, I’m in my third month; but it will soon be finished. I try to make each page look different which means each page is a new page layout exercise. Exercise is a good way to describe the process because I normally make multiple changes to a page design as the page comes to life. Key among the decisions I make are those impacting the ability of the reader to easily understand the construction process described. Take page 26 of You Can Make a Modern Kitchen Cupboard for example. Since I am on vacation in the mountains of North Carolina (see the awesome image above – Craggy Gardens along the Blue Ridge Parkway), I have committed some of my free time …