Planing the edge of a long board perpendicular to its face is a real challenge. To make the job easier, I built a guide that attaches to the side of my plane with rare earth magnets. Now jointing an edge is much easier. I simply alter my grip to take full advantage of the square-cornered…

I make lots of lazy Susans in my cabinet business, so I cut circles of many diameters. Changing diameters is easy on my circle-cutting jig, because I use a pop rivet as a removable center pin. The jig is an MDF piece with an attached rail that’s sized to slide in the miter gauge slot…

Nothing makes a cabinet look worse than door panels with unattractive grain that runs at werid angles. It pays to be picky about grain direction, even it means wasting some plywood. After assembling your door frames without glue, slide them around on the sheet of plywood until they frame attractive panels. Look for symmetrical grain…

I enjoy making picture frames but always found it a pain to use tacks or staples to hold the picture in place. Plus tacks and staples are hard to remove when you want to change the picture. That’s why I developed this method for holding the picture, glass, matting, and backing board in the frame….

I often need to find the center of a board for resawing (and other purposes). A quick way to do this is to use a cheap doweling jig and brad-point drill bit to mark the center, then set your marking gauge to the bit mark and strike a line. –Alejandro Balbis

I needed a way to secure the tail board on the pin board for marking on a large case project while transferring the layout. So, I used two picture-frame clamps to hold both pieces square and in line while I marked the pin locations. It worked like a charm.  –Bob Glenn,

I cut custom base plates for my routers, which not only allows me to adjust the size for better stability, but to better see the work. They’re 1⁄4“-thick Plexiglas that I cut to size and shape on the band saw, then smooth with a belt sander. I use a hole saw to remove the center,…

When turning, I like to have all my supplies close at hand, ready for use.  I use an index card box to store and organize cut pieces of sandpaper. It has a lid and dividers,  so everything is neat and orderly. When you cut sandpaper into sections, some pieces won’t have the grit information on them,…

One afternoon my wife called out to my shop with an urgent request.  She needed me to make a round plywood cake plate for a charity auction.  I assured her it would be no problem. I was in the middle of a project and didn’t want to spend all afternoon on this. Then it hit…

I recently made a couple of recipe boxes with finger joints. I didn’t have enough regular clamps to glue both boxes at once, so I decided to use band clamps. During my dry run, I discovered that the bands wouldn’t allow the joints to close. To fix this, I put a dowel on each side…

I’m making and installing approx. 5000-bd.ft. of hard maple trim. Keeping track of what I’ve already sanded is difficult, so before sanding, I rub artists non-oil pastel chalks (also available at artist supply stores) onto the wood and into the grain with a dry staining sponge. Then I simply sand until all the chalk is…

I don’t have a compound miter saw, but I figured out how to cut the compound bevel needed at the top and bottom of splayed legs. My answer is to use my basic miter saw and a piece of scrap. I imagined the leg being held at an angle while cutting to the required miters,…