A sharp pencil is a must for accurate work, but having a pencil sharpener permanently mounted in one place isn’t always ideal. The further away I am from my pencil sharpener, the less likely I am to use it, until my pencil is really dull. I removed my pencil sharpener from its permanent location on…

Whether displaying everyday china or an heirloom collection, this handsome rack does the job with Arts and Crafts style. Like original pieces of that era, this rack features mortise-and-tenon joinery along with spline joints, dowel joints and butt joints with screws. The design is easy to alter to fit the space in which it will…

My Uncle Bob was a butcher—not the woodworking kind people joke about, but the real thing. In his off hours, he used to switch blades and put his meat-cutting bandsaw to work as a woodworking tool. You won’t find any of his stuff in the Museum of Modern Art, but you will find one of…

This quick project is finished before you start. How’s that? Well, bear with me: You put finish on all of the parts before you actually cut any joints. It’s as simple as 1-2-3. This wine rack hangs on a wall. It’s sized to fit under a bank of kitchen cabinets, but you could easily make…

“How does it come apart?” You’ll be asked this question each time you hand one of these cubes to a friend. You’ll answer, “Well, you just hold it like this, then pull.” Your ability to read wood grain will quickly identify which sides to grab—they’ll be mystified. That’s just one of the small pleasures in…

Clean lines and graceful curves are just the beginning. This jewelry box also features mitered corners, decorative keys, a textured panel and a distinctive brass handle. Inside, sliding trays with multiple compartments help to effectively use the space and keep things organized. The joinery is straightforward—if you can cut and fit miter joints you can…

Rare earth magnets set in a steel cup are perfect for all sorts of uses around the shop, but have you ever had to remove one? Once they’re in the cup, the magnets are practically impossible to get out. Here’s a trick that works really well. Stack larger diameter magnets on a steel rule, file,…

What’s a spill plane? Well, it’s a little-known specialty plane that creates a shaving – called a spill – that’s tightly curled on itself and tapered to a point. In the days before matches and lighters, a spill was used to take a flame from the fireplace to light candles, lamps, pipes, etc. Though spills…

These waffle-patterned trivets are perfect for the last minute “shopper”. All you need to crank them out by the dozen is a dado set or router table and a plywood frame. You can make these trivets any size. You could make different shapes, too. I decided on 6″ squares, to keep it simple. A single…

Precise height adjustments on router bits and saw blades can be tricky because it’s really hard to see or measure small changes. This 1:8 tapered gauge “magnifies” them. Each mark on the gauge is 1/4″ apart, indicating a 1/32″ change in height. The gauge goes from 0 to 2″, is easy to read and accurate….

Cutting wooden plugs used to be frustrating. I like to keep the bit going, but each time I would cut a new plug the previous one would be pushed out of the cutter and fly across the shop, landing who knows where. Too many times, it was never to be seen again. I solved the…

Tool: MicroJig Tapering Jig Manufacturer: MicroJig Price: $109 Some jigs get stuck in a design rut—they never seem to change. Take a typical double-armed tapering jig, for example. It’s awkward to adjust and a bit scary to use. Taking up the challenge, the folks at MicroJig have created a much more sophisticated device that solves both…

A push pad is essential for jointing, routing or ripping because it keeps your fingers away from the danger zone. I’m always on the lookout for a pad that’s larger and grippier than the standard model. I found one at a home center, of all places, but it’s not sold as a push pad—it’s a…

Wood Filler Fiasco In order to fill some tiny gaps in a box I was making, I decided to make my own wood filler. I dumped fine sawdust from my sander’s filter bag into a small cup. Then I squeezed wood glue on top—or so I planned. Unfortunately, the bottle was nearly empty, so instead of glue,…

I live in Sun City, a retirement community of about 6000 homes located north of Austin Texas. It can seem as if we also have over 6000 golf carts, as Sun City residents are constantly on the go from one activity to another. My favorite is the Sun City Woodworkers Club. This club was included…

Clogged sandpaper is really a pain, rendering useless your sandpaper and your effort. I was mindlessly sanding a project a while ago when I looked at my pile of discarded paper and had a “well, duh” moment. Why not clean the paper with the same cleaning stick I use on my disc sander? Works great!…

