A couple weeks ago a friend in Chicago sent me a new Western backsaw (nice gift!) that he picked up for a couple dollars. It was shiny and factory-fresh with a beech handle and a clean etch. It [...]
I hated the black hole that appeared when I installed corner bifold doors in my kitchen cabinets. To get rid of this annoying gap, I decided to make the main door (the one [...]
Press fitting pen parts requires a deft touch, but you don't need a special clamp or vise to do the job: I use my lathe and a pair of 1-1/2-in.-thick hardwood blocks. [...]
I made this quick-release sanding block from four pieces of 1/2-in. -thick birch plywood. The top three pieces are glued together. Wrap a quarter sheet of sandpaper [...]
A can of lubricant is very useful around the shop, and so is the little red straw…if you can find it after the first use! I figured out that the straw fits in [...]
Trimming miters used to drive me crazy, because I couldn’t hold the piece I was trimming securely enough against the miter gauge. The piece would always slide away from [...]
Why doesn’t a drill press come with an adjustable fence? My solution is essentially a two-part table. The fence (C) is attached to the top part, which slides on [...]
In the history of measuring equipment, there is one blunder so awful that it makes me twitter (old-school twitter) like a smack-addled squirrel every time I encounter it. It’s a 6″ [...]
Master Your Mortiser Shop-tested techniques guarantee great results. By George Vondriska The first time I used my benchtop mortiser was almost my last. It was tedious to set up, difficult to [...]
When the new premium planes from Stanley arrived, it was agony. I was in the middle of another project and had to just stare at them for a week before I could get my mitts on them. The first tool [...]
This morning I’m putting the finishing touches on our new DVD, “Finishes that Pop with Glen D. Huey.” In the Popular Woodworking shop, Glen talks about finishing in passing , [...]
Your design is superb and your joinery is first class, but you want more from your woodworking projects. Building a project is only half the work. There’s finishing the piece, too. And for [...]