Cutting small parts on a miter saw doesn’t have to be scary or dangerous. I’ve adopted a method that keeps your fingers well away from the blade and prevents the piece you’re cutting from zinging [...]
I added a pair of powerful handled magnets [buy on Amazon] to my shop-made featherboard. They fit snugly into two notches and hold the featherboard absolutely rigid. The magnets enable me to [...]
Tool: Bench Paws Manufacturer: Platte River MSRP: $26.49 We’ve all heard of bench dogs—the devices that clamp the ends of a board to keep it from slipping—but have you heard of Bench Paws? [...]
Clamp-Ka-Bob This morning I glued up a 4′ x 6′ tabletop made of maple 2x2s on my assembly table. I positioned 6′ pipe clamps alternately on the top and bottom faces of the [...]
Tool: EZ Change Bits Manufacturer: Amana MSRP: $25+ Plastic laminate and other composite materials dull even the most expensive router bits in a hurry. A busy shop that kicks out a lot of [...]
Here’s a faster way to clean out your router table or cabinet saw if it’s hooked up to a central dust collection system. Instead of sweeping it out, or dragging over the vac, just remove the [...]
My wife and I were walking through a Home Depot store about 20 years ago, when I noticed a small Makita tablesaw and mentioned that it would be fun to have a tool like that just to fool around [...]
Super-Accurate Tablesaw Tilt Tablesaw tilt gauges are inherently inaccurate. After all, the degree lines are usually at least 1/16″ wide. I use a digital angle gauge instead, which is [...]
Have you ever clamped a part in one side of a vise, only to find that the piece slips? If you had looked at the vise’s front jaw, you probably would have noticed that it was skewed, pinching [...]
When I turn hollow vessels, I have to remove my lathe’s tailstock to install a support for the hollowing tool. When I’m done hollowing, I have to re-mount the tailstock to finish the turning. [...]
While visiting the local Habitat for Humanity store I noticed a woodturning lathe. The store manager told me it had come from an estate and was almost new, so I bought it and took it home in the [...]
Tool: Precision Router Table Setup Bars Manufacturer: Kreg MSRP: $69.99 Accurate tool setup is half the battle of doing good work. Kreg’s Precision Router Table Setup Bars make the battle a [...]