Archives

When I turn hollow vessels, I have to remove my lathe’s tailstock to install a support for the hollowing tool. When I’m done hollowing, I have to re-mount the tailstock to finish the turning. [...]

To protect the edges of small carving tools, stick a wine bottle cork on them. Synthetic corks work best because they don’t break apart as easily as natural cork. Allow the cork to dry for a [...]

I have found a simple way to modify a wooden lever cam clamp to move a table saw fence or router fence in fractional amounts, using easy-to-find hardware: a 1⁄4“-20 T-nut, 1⁄4“-20 [...]

When applying laminate on a narrow edge, it’s a little tricky to not tip the router and undercut the edge. The surface on which the router must balance is often not wide enough to provide [...]

Rarely a day goes by when we aren’t using a router for some aspect of a project. We’ve been building all kinds of jigs and trying new ideas (and ideas recently unearthed from our archives). A …

Too many times we look for complex solutions when the answer is right in front of our eyes. This is an old trick, but a good one – drilling pilot holes for nails using the nail itself. It works [...]

Here is a handy, inexpensive way to organize your shop screws and other small bits of hardware. I cut an old section of black PVC pipe lengthwise down the middle, then into sections to fit my [...]

Many new chisels, especially most premium-quality chisels, have sharp lands (the beveled side edges). Some people wear cotton gloves to protect their hands when using these, but I don’t like the [...]

On my best work, I want the bottom of my project to look as good as the top. That’s when I make an old-fashioned set of wooden tabletop fasteners, or “buttons,” rather than use the modern [...]

I made this adapter to hook up dust collection to the odd-size fitting (2″) on my oscillating sander. Start with a hardwood block that is (in my case) is 3″ x 4″ x 1 1⁄4” [...]

I have a meager collection of handplanes made up of mostly dog-meat users. I like using planes that have history because it’s fun to think about what each might have made during the last 100 [...]

On my most recent project I needed an elliptical arc. Although my arc conforms to the Golden Ratio (1:1.62), the method I use works for an ellipse of any proportion. Determine the overall size of [...]