Archives

Q & A: Avoiding Swirl Marks   Q: I just stained a tabletop and found it covered with tiny swirl marks from my random-orbital sander.What did I do wrong? A: Swirl marks are inevitable. [...]

Tablesaw Tool Drawer It seems like I’m always misplacing my push sticks, blade wrench, featherboards and other small tablesaw accessories.To solve my problem I added a shallow drawer under [...]

Q & A: Cordless Impact Drivers   Q: What’s the difference between a cordless drill and a cordless impact driver? A: An impact driver is specifically designed to drive threaded fasteners. [...]

by Jack Phillips I never throw anything away. Some day, I tell myself, the stuff in that neglected pile of junk will come in handy. I was right! I resurrected my old Craftsman table saw fence and [...]

Q & A: Safely Rough-Cut Twisted Lumber   Q: I buy my lumber rough, and sometimes I get a very twisted or crooked board. What’s a safe way to crosscut and put a straight edge on these [...]

Spray Booth for Waterborne Finishes   Fifty bucks and a few hours is all it takes to put together this finishing booth. It keeps overspray off my tools and dust off my projects. Since I use [...]

Q & A: Board too Wide for Jointer Q: I’ve got some beautiful planks that are too wide for my jointer. I really don’t want to rip them down to size and risk breaking up the grain [...]

Pipe Clamp Protectors Iron pipe clamps can mar a finished surface and leave nasty black stains if they touch a wet glue line. My solution is to raise the pipe above the surface with [...]

Q & A: Taking Dimensions From Photos   Q: Sometimes a catalog has a piece of furniture that I’d love to build myself. How can I get the dimensions for a piece of furniture off a [...]

Mobile Machine Caddy My shop space is so limited—only 12 feet square—that I designed this system to house four machines: belt-disc sander, miter saw station, drill press and planer. Each machine [...]

Q & A: Soaking Stones   Q: I just bought a 6,000-grit Japanese waterstone mounted on a wooden base. Can I soak it like my other stones? Also, what’s the purpose of a Nagura stone? [...]

Accurate Bevels The standard angle scale on my bandsaw is too small to read accurately. I made a large, new scale on the back side of my bandsaw and attached a pointer stick to the back edge of [...]