I have a hard time throwing things away, such as these chucks from a couple of worn-out drills. To put them back into service, I bought a 3 ft. long, 3/8″ dia. threaded rod at the hardware store and cut it into two pieces, 12″ and 24″ long. I threaded the old chucks onto the rods and…

On a crosscut sled, the fence must be absolutely square to the blade. Here’s a super-accurate method of testing for square. It makes errors easier to detect by magnifying them by a factor of four. The same method also works for a miter gauge, using smaller test pieces. Start with a piece of plywood about…

My crosscut sled is my “go-to” jig for precise, square cuts. Recently, I added this self-adhesive tape scale – called Peel-n-Stick Ruler Tape – that makes it even more efficient. You can buy this tape on Amazon or at most fabric stores. Peel-n-Stick Ruler Tape is non-metallic, and comes in a 1/2″-wide x 30′-long roll….

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

My simple tenoning jig produces flawless tenons in minutes— even haunched tenons. The jig consists of a sled with a glued-on support block and a screwed-on sacrificial backstop. The sled and support block are flush on the work side and square. The backstop protrudes by the thickness of the workpiece, minus 1/16-in. Before using the…

Here is my adjustable jig for ripping thin strips on a table saw. Used with a push stick and zero-clearance insert, it keeps my hands a safe distance away from the sawblade. The base is MDF that’s 3⁄4” thick x 6″ wide x 22″ long. The width of the jig keeps my hand away from…

My contractor saw shares a garage with my car, so it’s stowed against a wall when not in use. It’s not an easy thing to drag into place when it’s time to set up for woodworking, so I decided to outfit it for wheelbarrow-style mobility. I screwed a couple sturdy non-swiveling casters to a stiff…

I find cutting dowels on the band saw to be a hassle. For one thing, the blade can grab the round stock and twist it out of your hand if you’re not using a support cradle guided by the miter gauge. And if you’re cutting several dowels to the same length, you have to set…

Spring clamps are easily converted to miter clamps by adding swivel jaws. Remove the vinyl tips, and then hacksaw a 1/2″ long slot down the center of the metal jaws. Use needle-nose vise-grips to fold down the two halves of each jaw, and then drill a hole for a small bolt or rivet. To make…

I edge-band plywood shelves with solid wood, attaching the edge-banding with #20 biscuits. It’s no problem at all to hold the plywood shelf solidly while cutting the slot; that’s what bench dogs and an end vise do so well. But the edgebanding itself can be a little squirmy, either bending or rotating when held between…

A sharp pencil is a must for accurate work, but having a pencil sharpener permanently mounted in one place isn’t always ideal. The further away I am from my pencil sharpener, the less likely I am to use it, until my pencil is really dull. I removed my pencil sharpener from its permanent location on…

Planing stock to fit standard dados is much easier than trying to find the right chipper and shim combination to fit the dado to your stock. I cut five grooves in a scrap of plywood, using only the blades and 1/8″-thick chippers – no shims or thin chippers – from my dado set. As I’m…