Which WoodWorking Mags do you Like

[ragswl4]

I hope I am not becoming a Poll Junkie. I thougt it would be good to get everyone's view of woodworking magazines. I have only listed a few so if there are others out there that you think are good sources of information include them in your post. Also it would be nice to know why you like or don't like a particular magazine.

I currently subscribe to four woodworking mags. Fine Wood Working, Wood magzine, WoodSmith and Shopnotes. Wood, WoodSmith and ShopNotes are my favorites. They seem to have information that I can use right away and generally have several projects in each issue. I actually like the Fine Wood Working online subscription better than their magazine. The online service gives a wealth of information on many different topics that always seem useful. Somehow the magazine just doesn't click for me.

[JSCOOK]

Often pick up copies of some of the mags listed ... but actually subscribe to mags in the OTHER catagory:

- Canadian Woodworking
- Canadian Home Workshop

[cork58]

I,ve been wood for a few years now and have a complete file box drawer full of them. Picked up on Idea Shop 5 when I was building my new shop. Took a few things from it and did some mods of my own. The best thing was the cleat system! They were right, you will need to redo your walls. Boy howdie did I. There is alot of reviews that are good and for me I need all the help I can get. The projects are O.K.. I still like to get mine out of my sleep and put them to paper whe I'm awake. Guess I should show you some but don't want to embarress myself seeing what you guys do. Old Yank is not what I'm doing and most others like Rocklers are out of my range now. The lastest though had some great blind hinges!!!! O.K. enought for now!

Cork

[Ed62]

Currently only subscribed to Woodsmith and ShopNotes. I also like Wood magazine but no longer subscribed.

I like ShopNotes mainly for the shop toys. I'm not an accomplished woodworker, and Woodsmith doesn't seem to require advanced techniques in their projects. I like that.

Ed

[Pappy]

Wood, Woodsmith, and Shopnotes cover most of the spectrum for woodworking, IMO. I also take The Family Handyman for info on home DIY projects.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

American Woodworker. Pretty decent and can be had for a song on ebay or other venues.

Then you take that savings and apply it to Fine Woodworking. Generally best deal you can get on FWW is buying 3 years directly from FWW. It is generally not sold by 3rd parties. Even considering time value of money at 7% 3 years of FWW is much better than newstand or 1 year rate. And ya just gotta sign up for the online FWW that subscribers can get for $15 year.

I found a SUPER deal on FWW issues 1 - 132 complete by simply noting it had been there a few weeks and sending him a stupid offer! $50 as long as I would buy his Fine Homebuilding 1 - 58 for $50. Done deal. Plan on selling teh Fine Homebuilding on ebay.

Never liked Wood, Woodsmith or Shopnotes too much. Wood seemed kind of simple, never saw much in Woodsmith that I liked and I AM NOT A JIGGIST thus no ShopNotes!

[Knottscott]

How much I like each one varies from issue to issue, but overall, I've liked Popular Woodworking best for a few years now.

[messmaker]

I like Wood,P. Woodworking but I find Woodsmith to be the most handy.

[LinuxRandal]

I subscribe to Shopnotes, and now Wood magazine. I like, and occassionally buy Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding (sometimes some mild crossover). I've only seen three Woodsmiths, so I don't really have a valid opinion of them yet (not even enough to subscribe).

Popular Woodworking, American Woodworker, etc, I tend to check out at the library.

I did the free subscription to Workbench last year, and it goes in cycles as to which part of it's target audience (diyer) it targets (woodworker, fixer, etc). It will be a library one.

[gwyneth]

How much I like each one varies from issue to issue, but overall, I've liked Popular Woodworking best for a few years now.

Yes, Popular Woodworking has been getting better and better--strange how at the same time, American Woodworking (my former favorite) has been falling off, IMO.

Woodworkers Journal almost always has some nugget or theory piece that makes that issue stay around forever.

