When gluing plastic laminate to a substrate, lots of folks use sticks or dowels to support the laminate. Supports allow you to perfectly position the laminate, since it can’t be shifted once it contacts the glue. I use old mini-blinds, curved side down. Mini-blinds are easy to pull out and easy to clean. -J.A.Wilson

When I clean my HVLP spray gun, this shop-made container captures the liquid solvent and fumes. When the gun is clean, I simply pour the waste into a storage container for disposal. Drill a 3-in. hole in the back of a paint thinner jug. Cut a 3-in. circle from an activated carbon filter pad (available…

If you do a lot of spray painting and finishing, but don’t have room for a permanent finishing bench, give this turntable a spin. It’s surprisingly sturdy and because it rotates, you can get to all sides of your project while standing in one spot. It’s lightweight, so it can easily be taken outside. When…

  Faced with cutting hundreds of plugs for a big project, I came up with this idea: I cut the plugs a little deeper than needed. Then I ran strips of masking tape down the faces of the plugs. When I cut them free on the bandsaw they stayed stuck to the tape instead of…

For a quick and simple bench stop, I mounted a sliding bolt taken from an old door to the end of my workbench. In the locked position, the bolt stays put, and in the unlocked position it’s completely out of the way. -Darryl Thomas

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 with a fence. This blade is the widest that most 14″ bandsaws can handle. Its extra width helps…

I needed a 1/4″ zero-clearance throat plate for cutting dados the other day, but my throat plate only had a 3/4″ slot in it. I didn’t want to interrupt my project to make or buy a new throat plate, so I turned the old one 180° and cut a new slot in it. Why hadn’t…

I’ve bandsawn hundreds of puzzle pieces using very small blades. I gave up on the steel guide blocks that came with my saw because when those little blades come in contact with the blocks, they’d dull right away. And, when I wanted to back out of a cut, the blade would pop out of the…

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 quicker. It’s really nothing more than an accurate 90° corner against which I can press the…

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. However, instead of mounting a dial indicator on a miter gauge to check the fence alignment, I made a gauge board…

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 fiber finishing cloth for $15, but any micro fiber cloth will work, as long as it has hemmed edges. -Kevin Southwick

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 different heightsas the need arises. My sawhorses are the folding, galvanized-metal kind, but any type will do. Cut 2×4’s to fit on the…

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 the table and in line with the drill bit. I simply clamp the bracket to the drill press table,…

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 as bits. Smooth nails–not galvanized- work best. To improve it’s cutting, file or grind the end of the nail to a…

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 the stubs lying around the shop and cut scarf joints on them with a handsaw. I trued up the joints with a disc…

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 as a clamp to hold parts in place for fastening. The “fixed” end of the clamp is a stick that fits…

I love the convenience of mobile bases, but I hate it when they wobble on the floor even when they’re locked down. I got my chock block idea at the airport where the ground crews use something similar for parked aircraft. My chock block locks the fixed casters on my mobile bases so they don’t…

I made some half-overlay frame-and-panel doors recently, installing the panel a bit proud of the rails and stiles on the front, which recessed the panel on the back side. This isn’t an aesthetic problem, but it does create difficulty when routing the rabbet around the edges to create the half-overlay. The doors were rather large,…

I recently built a chest of drawers with sliding-dovetail joinery. During assembly, I found that the fit was just a little too snug. Rather than trying to realign my router jig, I looked around for another solution. I needed something that could slip in along the dovetail. I decided to stick some sandpaper to a…

How do you support an uneven piece on the drill press? Make something that’s the opposite shape, of course. After making 60 of these knobs, I realized that the directions didn’t include any advice on drilling the holes for mounting them. My tablesaw was still angled at 15°—the same angle as the bevels on the…

Here’s a surefire method to ensure flat glue-ups. Use cauls, top and bottom, made from Unistrut. This steel channel is used for light-duty structural support in electrical and plumbing work. Sometimes called Superstrut, it’s available in the electrical department of many home centers in 10′ lengths. Glue plastic strips on the open side of the…

Thin boards glued edge to edge have a tendency to spring out of place when pressure is applied to the bar clamps. A simple solution is to use short, notched clamping cauls at the ends of the joints. The cauls keep the boards aligned, while the notch prevents glue squeeze-out from bonding the cauls to…

I really like bright-colored speed squares because they’re easy to locate on the job, but I find them difficult to read. To solve this problem, I spray-painted my speed squares black. After they were dry, I used a 3M Scotch-Brite pad to remove the paint. This left the marks and numbers black. –Dewey Armstrong

I use a hand plane to remove milling marks, even on pieces that are 1/8″ thick or less. To hold the work, I made a stop whose top is only 1/32″ thick. When I’m planing wood that’s more than 3/8″ thick, I use the normal method of clamping the board between two dogs. This is…

Assembling furniture with dozens of Allen-head fasteners is no fun if all you have is a standard Allen key. Faced with one of these jobs, I sped up the process by using a mechanic’s socket set. I cut a section off the end of the Allen key with a grinding wheel and inserted the piece…

Hacksaw blades ganged together make a really useful file, one that can be as wide or narrow as you wish. The blades may be full length or half-length. (Use a rotary tool to cut them in half). To bind the blades together, put a #6 machine screw through their mounting holes and add a nut….

Finishing the plugs for covering screw holes is a pain. When you run a brush or rag over them after they’re installed, they’ll probably cause the finish to run or drip. Finishing them before they’re installed is the answer, but little plugs are hard to hold. Here’s my solution. Cover one side of a paint-stirring…

I’ve had trouble making square and smooth edges on face frame parts, but this planer jig solved all my problems. It produces accurate and consistent results. For the jig’s base, cut T-slots in a 3/4” x 11” board that’s a little bit longer than the planer’s bed and extension tables. Use T-bolts and wing nuts…

Ironing edge-banding that has hot-melt glue backing is familiar to most woodworkers. But what if you don’t have any on hand, or it’s not available in the species you’re using? I learned this trick from a friend of mine who is a veneering expert. You can use regular wood glue, if you plan ahead a bit….

Biscuit joinery is great, but without an octopus for a shop assistant, how do you hold all the parts? These simple little stands can help. Made of 3/4“ melamine and some 3/8“ dowels, they hold your parts and allow you to easily add the clamps. The dowel spacing allows for either 3/4“ or 5/8“ material….

To keep stock from slipping when using my miter gauge, I rely on this simple jig. Screw a 3/4″ x 2″ fence to your miter gauge. Make it whatever length you need. Use a continuous hinge to fasten a section of 2×4 to the fence. Glue a piece of sandpaper to the inside bottom edge…

My finishing turntable is perfect for spraying large parts or projects. To make the device, I mounted five fixed 3-1/2” casters on a plywood panel. They’re equally spaced in a 16” diameter circle. Fixed casters won’t pivot, so the project rotates around its center. I placed 3” blocks in front of the casters to keep them…

I’ve been noticing a lot of new tools these days that come equipped with on-board task lighting. Then while recently perusing my local home-improvement center, I noticed these small battery-operated flexible-shaft lights equipped with an LED. They cost only about $10, and include a magnet or sometimes a laser pointer, depending on where you’re shopping….

A quick guide to the pros and cons of how to make the difficult part of a classic joint. Many pieces of old handmade furniture owe their long life to mortise and tenon joints. There are many other ways to join wood, such as using dowels, biscuits or pocket screws, but none of them are…

Trimming small parts on a table saw using a miter gauge can be a little nerve wracking. In order to trim small parts safely, I mounted a handscrew to a piece of plywood. First I trimmed the plywood on the table saw so that the two long edges were exactly parallel. Then I gripped a…

My lathe tool rack is based on a fishing rod rack that I made some time ago. Made from 3/4-in.-thick walnut, it measures 3-1/8-in. by 10-in. by 30- in. I made the matching front and back tool supports by ripping a 3-1/8- in.-wide board in half after drilling centered 1-1/2-in.-dia. holes on 1-7/8- in. centers….

My bandsaw’s blade-tensioning system used to be wobbly and difficult to turn. Instead of shelling out for a quick-release lever, I came up with this simple, inexpensive fix. To stabilize the long adjustment rod, I made a guide for it to pass through. The guide is just a block of wood with a 1/2″ i.d….

Adding a hold-down to my shop-made crosscut sled makes the sled easier and safer to use. My parts don’t slip and my fingers are far from the blade because I don’t have to hold the workpiece. The hold-down swivels so I can place it on either side of the blade. To build the hold-down, you’ll…

When I needed to mix two different paint colors to create a new one, I came up with the idea of removing the rod from my broken caulking gun and mounting it in my drill to serve as a paint stirrer. The straight section fit into my drill chuck without modification, while the angled end…

Finding a felt-tip marker or touch-up stick that actually matches the color of your project is a real crapshoot. What if you could make your own, using your own stain? You can, using the Perfect Match Stain Marker. It works like an old-fashioned refillable fountain pen and will hold any water, oil or lacquer-based stain….

