Archives

Chair Leg Repair My kitchen chairs are hardly valuable antiques, so when I broke a rung on one I wanted a strong but simple fix. I drilled out the broken tenon from the mortise and plugged [...]

Template Routing Tips By Randy Johnson ??If you want to get the most from your router, you need to master template routing. Once you learn the basics you can spend a lifetime exploring its many [...]

Shaker Stand By Tim Johnson Though it looks modern, the original version of this three-legged stand was built almost two hundred years ago in a Shaker community. Simple, purposeful and elegant, [...]

Sharpening Jig for Jointer and Planer Blades I’ve tried several different shop-made jigs for sharpening my jointer and planer knives but this one has proved the simplest to use and [...]

Picture Frames from Scrap I finally found a great use for all those pieces of scrap wood that pile up around my shop: I make simple picture frames out of them. As you can see there's not much [...]

Quick-and-Easy Storage Boxes I finally found a use for all that scrap plywood I've been hanging onto. I made a bunch of small storage boxes with it and a small shelf to put them on. [...]

See-Through Chisel Holder Here’s a chisel rack that protects those sharp edges and allows me to see the right chisel for the job at hand. The rack is easy to customize for any size [...]

Bench Dog Light With this shop-made bench dog I can put light right where I need it. The dog is just a square chunk of wood with two smaller pieces glued to the sides. The smaller pieces act as [...]

Mobile Tool Cabinet I bought my current house because of the big detached garage, which is perfect for my woodshop. However, when I started remodeling the house I got really tired of lugging [...]

Convenient Benchtop Protection My workbench is beautiful and I want to keep it that way, so I cover the top with builder’s paper ($7/140-ft. roll at my local home center) whenever I’m [...]

Fender Washers for Mounting Pictures I enjoy making picture frames but always found it a pain to use tacks or staples to hold the picture in place. Plus tacks and staples are hard to remove when [...]

Air Hose Rack Air tools are great, but the air supply hose is hard to store conveniently. This rack solves this problem, and it’s cheap! All you need is some 1-1/4-in. PVC pipe, a 45-degree [...]