Archives

Have you ever closed an inset door in a cabinet you were building and found that you couldn’t open it, because you hadn’t added the knob yet? Well, I have. Here’s an easy effective solution: Make [...]

My father showed me this “bird’s mouth” jig almost 60 years ago. It securely clamps 1/4- to 3″thick boards on edge. It’s so useful that I’ve never bothered to add a vise to my workbench. [...]

After years of fumbling with clamps, I decided there must be a better way to attach featherboards to my tablesaw’s rip fence. Two T-tracks screwed to the fence allow me to mount a piece of [...]

Square the table using this old machinists’ trick. Bend a piece of 1/4”. steel rod (available at home centers) into an S shape, as shown in the photo above. Mount it in the chuck and swing it by [...]

I love having a cutting list close at hand. But hanging on to it when both hands are busy was a problem—until I bought 24 clothespins for $2 at the hardware store. I epoxied the wooden pins in [...]

Microfiber cloth picks up tiny dust particles as well as, if not better than, a tack cloth. Unlike a tack cloth, microfiber cloths are washable and reusable. Rockler Sells Norton’s microfiber [...]

Awls, dividers and compass points are sharp and thus can be easily damaged if not protected (or even worse, poke us). Over the years I have used wine corks, plastic wall anchors, and segments of [...]

A mobile workbench is handy in a small shop—until you want it to stand still! These levers work like a cam and prevent the bench from wiggling.

Featherboard Ripping Stop I’m always on the lookout for different ways to use the things I already own. I found that I didn’t need to buy or make an extra jig for ripping thin, uniform strips on [...]

10 good rules for workbenches and 10 ways to help your current bench work better.