Close your eyes and picture it: your entire shop organized, a place for every tool, never struggling to find your cardscraper when you need it, and a stress-free day of woodworking. Sound like a dream? Not anymore! Finally get your shop organized just the way you want it. Swing-Out Plywood Storage I was looking for…

An accurate inside measurement is sometimes difficult to obtain. For example, I needed to take a measurement behind a cabinet’s face frame to fit a new shelf. Typically, most people would solve this one of two ways. Some would try the quick and dirty method of bending the tape into the corner which is a…

For more than 30 years my workshop consisted of a workbench and my Shopsmith tucked into a corner of the garage. I either had to set up and tear down every time I worked or park the car in the driveway until the project was done. In 2007 my husband said that if I’d give…

Featherboards are an important accessory, providing both accuracy and a measure of safety. Typically, a featherboard is just a board with thin fingers sawn into the end that act as springs to keep your workpiece from wandering away from the fence. The problem I’ve always had with this type of featherboard is adjusting it to…

Resin build-up on saw blades makes them less effective. A clean blade runs cooler, doesn’t cause burning on your workpiece, stays sharp longer and cuts more accurately. Cleaning blades is a chore, however, so I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it easier. Krud Kutter Cleaner/Degreaser seems to take off resin build-up pretty…

Unsatisfactory bandsaw fence? This simple shop-made fence and track system could be the answer. The tracks are formed by gluing up three pieces of hardwood. A slotted fence provides adjustment for blade drift, and is locked in place at any angle using T-bolts and jig knobs. To make the tracks, cut two pieces of hardwood…

The handles on hand-wheels are uncomfortable. The one on my lathe, for example, was difficult to turn when drilling into hard wood with a Forstner bit. Using a chunk of scrap, I turned a 2 1/4″ ball, and then drilled a hole slightly larger than the diameter of the handle. Now, when need to drill,…

Applying contact cement with a roller is my preferred method, as opposed to spraying it on. There’s not as much clean-up, and I don’t have to deal with overspray. There are drawbacks to this method, however. Mainly, the glue needs to be covered to keep it from skinning over between applications. Also, if you’re trimming…

In bowl turning, good craftsmanship requires that the bottom show no evidence of how the bowl was mounted. It’s also important to learn how to keep the chuck from dictating key aspects of the design, such as the bottom’s shape, diameter, and height. This shop-made trapping chuck will dramatically improve the quality of your work…

Tool: Festool Carvex Manufacturer: Festool’s Price: $390 The jigsaw is a tool that I’m glad to see folks are still striving to make better. It’s an indispensable shop staple as is, but there’s room for improvement. Common complaints include blade drift, tearout and inaccuracy, to name a few. With a handful of changes and options, Festool’s…

Tool: CRB7 MKIII Manufacturer: M.Power Price: $83 A router base can be nothing more than just that; a base. Or, as in the case of the CRB7 MKIII kit from M.Power, it can be outfitted to help your router perform a multitude of other functions. The CRB7 router base has been around a while, but the…

Tool: Powermatic PM1000 Manufacturer: Powermatic Price: $2400 (50″ fence) The list of 110 volt cabinet saws continues to grow. That’s great news, as it puts a great many of the benefits of a cabinet saw within reach of home-shop and hobbyist woodworkers. The PM1000 from Powermatic is a really nice machine that I’d love to have…

Kamikaze Tailstock I often wax finished projects as they spin on my lathe, so it’s natural to wax the lathe’s bed at the same time. Waxing the bed prevents rust and makes the lathe’s banjo and tailstock glide effortlessly. Unfortunately, after waxing the bed the other day, I gave the lathe’s 70-lb. tailstock a shove…

Tool: Keter Folding Work Table Manufacturer: Keter Price: $89 Here’s a really fresh take on an old idea. The Keter Folding Work Table is a real boon for guys with limited work space. At 29-3/4″ high, it also turns out to be the perfect height for lots of benchtop tools which, if you used them on…

Tool: Veritas Butt Chisels Manufacturer: Veritas Price: Starting at $70 Butt chisels have shorter blades than bench chisels and are generally made in wider sizes. They’re typically used for efficiently wasting out large areas, such as the mortises for installing butt hinges. These new butt chisels from Veritas’ are beautifully made and a pleasure to use. Though…

