Assembling the Boxes Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 With all the components of the three boxes completed and their joints fitted, I staged the assembly using wide rubber bands to check alignment and fit. Once satisfied, I disassembled the boxes and applied four coats of wipe-on…

From the Archives: You don’t have to own a lathe to make replacement handles that will feel like an extension of your hand. A few months ago I had to face the unpleasant truth about my chisels. Given to me years ago by my father, my trusty old set of Marples bevel-edge chisels had run…

This versatile approach is easily adapted to other styles and uses. Project #1916 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 2 Days • Cost: $300 It’s deeply satisfying to sit in a chair that you’ve created in your own shop—and watch others do the same. Building chairs is also a great way to learn new skills…

A cost-effective and efficient way to take green boards to usable lumber. The solar drying kiln is the most cost-effective way for the craftsman to get quality boards for woodworking from green lumber. Today there are many band saw operators cutting boards from trees that grow in abundance in much of America. The solar kiln…

Crafting the tops and bottoms of the boxes. Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 After milling and beveling (mitering) the long edges of the boxes’ sides, I turned my attention to the tops and bases. I crafted these rectangular parts from the same reclaimed stock used for…

How do you open it? Just push the bottom drawer. If you’ve ever been to a woodworking trade show, you’ve probably seen me demonstrating on the bandsaw. I’ve been doing it for, oh, 35 years now–a long run. A few years back, I introduced a box whose drawers pop out with the push of a…

This live-edge coffee table is just the beginning of what you can build with a $20 doweling jig. Project #2302 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 4 Days • Cost: $400 This walnut coffee table is featured in my latest book, “Build More Stuff with Wood,” (see all the places you can purchase it here)…

A few tools can go a long way. When you get started in woodworking there are many paths to follow, forks in the road, dead-ends and shortcuts. It’s a journey that our forebears would make with the help of a living, breathing guide: a master, a grandfather, a shop teacher. Sadly, the guides are fewer…

With its quartersawn oak, and Arts & Crafts finish, this desk is sure to serve generations to come. Project #2417 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 5 Days • Cost: $450 The best thing about being a woodworker is the ability to make custom furniture for a particular spot in the home. Need a desk…

Brush up on your precision miters, and build this mid-century-inspired record player stand. Project #2416 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 Days • Cost: $250 I’ve always appreciated vinyl for its aesthetic qualities as much as the analog experience of putting a record on. Yet for some reason, my collection has always lived inside…

All it takes is a router and a bandsaw. You’ll only need two machines to make these Arts & Crafts style knobs: a bandsaw and a router table. Although the saw cuts can be done on a tablesaw; the bandsaw keeps the operation safe and simple. The router table work requires two bits: a 5/8-in….

A woven seat adds a punch of color to this surprisingly easy project.

In 2005, I loaned my French workbench to a friend to use in his booth at a woodworking show. As I rolled the 350-pound behemoth onto the show’s floor, I heard a couple wolf whistles (really?), then one of the show’s vendors stopped me. “How much for the bench,” he asked. I didn’t know what…

For a quick and simple bench stop, I mounted a sliding bolt taken from an old door to the end of my workbench. In the locked position, the bolt stays put, and in the unlocked position it’s completely out of the way. -Darryl Thomas

I felt like I won the storage-space lottery when I came up with this bench design for my shop. I wanted a way to store lumber and my benchtop tools. The backbones of this bench are the 2 x 4 frames. For my 8-ft. bench, I made four frames. The rest of the materials were…

Tool: 7 in. Carpenters Vise Shop Now   Manufacturer: Doyle MSRP: $69.99 I recently saved an old workbench from the scrap heap, and the first thing I knew it needed (after a good cleaning and flattening) was a vise. I wondered aloud to Logan if Harbor Freight had anything, then decided to check online. Just…

An 18th-century French workbench is quite possibly the most perfect design ever put to paper. In the 18th century it was common for the workrooms and living areas of a home to share the same space. A workbench, for example, would not be out of place in the front room of the house. This small…

Since I received my Benchcrafted Roubo workbench a year ago, my woodworking life has tremendously improved. My new and heavy bench (I wrote about it here and here) has 1” holdfast holes that can be fitted with the excellent Crucible tools ductile cast iron holdfast that Chris Schwarz makes. The 1” holes and the monumental…

Turn your miter saw into a precision cutting tool by building this storage-packed miter saw station. Project #2420 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 Days • Cost: $600 Over the years, I’ve found two opposing mindsets when it comes to miter saws. One group believes that, while miter saws are okay for trimming a…

Build a tool chest that’s worthy of your tools. Customize it to fit exactly the tools you want. Project #2115 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 4 days • Cost: $250 I have a confession. I like nice tools. There’s something about boutique tool makers that I love. I’m guessing it’s the combination of high-quality…

After detailing the design approach and layout in my last entry, I moved on to building the actual components for my garage post-shelf system. This phase involved crafting and installing brackets that would not only securely clamp onto the steel columns but also support a functional, sturdy shelving solution. To begin making the 2×4 brackets,…

Like many home woodshops in North America, mine is set up in a two-car garage. Similar to other suburban homes, our garage has two steel columns in the middle, supporting the bedrooms above. These load-bearing round steel posts, common in ranch-style and many other one-family houses, are often found in garages, basements, and unfinished spaces….

Is it the saw or where the saw lives that increases your accuracy? There are two types of miter saws. The first can be a mainstay in the woodshop, dependably making accurate crosscuts day in and day out. Or it can be a cantankerous helper, needing constant attention and delivering inconsistent results. The difference usually…

I love the convenience of mobile bases, but I hate it when they wobble on the floor even when they’re locked down. I got my chock block idea at the airport where the ground crews use something similar for parked aircraft. My chock block locks the fixed casters on my mobile bases so they don’t…

Wrapping the Brass Strip Around Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 After annealing and straightening the brass and dadoing the sides of the box to accommodate the metal strips (discussed in detail in Part 4), it was time to wrap the metal strip securely around the box….

Installing the metal band. Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 In the previous chapter of the Megillah Boxes series, I shared the process of creating long-grain to long-grain mitered boxes and delved into my gluing and clamping techniques. Once the epoxy had cured, I set to work…

Assembling the Boxes Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 With all the components of the three boxes completed and their joints fitted, I staged the assembly using wide rubber bands to check alignment and fit. Once satisfied, I disassembled the boxes and applied four coats of wipe-on…