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 sophisticated fence; a small, flat surface and a board clamped to the top will do. The base’s overhang…

I well remember the day when I couldn’t get a mortise-and-tenon joint to come together no matter how hard I tightened the clamp. I had ignored a fundamental rule: Always make mortises 1/16“ to 1/8“ deeper than the tenons. There are two reasons for doing this. First, you don’t have to obsess about marking a…

When used as an undercoat or sealer, brushable epoxy greatly reduces expansion and contraction in wood. Coat all parts prior to assembly and make sure epoxy gets down into the fastener holes. If the wood absorbs a lot of the epoxy, sand the first coat after it cures and apply a second coat. Epoxy is…

Is there any doubt that magnets positively rule? I’ve never welded anything in my life, but found a great woodworking use for something familiar to metalworkers. And it’s no wonder I like them: They’re based on my favorite shop helpers, magnets. My dad (a professional welder in addition to being a woodworker) tipped me off to…

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 rail or front of the saw table with the guide bar dangling below as shown. Zero out…

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 hoses and tool dust ports. (A noodle is only about three bucks, so I replaced it the next day). A noodle has…

Here’s a simple, invisible repair for an all too common mistake. Say you’re flush-trimming a board and, for whatever reason, your router’s bearing dips into a dent and makes an unwanted divot. If you have a set of plug cutters, you’ll be back in business in no time. Just cut a face-grain plug that’s 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 the buffing compound from flying all over the shop, I mounted my buffer in a simple plywood box that’s…

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 idea because they stay attached to the fence all the time so you won’t lose them. Plus, they flip up out 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 razor. To keep the corners from digging in, you can bow a thin single-edge razor just as you would…

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 strip of wood that’s about 3/4″ thick, at least 1/8″ wider than the hex nuts, and long…

I find my stock band saw table too small to support many workpieces, so I outfitted it with a larger, auxiliary table. However, I wanted to be able to remove it quickly when I needed to utilize my saw’s maximum cutting height. The solution was easy. I simply cut a plywood table to the desired…