Use the power of the sliding dovetail. PROJECT #2002 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 5 days • Cost: $500 The Shakers were a Protestant sect of English Quakers that immigrated to the U.S. in 1774. They founded largely self-sufficient communities from Maine to Kentucky and lived by the three guiding principles of honesty, utility,…

Simple design. Sturdy construction. Every shop needs a pair of trusty sawhorses. I like ones that are easy to build and easy to store away. These sawhorses definitely fit that bill, and nest together quite well, too. This unique design is within reach of any woodworker and doesn’t require many tools to build.  The wood…

A good lathe stand is just as important as a good lathe. Build a professional-quality lathe stand that’s stable, strong and heavy.

Use the power of the sliding dovetail. PROJECT #2002 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 5 days • Cost: $500 The Shakers were a Protestant sect of English Quakers that immigrated to the U.S. in 1774. They founded largely self-sufficient communities from Maine to Kentucky and lived by the three guiding principles of honesty, utility,…

A tapered (not turned) post sets this stand apart from contemporaries. I have a thing for candle stands. These small tables are quick to make, don’t require a lot of material to build, and are useful furniture to own. They make for excellent bedside tables, end tables and work well as a standalone piece, too….

Attractive lines, a comfortable seat and some lathe work provide the foundation for for this Shinto-inspired bar stools.

Build a modern workspace with just a single sheet of plywood. Project #2012 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 1 day • Cost: $150 Creating your own space seems to be a rite of passage for most first-time homebuyers. Albeit, its often easy to become disillusioned, overzealous and even unrealistic about the amount of work…

Restrained elegance in an American classic. Someday in your woodworking career, you’ll want to reach for the sky. Maybe you’ll have an urge to make an ambitious piece of your own design, or perhaps you’ll prefer to walk in the shoes of cabinetmakers who have gone before and build an American classic. If you love…

Build a rock-solid cabinet from one sheet of plywood. Your state-of-the-art TV deserves something better than a flimsy flat-pack shelving unit from the big box store. This handsome display stand features sturdy construction, storage for CDs and plenty of room for cable, gaming and sound-system components. It’s even designed to hide the cord clutter that’s…

This hybrid design holds work any which way you want it to. Good design is little more than selective thievery. This workbench is a good example of that. A combination of features from several historic forms, ranging from the Roubo to the Workmate, becomes a new form, suited to being the center of a modern…

You can hold anything on your workbench with just pegs, wedges & notches – no fancy vises required. It’s difficult for most woodworkers to imagine a workbench without screw-driven vises. But for most of human history, that’s how you worked. No matter what you were building – furniture, wagons, barrels or houses – the workbench…

Build a small workbench with full-sized features for a budding woodworker. “The bench is probably the most important item in the workshop.” Those are Charles H. Hayward’s first words in his article “Fitting up the workshop: the bench.” As a woodworking vise manufacturer and bench maker, I couldn’t agree more. Tons of ink has been…

This workbench form is uncommon today, but it is still a sound bench because it allows you to perform all of the critical workbench operations with relative ease. Benches are a triumph of function over form. When it comes to building or buying a bench, most woodworkers get wrapped up in what form it should…

With $100 in lumber and two days, you can build this sturdy stowaway bench. Many knockdown workbenches suffer from unfortunate compromises. Inexpensive commercial benches that can be knocked down for shipping use skimpy hardware and thin components to reduce shipping weight. The result is that the bench never feels sturdy. Plus, assembly usually takes a…

Tool: Universal Bench Manufacturer: Kreg MSRP: $145+ Every shop needs a bench. In fact, two or three is even better, as you’ll want an assembly table that’s a little lower than your workbench. Then what about all those benchtop power tools? Where do they go? The folks at Kreg and their Universal Bench cover pretty much any…

Simple Router Table While many woodworkers spend weekends making stationary router tables, mine have always been very simple, driven by expediency, and the desire to get other things done. My first was just a router base screwed to the underside of a piece of plywood. I simply clamped the plywood to a workbench, installed the…

Shop-Made Rocker Jaw One simple board, cut into the shape of a seesaw, can make a huge improvement to your vise. It allows you to firmly hold tapered work and long, upright boards off to the side of the vise. For a tapered piece, such as the leg shown here, place the rocker in the…

Learn how to make compound-angle dovetails building this handy stool and portable tool box. For my job as a trim carpenter and furnituremaker, I’ve always needed a sturdy stool to stand on. I’ve also wanted to make a nice box for carrying my tools and a small workbench for cutting molding. While perched on an…

Simple design. Sturdy construction. Every shop needs a pair of trusty sawhorses. I like ones that are easy to build and easy to store away. These sawhorses definitely fit that bill, and nest together quite well, too. This unique design is within reach of any woodworker and doesn’t require many tools to build.  The wood…

A good lathe stand is just as important as a good lathe. Build a professional-quality lathe stand that’s stable, strong and heavy.

Carrying plywood by yourself is a pain. This caddy allows you to roll it around instead. Just clamp this caddy to the board’s edge, tip the sheet down onto the wheels and off you go.

Add GFRC to your furniture-making arsenal. I’ve always loved aircraft-inspired design. There’s just something about an everyday item inspired by a plane that evokes a sense of wanderlust in me, and I wanted to make a piece of furniture that had that aircraft feel. This concrete and walnut “wing” table is the result. Before I…

A tapered (not turned) post sets this stand apart from contemporaries. I have a thing for candle stands. These small tables are quick to make, don’t require a lot of material to build, and are useful furniture to own. They make for excellent bedside tables, end tables and work well as a standalone piece, too….

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this frame reads like a book! Here’s a 5-for-1 deal that’s hard to refuse. This neat little frame displays two 4″ x 6″ portrait images, two 4″ x 6″  landscape images and one 4″ x 4″ image in a 13-1/2″ x 13-1/2″ package. Made from a single…