Resurrecting Chisels

Old chisels can be brought back to life using these simple steps. If ever there was a type of used hand tool that was a good candidate for restoration, it’s a chisel. Lots of good deals on old [...]

How to Build Easy Small Drawers

Cut completed boxes from a simple glue-up. If your shop is like mine, every horizontal surface collects stuff—the necessary minutiae of woodworking. It’s all good stuff, to be sure, but it can [...]

7 Tips for Making Bandsaw Boxes

The biggest benefit: less sanding. Big Slice, Big Blade When you’re cutting the back off a big box, your best bet is to use a 1/2″ 4 TPI (Teeth Per Inch) hook-tooth blade, and guide the cut [...]

Make Your Own Copper Hardware

It’s surprisingly simple to make your own Stickley-style pulls. The simple lines and honest joinery of the Arts & Crafts period have always appealed to me. The fumed quartersawn white oak and [...]

Hand-Cutting Dovetails

Basic steps for beautiful joints. Dovetails. They get put on a pedestal as a sign of quality. And while not every project or furniture style warrants them, I enjoy sitting down, listening to an [...]

Three Ways to Make Edge Joints

By hand or power? With a spring joint or not? One of the most important joints in woodworking is the edge joint. Without it, our projects would look like they had been built from narrow popsicle [...]

Quick Rip Fence Adjustment

Like any table saw rip fence, mine needs occasional realignment to the blade. Because my miter gauge slots are aligned parallel to the blade, I just set my fence parallel to the right-hand slot. [...]

What, Why & Hows of CNC Machines

What is a CNC? Why might I want one & How does it work? Over the last decade, CNC machines have become a common topic in woodworking. Most know that they cut things out, but that’s the extent [...]

Build Furniture Without a Shop

A few tools can go a long way. When you get started in woodworking there are many paths to follow, forks in the road, dead-ends and shortcuts. It’s a journey that our forebears would make with [...]

Woodworking Basics: Common Cuts

A bevel is a bevel… except when it’s a miter, unless it’s a chamfer. Confused yet? You’re not alone. To the uninitiated, woodworking can be a tough nut to crack. Even the most basic of projects [...]

Working with Metals

Tools and techniques for general metalwork in the shop. While the woodshop may be where I’m most comfortable, I’ve been fascinated by metalwork for some time. I’m always watching for tips and [...]

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