Here’s an easy way to cut bowl blanks from half log sections. Cut a round guide disc from 1/4″ thick material the size you want your blank to be, and countersink a hole in the center. First, saw the log in half on your Bandsaw, then screw the guide disc to the flat side of…

I really like my round Veritas bench dogs because they’re so versatile and easy to install. The only problem I have with them is raising the less accessible ones when they’re tucked down flush in their holes. My bench is against a wall, which makes it difficult to push the rear-most dogs up from underneath….

Over the years I have used about every type of marking gauge made. I prefer the newer wheel gauges because they’re easy to adjust and tighten, but I think they’re hard to grip. To solve this problem, drill a hole in a piece of 3/4-in.-thick maple that exactly fits the steel rod of the gauge….

Using a tablesaw to cut rabbets on the end of a board is nothing new.  If you’ve only got a couple to make, it’s hardly worth the time it takes to install you dado set. So, using your fence in conjunction with your miter gauge, you establish the final width of the rabbet. You finish…

A mobile workbench is handy in a small shop, until you want it to stand still! After outfitting my bench with casters, I found that their locks didn’t prevent the bench from wiggling. My solution is to add levers to each leg. They work like a cam. With the lever in the horizontal position, the…

I love my dovetail jig except for one thing: If I forget to hold the router flat, it can tip backward off the front of the jig and ruin the job. To solve the problem, I made my own Lshaped support fence that sits flush with the top of the jig. A 7/8-in.-wide ledge glued…

Here’s a great space-saving tip. I first made “floor drawers” like these for under-the-bed storage. They worked so well I decided to use them in the shop. Floor drawers work great for storing scrap wood or infrequently used tools and supplies. Make the drawers long but shallow so the contents are easy to get at….

Flattening the back of a spokeshave’s blade on sandpaper is a pain. The blade is so small that it’s hard to get a grip on it. A 1-1/2″ thick MDF block sized to fit my hand makes the job easy.  I stick the blade to the block with double-faced tape. One problem: If the blade…

Tool: Quick-Release Pock-It Hole Clamp Shop Now Manufacturer: Rockler MSRP: $25.99 Pocket hole joints are quick and easy to make. For some applications, such as face frames, they’re perfect. But if you’ve ever tried to assemble a face frame with narrow rails and closely spaced screws, you know that holding the pieces together can be…

Sooner or later, the wooden runners of your tablesaw jigs will wear and become sloppy, resulting in inaccurate cuts. Having just replaced my kitchen floor, I’ve made new runners using some extra pieces of laminate flooring. This stuff is stable, durable, inexpensive and available at home centers. A free sample may be all you need!…

I needed a sacrificial fence for cutting rabbets with my tablesaw. All of the designs I’d seen required drilling holes in my saw’s fence or positioning clamps strategically out of the way of the workpiece. I came up with a thick, sturdy fence that’s easy to mount–and the clamps are always completely out of the…

Epoxy is a two-part glue: a hardener and a resin that combine to form a hard, durable plastic. It’s important to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations and use correct ratios of resin and hardener to ensure the glue cures fully and reaches its maximum strength. Epoxy generates heat as it cures; in fact, the heat helps…

If you’ve had trouble grinding a straight edge on a chisel or plane iron, try using your disc sander. All you need is a guide that slides in your sander’s miter gauge slot and an 80 or 100-grit disc. To make the guide, start with a 3/4″ x 5″ x 8″ base. Cut a groove…

Toggle clamps are great for all sorts of jigs and fixtures. However, you need a wrench to adjust the length of their posts. To make life easier, replace the clamp’s hex nut with a wing nut. For clamps with two nuts, once the wing nut is loose, the adjustment nut can be turned by hand….

Drilling small pieces on the drill press can be difficult because most clamps won’t reach to the center of the table. This simple three-piece platform jig solves the problem and ensures a fast and safe setup. It consists of a small elevated panel that overhangs its support post, allowing easy clamping of small pieces. The…

My beam compass is perfect for drawing huge arcs. It’s super easy to make, and I can adjust it quickly without using screws or clamps. To change the arc’s radius, I just slide a saddle-style head along the beam. Make the beam from a piece of hardwood. Mine is 1″ x 1-1/4″ x 36″, but…

As hard as I try to avoid it, every now and then I need to mill a small part on the router table. I’ve learned the hard way that you should never hold that part by hand, for three good reasons: first, your fingers would be way too close to the bit; second, the part…

The fastest way to rabbet the back of a cabinet is to do it all at once, after the cabinet is assembled. Unlike rabbeting individual pieces before assembly, I don’t have to worry about where to start or stop a rabbet or whether each rabbet will be level with its neighbor. As long as the…

Achieving exact thickness is really important when making splines to reinforce box corners. The splines have to fit perfectly in the saw kerfs—a few thousandths of an inch one way or the other can make a big difference. I cut my spline material on the tablesaw, making it a bit thicker than needed, then plane…

Drawer knobs that work loose and spin around drive me crazy. So instead of drilling a hole through the drawer front and screwing the knobs on from the back, I fasten them to a post that’s securely anchored in the drawer front. I drill a pilot hole twothirds of the way through the drawer front…

As a guitar maker, I rip a lot of very narrow wood strips, which can be difficult and dangerous to cut on a table saw. Instead, I cut them on the band saw using a low-profile fence, which allows setting the upper blade guides as close as possible to the stock to prevent blade deflection,…

To save space, my trash can doubles as a work support. I made a dolly with locking casters to fit the can’s bottom, so I can roll the unit to wherever it’s needed. The work support is adjustable in height. It’s just a round-nosed board with two 1/4″ x 6″ slots, held in place with…

I use lots of Phillips-head sheetrock screws, which are made of hardened steel. They’re tough on bits. A worn-out bit can’t be re-sharpened, so I reshape it to fit a slotted screw using a small diameter sanding drum. I place the bit in a magnetic holder and slide the holder into a wooden block that…

Hoses and dustports come in so many different diameters that you can go crazy trying to match them up. Sometimes, you can find a hose or adapter that will fit inside a dustport, but its smaller diameter reduces airflow. To maximize airflow, it’s better to fit a hose to the outside of the dustport. For…

After hooking up my new dust collector to my contractor’s saw, I found that it just didn’t pull as much air as I’d like, even after sealing up the most obvious leaks. After further inspection, I found the problem: major gaps underneath the table where it bolts to the stand. I bought a 4′ length…

To prevent rust and reduce feed friction, I apply paste wax regularly to my metal tool tables and other surfaces. It does a great job – but what a chore to buff the wax by hand! To make the job easier, I decided to turn my random-orbit sander into a buffer of sorts. I cut…

Sturdy yet collapsible is easier said than done, but this drying rack is both. It folds flat against the wall to save space until I need it. I made my rack 36 in. tall, with 8 in. between levels. Each side of the rack is made by sandwiching hardwood support arms between plywood uprights. Each…

Have you ever closed an inset door in a cabinet you were building and found that you couldn’t open it, because you hadn’t added the knob yet? Well, I have. Here’s an easy, effective solution: Make a little hook from a plastic lid. Cut out the opener as shown above, with a raised tab that’s…

One roll of shelf liner will provide a lifetime supply of pads to improve the performance of your sanding block. I bought a 18″ x 48″ roll at a local home center for about $5. At about 3/32″ thick, I find it has just the right combination of firmness and give for finish sanding. I…

A toilet bowl floor gasket is an excellent lubricant for screws–much better than paraffin, soap, or all of the other materials I’ve tried. It’s very soft, so all you have to do to coat a screw is to push the screw into the ring. One gasket lasts for years. You’ll find them in hardware stores…

If your shop is inside or attached to your house, you know that migrating sawdust is a problem, especially if you do a lot of power carving.  To minimize dust, I cut out one side of a 65-quart plastic storage box ($12), and taped the box upside down to a down-draft table. I taped paper…

Here’s a fast, inexpensive way to keep your edge tools razor sharp. First, cut out a few 5″ x 3/4″ MDF discs.  Drill a 1/4″ hole in the center of each disc. Next, glue different grits of sandpaper to each side of the discs, ranging from 50 to 2000 grit. While 50 grit makes quick…

My task: 28 kitchen drawers of different sizes, all with hand-cut dovetails. The thought of laying these out was overwhelming, so I designed a jig to simplify the process. To make the jig, carefully lay out and cut a piece of 1/4” hardboard as if it were the pin board for the tallest drawer. Glue…

My dovetail jig doesn’t have a depth gauge, and with my engineering background, I like things to be precise. This depth gauge allows me to set my router bits to within .001 of an inch! I also use it to set saw blade heights and check the depth of rabbets and dadoes. Start with a…

In the good old days, when a woodworker wanted to plane a board’s edge, he’d clamp one end in the bench’s face vise and support the cantilevered end with a free-standing devise called a “deadman”. My modernized version of this traditional fixture mounts in the tail vise. After drilling holes in a 2-in.-thick post, I…

Any push stick adds a measure of safety, but I prefer using one that straddles the saw’s fence. It lifts right off when I’m done. A saddle-style push stick has two clear advantages. First, there’s no chance of tipping it into the saw blade. Second, it keeps your fingers far, far away from the blade….

