Fitz's Picks from WoodworkingNow

We recently launched a new, fast way for you to get the exact project plan or article you’re looking for. It’s called WoodworkingNow , and here’s the skinny.

WoodworkingNow is a huge collection of hand-picked articles from the past decade of Popular Woodworking, and from all issues of Woodworking Magazine. You can browse the collection by sections (e.g. “Sharpening Essentials” or “Shaker Furniture Projects”). Or, you can search the entire site by keyword (be it subject or author). Then, you click the articles you want , they’re $1.99 each , and check out. Your article selections will be delivered instantly to your computer, in high-resolution PDF format , you can read it on screen, print it out to take to the shop, and save the file for future use.

Click here to browse WoodworkingNow and give it a try.

And below, you’ll find my top 6 picks.

– Megan Fitzpatrick

Fitz’s Top 6 Picks

Arts & Crafts Tool Cabinet
By Christopher Schwarz
I seem to have developed a plane problem, so I need this cabinet. There’s cubbies for planes of all sizes, hanging storage for chisels and saws, four small drawers for marking knives, dovetail gauges and the like, and two larger drawers for, well, bigger stuff. But years before I started working for the magazine, I admired this handsome piece. In my former life at our parent company, I wrote marketing materials (you know it as junk mail) for Popular Woodworking and other magazines, and I made sure this cabinet got pictured on almost every mailer. I still love it.

Pennsylvania Spice Box, Part 1 & Pennsylvania Spice Box: Inlay Door with Router (Part 2)
By Glen D. Huey
I’ve always been attracted to boxes, I like the look of 18th-century pieces and the myriad little dovetailed drawers in this piece would be great for storing jewelry (…¦or flash drives, paper clips and Post-It notes , I don’t have much jewelry). And if you don’t want to deal with inlay work (though the router makes it a lot easier), skip Part 2 and make a simple raised-panel door instead. This is near the top of my list of things to build.

Composing with Wood Grain
By Robert W. Lang
This, for me, is a game-changing story. I know, I know. I have three guys who give me advice on everything I build , from selecting the proper saw blade to the correct dovetail slopes to the finish. But wood selection has been a bit of a blind spot for me, no matter how much advice the guys shout out. Reading this story is what opened my eyes to the importance of choosing the right wood for the right place in a project (which won’t keep them from, uh, sharing their advice, mind you).

Creole Table
By Christopher Schwarz
My mother is an architectural historian, so I got dragged through a lot of historic house museums and antique stores when I was a kid. Yet I’d never heard of “Creole furniture” until Chris built this delicate, sinuous table. I particularly love the look of the scalloped aprons.

Chimney Cupboard
By Megan Fitzpatrick & Glen Huey

And I’ll end with the first major piece I designed and built (with help from Senior Editor Glen Huey) , a maple Chimney Cupboard that’s based on the Shaker aesthetic, but with a modern look. That piece , also my first cover story , is the one that made me start to feel like a real woodworker (and it served as my excuse to start investing in good tools). Three years later, the only thing I’d change is to add better drawer runners and stops.