Archives

I make lots of lazy Susans in my cabinet business, so I cut circles of many diameters. Changing diameters is easy on my circle-cutting jig, because I use a pop rivet as a removable center pin. [...]

Portable, sturdy and easy to build, these were used for a variety of tasks. Many of the fantastic furniture forms of the Middle Ages have disappeared and have been replaced by pieces that are [...]

Tool: MakerX Ultimate Combo Kit Buy Now Manufacturer: Worx MSRP: $229.99 Battery technology comes to a few of the craftier tools in a woodworker’s kit. Worx has paired a 20-volt [...]

This traditional finish from Denmark is simple, safe and tactile. When I tell fellow woodworkers and customers that I use soap as a finish on some of my tables and chairs, they think I’m joking. [...]

Nothing makes a cabinet look worse than door panels with unattractive grain that runs at werid angles. It pays to be picky about grain direction, even it means wasting some plywood. After [...]

Early modern records show guild regulations in London. Early 17th-century London tradesmen were protective about their work, carefully keeping an eye on any interlopers to their craft. A dispute [...]

Tool: PRO-Tek Chuck Buy Now Manufacturer: Nova MSRP: $140-$220 Nova’s new PRO-TEK line of chucks build on the company’s long history with the lathe. This new series of chucks feature [...]

An explanation of this most confusing of finishing treatments. In the late 1980s, I hosted a local call-in radio show dealing with finishing and restoration. I remember one caller explaining that [...]

I enjoy making picture frames but always found it a pain to use tacks or staples to hold the picture in place. Plus tacks and staples are hard to remove when you want to change the picture. [...]

Sharpen your hand-tool skills with this useful project. I recently obtained a nice piece of leather about 1⁄4” thick that I wanted to use as a strop for plane irons and chisels. And, I was [...]

Tool: Planing Stop Buy Now Manufacturer: Benchcrafted MSRP: $29 Most woodworkers have the skill to engineer a makeshift planing stop from a block of wood and a bit of old saw blade, but the [...]

I often need to find the center of a board for resawing (and other purposes). A quick way to do this is to use a cheap doweling jig and brad-point drill bit to mark the center, then set your [...]