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Make your own light-duty one-handed workholding wonders. Like most workshops, mine is well-populated with spring clamps, the ubiquitous tool for applying localized pressure with one hand while [...]

Cooking wood in your kitchen can produce results that rival specialty kilns. Luthiers have long used roasted or tempered wood in stringed instruments because the roasting process pre-stresses the [...]

Bench grips are handy for holding parts above the bench for routing, sanding or finishing.  To make them, just cut some wood and rubber shelf liner into 2″ to 3″...

Good light is a must in every workshop, but sometimes I need a little extra light in just the right place. To make my light/magnifier more portable, I drilled a...

Instead of measuring for my circular saw’s offset each time I need to make a cut, I use a modified edge guide. I screwed two 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 12″...

Let’s face it: running a twisted board through the planer doesn’t make it flat. The board will still be twisted when it comes out. The trick is to use a...

To support a large panel while I drilled holes in the edge for dowels, I added a second sliding clamp jaw to a pipe clamp and clamped it to the...

I own several routers and they all have thin wrenches that are awkward to hold. To avoid frustration, I made the handles thicker by housing them in transparent plastic tubing...

Improve your results by understanding wood characteristics. Each species of wood has unique finishing characteristics, both positive and negative. To help you determine how to choose the right [...]

Knowing the techniques will help you, even if you aren’t doing the sewing yourself. For a woodworker, upholstery can be intimidating. It’s hard to know what you want, until you...

An ancient European tool that still has a place in the modern American shop. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Why...

I have a hard time throwing things away, such as these chucks from a couple of worn-out drills. To put them back into service, I bought a 3 ft. long,...