Tricks of the Trade

I made a clamping device for my bench that can quickly snug up a board just by swinging a lever. The lever has a cam that pushes a sliding stop...

Here’s a faster way to clean out your router table or cabinet saw if it’s hooked up to a central dust collection system. Instead of sweeping it out, or dragging...

I made this jig for cutting patterns on the band saw. It works especially well on woods where the line is difficult to see, or if your near eyesight is...

I find myself needing a lot of small circles for use on wooden toys. When I cut those disks out with a circle-cutting jig on the band saw, the edge...

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 accurate...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...