Archives

One roll of shelf liner will provide a lifetime supply of pads to improve the performance of your sanding block. I bought a 18″ x 48″ roll at a local home center for about $5. At [...]

A toilet bowl floor gasket is an excellent lubricant for screws–much better than paraffin, soap, or all of the other materials I’ve tried. It’s very soft, so all you have to do to [...]

If your shop is inside or attached to your house, you know that migrating sawdust is a problem, especially if you do a lot of power carving.  To minimize dust, I cut out one side of a 65-quart [...]

Here’s a fast, inexpensive way to keep your edge tools razor sharp. First, cut out a few 5″ x 3/4″ MDF discs.  Drill a 1/4″ hole in the center of each disc. Next, glue different [...]

My task: 28 kitchen drawers of different sizes, all with hand-cut dovetails. The thought of laying these out was overwhelming, so I designed a jig to simplify the process. To make the jig, [...]

Any push stick adds a measure of safety, but I prefer using one that straddles the saw’s fence. It lifts right off when I’m done. A saddle-style push stick has two clear advantages. First, [...]

  Tips for taming those awkward and heavy sheets. Woodworking alone is peaceful, serene and quiet. Just you, the radio and your project. It’s also a pain in the posterior when you have to [...]

A complex moulding can be difficult to sand. Softening its crisp edges is a crime, so I’ve been using a thin, flexible stick with sandpaper adhered to it for getting into the flat areas. [...]

When sawdust got packed into the back end of my planer’s blast gate, I couldn’t close the gate all the way.  I solved this annoying problem by cutting a notch in the gate. Now, when I close the [...]

Tighter Corner Joints Ahead Dadoes and, rabbets are two of the most widely used cabinetmaking joints. Cabinet carcasses, drawer boxes and jewelry boxes all lend themselves to this simple but [...]

Difficult glue-ups are troublesome enough without having to position clamp pads as part of the process. I’ve tried using hot-melt glue, double-sided tape and various other methods to hold pads [...]

I usually work alone, but when I install upper cabinets, I always enlist the help of two shop-made cabinet jacks. They’re steadier than an extra pair of hands. The jacks stand on the lower [...]