As it often happens with my ideas, the moment I start thinking about some type of innovation or another I gravitate to my sketchbook and try to evolve it on paper until I feel certain it has [...]
As I mentioned last week, a common way to flatten a board that is too wide for your jointer is to build a planing sled and then pass the board & sled through the planer. Via incremental [...]
Truing and milling twisted or cupped boards whose width is broader than your jointer is always a challenge. And this becomes a true headache if you need to do this fast and efficiently. If you [...]
I use hand planes quite a lot and give each one a special role to play. My ensemble of metal planes includes long and short, wide and narrow, expensive, but also dirt cheap eBay bought and later [...]
As woodworkers, we rely on electricity to alleviate some of the heavy lifting burdens of milling, sawing, and drilling. Many of us use these machines quite often and I believe we would benefit [...]
If you don’t own a big European style table saw or a large miter saw, and need to crosscut wide lumber at 90 degrees you will probably like my newly-built CCS (Cross-Cutting Square). This jig is [...]
I own three bandsaws. Two are hand-me-downs from neighbors and the most recent arrival is a brand new Grizzly 17” that I bought. The Grizzly is a great machine but like many of its peers, most [...]
A few years ago I wrote about Ha-Khoret’s wooden bench vise and its embedded feature which prevents the notorious jaw racking syndrome. Vise racking happens when clamping a workpiece on the [...]
Last week I showed how to make wooden scales for a marking knife’s blade, then glue them in place, and this week we will see the culmination of this project. After removing the clamps I held the [...]
Read part 2 here There are plenty of high-quality marking knives on the market. Some have plastic handles, others come with wooden handle scales, and a third kind is just a simple thin piece of [...]
These days when lumber and sheet good prices are soring I find it even harder than usual to give up on usable material and let it end up in the landfill. I have always been dedicated to the [...]
The “Swiss Army” family of knives, and their contemporary descendants – the Multi-tools, are a good solution for on-the-go situations. Although these tools can never really be a perfect [...]