  Tips for taming those awkward and heavy sheets. Woodworking alone is peaceful, serene and quiet. Just you, the radio and your project. It’s also a pain in the posterior when you have to work with big, heavy sheets of plywood, MDF or particleboard. If you can get help, it’s great, but often we end…

A complex moulding can be difficult to sand. Softening its crisp edges is a crime, so I’ve been using a thin, flexible stick with sandpaper adhered to it for getting into the flat areas. Not just any stick will do; it must have just the right amount of spring. An auto-body putty spreader, cut into…

When sawdust got packed into the back end of my planer’s blast gate, I couldn’t close the gate all the way.  I solved this annoying problem by cutting a notch in the gate. Now, when I close the gate, all the dust slides right through. –Fredrich Meder

Tighter Corner Joints Ahead Dadoes and, rabbets are two of the most widely used cabinetmaking joints. Cabinet carcasses, drawer boxes and jewelry boxes all lend themselves to this simple but strong joinery method. I’ve been woodworking, demonstrating and teaching for a long time. Over the years, I have accumulated some great tips for making and…

Difficult glue-ups are troublesome enough without having to position clamp pads as part of the process. I’ve tried using hot-melt glue, double-sided tape and various other methods to hold pads onto clamp jaws, but they always seemed to fall off at just the wrong moment. I recently tried using rare earth magnets, and they work…

I usually work alone, but when I install upper cabinets, I always enlist the help of two shop-made cabinet jacks. They’re steadier than an extra pair of hands. The jacks stand on the lower cabinets. To position and level the upper cabinets, I just turn two bolts in each jack. The jacks are 15″ tall…

A tenon should be one-third the thickness of a rail—at least, that’s what an old rule of thumb recommends. A 3/4″ board should have 1/4″ tenons, for example. But what about a 7/8″ board? What’s one-third of that? I use my dial caliper to help solve this type of problem. I usually make a tenon…

Zero clearance inserts are wonderful for eliminating tear out, but unfortunately, they also eliminate dust collection. To give my collection system an opening to pull sawdust through, I cut a 1/2-in.-dia. hole at the front end of the blade slot. In this location, the hole doesn’t adversely affect the benefits of my zero clearance insert….

While I was gluing up the pedestals for an oak desk, I realized I needed a way to hold the sides parallel at the front. Three Quick-Grip clamps and a scrap wood spacer did the trick. They installed in seconds and were easy to adjust. -Steve Keller

My flush-trimming setup allows trimming veneer and solid wood edging up to 7/8-in. thick. It consists of a router with a 1/2-in. straight bit, a table and a perpendicular fence. A 1″-thick spacer separates the fence and table. The router mounts to the fence so the bit is flush with the tabletop. I attach my…

My dust collector, though pieced-together, is the perfect solution for my one-car garage shop. I use a cyclone separator and 5-gallon bucket in conjunction with my shop vacuum. For easy mobility, I combined the two units on one 1/2″ thick plywood platform. To fasten the platform to my vacuum, I removed one of my vacuum’s…

I’ve found that padding my vise faces with cork prevents them from marring many surfaces, especially softer woods or finished workpieces. I use 1⁄4“-thick cork, which is available by the square foot in rolls from home-supply centers. I attach it to my vise faces using wide double-stick tape. Cork is also great for holding irregular…

Practical solutions for a cleaner shop Vacuum-Assisted Bench I got tired of hooking my bench tools to my shop vac. Now I simply plug their dust collection hoses into the bench. I drilled and routed a hole in the bench to house the 2- 1/2-in. PVC pipe and hexagonal 2-1/2-in.-to-1- 1/4in. reducer that I bought…

I use a piece of painter’s tape to mark dadoes when I assemble cabinets. Then I know exactly where to shoot nails or install screws and there aren’t any pencil lines to sand off when I’m finished. I just remove the tape. -Stanley Krasovic

I felt like I won the storage-space lottery when I came up with this bench design for my shop. I wanted a way to store lumber and my benchtop tools. The backbones of this bench are the 2 x 4 frames. For my 8-ft. bench, I made four frames. The rest of the materials were…

When my bench’s tool tray fills up with sawdust and hardware, I’ve found that the easiest way to clean it is to use a vacuum. To keep the hardware from going into the vacuum, I cover its nozzle with a washing machine lint trap. Lint traps are made for washing machine drain hoses and are…

If you use a cyclone dust collector, you’ve no doubt struggled with emptying the barrel. When it’s filled with dust, it’s really heavy, not to mention the face full of dust you get when you dump it out. The answer is to line the barrel with a trash bag; simple, right? Not exactly. See, when…

Establishing Depth Reference A recent project required making a series of small wooden panels with shallow concave faces. For efficiency and accuracy, I decided to make a series of preliminary cuts on the table saw to establish the basic concave surface, then clean up the faces with an angle grinder and disc sander. It worked…

Large plastic boxes, the kind that restaurants use for bussing dishes, are perfect for shop drawers. They’re strong, durable and lightweight, plus they have built-in handles. They’re perfect for storing and transporting workshop essentials, from screws to power tools. They come ready-made and they’re super-easy to install. I’ll never build another storage drawer! Bus boxes…

I’m a great fan of aerosol finishes, especially now that many of them have adjustable tips that make much less splatter. But my shop got so cluttered with half-used cans that I had trouble finding the color I wanted, so I built this simple storage rack for all the cans. Now I can instantly find…

The strong adhesive and tough plastic of packaging tape allow it to work as a hinge on long, mitered corners. After carefully cutting the miters, lay the boards outside-face up and side by side so their sharp edges touch. Apply strips of tape along each joint, pressing the tape firmly onto the wood, then flip…

Simplification and organization are the keys to success. I’ve worked in a small workshop for many years now. Many, if not most woodworkers, would classify my 7′ x 13′ space more as a closet than a workshop. In fact, I have seen some master-suite walk-ins that were indeed larger than my shop. The challenges of…

My tight finances forced me to devise an alternative to an expensive bench vise. This simple leg vise – cobbled together from a board, a 3⁄4“-diameter pipe clamp, and a short length of 1⁄2“-diameter pipe – works fine for many of my needs. As seen in the drawing, the pipe clamp extends through the vise…

Maximize your drum sander’s potential. 1. Skip the Scrape Eliminate laborious hand scraping of dried glue: contrary to popular belief, you can take glue-ups directly to your drum sander. The secrets are to use a coarse abrasive (24-grit to 60- grit, depending on the amount of glue and how uneven the glueup is) and feed…

Whenever I have to cut down a sheet of plywood, I reach for one of my trusty metal stud straightedges. Metal studs are available in different thicknesses for different applications. For example, a 20-gauge non-load-bearing drywall stud won’t deflect significantly when it’s not clamped to an 8‘ long sheet of plywood. I bought 35/8“ by…

When crosscutting a series of short pieces from a longer board using the table saw’s miter gauge, it’s dangerous to use the rip fence as a stop. The freed pieces can get jammed between the blade and fence, causing kickback. To prevent this, the usual approach is to clamp a wide “standoff” block to the…

Here’s a dirt cheap way to store your saw blades and keep their carbide teeth from knocking into each other. Slip the blades onto a 3/8″ dia. landscape nail, using plastic coffee-can lids as spacers. I hang the nail on a perf-board tool holder, but you could pound it into the wall, instead. –William Monahan

I use bench holdfasts because they’re so convenient and provide such a tremendous amount of clamping force. However, in the process, they can mar workpieces, especially softwoods. The traditional solution is to place a protective wood block under the holdfast pad, but this can be a bit of a hassle, and it’s one more maneuver…

