Tricks of the Trade

I well remember the day when I couldn’t get a mortise-and-tenon joint to come together no matter how hard I tightened the clamp. I had ignored a fundamental rule: Always make mortises 1/16“ [...]

When used as an undercoat or sealer, brushable epoxy greatly reduces expansion and contraction in wood. Coat all parts prior to assembly and make sure epoxy gets down into the fastener holes. If [...]

Is there any doubt that magnets positively rule? I’ve never welded anything in my life, but found a great woodworking use for something familiar to metalworkers. And it’s no wonder I like them: [...]

I’ve found that my new digital angle gauge is a great tool for setting an accurate angle on a miter gauge. To set the desired angle, first stand the miter gauge on its face on the rip fence’s [...]

While lounging at the pool one afternoon, I had an inspiration. I “borrowed” one of my kids’ floating pool noodles, cut it into sections and used the pieces as universal connectors for vacuum [...]

Here’s a simple, invisible repair for an all too common mistake. Say you’re flush-trimming a board and, for whatever reason, your router’s bearing dips into a dent and makes an [...]

My sharpening procedures involve a lot of buffing with compound. On one side of my buffer I’ve mounted a hard felt wheel, and on the other a paper wheel shaped to buff concave bevels. To prevent [...]

Over the years, I have often clamped stops on my drill-press fence to register hole locations in workpieces. Unfortunately, I always seemed to lose the stops. Flip stops always seemed like a good [...]

Many of us are familiar with the technique of using a razor blade to scrape away drips from varnish and other film finishes. It’s a great way to level defects, especially if you use a brand-new [...]

Wooden wing nuts are so much easier on your hands than metal ones. Plus, it’s a great way to use up shop scraps and leftover hex nuts while avoiding a trip to the hardware store. Start with a [...]

I find my stock band saw table too small to support many workpieces, so I outfitted it with a larger, auxiliary table. However, I wanted to be able to remove it quickly when I needed to utilize [...]

To create a planing stop on my workbench, I decided to go the simple route. I installed and countersunk a short row of #12 brass flathead screws near the edge of the bench, spacing them an inch [...]