POP Projects is a collection of new and classic projects from more than a century of Popular Mechanics. Master skills, get tool recommendations, and, most importantly, build something of your very own ...

“Have all your firewood cut and split by the Fourth of July,” the old-timers say. That sounds good in theory, but in actual practice, we are doing well to get the wood cut and split a week before we ...

If your home has a fireplace, you know the relaxing feeling of sitting in front of a warm fire on a cool night. You also know the hassle of hauling logs into your home from the woodpile outside. You ...

This is the beginning of a series discussing tools used in the process of log building. Of course, a lot of these tools can be used for many other applications, but log building will be the main focus ...

It’s nice to picture yourself chopping firewood like a lumberjack–deftly swinging an axe through log rounds to cut perfectly sized pieces. That said, it's simply not how it happens. For most of us, ...

One of the best ways to transform a dark and uninviting outdoor space into somewhere you actually want to spend time in once night falls is to spruce it up with lighting. While there are many ...