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I used to struggle making Dutchman keys (also known as butterflies) – but I love using them in my furniture. So, I came up with an idea that works well and makes the process completely painless. [...]

If you have an adjustable countersink bit (like the ones from Insty-Bit), you can loosen the set screw and pull the collar off, then flip it around so the flat side is facing the work. Tighten it [...]

There are times when you need to hold a workpiece securely against a dog in the workbench, but don’t want to risk damage to the work from a hard bench dog. Here’s a simple bench dog that will be [...]

When I had to install a bunch of magnetic catches recently, I came up with this simple method to mark the doors for the strike plate. It requires no measuring and the results are neat and clean. [...]

Planing the edge of a long board perpendicular to its face is a real challenge. To make the job easier, I built a guide that attaches to the side of my plane with rare earth magnets. Now jointing [...]

I make lots of lazy Susans in my cabinet business, so I cut circles of many diameters. Changing diameters is easy on my circle-cutting jig, because I use a pop rivet as a removable center pin. [...]

Nothing makes a cabinet look worse than door panels with unattractive grain that runs at werid angles. It pays to be picky about grain direction, even it means wasting some plywood. After [...]

I enjoy making picture frames but always found it a pain to use tacks or staples to hold the picture in place. Plus tacks and staples are hard to remove when you want to change the picture. [...]

I often need to find the center of a board for resawing (and other purposes). A quick way to do this is to use a cheap doweling jig and brad-point drill bit to mark the center, then set your [...]

I needed a way to secure the tail board on the pin board for marking on a large case project while transferring the layout. So, I used two picture-frame clamps to hold both pieces square and in [...]

I cut custom base plates for my routers, which not only allows me to adjust the size for better stability, but to better see the work. They’re 1⁄4“-thick Plexiglas that I cut to size and [...]

When turning, I like to have all my supplies close at hand, ready for use.  I use an index card box to store and organize cut pieces of sandpaper. It has a lid and dividers,  so everything is [...]