Tool: O’Keefe’s Working Hands Manufacturer: O’Keefe’s Price: $7.29 (3.4oz) Dry, cracked hands are the bane of many woodworkers, particularly during the cold, dry months in northern climates. If this sounds familiar, and you haven’t yet discovered O’Keefe’s Working Hands, you owe it to yourself to try it out. I’m not exactly a hand-cream connoisseur, but…

Store and use key benchtop tools on a single mobile unit. Innovative features such as a lever-operated mobile base and dual-height pullout tool platforms give this bench a five-star rating, especially if you have to share space with cars and other vehicles in a garage shop. The mobile base works just like a floor jack,…

Tool: Kreg K5 Manufacturer: Kreg Price: $129 Pocket hole joinery has been synonymous with the name Kreg for years. Kreg’s jigs have always been affordable and user-friendly. With the new K5 jig, the folks at Kreg have managed to tweak their flagship kit to make it even more user-friendly. For starters, there’s the almost-automatically adjusting clamping…

Hose-Free Nailer Editor’s Pick Tool: Ryobi P320 Airstrike 18 Volt One+ Manufacturer: Ryobi Price: $99 (bare tool) No hose? No compressor? Now that’s an idea I can get behind. The new Ryobi One+ 18 volt Brad Nailer with Ryobi’s AirStrike technology is a pleasant surprise. The One+ nailer shoots 18 gauge, 5/8″ – 2″ brad nails,…

I often start a leisurely day in the shop with a breakfast of toast and a soft-boiled egg. Of course, as a hard-core woodworker, I’ve always wanted to make a simple set of eggcups of my own design, but experimenting soon revealed an awkward problem: Spilled egg is hard to clean up. Oogloo is the…

Modern design and Tinkertoy construction team up to make this eye-catching rack fun and sophisticated at the same time. A great addition to any kitchen, it displays your favorite dishes in style while keeping them within easy reach for daily use. Store dinner plates, salad plates, cups, saucers, mugs or bowls. Need more space? Make…

Extra-large finger joints add a distinctive touch to any project. Every woodworker is going to ask, “How did you do that?” Most finger joints are pretty small in scale and easy to cut on a tablesaw or router table. But what if you want really, really big finger joints? Can you imagine making accurate cuts…

Curved-front drawers add a touch of grace and liveliness to a cabinet. But if you’re not set up to re-saw wide stock into thin, uniform laminations, you’re sunk, right? Wrong. You can use thin plywood instead of re-sawn hardwood, so the biggest obstacle is out of the way before you start! Build the Drawer, On…

Mark the End Grain When you’re jointing, mark each board’s grain direction by drawing a line on its end. The line means “Start here.” A mark on a board’s face or edge can get erased by a planer or jointer, but a mark on its end grain won’t be touched until you trim the piece…

“What kind of wood is this?” In my work as a furniture restorer and conservator, I often hear this question. Red alder is especially hard to identify because it can be finished to closely resemble many other more expensive hardwoods. (It’s often referred to as “poor man’s cherry.”) This “chameleon” characteristic is one reason red…

This project looks pretty simple, doesn’t it? It’s just a box with two sides and a few shelves. It’s got a curved drawer, too—which isn’t so simple—but let’s skip that for the moment. As I started building a prototype, I thought, “This is just normal cabinetmaking.” As it turns out, this cabinet isn’t normal at…

My wife, who loves to cook, is also an inveterate recipe collector. Every one she clips or copies goes in her “recipe” drawer. But as this drawer is stuffed chock-a-block full, she can never find the recipe she wants. To get organized, she decided to transfer the recipes onto 5×8 cards. (We’ve learned that handwritten…

Accurate Inside Measurement An accurate inside measurement is sometimes difficult to obtain. For example, I needed to take a measurement behind a cabinet’s face frame to fit a new shelf. Typically, most people would solve this one of two ways. Some would try the quick and dirty method of bending the tape into the corner…

Tool-Free Rotary Tool Dremel’s EZ Change mechanism lets you quickly change between the seemingly endless array of bits and accessories without the use of any special tools. With the new 4200 High Performance Rotary Tool, you won’t lose much valuable time changing attachments, nor will you lose the confounded wrench! The 4200’s EZ Change mechanism…