How do you know when your miter gauge is set exactly at 90°? Here’s a method I learned years ago, before I could afford a precision square to check the cut. You’ll need a 24″ long board that is flat and straight, with perfectly parallel sides. It should be about 6″ wide. You’ll also need…

The blade of a marking gauge must be as sharp as a scalpel in order to cut a fine line across the grain. Sharpening it can be very difficult because it’s so small. I solved that problem by making a gauge that accepts snap-off utility knife blades. I use epoxy to glue the blade into…

Accurately drilling an angled hole with a hand drill is a challenge – particularly if you’re using a brad point or Forstner bit. This angled drilling guide solves the problem handily. The guide keeps the drill bit from wandering as it enters the stock. It can be cut at any angle, and its alignment marks…

When using my miter saw, I’ve found that the easiest way to sneak up on a line is to use a stack of sticky notes. First, set a stop block to cut your part slightly oversize (1/16″ is plenty). Attach a thin pile of sticky notes to the stop block, make a cut, and then…

After brushing the first coat of finish on my shelf project, quite a bit remained in the disposable cup. I didn’t want to pour it back, because that would contaminate the fresh finish that remained in the can. But I didn’t want to waste the finish by throwing it away, either. Knowing the shelves were…

Gambler’s Micro-Adjust Precise fence adjustments are a sure bet when I clamp this shop-made device on my router table. I simply drilled and tapped a hole to accept a 1/4″-20 machine screw through the center of a 3/4-in. by 1-in. by 3-in. piece of hardwood. I covered the tip that contacts the fence with a…

While turning wooden pens, students in my woodshop classes kept wearing out the points on the live centers of our mini lathes. The points fit into the hollowed end of the pen mandrel. If the mandrel isn’t clamped tight enough between the lathe’s head and tailstock, it spins on the point and wears it out….

Small logs from a local downed tree are a great windfall of free lumber for small projects. They’re easy to saw into boards on the band saw once you have established a couple flat reference surfaces for safe feeding. I use a simple L-shaped carrier jig screwed together from scrap plywood to make the initial…

I recently came across another handy solution to prevent jaw-racking when clamping a workpiece on the side of a vise. Most parallel vises tend to rack in such scenarios, but there are situations where clamping on the jaws’ right or left sides becomes necessary, especially when working with long pieces to bypass the central screw….

I like to buy used electric motors for powering various tools around the shop. I also use them to mount grinding wheels, wire brushes and buffing wheels. I typically outfit the motors with toggle switches because they’re light and small. However, as unobtrusive as they are, I would occasionally catch my sleeve on a switch,…

I always sign my work, now that I’ve figured out an easy and permanent way to do it: I use an engraver. But not just any engraver—it has to have an adjustable stroke (the distance the tip moves in and out). Set the stroke to maximum. An engraver works just like a pencil, but some…

Filling knots with colored epoxy usually works quite well, but sometimes the void is in a spot that’s difficult to fill, like the edge of a board. Here’s how to do it. First, apply some paste wax to a piece of melamine so the epoxy won’t adhere to it. Clamp the melamine to the workpiece,…

Before the advent of magnetic-based LED lights, many of us used flexible gooseneck lamps with an incandescent bulb as auxiliary lights on our drill presses and band saws. These lamps were usually screwed or clamped onto the machine. I acquired a Craftsman lamp many years ago, but there were many other brands and styles available….

Mice used to rule my shop. They got into everything! That all changed when someone told me that fresh mint repels mice. Mint grows wild in one corner of my yard (it’s a perennial and comes back each year), so every couple weeks, I pick a handful and spread it around my floor. Now my…

Chamfering an edge with a block plane is often easier, faster and safer than using a router or tablesaw—particularly on a small part. I do it so often that I’ve dedicated one of my planes for the job. To modify your plane, make two 3/16″ thick hardwood sides, two 3/8″ thick chamfering guides and shims…

How do you know if the table on your drill press is square? Not more-or-less square, but precisely square? I’ve adopted an old machinist’s trick, using a very simple jig. To make it, you’ll need a hardwood arm, two 5/16″ carriage bolts that are 2″-3″ long, four nuts and four washers. First, make the arm….

Here’s a simple way to sharpen chisels using a 3″ sanding drum mounted in an oscillating spindle sander or a drill press. Cut a squared-up 2×4 the length of the sander’s table. Cut a 2″ deep by 1/2″ wide slot at 45° near the 2×4’s center. Clamp the 2×4 to your sander’s table.  Place the…

Wiping is fast, almost as fast as spraying (without the downside of having to clean the spray gun). Wiping is also every bit as effective in all situations except possibly into recesses such as inside corners, fluting, deep carvings and the like.

Dust is a real problem when you can’t use a router table’s fence and its dustport. Here’s a clever way to suck up that dust using your shop vacuum’s nozzle.

My lathe came with a lamp, but the lathe’s manual has this weird warning: “Position the work lamp so that wood chips do not accumulate inside the lamp shade and pose a fire hazard.” Now, where in the world could the lamp go? When I turn, chips fly everywhere! It occurred to me that metal…

For small cabinets, I prefer to use small, discreet shelf pins that I make myself. I also make sleeves for the pins to fit into. Sleeves help hold the pins firmly in place. I make the pins from 1/16″ brass rod and the sleeves from 1/16″ i.d. brass tubing. Both of these are available at…

Flush-cutting dowels, corner keys or screw-hole plugs used to frustrate me because my saw’s teeth always left scratches on the project’s surface. Rather than buy a special flush-cutting saw, I made one from a hacksaw blade. I used my disc sander to grind off the wavy set of the teeth from both sides of the…

I used to have three shooting boards for planing end grain: one for 90° cuts, one for 45° horizontal miters and one for 45° vertical miters. Now I’ve combined them all into one. The jig’s main body is a typical shooting board for trimming pieces at 90°, except that it has long wedges to tilt…

An F-style clamp works well for getting into tight spaces, but how do you turn the handle? The answer: Just drill a couple of holes through it and insert a screwdriver. A 90° offset to the holes ensures that the handle won’t be significantly weakened and makes at least one hole accessible at all times….

While staring at the pile of assorted hardware I just accidentally spilled onto my sawdust-covered floor, my thoughts quickly turned from banging my head against the wall to patting myself on the back. Here’s why. I grabbed my MagSwitch featherboard, turned on its two magnets and picked up all the hardware—minus the sawdust—in one fell…

Vacuum attachments are a challenge to store. They come in so many shapes! I made this device to keep them all together, within easy reach. It’s just a long chain with shorter lengths of chain branching out from it. Each branch has a 3″ to 4″ length of 1/2″ dowel fastened to its end. The…

Sometimes it’s fun to build a gadget just because it’s a neat idea. There are many ways to draw a centerline, for example, but this method is very clever. It doesn’t require any measuring or trial-and-error adjustments. To build the marker, you’ll need two hardwood bars 3/4″ x 1″ x 12″, two Plexiglas links 1/4″…

Even though my shop is well-lit, sometimes I need more light right on my work area. Instead of rigging up additional lights, I attach a small clip-on LED light to my cap’s brim. It’s great for working inside cabinets or doing close work of any kind. The light shines right where you’re looking. You can buy…

With all the high-tech, expensive tools in my shop, I still find a dozen uses for a simple, inexpensive hunk of paraffin wax. I use it anywhere I need lubrication to slide material: the tops of my tablesaw, router table and jointer, the sides of my miter gauge, the bottom of my router base plates,…

Shellac is a mainstay in my shop, both as a sealer and as a finish. I mix my shellac from flakes and usually go with a 1 lb. cut, which is ideal for brushing ultra-smooth coats. I used to measure out the flakes each time I made a new batch, but here’s an easier way….

