I bought a keyless chuck for convenience, but I found it hard to tighten and loosen by hand. The knurling on the chuck wasn’t very deep, so my hand just slipped. I often resorted to using a pair [...]
26 drawers for tools and supplies. My beat-up garage-sale seven-drawer metal tool cabinet was an eyesore. I wanted something bigger and better, but mostly I wanted something that looked like it [...]
Tool: 5″ Random Orbit Sander BO5041k [Buy Now] Manufacturer: Makita MSRP: $89.00 Ever wish you had an extra handle on your sander? Not for extra pressure—that would create unwanted swirl [...]
Cutting small parts on a miter saw doesn’t have to be scary or dangerous. I’ve adopted a method that keeps your fingers well away from the blade and prevents the piece you’re cutting from zinging [...]
I added a pair of powerful handled magnets [buy on Amazon] to my shop-made featherboard. They fit snugly into two notches and hold the featherboard absolutely rigid. The magnets enable me to [...]
Tool: Bench Paws Manufacturer: Platte River MSRP: $26.49 We’ve all heard of bench dogs—the devices that clamp the ends of a board to keep it from slipping—but have you heard of Bench Paws? [...]
Clamp-Ka-Bob This morning I glued up a 4′ x 6′ tabletop made of maple 2x2s on my assembly table. I positioned 6′ pipe clamps alternately on the top and bottom faces of the [...]
Tool: EZ Change Bits Manufacturer: Amana MSRP: $25+ Plastic laminate and other composite materials dull even the most expensive router bits in a hurry. A busy shop that kicks out a lot of [...]
Here’s a faster way to clean out your router table or cabinet saw if it’s hooked up to a central dust collection system. Instead of sweeping it out, or dragging over the vac, just remove the [...]
My wife and I were walking through a Home Depot store about 20 years ago, when I noticed a small Makita tablesaw and mentioned that it would be fun to have a tool like that just to fool around [...]
Super-Accurate Tablesaw Tilt Tablesaw tilt gauges are inherently inaccurate. After all, the degree lines are usually at least 1/16″ wide. I use a digital angle gauge instead, which is [...]
Have you ever clamped a part in one side of a vise, only to find that the piece slips? If you had looked at the vise’s front jaw, you probably would have noticed that it was skewed, pinching [...]