Turned Lidded Box A Precision Fit Lid that Snaps Shut By Alan Lacer Of all the different forms of woodturning, I find the most delight in creating lidded boxes. The satisfying snap of a well fit [...]
"What? A $600 machine that just sharpens hand tools?" That's the reaction I've heard when introducing my pals to the latest in sandpaper-sharpening technology, the Lap-Sharp [...]
My shop space is so limited-only 12 feet square-that I designed this system to house four machines: belt-disc sander, miter saw station, drill press and planer. Each machine has an accessory [...]
With this simple jig, a drill press and a cup grinder, I can sharpen any jointer or planer knife. First I make a hardwood block and cut it to 1/16 in. less than the length of the knives. Then I [...]
For fast and accurate dadoes, this jig is hard to beat. The trick is to run the router against one guide, then back against the other. This allows you to use a 1/2-in. bit, for example, to cut a [...]
The face vise on my workbench didn't hold long boards rigidly enough until I added this adjustable "bench slave." And it only cost about $30. First I milled a board to attach to the [...]
I came across some wonderful oak boards for a small table I wanted to build. The problem was the boards were too wide for my jointer and I didn’t want to [...]
After years of wishing my old workbench had a tail vise, I realized I could make one of my new Jorgensen Cabinet Master bar clamps do the job. All I had to do was reverse the [...]
The next time you use your saber saw, forget about hauling out the sawhorses or cantilevering a hard-to-hold workpiece off your bench. Extruded polystyrene insulation board, the rigid pink sheets [...]
My bench has only one vise, so it needs to be versatile. The jaws on my vise can be positioned to hold objects flat on the bench or cantilevered off the end. In addition, the clamp is [...]
I use my biscuit joiner all the time to quickly make strong joints. With narrow boards like face frames, I used to spend a lot of time figuring out which biscuit size to use so the slots [...]
Crouching to operate my compressor's drain valve was no big deal until my football-ravaged knees started acting up. To keep from grimacing in the sawdust, I devised a more civilized way to [...]