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I’m making and installing approx. 5000-bd.ft. of hard maple trim. Keeping track of what I’ve already sanded is difficult, so before sanding, I rub artists non-oil pastel chalks (also available at [...]

I’ve made over 600 screwdrivers. Does that get me into the Tool Nut club? It all started with a handle I turned for a file. I enjoyed this work so much that I started making handles for other [...]

I have read with envy about spacious shops with room for many dedicated stationary tools. But alas, my shop is confined to a 200 sq. ft. corner of my basement. After tinkering with layout plans, [...]

Now that arthritis has a grip on me, I have trouble getting a good grip on clamp handles. My solution is easy and costs nothing. I carve grooves lengthwise on the handles using a medium-sized [...]

Kitchen Kalamity The cherry salad tongs I’d made needed repairs. They were steam-bent, so they would “spring” when you squeezed them together. But the top portion where the two arms attached was [...]

Tool: Groove Center Buy Now Manufacturer: Prazi MSRP: $149 A lock miter is an excellent joint for building boxes and small cases. It creates lots of surface area for glue and a tight [...]

Floor Sweep Dust Port My router table is probably the most-used tool in my shop. I have dust collector ports on the fence, but when I rout with a bearing-guided bit, it still makes a huge mess. [...]

Tool: Festool MFT/3 Multifunction Table Buy Now Manufacturer: Festool MSRP: $735 If you work in a small space, on a jobsite, or must stow all your tools when you’re done, check out the [...]

My oscillating spindle sander’s auxiliary table makes quick work of edge sanding short boards and forming perfect circles. Make the table from melamine or a laminate-covered material and fasten [...]

I devised a new way to fit a shelf into a dado. I use my router to make a tiny adjustment to the shelf’s thickness instead of fine-tuning my dado set with shims to match the plywood’s thickness. [...]

Pattern-Cut Finials The traditional way to make a square finial on a bandsaw is to mark and cut the pattern on one side of the blank, then tape the offcut back on to the blank in order to guide [...]

Staple Set Pneumatic staplers don’t always set 1/4” crown staples flush.  Driving them the rest of the way with a hammer causes the staples to kink,  so I designed this easy-to-make tool, which I [...]