Tricks of the Trade

I use a sled for cross cutting 3/4-in. melamine and plywood panels up to 24 inches wide. These panels can be hard to hold in position while making a cut, so I installed a cam lever that securely [...]

Sturdy yet collapsible is easier said than done, but this drying rack is both. It folds flat against the wall to save space until I need it. I made my rack 36 in. tall, with 8 in. between levels. [...]

Have you ever closed an inset door in a cabinet you were building and found that you couldn’t open it, because you hadn’t added the knob yet? Well, I have. Here’s an easy, effective solution: [...]

One roll of shelf liner will provide a lifetime supply of pads to improve the performance of your sanding block. I bought a 18″ x 48″ roll at a local home center for about $5. At [...]

A toilet bowl floor gasket is an excellent lubricant for screws–much better than paraffin, soap, or all of the other materials I’ve tried. It’s very soft, so all you have to do to [...]

If your shop is inside or attached to your house, you know that migrating sawdust is a problem, especially if you do a lot of power carving.  To minimize dust, I cut out one side of a 65-quart [...]

Here’s a fast, inexpensive way to keep your edge tools razor sharp. First, cut out a few 5″ x 3/4″ MDF discs.  Drill a 1/4″ hole in the center of each disc. Next, glue different [...]

My task: 28 kitchen drawers of different sizes, all with hand-cut dovetails. The thought of laying these out was overwhelming, so I designed a jig to simplify the process. To make the jig, [...]

My dovetail jig doesn’t have a depth gauge, and with my engineering background, I like things to be precise. This depth gauge allows me to set my router bits to within .001 of an inch! I also use [...]

In the good old days, when a woodworker wanted to plane a board’s edge, he’d clamp one end in the bench’s face vise and support the cantilevered end with a free-standing devise called a [...]

Strong and convenient, yellow wood glue is a good choice for most repairs. But there are glues that offer advantages for special situations: SLOWER GLUES: Depending on factors like temperature [...]

When making tenons for breadboard ends and other wide workpieces, the router is my tool of choice. Ensuring perfectly aligned rabbet shoulders on both sides of the board was a problem until I [...]