Archives

10 Things You Need to Know About Plastic Lumber By Brad Holden No, we haven’t changed our name to American Plasticworker. I love wood, with all its beautiful textures, figures...

Q & A: Router Table Miter Joints   Q: I plan to build some jewelry boxes with mitered corners, but my contractor’s saw does a poor job of cutting miters....

Tackle Box Storage This is my all-time favorite way to store screws, small hardware and router bits. Fishing tackle boxes come in a variety of sizes and shapes but I...

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:...

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 the...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...