The problem with WOOD, IMO, is over-complicating simple projects. It's gotten a little better about this, but sometimes their 'diagrams of 1,000 joints and grooves' just make me shake my head.

Plus, some of the projects may be well engineered but fail from the human standpoint--their current issue has a neat combination of storage tower for bench machines and mobile base. The idea is you take the bench machine on its shelf out of the storage tower and put it on the base.

Great idea...but. The cover shows the whole thing. A big old bench grinder is on the top removable shelf, at least six ft. high and well above the head of the (male) model. It looks like a recipe for muscle pulls, head bruises, curses and worse.

"Bench lifts" and "grinder presses", or 'how to combine your shop setup with weight lifting'.

[Ken Massingale]

All those in the poll except Shopnotes , also Popular Woodworking. Shopnotes is very good and I sub'ed several years but they ticked me off a few years ago when they wouldn't renew me for the new subscriber rate. Yes, I do hold grudges.
Polular WW has come a long way, it deserves a look.

[atgcpaul]

Wood is my longest subscription followed by Fine Woodworking, then Pop
Woodworking and finally Woodsmith. I'm not going to renew Woodsmith.
Nothing really appeals to me in it. Popular Woodworking has some hit or miss
articles as well as Wood. I savor each and every Fine Woodworking, though.
I'm sure I've used a lot of the techniques presented in these magazines, but
the only plans I followed were from an American Woodworker for a shop cabinet
and collapsable saw horses.

Paul

[Perfidiajoe]

Workbench, is pretty good, I get some good ideas from it.

[ragswl4]

Yes, Popular Woodworking has been getting better and better--strange how at the same time, American Woodworking (my former favorite) has been falling off, IMO.

Woodworkers Journal almost always has some nugget or theory piece that makes that issue stay around forever.

The problem with WOOD, IMO, is over-complicating simple projects. It's gotten a little better about this, but sometimes their 'diagrams of 1,000 joints and grooves' just make me shake my head.

Plus, some of the projects may be well engineered but fail from the human standpoint--their current issue has a neat combination of storage tower for bench machines and mobile base. The idea is you take the bench machine on its shelf out of the storage tower and put it on the base.

Great idea...but. The cover shows the whole thing. A big old bench grinder is on the top removable shelf, at least six ft. high and well above the head of the (male) model. It looks like a recipe for muscle pulls, head bruises, curses and worse.

"Bench lifts" and "grinder presses", or 'how to combine your shop setup with weight lifting'.

Good critique of that article. While the concept was good, I would agree that moving and lifting all that stuff around when you needed it could become a PITA over time. Still, for a small cramped shop it might just be the ticket. Upside, we might start to look like my Governor, Arnold S. On second thought, forget that.

[gwyneth]

Good critique of that article. While the concept was good, I would agree that moving and lifting all that stuff around when you needed it could become a PITA over time. Still, for a small cramped shop it might just be the ticket. Upside, we might start to look like my Governor, Arnold S. On second thought, forget that.

A lot of us with very small work areas are very familiar with lifting, tugging, moving and placing. There are dozens of projects in the ether and paper world that involve different ways to store, move and use bench tools.

It's just that most of them don't put an 8" bench grinder six feet up in the air--and the way the movable shelves are designed requires one of three options: a) being 6'6" or taller; b) getting out a step-stool; or c) pulling the shelf out and essentially holding the bench grinder over your head for a short period.

Moving my 6" bench grinder from a medium low shelf about a foot off the ground up to a work surface is enough of a pain; I can't imagine lowering an 8" one from way high up.

However, the problem may be that the art director and or photographer are not woodworkers. Four tools are pictured--a Jet 8" bench grinder on the top shelf; a smallish belt sander being lifted with the 4ft-ish shelf onto the mobile base; a scroll saw on the 2ft-ish shelf; and an enormous CMS on the bottom shelf.

If someone can think of a good reason for putting the bench grinder on the highest shelf and the belt sander on the next one, instead of the other way around, I could stop being really annoyed whenever I think of it.