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I’ve been a Festool Domino fan since they came out. The ingenious tool combines a biscuit joiner’s plunge action with an oscillating router to cut precise, repeatable mortises for loose tenons. [...]

Every woodworker has made at least a few birdhouses, but probably nothing like these. When you think of a birdhouse, you think of a square wooden box with a hole in the front. Birds don’t ask for [...]

If you can build it yourself, why would you want to buy it? I’ve always gotten “in a mood” whenever my wife would buy something online – whether wooden, or not – that I could have built cheaper, [...]

The key to good rip cuts is a good rip fence. The Biesemeyer table saw fence is so much a part of the modern shop that the name is almost an adjective: Even if your saw’s fence is designed by …

I’ve been getting into laser engraving and cutting in a big (and small) way. I continue to be impressed by what today’s laser engravers/cutters can do. Chief among them is the huge range of [...]

As everyone knows, nails are made of metal… except when they aren’t. I enjoy learning about new woodworking technologies, especially when they change my conception of something really basic. For [...]

Which is more mythical – a unicorn or a DeWalt band saw? I’ve been asked over the years why some tool manufacturers don’t make certain tools. Mostly, tool companies restrict their offerings to [...]

Work clothes for men are easy to find. For women? Not so much. Heavy-duty work clothes for men have been around for probably the last century. You can wear any heavy clothing while working, of [...]

The best way to get kids interested in woodworking? Help them build something. Ask a kid what they want to do when they grow up and you’ll get a hundred answers. Chances are good that [...]

Can Lithium-ion batteries really catch fire? A friend of mine proved it beyond a doubt. I’ve never liked the idea of knock-off, counterfeit or no-name tool batteries. Inexpensive, but [...]

I love mysteries that involve really old wood. There’s an old farm in Mannheim, Pa., that – like so many farms today – saw its last farming days years ago. The homesteads have been converted to [...]

What do you look for when buying a tool? I’m guessing the same that I do (along with thousands of other woodworkers). At the top of the list are excellent performance at a fair price, reliable [...]