Archives

The traditional way to make a square finial on a bandsaw is to mark and cut the pattern on one side of the blank, then tape the offcut back on in order to guide the cuts on the adjacent side. …

After our last family birthday party I spent an hour scraping big globs of candle wax from several tables and our wood mantel. The next day, in response to my complaining, a coworker told me to [...]

Countersink first, drill the pilot hole second. That may sound backward, but it’s the easiest way to ensure a perfect countersink.

We’ve pulled together some router tips that will help you move beyond the roundover and make the most of this versatile tool.

I made this quick-release sanding block from four pieces of 1/2″-thick birch plywood. The top three pieces are glued together. Wrap a quarter sheet of sandpaper around the bottom piece and [...]

Need to glue metal to wood? The answer is easy — epoxy! Epoxy bonds many kinds of materials to one another, including wood, metal, fiberglass, masonry, tile, concrete, and plaster. It will not, [...]

Have you ever tried to use varnish from a skinned-over, half-used can? Even if you remove the skin carefully, lumps of dried finish get mixed in with the remaining varnish and eventually end up [...]

  These furniture maker’s symbols are an international language. They have been used for generations because they’re easy to make and easy to understand. A board’s working face and edge are [...]

  Faced with cutting hundreds of plugs for a big project, I came up with this idea: I cut the plugs a little deeper than needed. Then I ran strips of masking tape down the faces of the [...]

I recently built a chest of drawers with sliding-dovetail joinery. During assembly, I found that the fit was just a little too snug. Rather than trying to realign my router jig, I looked around [...]

Achieving exact thickness is really important when making splines to reinforce box corners. The splines have to fit perfectly in the saw kerfs—a few thousandths of an inch one way or the other [...]

  Tips for taming those awkward and heavy sheets. Woodworking alone is peaceful, serene and quiet. Just you, the radio and your project. It’s also a pain in the posterior when you have to [...]