 Here’s a trick for I use for removing a stubborn router bit from the collet. I cut 1/2″ wide slots in a few credit card-size pieces of laminate. I then slide as many cards as I can fit between the collet and the bottom of the bit. As I unscrew the collet, it pushes against…

Frustrated with my vise’s inability to hold odd-shaped pieces, I tried many solutions: v-notched face plates, cork, bubble wrap, leather, etc., but to no avail. One day I pulled an old mop out of the trash. I peeled off its bottom pad, cut it in half and fastened both pieces to the faces of my…

Like most people, I keep lots of different screws, bolts, nails, washers, and other small parts in bins. Instead of paper labels, I hot glue a sample of the actual part on the outside of the bin. It’s much easier to locate what I need by eye than by name. If I ever run out of parts,…

Having grown tired of bending and tearing sheet sandpaper again and again to get the size I need, I finally decided to employ the time-honored trick of cutting it with a hacksaw blade screwed to a plywood panel. The jig is very quick to make, and it allows you to simply slip a sheet of…

Can you assume that a board is straight, just because you’ve jointed its full length? Nope. It can still be as bowed as ever. You really should check it before moving on to the next piece. Rather than pull out a long straightedge, I just place the board against the jointer’s fence and look for…

I made my own try square using a 1″ x 4″ corner mending plate and a couple scrap pieces of hardwood. To make one yourself, first check the mending plate to be sure it’s square. If it’s off, true it up with a file. Epoxy wood blocks to both faces of one leg, and you’re…

I wanted to rout some shelf dados, but I didn’t have the correct-size bit for the job. Fortunately, my dad stopped by and, as usual, had the answer to my problem. We cobbled up a couple L-shaped wooden fences from 3″-wide straight scraps, squaring each of the units carefully before gluing and screwing them together…

To sand a lot of molding, glue 80-grit sandpaper to several inches of the molding. Rub a block of Styrofoam on the sandpaper until the block conforms to the molding’s contour. Glue sandpaper to the block, then sand the molding. This method works best on large cove moldings; small rounds or hollows can loose their…

I don’t like to lay my router on its side with the bit exposed, so I built a stand for it. It’s just a 3/4″ x 8″ x 8″ board with a 2″ dia. hole in the center. The board sits on 2″ tall legs. I added shelf liner to the top of the stand…

Bench grips are handy for holding parts above the bench for routing, sanding or finishing.  To make them, just cut some wood and rubber shelf liner into 2″ to 3″ squares. Glue the shelf liner onto both sides of each square using spray adhesive, such as 3M Super 77. –Marlin Davis

Good light is a must in every workshop, but sometimes I need a little extra light in just the right place. To make my light/magnifier more portable, I drilled a hole in a handscrew to fit the light’s post. Now I can clamp the light to any of my benches, stationary tools, or shelves. –Edward…

Instead of measuring for my circular saw’s offset each time I need to make a cut, I use a modified edge guide. I screwed two 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 12″ hardwood blocks to the front and back clamp bars of the guide and clamped the guide to a board. Next, I placed the saw’s base…

Let’s face it: running a twisted board through the planer doesn’t make it flat. The board will still be twisted when it comes out. The trick is to use a sled that prevents the board from rocking as it’s being planed. That’s not a new idea, but I’ve made a sled that accommodates a board…

To support a large panel while I drilled holes in the edge for dowels, I added a second sliding clamp jaw to a pipe clamp and clamped it to the edge of my workbench. -Steve Keller

I own several routers and they all have thin wrenches that are awkward to hold. To avoid frustration, I made the handles thicker by housing them in transparent plastic tubing from the hardware store. To keep the tubing in place, I wrapped the handles with athletic tape first. –Serge Duclos

I have a hard time throwing things away, such as these chucks from a couple of worn-out drills. To put them back into service, I bought a 3 ft. long, 3/8″ dia. threaded rod at the hardware store and cut it into two pieces, 12″ and 24″ long. I threaded the old chucks onto the rods and…

On a crosscut sled, the fence must be absolutely square to the blade. Here’s a super-accurate method of testing for square. It makes errors easier to detect by magnifying them by a factor of four. The same method also works for a miter gauge, using smaller test pieces. Start with a piece of plywood about…

My crosscut sled is my “go-to” jig for precise, square cuts. Recently, I added this self-adhesive tape scale – called Peel-n-Stick Ruler Tape – that makes it even more efficient. You can buy this tape on Amazon or at most fabric stores. Peel-n-Stick Ruler Tape is non-metallic, and comes in a 1/2″-wide x 30′-long roll….

My simple tenoning jig produces flawless tenons in minutes— even haunched tenons. The jig consists of a sled with a glued-on support block and a screwed-on sacrificial backstop. The sled and support block are flush on the work side and square. The backstop protrudes by the thickness of the workpiece, minus 1/16-in. Before using the…

My contractor saw shares a garage with my car, so it’s stowed against a wall when not in use. It’s not an easy thing to drag into place when it’s time to set up for woodworking, so I decided to outfit it for wheelbarrow-style mobility. I screwed a couple sturdy non-swiveling casters to a stiff…

Spring clamps are easily converted to miter clamps by adding swivel jaws. Remove the vinyl tips, and then hacksaw a 1/2″ long slot down the center of the metal jaws. Use needle-nose vise-grips to fold down the two halves of each jaw, and then drill a hole for a small bolt or rivet. To make…

A sharp pencil is a must for accurate work, but having a pencil sharpener permanently mounted in one place isn’t always ideal. The further away I am from my pencil sharpener, the less likely I am to use it, until my pencil is really dull. I removed my pencil sharpener from its permanent location on…

Planing stock to fit standard dados is much easier than trying to find the right chipper and shim combination to fit the dado to your stock. I cut five grooves in a scrap of plywood, using only the blades and 1/8″-thick chippers – no shims or thin chippers – from my dado set. As I’m…

Occasionally, I like to veneer my own cabinet doors. Like many small-shop woodworkers, I do the job by covering the veneered face with a platen, then applying clamping pressure onto the work via hardwood cauls that extend across the platen. The cauls are slightly crowned on their bearing edges to better transfer clamping pressure to…

Planing or scraping parts with angled or mitered ends is tricky. Bench dogs will damage a crisp corner, and clamps get in the way. To hold the work, I use an over-sized bench hook with a new twist: a layer of 3M’s grip tape, made for slippery sidewalks and steps. The grit doesn’t mar the…

A coping sled is a must-have accessory for router table work. It helps you hold a narrow piece, such as a door rail, perpendicular to the fence and backs up the cut to prevent blowout. At least, it’s supposed to. On my sled, the backup piece is an integral part. Once you’ve cut one profile…

This light-duty clamp is ideal for small parts-and easy to make by the dozen. All you need are a couple wood scraps, a rubber band, and a short piece of dowel rod. You can vary the pressure by changing the position of the dowel or the rubber band and how many times you wrap it….

Even with a zero-clearance throat plate in my tablesaw, a thin cut-off slips through now and then. These pieces can clog a vacuum hose or damage the blades of a dust collector.  I made a trap to catch them by attaching a piece of hardware cloth inside my saw, in front of the dust port….

Watching an expensive router bit roll onto the floor is a heartbreaking experience. In the middle of a project, it can be a disaster. I drilled a few 1/2” and 1/4” holes in the edge of a piece of MDF and fastened it to the back of my router table’s fence. In this nest, I…

New hardware is often way too shiny for my taste, so I chemically “age” it. If the metal is raw steel, I use standard gun bluing. But if it’s plated with zinc, I turn to Super Blue, a double-strength bluing.  Super Blue gives zinc-plated hardware a beautiful copper-brown patina. Super Blue also works on highly…

Chisels don’t wait to get dull until you’ve finished a job—do they? The trick is to keep them sharp while you’re working. Rather than pull out my stones to renew an edge, I keep a piece of MDF charged with honing compound close at hand. It works just like a leather strop—only I skip the…

This sandpaper storage system is about as simple as it gets. It’s just a stack of folded envelopes bound with a big rubber band. Each envelope is marked with a grit number. A thin piece of wood on the bottom of the pile keeps the envelopes flat. Standard letter-size envelopes work well. Fold and tape…

To mark the exact center of a board, I measure an equal distance from both ends and make two marks. This distance is just an approximation—it doesn’t matter if it’s longer or shorter than exactly half the  length of the board, as long as the marks are reasonably close together. Then I just split the…

Here’s a quick way to glue up a mitered frame of any size using only two clamps, with no worry that the frame will shift out of alignment. You’ll need two 1″ x 1″ hardwood bars (make them whatever length suits your needs). Fasten a 1″ x 1″ x 2″ fixed stop block to one…

Here’s a quick way to get all the dust out of your machine’s nooks and crannies. Most shop vacuums have one port for vacuuming and a second port for blowing. Hook up a hose to each port, then blow and vacuum at the same time.  –Chad Stanton

Drawer Helper Desperation is the mother of invention—isn’t that how the old saying should go for woodworkers? I invented this device when I realized that the drawers in my new armoire tipped down way too much. Two of these helpers, one at each corner, now keep each drawer level when opened. They act as stops,…

When I crosscut hardwood plywood, I use an old technique to minimize tearout on the bottom face. I simply make two passes with my general-purpose blade. After setting the rip fence, I cut a shallow groove, no more than 1/32 in. deep. Then I raise the blade and cut all the way through. Cutting plywood…

The dust collection port on my sliding miter saw missed a lot of sawdust, so I added an additional port mounted directly behind the blade. The port is a piece of 3-in. ABS pipe that’s cut at 45 degrees to create a wide mouth. The pipe is shaped to fit behind the saw’s swiveling table,…

