Archives

Why Does My Wood Have Stripes?   Q: I put a clear finish on a beautiful ash table I made and found faint stripes an inch or two wide going across each board. Any ideas on what caused them [...]

Perfectly Parallel Fence Here’s a quick and easy way to align your tablesaw fence with your miter slot.Plane down a board until it fits into your miter slot without play. Now slide the [...]

Repairing Ripped Belts Sanding belts can rip at the worst possible moment – such as when you're out on a jobsite with no spares. When this happens I remove the belt, turn it inside out [...]

Tablesaw Jig Clamp I added this hold-down to my tablesaw’s sliding cutoff jig and find it a great convenience, because the height of the clamp is easily changed. This clamp uses a standard [...]

Why Predrill Screw Holes?   Q: I think predrilling screw holes is a real drag, so I rarely do it. Most screws seem to work fine without all that bother. Why are you always advocating [...]

Cool Tip for Changing Sanding Sleeves Changing the sanding sleeves on a spindle sander can be as tough as removing an old rusty bolt. Next time, try this trick: Put the drum in your freezer for [...]

Glove Finger Chisel Protectors My Chisels used to get dull and rusty rattling around in my toolbox. No more! I found a clever way to protect them. I cut the fingers off some old leather work [...]

Prescription Safety Glasses   Q: I hate fumbling with goggles over my prescription glasses, so I’ve given up. Don’t regular glasses protect my eyes well enough in the workshop? A: No. Normal [...]

Rigid Routing Sled A routing sled is a great help when coping the ends of rails and stiles. But I had a problem when I built my first sled. The pressure from the toggle clamp caused the [...]

Router Base Transfer Points After I lost track of the base plate for the router that goes in my router table, I had to make a new one with accurately marked holes for the mounting screws and a [...]

Vise Crank Handle I'm getting up in years but I still love woodworking. My hands aren't as limber as they used to be, so it was uncomfortable to twist my vise handle. I remembered the [...]

Anti-Slip Dust-Collection Table Here’s a pair of sanding helpers that work great together. The rug pad provides a soft anti-slip surface.The Peg-Board, combined with the holes in the rug [...]