When making repetitive cuts, I found that my stop block would shift. With a hardwood cutoff, a leftover piece of T-track, a 1/4–20 hex head bolt and a jig knob, I constructed a stop block that doesn’t move and is super easy to adjust. First, drill a hole in the saw’s fence, then groove the…

Have you ever closed an inset door in a cabinet you were building and found that you couldn’t open it, because you hadn’t added the knob yet? Well, I have. Here’s an easy effective solution: Make a little hook from a plastic lid. Cut the opener as shown below, with a raised tab that’s cut…

My father showed me this “bird’s mouth” jig almost 60 years ago. It securely clamps 1/4- to 3″thick boards on edge. It’s so useful that I’ve never bothered to add a vise to my workbench. I’ve been tempted to mount the jig permanently, but I prefer an uncluttered work surface. Besides, this jig is easy…

After years of fumbling with clamps, I decided there must be a better way to attach featherboards to my tablesaw’s rip fence. Two T-tracks screwed to the fence allow me to mount a piece of plywood with a side-mounted track for attaching featherboards. Now I can set and adjust my featherboards with ease.—Loren Englemann

Square the table using this old machinists’ trick. Bend a piece of 1/4”. steel rod (available at home centers) into an S shape, as shown in the photo above. Mount it in the chuck and swing it by hand to each side of the table. Use a feeler gauge between the end of the rod…

I love having a cutting list close at hand. But hanging on to it when both hands are busy was a problem—until I bought 24 clothespins for $2 at the hardware store. I epoxied the wooden pins in convenient spots around my shop. Now I can easily double-check measurements before cutting my boards too short….

Microfiber cloth picks up tiny dust particles as well as, if not better than, a tack cloth. Unlike a tack cloth, microfiber cloths are washable and reusable. Rockler Sells Norton’s microfiber finishing cloth for $5-7, but any microfiber cloth will work as long as it has hemmed edges.—Kevin Southwick

One afternoon my wife called out to my shop with an urgent request. She needed me to make a round cake plate from 1/4″ plywood 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…

In the process of refinishing an old chair, I found that my random orbit sander’s flat surface didn’t work for sanding the concave hollow of the seat. My sander uses hook-and-loop paper, so I purchased some adhesive-backed hook-and-loop material at the hardware store. After sticking the material together with the hooks on one side and…

Two triangular maple blocks and a pair of sharp-tipped drywall screws are all you need to make corner clamp blocks for picture frames. Drill and counterbore a hole for a drywall screw through one leg of each block, positioned so the screw’s tip is centered in the hypotenuse (photo). Make sure the screw threads through…

This simple plywood cover ensures the base of your drill press won’t collect lost hardware, or become home to the occasional shop mouse.

Awls, dividers and compass points are sharp and thus can be easily damaged if not protected (or even worse, poke us). Over the years I have used wine corks, plastic wall anchors, and segments of plastic pipes as point protectors, but there’s an even better solution. I am quite lucky to have a partner who…