Archives

Chisel Sharpening Jig If you’ve had trouble grinding a straight edge on a chisel or plane iron, try using your disc sander. All you need is a guide that slides in your sander’s miter gauge slot [...]

Toggle clamps are great for all sorts of jigs and fixtures. However, you need a wrench to adjust the length of their posts. To make life easier, replace the clamp’s hex nut with a wing nut. [...]

My beam compass is perfect for drawing huge arcs. It’s super easy to make, and I can adjust it quickly without using screws or clamps. To change the arc’s radius, I just slide a [...]

Flaming Scroll Saw When I work in my garage shop, I keep the garage door open to let the sunlight stream in. After working for several hours one fine afternoon, I smelled something burning—that [...]

Achieving exact thickness is really important when making splines to reinforce box corners. The splines have to fit perfectly in the saw kerfs—a few thousandths of an inch one way or the other [...]

Drawer knobs that work loose and spin around drive me crazy. So instead of drilling a hole through the drawer front and screwing the knobs on from the back, I fasten them to a post that’s [...]

To save space, my trash can doubles as a work support. I made a dolly with locking casters to fit the can’s bottom, so I can roll the unit to wherever it’s needed. The work support is adjustable [...]

I use lots of Phillips-head sheetrock screws, which are made of hardened steel. They’re tough on bits. A worn-out bit can’t be re-sharpened, so I reshape it to fit a slotted screw [...]

After hooking up my new dust collector to my contractor’s saw, I found that it just didn’t pull as much air as I’d like, even after sealing up the most obvious leaks. After further inspection, I [...]

I use a sled for cross cutting 3/4-in. melamine and plywood panels up to 24 inches wide. These panels can be hard to hold in position while making a cut, so I installed a cam lever that securely [...]

Sturdy yet collapsible is easier said than done, but this drying rack is both. It folds flat against the wall to save space until I need it. I made my rack 36 in. tall, with 8 in. between levels. [...]

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: [...]