Instead of making disposable inserts for my drill press table, I found that it’s faster and cheaper to make disposable fence/table assemblies. I can use the entire surface of my disposable tables, so I get more life from them. First, make a 3/4” x 16” x 20” base for your drill press table and bolt…

I use biscuit joints in lots of small projects, particularly for joining rails to legs. I usually reference from the bottom of the plate joiner rather than use its fence. When I want to make an offset joint, I cut the slots in the rails first. Then I add a large shim plate to the…

Rare earth magnets make really slick hinges for small boxes. The lid on this ring box pivots on two hinges made from 10mm magnets—nothing more. Each hinge is composed of two magnets: one is glued to the box’s side; the other is glued to the cleat under the lid. The cleats are carefully positioned so…

When I’m sanding pitchy wood or removing old finish, my sandpaper gets really gummed up and I can’t get it clean with the rubber eraser-type cleaner. I used to throw it away and buy more. Now, I pour some resin cleaner (for cleaning saw blades) in a glass jar and soak the sandpaper overnight. You…

I needed a way to lift pieces off the surface of my bench for finishing, so I made some 3/4″ x 2″ x 3″ blocks and inserted 1/4″ x 1-1/4″ dowels into them. Here’s the bonus: I discovered that if I fastened a piece of peg-board on top of my bench, I could tap the…

I’ve dried my own lumber for years, but I always had a problem getting enough weight on top of the stack, to keep the upper boards from warping. Here’s a solution: Use clamps made from threaded rods. Start building the stack by placing short pieces of 2×4 on your shop’s floor. Next, place 2x4s across…

Whenever creating small pieces that include a routed detail of some sort, it’s best to do the routing on the larger “parent” board, and then separate the small piece from the larger. However, this isn’t always possible, and you may find yourself needing to rout a small piece. The question, of course, is how to…

Hoisting heavy sheets of plywood and MDF onto my tablesaw is not my idea of workshop fun. That’s why I devised this pivoting rack— and began storing my sheet stock vertically. The rack’s frame fits around the two base uprights and pivots on bolts. A cleat at the bottom keeps the sheet from sliding off….

Nobody likes wrapping up the last bit of finishing on a project and suddenly catching a run or imperfection you missed earlier. You can either ignore it, or more likely sand it down and fix the blemish. Thankfully, it’s easy to avoid this problem with the correct lighting. While having a well-lit shop with light…

  I built a deep drawer for my workbench so I would have lots of storage, but it created another problem. The tools I wanted were always at the bottom of the heap. I solved my frustration by adding an upper and lower tray. The upper tray slides forward or backward on top of the…

Here’s a simple way to protect your chisels from getting nicked and rusty rattling around in your toolbox. Just cut the fingers off some old leather work gloves. Poke holes with an awl at the open end, and thread a drawstring through them. Slide the chisel’s blade into the finger and close it tight with…

My shop is in a walkout basement with a steep grassy slope from the driveway.  The skateboard-like devices made for moving stock work well on hard surfaces, but not on grass.  My solution is an 8-ft. long two-wheeled cart. To build the cart, start with a 2-1/2″ wide strip of 1/4″ plywood, 8 ft. long. …

While making a base for a wooden vase, I had to glue up a small octagonal shape. I made this simple band clamp from a piece of string and a rubber band. Here’s how it works: first, tie one end of the string to the rubber band and loop the string around the workpiece; next,…

A nice scraper burnisher can be made quickly for little or no cost. All you need is a cheap wooden file handle (available at hardware stores) and an old drill bit. You simply drill into the handle, then leave the bit in its hole with about 11⁄2” of the unfluted end projecting. A 1⁄4“- or…

I can’t stand throwing away good wood. When I’m turning a goblet or any other object, I don’t leave the waste areas blank. I pick up a gouge or a skew and use the waste to perfect my turning techniques. –Bob Patros

Ripping very narrow stock on the table saw can be a bit dicey because your push stick runs so close to the blade. If you’re not careful to keep it against the rip fence, it can tip into the spinning blade. And cutting short, narrow pieces is particularly difficult because the blade’s rising rear teeth…

Every woodworker knows not to rely on inside measurements made with a tape measure. Instead, I use two steel rules with dimensions that run to the edges. I butt one rule at each end, so the graduations overlap. To calculate the exact inside measurement, I read one ruler from the 10-in. mark on the other…

While looking around the shop to find a shim for my dado set, I saw the plastic lid from a cottage cheese container in the trash. Hmm, I thought, that could be it. I trimmed away the edge and measured the thickness. At .022 (about 3/128), it complemented my thinner paper shims perfectly. To cut…

In my work I often need to draw large-radii curves, for which I use this long beam compass. Built from scrap wood and a dowel center, it’s cheap and easy to make in any length. It can be quickly adjusted and doesn’t need locking clamps or screws to hold its setting.  The compass consists of…

Like many woodworkers, I use a bench hook to support small pieces on the bench for handsawing. A typical bench hook is just a small panel with a shortened topside fence at one end for supporting the workpiece and a full-length underside fence on the opposite end that “hooks” against the edge of the workbench….

When doing repair work, I often have to inlay small patches of wood into a finished surface. To help level the patch afterward without marring the adjacent surface, I made up several of these little detail sanders, band sawing them from 3⁄4“-thick hardwood scraps. A strip of sandpaper wraps around the foot, with one end…

This workshop tip saves both time and money. Make your table saw inserts two-sided to pull double duty on projects.

Making an inset drawer line up flush with the face of a cabinet can be fussy work. To make it easy, I just install two screws on the back of the drawer and turn them until the drawer’s front is perfectly aligned.  –Bob Smith

Like most planers, mine snipes, overcutting a bit at both ends of a board. Sometimes I’ll simply cut off the sniped areas if I can afford the extra board length. However, with precious woods, that can mean trashing a few bucks. Another technique is to closely precede and follow the board with a scrap of…

Nothing in handplaning is more frustrating than tear-out

After cutting out plugs on the drill press, I used to saw them from their blank using the table saw. Unfortunately, this would often send the freed plugs flying across the shop, forcing me to hunt for them afterward. I recently discovered a much better approach. I drill the plugs right at the edge of…

I use lots of wedges in my shop, sometimes as disposable clamp pads for tricky glue-ups or for general shimming chores. Sometimes they’re incorporated into a project, as when making wedged mortise-and-tenon joints. I used to cut wedges on the band saw but the rough surfaces often proved to be a hindrance. I decided to…

When working on small projects, I often need to glue odd-shaped mouldings and tiny trim to box sides and other pieces. Not much pressure is required to hold these small pieces in place, and I find that the humble wooden clothespin is often the perfect clamp for the job. Cheap and easily available, spring clothespins…

My basement shop is quite small and my drill press is right next to my workbench. When I needed to drill a long board, I would stack pieces of wood on top of my workbench to act as a support. I decided to build a holder to sit on my workbench that would allow me…

Although I have several commercially made accessories for clamping mitered frames, they don’t work well on small frames. So, I devised my own small-frame clamping method. First, I made four V-shaped corner blocks out of 3⁄4″ MDF. Along the outside edge of each corner piece, I cut a groove about 1⁄4″ deep and 1⁄4″ wide,…

Six great ideas for space-challenged woodworkers to get more out of their small shops.

