Tricks of the Trade

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 [...]

Trimming miters used to drive me crazy, because I couldn’t hold the piece I was trimming securely enough against the miter gauge. The piece would always slide away from the blade during the [...]

Accurate Inside Measurement An accurate inside measurement is sometimes difficult to obtain. For example, I needed to take a measurement behind a cabinet’s face frame to fit a new shelf. [...]

A zero-clearance throat plate is a must-have for every tablesaw. It prevents small offcuts and thin strips from dropping down alongside the blade which is really annoying. Some manufacturers sell [...]

A computer in the shop is becoming increasingly common. I use my tablet in the shop all the time; it’s where I keep project plans, cutting lists, etc. I also use it to video chat with other [...]

Pegboard isn’t just for walls—it’s perfect for organizing stuff wherever you need to store it. I’ve bolted a piece of perfboard to the end of my table saw’s extension table to hold all the [...]

When making repetitive cuts, I found that my stop block would shift. With a hardwood cutoff, a leftover piece of T-track, a 1/4–20 hex head bolt and a jig knob, I constructed a stop block that [...]

Have you ever closed an inset door in a cabinet you were building and found that you couldn’t open it, because you hadn’t added the knob yet? Well, I have. Here’s an easy effective solution: Make [...]

My father showed me this “bird’s mouth” jig almost 60 years ago. It securely clamps 1/4- to 3″thick boards on edge. It’s so useful that I’ve never bothered to add a vise to my workbench. [...]

After years of fumbling with clamps, I decided there must be a better way to attach featherboards to my tablesaw’s rip fence. Two T-tracks screwed to the fence allow me to mount a piece of [...]

Square the table using this old machinists’ trick. Bend a piece of 1/4”. steel rod (available at home centers) into an S shape, as shown in the photo above. Mount it in the chuck and swing it by [...]

I love having a cutting list close at hand. But hanging on to it when both hands are busy was a problem—until I bought 24 clothespins for $2 at the hardware store. I epoxied the wooden pins in [...]