Homemade Deep Reach Clamps
Like most woodworkers, I never have enough clamps. Adding to a clamp collection is expensive, so when I needed some deep reach clamps, I made these auxiliary hardwood jaws. The jaws are mortised [...]
Small Parts Drying Rack
I made this rack so the finish on my small projects would dry without leaving marks. I cut strips off of a 3/4″ board with my tablesaw’s blade tilted 30 degrees. For each new strip, I just [...]
Bandsaw Blade Marking Knife
Old bandsaw blades can easily be recycled into useful marking or carving knives. One blade nets you a slew of small pieces. Use a tin snip to cut off a piece of the blade, grind off the teeth, [...]
Ten-Minute Light Stand
I got tired of jury-rigging extra light for finishing, so I built this light stand from a 4-ft. length of 2×2 and 1/4-in. plywood. The 6-in. by 17-in. legs include 1/2-in. by 3- 1/2” feet. [...]
Task Light Retro-Fit
I made a go-anywhere task light by retrofitting an old, broken fixture with a new, battery-powered LED light. First, I removed the cord and inner workings from the task light. Then I screwed a [...]
High And Dry Ply
After ruining four $90 sheets of plywood by storing them on a damp floor, I came up with a simple fix: PVC feet. Cut several 12″ sections of 2″ dia. PVC pipe in half, lengthwise. [...]
Ultra-Cheap Face Vise
For years, I sanded and hand planed panel edges by laying them flat on my workbench. I could never quite squeeze a bench vise into my woodworking budget, so I came up with this fast, inexpensive [...]
Carbide Mini-scraper
A friend needed a small tool to clean out glue inside small places. So I made him a mini-scraper using an indexable blade from my planer, screwed to a turned handle. Each blade is about $3, plus [...]
Bottle Cap Jig Knobs
Bottle Cap Jig Knobs I’m always trying to use up scraps and stuff that would otherwise end up in the trash. My latest devices are jig knobs made with plastic bottle caps, which have a grippy [...]
Wartime Scroll Saw
My grandfather made this foot-powered jigsaw during World War II. The Depression had taught him to be very frugal, so he built the saw from orange and grapefruit crates, which were made from [...]
Make Your Own Plywood
Shop-made ply can achieve shapes and forms solid wood just can’t handle. The title of this article may sound silly, or perhaps us woodworkers have just run out of things to write about? Now that [...]
Shop-made Pinch Rods
One of the most accurate approaches for checking a case or other assembly for square is to compare the inside diagonal measurements for equidistance. The easiest way to do this is using pinch [...]