Archives

A craftsman makes the argument that bevel-up planes are easier to tune for end grain and difficult woods. I can clearly remember my first experience with bench planes. I was in high school shop [...]

A mark of true craftsmanship, bandings are much more than just decoration. Stop for a moment and take a good look at a piece of furniture that you admire—say, a card table from the Federal era. [...]

I’ve acquired a bunch of routers over the years—enough so that I can afford to keep a few permanently mounted in these mini router tables. For lots of jobs, you don’t need a large table or a [...]

Set your bandsaw up for accurate resawing by following these simple setup tips. A bandsaw is a versatile tool. In fact, I know many woodworkers that use a bandsaw as their primary saw in their [...]

I’ve found that my new digital angle gauge is a great tool for setting an accurate angle on a miter gauge. To set the desired angle, first stand the miter gauge on its face on the rip fence’s [...]

While lounging at the pool one afternoon, I had an inspiration. I “borrowed” one of my kids’ floating pool noodles, cut it into sections and used the pieces as universal connectors for vacuum [...]

Make four variations of Federal inlay with heat and a few simple tools. While one revolution was winding down, another was gaining force. The Federal period, from about 1780 to 1820, saw both the [...]

My sharpening procedures involve a lot of buffing with compound. On one side of my buffer I’ve mounted a hard felt wheel, and on the other a paper wheel shaped to buff concave bevels. To prevent [...]

Over the years, I have often clamped stops on my drill-press fence to register hole locations in workpieces. Unfortunately, I always seemed to lose the stops. Flip stops always seemed like a good [...]

Thirst, not starvation, leads to weak glue joints. On my first day on the job as an apprentice cabinetmaker, my task was to glue together radiator panels for an office building. Two sticks of [...]

Many of us are familiar with the technique of using a razor blade to scrape away drips from varnish and other film finishes. It’s a great way to level defects, especially if you use a brand-new [...]

Wooden wing nuts are so much easier on your hands than metal ones. Plus, it’s a great way to use up shop scraps and leftover hex nuts while avoiding a trip to the hardware store. Start with a [...]