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 to slide on the clamp’s bar. You can make them whatever size you like. A stiff wood, like maple, is ideal. –William…

In need of some quick lumber storage, I rummaged around my shop for a solution.  I discovered a length of PVC pipe left over from a plumbing job and cut it into three 12″ pieces. I also found some 1/2″ rope and cut it into three pieces, 5′ long.  I tied knots on the ends…

Efficient storage is important in my garage shop, so after use, my assembly tables tip, fold, clamp and roll. Each table has one apron-mounted caster ($10 at a home center). I used two sheets of 3/4-in. plywood to make the tabletops and aprons and ordered the folding legs from Rockler. My tables are very stable…

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 flipped the board and moved the fence over 1/2″ in. Then I glued the strips on a piece…

I have a humble number of bar and pipe clamps and no time or desire right now to build a dedicated clamp rack for them. Instead, I installed a standard closet bracket on my shop wall for the purpose. Now the clamps are centrally located and easily accessed. I hang the clamp head on the…

I don’t have a lathe, so when I need to make a cylindrical part, I do it by hand. Using this holding device, I can easily turn a square piece into a round piece using a hand plane—and you can, too. This jig is about as simple as it gets. It’s just a wide board…

Bessey K-Blocks are great for holding K-clamps in position for glue-ups, but they’re also quite handy for other things. I milled hardwood strips the same dimensions as my K-clamps and use them to raise work pieces for stacked glue-ups. I also use the blocks and strips for pocket-hole assembly, so I don’t have to hang…

Ready-to-carve 3D images make it easy to produce finished machine carvings or hand tool ready roughouts. Creating stunning carved woodwork has never been easier with a CNC router. Think of all the creative possibilities for carvings: door panels, box lids, frieze boards, emblems, awards, artwork, signs or having your signature carved into the back of…

I found yet another use for my trusty speed squares. Just clamp one or two of them inside the corners of a cabinet when you’re gluing it up. This guarantees that the corners will be square.  –Charles Mak

For turning spindles, there’s nothing like having a  really long tool rest. You never have to move it! I made my own with parts from the hardware store. This rest is just a length of square steel tubing with a steel rod fastened to its top. The rod’s rounded surface makes it easy to slide…

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 outfeet table, drawing table, or assembly table at different heights as nee need arises. My sawhourses are the folding, galvanized-metal kind, but any type will do. Cut 2×4’s to fit on…

This jig makes it easy to set up the bit for routing flutes and dadoes. I simply drop the appropriate depth gauge into the channel, set my router on top and lower the bit until it touches the gauge. The base is an 8“ square piece of 3/4“ MDF. Two strips of 3/4“ MDF on…

Editor’s note: Special thanks to reader Bob L, who pointed out that putting a rare earth magnet that close to a moving saw blade can have catastrophic consequences. If you choose to use this tip, please ensure the magnet is adequately recessed and high enough to be out of the way for your specific saw. …

A felt-tip pen is the best tool I’ve found for adjusting a grinder’s tool rest. When you need to find the center of a bevel in order to duplicate an angle, color the whole bevel with a Magic Marker or a Sharpie. Adjust the rest to the approximate angle of the bevel, then start up…

This sled allows me to cut the 1/8-in.- wide strips of veneer that I often use for inlays. I can cut strips all day without having to measure or reposition the saw’s fence. The sled consists of a 13-in. by 24-in. piece of 1/2-in. MDF with a hardwood runner attached to the bottom. Battens and…

In my work as a luthier, I sand a lot of curved surfaces. I’ve found that I can make perfect sandpaper backing pads from “kneeling cushions” sold for garden work. Available at home-supply stores or on Amazon for a few bucks, these 1″ x 7″ x 16″ foam cushions can be cut up to make…

Small tools are easier to reach since I added two rare-earth magnets to my apron. I epoxied the 1/2″ dia. magnets to two 1″ square pieces of leather, punched 1/2″ holes in the apron, and then epoxied the leather squares to the apron’s back side. –Mark Thiel

I don’t know about you, but when I’m working in the shop, I usually try and carve out at least a few hours. Enough time to make some progress on a project at least. Often, this means standing for long periods of time. And, while I do what I can to try and have anti-fatigue…

Bullet-Catch Bench Dogs When I built my workbench, I drilled round bench-dog holes in the top so I didn’t have to cut square mortises. Being a thrifty sort, I didn’t want to shell out for store-bought dogs, so I made my own. At first, I thought all I’d need was a couple 3/4″ dowels with…

Specialty hardware can be really annoying. Take the T-bolt—it’s essential for attaching anything to a T-track, but where can you buy one at a moment’s notice? Hardware stores don’t carry T-bolts, but I’ve found that they always have a good substitute in stock: closet bolts. Closet bolts are used to fasten a toilet to the…

Get better woodworking results with these 12 tips. I’ve been teaching now for more than 15 years. And in that time I’ve thought a lot about why students are or are not able to do certain things. Problems arise only rarely as a result of a student not having good information about how something should…

Ordinary push pads tend to slip, I’ve found, when face-jointing a board. I modified one of mine by cutting 1/2″ of the rubber padding off its back end and then screwing on a 1/2″ x 1/2″ cleat. Now the rear push pad hooks the back end of the board. No more slipping! –Mike Cyr

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, and then grind the profile. Quench the blade in water quite often so you don’t burn it;…

When finishing a flat panel, I use plastic soda bottle caps as standoffs to raise the panel above the bench. First, I finish the back side of the panel. Then I set the wet side on the upturned soda caps and finish the front side. One small problem–the soda bottle tops have a series of…

When gluing miters for small mouldings, clear packing tape makes an ideal clamp. Begin by placing a strip of tape across the bottom of the joint; this will prevent glue squeeze-out from getting on your bench. As you push the joint together with one hand, wrap the tape up and over the top of the…

While sawing dovetails for a jewelry box, I found my back was hurting from hunching over my bench vise. In order to work more comfortably, I built this vise extension that works on the same principle as a leg vise. The fixture is nothing more than a couple short sections of 2×12 lumber connected with…

The price of good turning tools can be pretty steep. Since most of the better lathe tools can be purchased without a handle, put your money where it counts—in the steel, not the handle. After all, it’s the steel that does the work, and high-quality steel gives you an edge that lasts a very long…

Check out these 11 methods to make layout easier. Write With Chalk Lay out “cut here” marks on rough lumber with chalk. Chalk marks are easy to read, even on the scruffiest surface. Unlike ink, pencil or crayon, chalk marks are easy to erase if you change your mind. (I often do!) Just scrub the…

Some people get pretty worked up about using the right word for the right joint. Perhaps they have a point since imprecise use of terms can lead to confusion. So, to be precise, here are the proper definitions: A dado is a U-shaped, square-bottomed channel cut across the grain. A groove looks just like a…

I recently thought I’d outfit my portable “benchtop” table saw with a zero-clearance throat plate to reduce tear-out and to prevent narrow strips from falling down through the wide throat opening. Unfortunately, the throat plate opening is very shallow and requires accommodating numerous odd-shaped tabs, so making a custom throat plate wasn’t so easy. I…

Whenever I need a cup of water or a damp rag, I just turn the spigot on my $3 water jug. That’s much cheaper than plumbing my shop! –O’Neil Long

My portable planer uses disposable blades. When the first set got dull, I didn’t throw them away–I turned the two blades into very useful drawknives.  I wrapped duct tape around the ends of the blades and touched up their cutting edges with a diamond paddle. The narrow profiles of these tools are perfect for cutting…

I made a built-in bookcase for my daughter that required attaching the face frame after installing the case. I didn’t want to mar the face frame with nail holes, but I don’t have any special-purpose edge clamps and didn’t want to buy a bunch for this single application. I remembered seeing wedges used for various…

A push stick is a familiar device to prevent kickback while ripping a board, but I prefer to use a “push shoe.” It’s shaped like a shoe with a handle, and has a heel, just like a boot. The heel pushes the work through the saw. I’m more comfortable using a push shoe because the…

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. The post aligns with the bottoms of the leg cutouts, so it doesn’t touch the floor. Each leg simply butts…

When I bought my expensive 24″ machinist’s straightedge, I wasn’t sure where to store it. It didn’t include a hole for hanging, and I was reluctant to drill into the hard steel for fear of devaluing the tool or compromising its accuracy. I didn’t want to stash it in a drawer or on a shelf…

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 plywood disc into the light’s shade and stuck the adhesive-backed LED light to the disc. I’ve used my light for hundreds…

Some high-end combination squares have a built-in lip or tab for the purpose of resting the tool hands-free on a piece of wood. But because most common combination squares lack this handy feature, I developed this inexpensive solution. Simply attach a 3⁄8“-diameter rare-earth magnet to the head. It allows the square to rest in place,…

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. Apply traction tape to the convex side, so the plywood doesn’t slide. Place the feet on your shop floor, and…

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 clamp rail. I recessed a 36” long 2 x 6, into my workbench’s face, and secured it with wood…

Here’s a dirt-simple but effective accessory for your miter saw. It eliminates tear-out, allows you to make precision cuts by aligning a pencil mark with the kerf, and provides room to screw or clamp a stop block anywhere along the fence. Originally, I built this table for extra support when cutting long pieces. But it’s…

Crawling around under the basement stairs to find what may or may not be in this box or that was a pain. However, leaving the space empty was not an option. I built this cart to make use of every inch of priceless basement real estate. The cart is made from 2 x 4’s, with…

To set the height of a router bit—within .001″, if necessary—I made this simple stand for my caliper. It works on a router table or a hand-held router. Two screws with washers secure the caliper. When I need the caliper without the stand, it’s easy to remove. The exact position of the caliper on the…

I had a project on which I needed to rout out a large area about 3⁄8” deep. It was a wooden case for a Nook reader, and the eReader had to fit into the excavation. I had poor luck with my power router. It failed miserably. I had poor visibility of the bit, and the…

Who says you can’t put a square peg in a round hole?  My scrap bin is made from round cardboard tubes made for concrete forms. These tubes are available at home centers; they’re durable, come in various diameters, and are easy to cut. I use their different diameters and lengths as a filing system for my…

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 surface on their edges.  To make these knobs, all you need are plastic caps, 1/2” thick plywood, carriage bolts…

“You can’t have too many clamps,” a wise cabinetmaker once said. That is certainly true, but in a small shop, you can easily run out of room to store them. On clamp is so different from another that no single rack can accommodate them all in a compact space. Most woodworkers benefit from a variety…

We compared 14 methods to find the fastest way to prepare this useful tool.

