Tricks of the Trade

For turning spindles, there’s nothing like having a  really long tool rest. You never have to move it! I made my own with parts from the hardware store. This rest is just a length of square steel [...]

There’s no single surface in my shop that’s the ideal height for every job. With my adjustable-height sawhorses, I can quickly set up an outfeet table, drawing table, or assembly [...]

This jig makes it easy to set up the bit for routing flutes and dadoes. I simply drop the appropriate depth gauge into the channel, set my router on top and lower the bit until it touches the [...]

After building an I Can Do That: Tool Rack , I wanted to have my planes accessible on the rack as well. So here’s my solution. Cut two pieces of oak into 1⁄2” x 3⁄…

Editor’s note: Special thanks to reader Bob L, who pointed out that putting a rare earth magnet that close to a moving saw blade can have catastrophic consequences. If you choose to use [...]

A felt-tip pen is the best tool I’ve found for adjusting a grinder’s tool rest. When you need to find the center of a bevel in order to duplicate an angle, color the whole bevel with a Magic [...]

This sled allows me to cut the 1/8-in.- wide strips of veneer that I often use for inlays. I can cut strips all day without having to measure or reposition the saw’s fence. The sled consists of a [...]

In my work as a luthier, I sand a lot of curved surfaces. I’ve found that I can make perfect sandpaper backing pads from “kneeling cushions” sold for garden work. Available at home-supply stores [...]

Small tools are easier to reach since I added two rare-earth magnets to my apron. I epoxied the 1/2″ dia. magnets to two 1″ square pieces of leather, punched 1/2″ holes in the [...]

Bullet-Catch Bench Dogs When I built my workbench, I drilled round bench-dog holes in the top so I didn’t have to cut square mortises. Being a thrifty sort, I didn’t want to shell out for [...]

Specialty hardware can be really annoying. Take the T-bolt—it’s essential for attaching anything to a T-track, but where can you buy one at a moment’s notice? Hardware stores don’t carry T-bolts, [...]

Ordinary push pads tend to slip, I’ve found, when face-jointing a board. I modified one of mine by cutting 1/2″ of the rubber padding off its back end and then screwing on a 1/2″ x [...]