woodworking magazines

[p8ntblr]

any recommendations on a woodworking mag geared to beginners? like articles on calibrating equipment that may already be second nature to moderate/advanced woodworkers.

[bthere]

My recommendation would be to go to a bookstore and thumb through several magazines like Shop Notes, Wood, Popular Woodworking, etc. and see which one(s) suit you. Do this for a few months and you'll find out which ones meet your needs and cater to your interests.

[LinuxRandal]

If you hit a decent public library, you can find about a years worth of some woodworking magazines to see what suits you. Plus check out the books.

What ones they don't have, check out at the bookstore.

[LCHIEN]

magazines are discussed here often, you should search for "magazines" for the discussions and recommendations.
Wood, FineWoodWorking, Shop Notes and Woodsmith are mentioned often.

[RobD2]

Personally, I think that Wood is the best entry level woodworking magazine, with Woodsmith at a more intermediate level and then Fine Woodworking at a more advanced skill level. Shopnotes kind of crosses all levels.

[LCHIEN]

Personally, I think that Wood is the best entry level woodworking magazine, with Woodsmith at a more intermediate level and then Fine Woodworking at a more advanced skill level. Shopnotes kind of crosses all levels.

I kinda agree with that assessment.
Shopnotes is the every other month companion to woodsmith (also every other month) both published by the same company. Woodsmith does projects and project techniques and shopnotes does shop techniques and jigs more.

[ssmith1627]

It's not quite on the same level for the most part but I've found some good stuff in The Family Handyman as well. Most of theirs aren't our sort of projects. But my workbench was there with some very detailed plans -- I think the article covered like 12 pages. I've also seen plans for a beautiful cherry bookcase that was just huge and very nice. My complaint with them is all the ads in the magazine -- so much crap that's not tool / woodworking / home repair related, mostly medications. I don't mind tool ads bu tI hate seeing all the rest.

My favorites after about 15 months in this hobby are Woodsmith, Shop Notes, Wood and Fine Woodworking. The last one there, as said above, is beyond my level for the most part but I still enjoy reading / learning.

I need to try the library thing -- that's a very good suggestion.

Steve

[LarryG]

like articles on calibrating equipment that may already be second nature to moderate/advanced woodworkers.

If that's the sort of info you're looking for, I'm not certain that magazines are your best bet. There's some of that sort of thing, sure, but for the most part magazines are focused on project plans, tool reviews, and tricks/tips/techniques.

Try to get a look at some of the titles in Taunton's "New Best Of Fine Woodworking" series. These are paperbound reprint volumes of articles from FWW, with each title focused on a single subject. To give you an idea, here are some of the titles:

Working With Routers *
Working With Table Saws
Workshop Machines
Machine And Hand Joinery
Selecting And Drying Wood
Working With Hand Planes
Designing Furniture *
Designing And Building Cabinets *

I own the titles marked with asterisks, and maybe one or two others not listed. There are other volumes that are compilations of project plans -- some small and easy, others large and maybe not so easy.

The MSRP on these is $17.95 but they're available from amazon.com for about $14 each. I personally think books such as these are better buys than most magazines because they are all meat and no chaff; you have a better chance of getting a lot of info about the desired subject, rather than just a single article. Also, there are no ads, so every page is useful content.

[Russianwolf]

I've noticed that they all seem to cover the same type article within an issue or two of each other. So I can't say one is better than another.

I can say that I've like some of the projects in American Woodworker more than those in Wood.

[ChrisD]

It sounds like you know exactly what you are interested in at the moment. The problem with relying on magazines alone is that the current issues or those yet to come may not address your needs immediately. Other than taking the advice to go to the library where you have access to years and years of knowledge, I suggest that you seriously consider a membership on Finewoodworking.com. If you find the annual membership fee too steep (especially if you do not have an existing subscription with the magazine) you have the option to sign up for just a month. During that time, you can look for and download all the articles that you need (or want).

Just an idea.

[Ed62]

If you should go to the library (highly recommended), look for "Popular Mechanics Workshop Router Fundamentals". It was written in 2004, and it has a ton of good information on routers.

Ed

[scorrpio]

Fine Woodworking is my favorite - it tends to be the thickest, and covers pretty much everything - from basics to master level.

Shopnotes is really more of a 'for the shop' projects.
Wood is also very hands-on, but more 'for the house'.
Workbench is good, covering a good deal of either.

Woodworker's Journal seems to be very similar to ShopNotes.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I 100% agree with LarryG on this one. Machine set up, calibration, measuring, proper use of machines, etc are well covered in the Tauton titles he lists. Generally, authors of these books are experts in that field rather than some part timer who may have been commissioned to write an article on something he/she knows little about.

Check your county library system (ie not just you specific local library stack) for these books. Often one library will have the lions share of the woodworking books, however they generally share throughout the system.