Build George Ellis's Planing Board

I’ve looked at a lot of old workbenches, and I’ve never seen many that exhibit signs of being flattened. I always look at toolmarks on the benches and what I typically find are [...]

A Very Busy Month

January was a really busy month for me. It started with a trip to Williamsburg for the annual woodworking conference. For those of you who were unable to attend, I brought my good camera and took [...]

A Stylish Wrap-up

I’m taking a class called “What style is it? Furniture styles through the Ages”at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (www.philamuseum.org). It’s essentially an art history [...]

"I Can Do That" Manual Updated

The “I Can Do That” manual has been updated with a new chapter on Material Selection, and with information on the latest tool in the kit , the circular saw. You can download the [...]

Sticking Boards & Bodger’s Mitts

Moulding planes are some of the coolest planes in a toolkit. Each one is like a modern router, but without the dust, the roaring universal motor and a bit spinning at 20,000 rpm. Like all hand [...]

The Case for Combo Machines

Given our admiration of European tools, it has long puzzled me why more Americans haven’t adopted one of the most common fixtures of European shops, the combination machine.

What You Must Know About Motors

The first thing to understand is that there are two kinds of motors that power almost all of the machinery in a home workshop: induction motors and universal motors.