Archives

Like most planers, mine snipes, overcutting a bit at both ends of a board. Sometimes I’ll simply cut off the sniped areas if I can afford the extra board length. However, with precious woods, [...]

Nothing in handplaning is more frustrating than tear-out

After cutting out plugs on the drill press, I used to saw them from their blank using the table saw. Unfortunately, this would often send the freed plugs flying across the shop, forcing me to [...]

Easy to use and maintain, they keep outdoor wood furniture looking like new. You’ve spent the winter building a set of cedar Adirondack chairs; or maybe you’ve purchased a teak garden bench. You [...]

I use lots of wedges in my shop, sometimes as disposable clamp pads for tricky glue-ups or for general shimming chores. Sometimes they’re incorporated into a project, as when making wedged [...]

Understanding the importance of chip load calculations. If you have spent time using handheld routers then you have developed an intuitive sense for what is the ideal feed rate and speed for the [...]

When working on small projects, I often need to glue odd-shaped mouldings and tiny trim to box sides and other pieces. Not much pressure is required to hold these small pieces in place, and I [...]

A long-time carpenter shares a repair trick to hide the mistakes made by ham-handed apprentices. For more than 30 years I was a traveling carpenter foreman in charge of installation of [...]

Designing sag-proof shelves. Have you ever heard a shelf groan? Well, maybe not, but some shelves look like they would if they could. So much stuff gets piled on them that they end up sagging [...]

You needn’t rely on ready-made patterns to design good-looking gams. Legs with engaging, flowing three-dimensional curves can add immeasurably to the aesthetic success of such pieces as tables, [...]

Old glasses cases are great for protecting, containing and organizing small tools, scrapers and plane irons. I label the outside so I can see at a glance what’s inside each case. -John Rustan…

Learn techniques for ‘shallow relief’ and ‘applied’ carvings. Have you ever been involved in something where you get completely absorbed in it? Where hours go by without realizing it? Those are [...]