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I make a lot of drawers in my shop and got tired of fiddling with squares and pinch rods to square up the boxes during assembly. I decided to build a squaring frame to make the job go much [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

Micro fiber cloth picks up tiny dust particles as well as, if not better than, a tack cloth. Unlike a tack cloth, micro fiber cloths are washable and reusable. Rockler sells Norton’s micro [...]

There’s no single surface in my shop that’s the ideal height for every job. With my adjustable-height sawhorses, I can quickly set up an outfeed table, drawing table, or assembly table at [...]

Occasionally I need to drill a hole into the end of a rail or other workpiece using the drill press. I’ve found that a metal shelf bracket makes a handy support, keeping the workpiece square to [...]

Discover a bit about clean, accurate boring. There are many tools in modern woodworking you can use to bore holes: powered drills (both corded and cordless), drill presses, hand-powered eggbeater [...]

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 [...]

I’ve always had bad luck with really small drill bits–if I don’t break them, I lose them. I’ve stopped buying new ones, and now clip the heads off finish nails and use the nails [...]

I like to use carpenter’s pencils until they’re worn down to stubs. Stubs aren’t very handy, though–they’re hard to dig out of a pocket. To solve this problem, I gathered up all [...]

My tablesaw’s top often does double duty as an assembly table. It’s a guaranteed-flat surface. When I glue or screw together a project, it won’t come out twisted. Sometimes I use the saw’s fence [...]