Archives

Q & A: Rust and Mold on Waterstones Question: My set of Norton waterstones has recently developed two problems. First, a brownish stain appears when I sharpen my chisels and plane irons. [...]

See-Through Router Base See where you're going on a dovetail jig. By Dave Munkittrick   Why are so many router bases solid black? I hate peering through those little holes to align my [...]

The Way Wood Works: Birch This affordable wood is great for both high-end and utilitarian cabinetry. By Tim Johnson Birch is a hot item at the lumberyard these days, and birch veneer is the [...]

The Way Wood Works: Reading Grain Direction By Tom Caspar “Going against the grain” is a familiar phrase. It means doing something the wrong way.When you’re talking about wood, [...]

Bandsaw Tire True-Up Q: How can I fix a bandsaw tire with irregularities that bump the blade? I’m getting a lot of side-to-side movement with the blade. A: Truing the hard rubber tire that [...]

Figured Cherry Spectacular wood and where to get it. By Dave Munkittrick Nature truly is the greatest artist and figured cherry is living proof. If you’ve ever admired the fluid motion of a [...]

The Way Wood Works: Curly Wood How to buy, machine and finish this amazing wood. By Tom Caspar Hidden within a few trees in every forest lies a mysteriously distorted wood that has always [...]

Butternut Tips for working with black walnut's blond cousin.  By Tim Johnson Butternut is one of our prettiest domestic hardwoods, but most people have never seen it. Butternut trees are [...]

A Great Glue Bottle Tip I like the narrow tip on refillable glue bottles. What I don’t like is the tiny little cap, which is very easy to lose. The other day I was pawing through shavings [...]

Pivoting Outfeed Support I recently saw an outfeed stand that had a pivoting top. The pivoting action prevents a workpiece from catching the front edge of the outfeed top. Instead, the top just [...]

Jumbo Tape Dispenser I have five or six different kinds of tape in my shop, and last weekend I got fed up with rooting through a drawer to find the one I wanted. To solve the problem, I built [...]

Photocopy Template I used to hate hanging objects, like power strips, that have hidden T-slots on the back. No matter how carefully I measured, I could never get the mounting screws in the right [...]