A storage tray is a useful addition to any stationary tool. After adding this one to my tablesaw, I don’t know how I ever did without it. I made the tray about 3″ deep, just deep enough to store the essentials lower than the surface of my saw, but shallow enough to keep items from…

According to conventional wisdom, plywood has something to hide: unsightly edges. But as you can see, this handsome tray turns that convention on its ear. The key to its cool “micro-lam” appearance is Baltic birch plywood, which has uniformly thick plies that are virtually free of knots. As a result, its edges have a clean,…

Tool: Diamond Sharpening Plates Manufacturer: Atoma Price: $63 Diamond sharpening stones have enjoyed a steady increase in popularity because they cut fast, never need flattening and last a long time. Here’s a new type from Atoma, a Japanese company, which may wet your interest. Atoma plates are composed of monocrystalline diamonds electro-bonded to a thin sheet of…

While visiting with chairmaker Bob Erickson (pictured above with his son Tor), it seems appropriate to ask, “What chair are you sitting in right now?” He explains it’s an unfinished Van Muyden chair part of a dining room set he’s building for a client in New York City. Bob’s Van Muyden Chair—three-legged, crafted of quilted…

A large bridle joint requires an open-ended mortise that may be too deep to cut with a 10″ tablesaw. I encountered this problem when I used my saw to make bridle joints on an exterior door. I tried to finish the cuts on the bandsaw, but was unsatisfied with the results: Working freehand left mortises…

Tool: Thick Kerf Flat-Top Saw Blade Manufacturer: Infinity Price: $130 Saw blades come in two basic varieties: thin kerf and standard kerf. For wider cuts, you use a dado set, right? Well, now you have another option—a thick kerf blade. The folks at Infinity are manufacturing two of them; one cuts a 5/32″ kerf, while the…

Here’s a simple turning project that makes a thoughtful gift. The process is similar to pen turning—you drill holes through a pair of blanks, turn them using a mandrel and then insert brass tubes in the holes. But rather than installing a pen cartridge, you install a perfume applicator, which is available as a kit….

“Scary sharp”—sharpening on sandpaper adhered to glass—works really well, but one thing has always bothered me. I’ve tried spray adhesives as well as PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) backed sandpaper. In both cases, I’ve found that the sheets are very difficult to remove when they’re worn out. So is the glue residue. When I was a…

Initially lining up the edges of two boards for gluing up a jig is pretty easy. But when you add clamps or screws, one board often shifts out of place. If that alignment is critical, I don’t use clamps at all and divide the job into two steps. First, I apply glue and rub the…

Tool: 08350 Dowelling Jig Master Kit Manufacturer: JessEm Price: $195 Dowel joints are a strong, simple and low-cost method of building furniture. All you need is a jig and a drill. Decent jigs have been around for years, but most are so basic that they don’t work well for many applications. Want to join a 3/4″…

Is an eight-sided box twice as complicated as one with four sides? Not this one. As far as measuring goes, the OctaBox is easier to build than a rectangular box. On the OctaBox, every side is the same length and the top and bottom are identical—in fact, there are only two different parts to make…

Tool: AutoMaxx clamps Manufacturer: Kreg Price: $24-$29 Are you a pocket-screw fan? If so, you know that locking clamps are extremely handy for holding parts together during assembly. In fact, they’re almost indispensable. But they have one annoying feature: If you switch to material of a different thickness, you have to fiddle with the clamp’s adjustment screw…

If you like giving gifts that actually get used, a cutting board is the perfect choice; I use one almost every day. But not only will this cutting board get regular use, it’ll get “ooh’s and aah’s” as well. Its contrasting splines give this cutting board visual interest and a clean, contemporary look. Stagger the…

Cutting precisely to a line on a miter saw isn’t easy. Usually, you have to make multiple cuts and sneak up to it. My solution is to use this universal gauge block; one cut is all that’s required. The block works for cutting pieces of any length, as long as they’re not shorter than the…

Tool: Makita VC4710 Manufacturer: Makita Price: $529 Dust collection is a higher priority than ever before for most woodworkers. It’s not just about keeping the shop clean, of course. It’s about our health. We’re looking for a machine that will minimize our exposure to the most hazardous dust particles—the finest ones. Good filtration isn’t enough, however. A…