Tricks of the Trade

Super-Accurate Tablesaw Tilt Tablesaw tilt gauges are inherently inaccurate. After all, the degree lines are usually at least 1/16″ wide. I use a digital angle gauge instead, which is [...]

Have you ever clamped a part in one side of a vise, only to find that the piece slips? If you had looked at the vise’s front jaw, you probably would have noticed that it was skewed,  pinching [...]

When I turn hollow vessels, I have to remove my lathe’s tailstock to install a support for the hollowing tool. When I’m done hollowing, I have to re-mount the tailstock to finish the turning. [...]

To protect the edges of small carving tools, stick a wine bottle cork on them. Synthetic corks work best because they don’t break apart as easily as natural cork. Allow the cork to dry for a [...]

Self-Storing Glue Kit Gluing up a project can turn ugly in a hurry if you don’t have all your supplies on hand. I put together a kit that contains everything I need: a small white-nylon [...]

Pull Saw Miter Box Short lengths of molding can be awkward—and sometimes dangerous—to cut with power tools. I’d rather cut them by hand, using a Japanese pull saw and a shop-made miter box. Make [...]

Drilling a mortise requires you to move the stock from side to side. Using a Forstner bit, you drill the end holes first, then drill overlapping holes in between. To keep the workpiece tight [...]

I have found a simple way to modify a wooden lever cam clamp to move a table saw fence or router fence in fractional amounts, using easy-to-find hardware: a 1⁄4“-20 T-nut, 1⁄4“-20 [...]

When applying laminate on a narrow edge, it’s a little tricky to not tip the router and undercut the edge. The surface on which the router must balance is often not wide enough to provide [...]

A scraper’s edge is very delicate. I used to keep my card scrapers loose in a drawer, but to avoid nicking their edges, I decided to make a simple stand for them. I cut a few slots in a [...]

Rarely a day goes by when we aren’t using a router for some aspect of a project. We’ve been building all kinds of jigs and trying new ideas (and ideas recently unearthed from our archives). A …

Too many times we look for complex solutions when the answer is right in front of our eyes. This is an old trick, but a good one – drilling pilot holes for nails using the nail itself. It works [...]