My portable planer uses disposable blades. When the first set got dull, I didn’t throw them away–I turned the two blades into very useful drawknives. I wrapped duct tape around the ends of the [...]
A push stick is a familiar device to prevent kickback while ripping a board, but I prefer to use a “push shoe.” It’s shaped like a shoe with a handle, and has a heel, just like a boot. The [...]
The Ol’ 1–2 I volunteered to drill the holes for the halogen light fixtures in the 6′ tall display cabinet that my cohorts and I were building at the architectural millwork company where we [...]
I got tired of jury-rigging extra light for finishing, so I built this light stand from a 4-ft. length of 2×2 and 1/4-in. plywood. The 6-in. by 17-in. legs include 1/2-in. by 3- 1/2” feet. [...]
I made a go-anywhere task light by retrofitting an old, broken fixture with a new, battery-powered LED light. First, I removed the cord and inner workings from the task light. Then I screwed a [...]
After ruining four $90 sheets of plywood by storing them on a damp floor, I came up with a simple fix: PVC feet. Cut several 12″ sections of 2″ dia. PVC pipe in half, lengthwise. [...]
For years, I sanded and hand planed panel edges by laying them flat on my workbench. I could never quite squeeze a bench vise into my woodworking budget, so I came up with this fast, inexpensive [...]
Effective control for a notorious sawdust creator In addition to being versatile, accurate and virtually indispensable, my sliding miter saw also excels at spewing sawdust and resisting effective [...]
Here’s a dirt-simple but effective accessory for your miter saw. It eliminates tear-out, allows you to make precision cuts by aligning a pencil mark with the kerf, and provides room to screw or [...]
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in American Woodwork #142, June/July 2009. I stumbled onto pen making seven years ago, as I was scouring through my husband Jerry’s [...]
Crawling around under the basement stairs to find what may or may not be in this box or that was a pain. However, leaving the space empty was not an option. I built this cart to make use of every [...]
