Tool: Super General T.K. Manufacturer: Infinity Price: $109 Do you avoid changing blades on your tablesaw? Do you feel like your tablesaw doesn’t have enough power? Is your current blade coated with burned residue? If you answer “Yes” to all these questions, then it’s time to take a good look at a high-quality thin-kerf blade like…

Tool: Pipe Vise Manufacturer: Lee Valley Price: $65 A tail vise is an essential part of a first-class workbench. It’s used to hold work on top of the bench, between dogs. Most types of tail vises are quite complicated to build, but the folks at Lee Valley have figured out a way to make a simple…

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

Leigh — known for accurate and clever joinery jigs — has a new box-joint jig for routers (for handheld use or on router tables). It’s designed to create 1⁄2″- and 3⁄4″-wide box joints and looks similar to other jigs, so I was ready to be under whelmed until I set it up and started checking out the features.

Accurize your tablesaw for absolutely straight, smooth and burn-free cuts. When my contractor’s saw was new, it cut perfectly. Over the years, it gradually went out of whack. I’ll show you what I did to accurize it so that my blade cuts true again. Precisely aligning your saw’s blade doesn’t require any special tools, but…

Unlock your saw’s full potential. by Seth Keller   The tablesaw’s power and precision put it at the center of everyone’s shop. Despite this honored position, a tablesaw is mostly used for mundane ripping tasks. To make better use of my tablesaw, I use these four simple jigs in my shop. They take advantage of…

First a disclaimer: This is a recollection of impressions following the installation and test running of our new 6” Grizzly spiral Cutterhead jointer, that we bought at full price this fall.  As many of you know, I teach woodworking at the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan. Our program is mainly geared towards hand tool work….

A Desktop size CNC at an Entry Level Price One of the questions I’m most often asked is “would you do a review of an affordable CNC?”  Up to now, there’ve been few choices for woodworkers on tight budgets with small home shops. Here’s the thing: as woodworkers, we do pretty heavy duty work and…

We have all seen them: those chisel handles that have crumbled from years of use. Here’s how to easily restore those handles to their former glory.

A few weeks ago one of our remarkable 8th grade students approached me during class and with a sad face as he presented two pieces of steel that just a few moments earlier used to be a vintage socket chisel. He remorsefully said that the chisel broke while he was shaping a round tenon at…

I started my woodworking career 40 years ago shaving ladderback chairs based on the methods of Jennie Alexander as outlined in Make a Chair from a Tree. Green wood, split from straight-grained logs, aligns perfectly with drawknife work.

A few weeks ago Veritas tools (Lee Valley) released their most recent plane. The squirrel-looking plane (there are actually two versions of it: a limited edition stainless steel, and a continuous production cast iron) is by far one of the smallest planes around.

When WoodRiver announced its new socket chisels, I was very intrigued. Price-wise, these chisels fall into the intermediate range – $35-$45 for an individual chisel (depending on size). I picked up a 1⁄2“ chisel and a 3⁄4“ chisel to put through the paces. The chisels are ground from 100 CR-V steel and tempered to a…

Tool: Pipe Vise Manufacturer: Lee Valley Price: $65 A tail vise is an essential part of a first-class workbench. It’s used to hold work on top of the bench, between dogs. Most types of tail vises are quite complicated to build, but the folks at Lee Valley have figured out a way to make a simple…

Tool: Gorilla Glue Minis Manufacturer: Gorilla Glue Price: $7 (pack of 4) A little bit of Gorilla Glue will do just fine, thank you, for lots of jobs. It now comes in small Single Use Tubes, 4 to a pack. Usually, small tubes of anything cost more per ounce, but these can end up saving you…

One word describes this tool, its cutters and the twist on the materials used: innovative.
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Tool: Preval Spray System Manufacturer: Preval Price: $5 For spraying small projects, this portable, self-contained Preval Spray System sprays almost any finish quickly and easily. Just fill the container with the appropriately thinned finish of your choice, attach the power unit and spray. In the photo, it’s spraying de-waxed shellac at a 2lb. cut, but it…

Tool: Inset Vise Manufacturer: Veritas Price: $98 A good tail vise sometimes ends up being an after-thought. When you built your bench, maybe you could only afford to shell out for the face vise, or maybe you thought you wouldn’t use a tail vise very often. If you’re considering adding a tail vise to your bench, this…

  Tool: Five Star Drill Set Manufacturer: Colt Price: $56 When I grab a brad-point bit to drill a hole, I don’t give much thought to the design of the bit and to the finer intricacies of just how holes are drilled. But the German company that produces the Colt line of drill bits does just that….