Tricks of the Trade

Quick Panel-finishing Setup When making frame-and-panel doors, my panels are finished before installing them into their frames. The fact that the edges will be tucked into the frames allows for a [...]

Winding sticks are very useful for gauging twist in a board, but they’re difficult to read. My improved version of these time-tested helpers makes the twist stand out. I start with a pair of [...]

While building this little station to organize my cordless-drill paraphernalia, I discovered that bicycle hooks make great drill holders. Mounting the station on the wall saves valuable benchtop [...]

For many years, I set up my dado stack directly on my table saw. So if my test cut was not correct, it required the re- moval of a portion of the set to add or remove shims, or swap …

I used to struggle making Dutchman keys (also known as butterflies) – but I love using them in my furniture. So, I came up with an idea that works well and makes the process completely painless. [...]

If you have an adjustable countersink bit (like the ones from Insty-Bit), you can loosen the set screw and pull the collar off, then flip it around so the flat side is facing the work. Tighten it [...]

There are times when you need to hold a workpiece securely against a dog in the workbench, but don’t want to risk damage to the work from a hard bench dog. Here’s a simple bench dog that will be [...]

When I had to install a bunch of magnetic catches recently, I came up with this simple method to mark the doors for the strike plate. It requires no measuring and the results are neat and clean. [...]

Planing the edge of a long board perpendicular to its face is a real challenge. To make the job easier, I built a guide that attaches to the side of my plane with rare earth magnets. Now jointing [...]

I make lots of lazy Susans in my cabinet business, so I cut circles of many diameters. Changing diameters is easy on my circle-cutting jig, because I use a pop rivet as a removable center pin. [...]

Nothing makes a cabinet look worse than door panels with unattractive grain that runs at werid angles. It pays to be picky about grain direction, even it means wasting some plywood. After [...]

I enjoy making picture frames but always found it a pain to use tacks or staples to hold the picture in place. Plus tacks and staples are hard to remove when you want to change the picture. [...]