When buying supplies for my shop, I often visit a store where stuff costs around $1. Many items sell for much more at a home improvement store, so I save a pile of money. You never know what you’re going to find in a $1 store, but here’s a list of things to look for:…

Oxalic acid makes black marks disappear. Nasty stains can occur during glue-up if steel clamp beams are left in contact with wood dampened by glue squeeze-out or by scrubbing off the glue. Removing them requires sanding or scraping… or brushing on a solution of oxalic acid (two heaping tablespoons of crystals dissolved in a pint…

  If you’re unhappy with how your stained finish is turning out, the problem might be in the way that you’re sanding. Follow these tips and you’ll be good as gold! Go E-Z on the R-O Random-orbit sanders employ a dual-action motion (the disc rotates and oscillates) to create a uniform scratch pattern that minimizes…

While making Shaker boxes, I built a jig to accurately rip 1/16″ thick strips without getting my hands too close to the blade. In fact, I can leave the guard on the saw. The jig has two parts. First, there’s a track that mounts on the saw, next to the fence. Two rare-earth magnets recessed…

Here’s a hi-tech way to set your tablesaw’s miter gauge to within 1/10 of 1° of any angle. It really works well for cutting picture-frame miters. The key is to use a digital angle gauge. I bought one designed for woodworkers that has as a handy magnetic base. For this degree of accuracy, you’ll also…

Venetian blinds purchased from a home center come in a variety of standard sizes. They are cut to the correct width by the retailer, but to adjust the height you remove a number of the slats at home. If you’re like me, you hold on to these extra slats because “someday you will find a…

Setting the depth-of-cut on my circular saw was awkward at best before I made this handy gauge. It’s just a thick block of wood with 1/4″ wide slots cut at precise, incremental depths. I made the slots on the table saw. To set the depth-of-cut, I place the circular saw on the appropriate slot on the…

Tool: Sawhorse Supports Shop Now  Manufacturer: Rockler MSRP: $17.99 An extra work surface is always handy in the shop. We’ve all thrown a large piece of plywood down on a couple of sawhorses when we need a temporary bench, but let’s admit it—a top that can flex and sag is less than ideal. This set…

I like to use purpleheart pen blanks because they’re less expensive than other exotic hardwoods. Recently, I stumbled on a cool trick. I discovered that I could cause the wood to overheat and turn dark by using the back side of the sandpaper while the wood is turning. Light overheating makes purpleheart look like rosewood;…

Christopher Schwarz once demonstrated a time-honored trick for hand-cutting tenon shoulders. After laying out the joint, he chiseled directly downward onto the shoulder cutline, then made a V-groove by tapping inward from the waste side. This created a channel to guide the saw perfectly for the desired cut. I decided to try this technique for…

Over the years, I’ve shortened a fair number of long bolts to some desired size rather than traipsing to the hardware store for just a few of the proper length. Unfortunately, I always encountered two problems with sawing bolts. The first was that it’s difficult to mark an accurate cutline on bolt threads. The second…

I frequently need to clamp wood on edge to saw tenons or work the edge of a plank, but I don’t have a traditional woodworking bench. While studying at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, I worked at a traditional planking bench where boards were clamped to the edge of the top. That inspired me…

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 rods – a pair of sticks clamped together with a collar to create the appropriate length for measuring. To use pinch rods,…

I have to admit that I’m not very fond of dowel joinery. I’ve repaired too many old dowel joints over the years to trust them. Part of the problem is that a dowel hole in face grain offers only about 50 percent long-grain-to-long-grain contact, which a strong joint requires. The remaining long-grain-to-end-grain contact provides only…

Glue Cleanup in Tight Spots Glue squeeze-out can be difficult to clean up in tight spaces such as beads and grooves because you can’t wipe the area very effectively with a damp rag nor insert a chisel to slice away the hardened glue afterward. I’ve found that a good approach is to clean up the…

After years of wishing my old workbench had a tail vise, I realized I could make one of my new Jorgensen Cabinet Master bar clamps do the job. All I had to do was reverse the sliding lower jaw (it’s removable) and mount the bar and fixed jaw under the benchtop. I drilled and chiseled…

Re-sawing a board is tricky. Most blades drift, so that you must angle the board to get a straight cut. Standard bandsaw fences can’t be angled to compensate for drift, so many folks use a single-point fence instead, like this one. The point on my fence is a tall stack of machine bearings, which gives…

Having light precisely where you need it at the bench makes it easier to see what you’re doing, especially for jobs such as laying out joinery, cutting dovetails and other detail work. This sliding block holds the stem of my articulating-arm lamp, and it allows me to move the light anywhere I need it along…

I’ve struggled for a long time to adequately light my garage for woodworking. I’ve added fluorescent and LED work lights in the areas where I do the most woodworking, but overall brightness was still lacking. I stumbled upon some adjustable LED garage lights at my local home store and decided to grab some on impulse….

A router can be one of the most versatile tools in your shop. We’ve brought together a few of our favorite tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your router.

I make a lot of shelving from hardwood plywood, covering the panel edges with 1⁄4“-thick solid-wood edging. The edging, which is oversized in length and width, is trimmed flush with the plywood panel after the glue cures. Although the projecting edging can be routed using a flush-trim bit, it tends to tear out if there…

While I have a shooting board with a 90° fence, any other angle requires fussing with wood, screws and a protractor. In a moment of desperation, I cut a groove down the center of an old bench hook that matched the standard miter groove on my table saw and dropped in my miter gauge. I…

When I need to cut a bunch of small, equally sized pieces, I install this simple jig. It holds short pieces securely during and after cutting, so they don’t get caught by the blade and thrown around the shop. My jig is just a hold-down clamp attached to a squarely-cut piece of plywood. This clamp…

I recently ran into a turning dilemma when my wife asked me to make her a quick, inexpensive lamp base. I decided that a two-piece base would do the trick, attaching a long, narrow “neck” to a short, wide base for good footing. Shaping the pieces on the lathe would be easy. The challege was…

The next time you use your jigsaw, forget about hauling out the sawhorses or cantilevering a hard-to-hold workpiece off your bench. Extruded polystyrene insulation board, the rigid pink sheets used in housing construction, makes sawing easy, whether you’re cutting a small piece of hardwood or a full sheet of plywood. During the cut, the workpiece…

Board-Stretching Joint I bought a planer/molder so I could make my own moldings. My living room required one 28‘.-long molding, but all I had to make it were 12‘. boards. I didn’t want to settle for separate 12‘. molding sections mitered during installation. I wanted this molding to be one continuous piece. Joining the boards…

This mobile, folding table base provides a huge work area, holds a ton and folds up to only 7 in. thick.

Ordinary paraffin canning wax has dozens of uses in my shop. It’s cheap at a few bucks a pound, available at any grocery store, and easy to cut into small chunks. Unlike candle wax, which often contains beeswax, or some spray lubricants, which may have silicone in them, paraffin won’t contaminate oil and varnish finishes…

There’s nothing more annoying than a vacuum hose dragging on the bench when you’re working with a router, sander or other power tool. These big hoses always seem to hang up on workpieces and tangle with tools on the bench. I finally found a cheap, easy solution in the form of a clothesline retractor available…

Keeping project parts organized and in proper relation to one another while machining and assembling them can be a real challenge, especially if you’re organizing the pieces for attractive grain composition. So how do you mark the parts for quick return to their home position? Once again, we can turn to the old-timers for the…

I lost the rubber pads that came with my clamps. I liked the way the pads protected the wood, so I decided to make my own. After a couple dips in liquid plastic ($9 at a hardware store), my clamps have cushy pads that don’t slip off. They work great! —Randy Barker

A straight mortise-and-tenon joint requires each tenon cheek to be flat, of consistent thickness and parallel to the body of the workpiece. If a cheek is twisted or angled relative to the faces of the workpiece, the result can be a twisted assembly. The same goes for an end rabbet joint. This simple tool can…