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For years, I sanded and hand planed panel edges by laying them flat on my workbench.  I could never quite squeeze a bench vise into my woodworking budget, so I came up with this fast, inexpensive [...]

Effective control for a notorious sawdust creator In addition to being versatile, accurate and virtually indispensable, my sliding miter saw also excels at spewing sawdust and resisting effective [...]

Here’s a dirt-simple but effective accessory for your miter saw. It eliminates tear-out, allows you to make precision cuts by aligning a pencil mark with the kerf, and provides room to screw or [...]

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in American Woodwork #142, June/July 2009. I stumbled onto pen making seven years ago, as I was scouring through my husband Jerry’s [...]

Crawling around under the basement stairs to find what may or may not be in this box or that was a pain. However, leaving the space empty was not an option. I built this cart to make use of every [...]

Tool: Paralign Single Featherboard Shop Now and Paralign Double Featherboard Shop Now Manufacturer: JessEm MSRP: $27.99 & $48.99 At first glance, JessEm’s Paralign Featherboard might look [...]

To set the height of a router bit—within .001″, if necessary—I made this simple stand for my caliper. It works on a router table or a hand-held router. Two screws with washers secure the [...]

Bee Gone  So, I’m using a wire brush chucked in a drill to clean the rust off of some old metal brackets that I’m planning to use in my new lumber rack. I’ve got a bracket in one hand and …

Who says you can’t put a square peg in a round hole?  My scrap bin is made from round cardboard tubes made for concrete forms. These tubes are available at home centers; they’re [...]

Tool: 5-in-1 Combination Protractor Shop Now  Manufacturer: Starrett MSRP: $142 If walls were all exactly 90 degrees, installing cabinets and trim would be a lot easier. When it comes to [...]

Rear Ended After cutting a piece of wood with my ancient radial arm saw, I turned to retrieve the pencil that I’d used to mark the cut—the saw’s vibration had caused it to roll off the table and [...]

For accurate drilling, build an engineered table. Did you know that most drill press tables are made for metalworking? Woodworkers need a better table: it should have a broad surface, an easily [...]