On the surface, basic geometry skills can seem like magic or just a cool trick. We sat down with Chad Stanton to learn why geometry is a crucial skill for woodworkers and not just another “life-hack.”
Slice Steel on Your Bandsaw Q: I’ve heard of a technique called friction-cutting that allows you to cut steel on a woodworking bandsaw. What is friction-cutting and does...
Replaceable Fence Faces It’s hard to improve on the performance of a T-square fence, but I think I’ve done it. I got frustrated with clamping on an additional subfence every...
Minimize Router Burns End grain burns easily on maple and cherry, and those burns are hard to remove. After sanding my fingers to the bone following one particularly unfortunate routing...
Scratch-Free Flush Cuts No matter how carefully I cut with my economy-model flushcutting saw, it always left scratch marks on the wood’s surface. To solve the problem, I attached a...
Glue Squeegee I stack-laminate boards to create turning blanks. Each blank contains numerous laminations, so I have to work fast during assembly. To spread glue quickly and evenly, I use...
Q: I make my own guards and router bases from plastic. How can I drill clean holes without the bit grabbing the plastic? A: A simple solution is to file...
Stuck Gib Nut Q: I managed to round-over a gib nut on my planer’s blade holder. I’ve tried everything to free that nut. Any suggestions? A: AYou can free a...
Shop-Made Sanding Blocks Q: Commercial sanding blocks all have some kind of padded bottom. Do my shop-made blocks need to be padded, too? A: Yes they do. Padded...
Faster Sharpening One of my favorite sharpening tools is a diamond paddle. I use it for router bits, knives and, most importantly, scrapers. The problem is that it cuts so...
