Projects

Installing a dado set on my left-tilt saw makes the scale on the rip fence un-usable. Here's why: The cutters stack from left to right, toward the fence, so each cutter I add knocks the scale [...]

By Randy Johnson You don't have to spend much money to get a good computer-aided drafting (CAD) program for drawing woodworking projects. Fifty bucks will buy you a starter program that's [...]

You can’t use your safety glasses and earplugs if you can’t find them. The new Safetypaq, $40, includes earplugs, work gloves and two pairs of safety glasses in a convenient case that [...]

    One of my woodworking rules is start with 10 fingers and quit with 10. So I'm big on push blocks. They protect you from putting your pinkies somewhere you shouldn't. [...]

  My shop has limited storage space, so my tablesaw accessories used to cram its tuck-under drawer and cover the extension table. My new accessory storage wall makes everything accessible [...]

Hauling my benchtop planer or miter saw out every time I needed to use one or the other was hard on my back until I devised this mobile base. It makes both of them readily accessible and stores [...]

I don't have room in my garage shop for a permanent clamp table, so I made this folding version from a leftover 2-ft.-wide sheet of 3/4-in.-thick plywood. Folded, it's less than 2 in. [...]

When I need holes drilled too far from the edge of a board to use my drill press, I reach for this handy drilling guide. It allows me to position the bit exactly and assures that I’ll drill [...]

      Since I don’t have a router table, routing narrow stock is doubly tough. First, it’s hard to hold the stock in position. Second, it’s virtually impossible [...]

    When I loosened my adjustable clamps to make minor adjustments, they frequently slipped all the way open. Sometimes my hand got whacked, sometimes the clamp fell and sometimes [...]

        My spring clamps wouldn’t work on an acute-angle joint I needed to clamp. Even though their jaws had swiveling pads, the clamps just slipped off.   Nothing worked [...]

I love to use card scrapers for removing chatter marks, tear-out and any other smoothing that requires a delicate touch. Trouble is, they get dinged up in my toolbox. When my wife bought herself [...]