While making Shaker boxes, I built a jig to accurately rip 1/16″ thick strips without getting my hands too close to the blade. In fact, I can leave the guard on the saw. The jig has two parts. First, there’s a track that mounts on the saw, next to the fence. Two rare-earth magnets recessed…

Exposure to great furniture hones the eyes for quality and proportion. Woodworking is, all at once, frustrating, elating, challenging and straightforward stupid simple. It combines the elements of design, vision, accuracy, artistic intent and manual ability like no other pursuit I’ve found. Just in the moment you believe you’ve mastered a part of its scope,…

Select a reliable tool with these simple tests. I can’t think of one project I’ve made that hasn’t involved using one or more of my combination squares. I use these to lay out joints and cuts, and to check cuts to confirm that they’re square (a test I perform on a scrap piece every time…

Here’s a hi-tech way to set your tablesaw’s miter gauge to within 1/10 of 1° of any angle. It really works well for cutting picture-frame miters. The key is to use a digital angle gauge. I bought one designed for woodworkers that has as a handy magnetic base. For this degree of accuracy, you’ll also…

By the door or at the foot of the bed, this simple bench is just right for a small space.

Tool: 6-Amp Power Planer Shop Now  Manufacturer: Porter-Cable MSRP: $69.98 Say you’ve got a huge, uneven roughsawn board. It would make a fantastic top for a coffee table, but how are you going to level it? Well, one way is to use a power planer, such as this unit from Porter-Cable. A power planer is…

This jig helps you easily reverse your work for base turning. Properly finished bowls never reveal how the turner mounted them. However, traditional methods for reversing a bowl to turn the base involve a lot of fuss and bother. Cole Jaws, for example, require cranking at least 48 hex screws for each use (not to…

Venetian blinds purchased from a home center come in a variety of standard sizes. They are cut to the correct width by the retailer, but to adjust the height you remove a number of the slats at home. If you’re like me, you hold on to these extra slats because “someday you will find a…

We’re interviewing makers from all 50 states. Today we’re featuring Richie Robinson, a grad student from Hawaii. How did you get started woodworking? Who were your mentors? I can’t recall exactly how I got started though from an early age I always enjoyed creating with my hands (I loved doing origami when I lived in…

You can tell when you’re holding a good tool in your hands. The way it feels, the way it responds, the way it does everything you ask it to. There’s another dimension to a good tool, though: how the manufacturer supports it. The Nakanishi Emax EVOlution from NSK America is one such tool. This electronically-controlled…

One Workstation. Two Bases to Choose From The Maker Workstation Overview • Building The Top • Building The Base When designing the maker workstation, a goal was to make sure the top would work on different kinds of bases, sawhorses, or other stable platforms.  The workstation top is a unit in itself, portable and adaptable…

Setting the depth-of-cut on my circular saw was awkward at best before I made this handy gauge. It’s just a thick block of wood with 1/4″ wide slots cut at precise, incremental depths. I made the slots on the table saw. To set the depth-of-cut, I place the circular saw on the appropriate slot on the…

Tool: Sawhorse Supports Shop Now  Manufacturer: Rockler MSRP: $17.99 An extra work surface is always handy in the shop. We’ve all thrown a large piece of plywood down on a couple of sawhorses when we need a temporary bench, but let’s admit it—a top that can flex and sag is less than ideal. This set…

My shop is in a single car garage bay that occupies approximately 10ft x 20ft (~3m x 6m). I designed my layout to be mover-friendly, while preventing many of the limitations that often come with working in a small space. I grew up woodworking and apprenticing under my father. He was a shop teacher for…

I like to use purpleheart pen blanks because they’re less expensive than other exotic hardwoods. Recently, I stumbled on a cool trick. I discovered that I could cause the wood to overheat and turn dark by using the back side of the sandpaper while the wood is turning. Light overheating makes purpleheart look like rosewood;…