Tricks of the Trade

Most furniture fractures can simply be glued back together. But some breaks are messy, leaving splintery fractures that won’t form a strong glue joint. You could replace the entire part, or you [...]

Hanging a wall cabinet is usually a two-person job—one to hold the cabinet level and one to screw it to the wall. I’m nearly always working alone, so I came up with this safe way to wall-mount a [...]

My pneumatic nailer makes quick work of assembling cabinets, but if a nail blows out the side, it can be a real mess. Those power-driven nails often bend or break if you try to pound them back [...]

A lot of folks use a stone to put the final edge on a scraper before turning its hook, but I prefer to use a diamond paddle. It cuts faster than most stones and obviously won’t develop a rut, [...]

I rarely use a stain or dye right out of the can. I make my own custom mixes in small quantities until I get the color just right. In order to recreate the perfect mix in larger portions, I have [...]

I didn’t notice this misfit miter until glue-up. Fortunately there’s an easy way to hide narrow gaps like this one. Before the glue dries, rub the corner with a hard, rounded object, like a big [...]

Lapping the back of the plane blade can be a lot of work. My fingers have often complained very loudly, so I’ve tried many ways to hold the blade more comfortably. I’ve used a magnet, made from a [...]

When cutting circles on the band saw with a jig, starting the cuts tangent to the right diameter is a problem; this method simplifies it. I started with an extension table mounted flush with the [...]

This honing stone setup is part of my dedicated sharpening station. It consists of a plastic tray mounted in a plywood carrier box that also provides solid footing for a wooden stone holder that [...]

A micro-Adjust fence is the perfect accessory for making grooves, mortises, or other milling operations using a hand-held router. It allows you to precisely adjust the distance between the bit [...]

I make my own zero-clearance throat plates for my table saw to minimize exit tear-out on workpieces and to prevent narrow pieces from dropping into the saw. When raising the blade through the [...]

The traditional way to make a square finial on a bandsaw is to mark and cut the pattern on one side of the blank, then tape the offcut back on in order to guide the cuts on the adjacent side. …