Tricks of the Trade

After years of wishing my old workbench had a tail vise, I realized I could make one of my new Jorgensen Cabinet Master bar clamps do the job. All I had to do was reverse the sliding lower jaw [...]

Jointing with a Planer I across some wonderful oak boards for a small table I wanted to build. The problem was the boards were too wide for my jointer, and I didn’t want to rip them any narrower. [...]

Re-sawing a board is tricky. Most blades drift, so that you must angle the board to get a straight cut. Standard bandsaw fences can’t be angled to compensate for drift, so many folks use a [...]

Having light precisely where you need it at the bench makes it easier to see what you’re doing, especially for jobs such as laying out joinery, cutting dovetails and other detail work. This [...]

I’ve struggled for a long time to adequately light my garage for woodworking. I’ve added fluorescent and LED work lights in the areas where I do the most woodworking, but overall [...]

I make a lot of shelving from hardwood plywood, covering the panel edges with 1⁄4“-thick solid-wood edging. The edging, which is oversized in length and width, is trimmed flush with the [...]

While I have a shooting board with a 90° fence, any other angle requires fussing with wood, screws and a protractor. In a moment of desperation, I cut a groove down the center of an old bench [...]

Whether you are into new socket chisels or old, sooner or later you’re going to have to replace a handle that is worn out or gets lost. Here’s a little trick I came up with to help you get …

I recently ran into a turning dilemma when my wife asked me to make her a quick, inexpensive lamp base. I decided that a two-piece base would do the trick, attaching a long, narrow “neck” to a [...]

I use this inexpensive and easy-to-make jig to press a workpiece against the fence of a band saw, but it would also be useful on a table saw or router table. The design consists of some scrap [...]

The next time you use your jigsaw, forget about hauling out the sawhorses or cantilevering a hard-to-hold workpiece off your bench. Extruded polystyrene insulation board, the rigid pink sheets [...]

Board-Stretching Joint I bought a planer/molder so I could make my own moldings. My living room required one 28‘.-long molding, but all I had to make it were 12‘. boards. I didn’t [...]