Old wooden planes are usually coated with a layer of grime that obscures their true beauty. I clean them using a homemade solution that removes the dirt and grease without damaging the wood’s patina. It’s made from common ingredients. Make the solution from 1 part boiled linseed oil, 1 part Murphy’s Oil Soap and 2…

Close your eyes and picture it: your entire shop organized, a place for every tool, never struggling to find your cardscraper when you need it, and a stress-free day of woodworking. Sound like a dream? Not anymore! Finally get your shop organized just the way you want it. Swing-Out Plywood Storage I was looking for…

Some objects aren’t easy to hold for drilling. When I run into a situation like this, I use a wooden-jawed handscrew that has sandpaper glued to one side of it, so it doesn’t move around. You can use either adhesive-backed sandpaper or spray an adhesive on regular sandpaper.  

When your hands aren’t strong or large enough to put the last squeeze on a big clamp, try clamping the clamp. My ingenious wife, who has very small hands, invented this solution. She works in my shop too, and the grips on some of the clamps are just too large for her to get good…

Think of it almost like a DIY track saw. Crosscutting a full sheet of plywood on a tablesaw is pretty difficult, particularly when you don’t have any help. I use a circular saw and this shop-made edge guide, instead. The cuts aren’t finish quality, of course, but at least I end up with smaller pieces…

Every little bit helps when trying to keep your shop and tools clean. That’s why we’ve compiled some of our favorite tips all in one place. Mobile Suction My dust collector, though pieced-together, is the perfect solution for my one-car garage shop. I use a cyclone separator and 5-gallon bucket in conjunction with my shop…

When using a sharpening stone to hone the flat side of handplane irons or scraper plane blades, it can be difficult to grip the metal. Take an old knob off a handplane and glue or epoxy a rare earth magnet into the bottom screw hole. The magnet grabs the iron, and the comfort of the…

Sanding is nobody’s favorite task, but if you use these tricks, you might find it just a little more bearable. Flexible Sanding Tool A complex moulding can be difficult to sand. Softening its crisp edges is a crime, so I’ve been using a thin, flexible stick with sandpaper adhered to it for getting into the…

I had to crosscut narrow strips to make a cutting board. The boards were too wide for my miter saw, so I decided to use my tablesaw’s crosscut sled. I tried a standard stop, but after a few cuts, I realized that the parts were “creeping” ever so slightly during the cut. I needed a stop…

An accurate inside measurement is sometimes difficult to obtain. For example, I needed to take a measurement behind a cabinet’s face frame to fit a new shelf. Typically, most people would solve this one of two ways. Some would try the quick and dirty method of bending the tape into the corner which is a…

Face jointing boards requires some safety precautions to keep your fingers out of the danger zone. I made this simple push plate with a cleat on the back end. Two handles allow me to apply downward pressure, and the cleat hooks over the workpiece’s end, providing forward pressure. The push plate is made from two thicknesses…

Making through-slots without a router may sound tricky, but it couldn’t be easier. In the days before I could afford a router, I made through-slots by gluing up scraps instead. Here’s how to do it. Cut some pieces the same width as your desired slot. Cut these slot spacers to length and then glue them…