Heavy Lathe with Extra Capacity

So here's a dilemma: Mini lathes are designed to be portable, but when you get where you're going, it's nice to have some weight in the machine. At 106 pounds (more than a sheet of [...]

Miter Saw Dust Shroud

Miter saws are a great convenience, but they spread sawdust like a sprinkler spreads water. The new Downdrafter shroud from Rousseau, $200, combined with a dust collector, acts like a parachute [...]

Electronic Age Hits Miter Saws

Lasers have proven to be a wonderful way to add safety and accuracy to miter saws. Now Hitachi has taken ease-of-use to a new level by adding both a laser and a digital readout to its C12LCH [...]

Carbide Insert Flush-Trim Bit

I use a flush-trim bit a lot, particularly for trimming face frames to cabinet sides and parts flush with templates. Unfortunately, after a few sharpenings, it's not a flush-trim bit any [...]

Remote-Control Dust Collection

      Do you turn on your dust collector every time you should? “I'm only making one cut,” you say. But how many times in a day do you make “only one [...]

Plunge Drill

Drilling a hole with a handheld drill is easy enough to do, but making the hole perfectly perpendicular to the surface can be tough. Triton has married a plunge mechanism to a cordless drill to [...]

Thin-Kerf Blade, Silky Smooth Cut

Thin-kerf blades aren't news. Fifty-tooth blades aren't news. But when I see a blade that cuts as well as the 50-tooth, thin-kerf Freud LU83R and sells for $45, that's news. It's [...]

New Dovetail Jig

  I've pulled out a few hairs trying to tweak my dovetail jig so it cuts perfectly. Porter Cable's 4200 series dovetail jigs have some great conveniences that make much of that [...]

A New Cordless System

Replacement batteries for cordless tools are expensive, but Ryobi has slashed the price of its batteries, selling two 18-volt batteries for $40, as part of its new One+ System. Á Là Carte Tool [...]

Tame Your Belt Sander

Get that menacing belt sander under control with these whip-it-into-shape tips. by George Vondriska Does the prospect of using a belt sander make your palms sweat and your hands shake? I feel [...]

Tool Test Bandsaws

You're about to be marooned on a desert island. You're allowed one power tool to take with you. Which would it be? My choice would be a bandsaw. After the router, a bandsaw is the most [...]

Hand Sanding Blocks

Isaac Fischer, Jr., of Springfield, Vt., patented sandpaper on June 14, 1834. Shortly after that, presumably, sanding blocks were invented. Sanding blocks apply even pressure over the entire [...]