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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 [...]

The biggest benefit: less sanding. Big Slice, Big Blade When you’re cutting the back off a big box, your best bet is to use a 1/2″ 4 TPI (Teeth Per Inch) hook-tooth blade, and guide the cut [...]

I needed a 1/4″ zero-clearance throat plate for cutting dados the other day, but my throat plate only had a 3/4″ slot in it. I didn’t want to interrupt my project to make or buy a new [...]

I’ve bandsawn hundreds of puzzle pieces using very small blades. I gave up on the steel guide blocks that came with my saw because when those little blades come in contact with the blocks, they’d [...]

I make a lot of drawers in my shop and got tired of fiddling with squares and pinch rods to square up the boxes during assembly. I decided to build a squaring frame to make the job go much [...]

Like any table saw rip fence, mine needs occasional realignment to the blade. Because my miter gauge slots are aligned parallel to the blade, I just set my fence parallel to the right-hand slot. [...]

Micro fiber cloth picks up tiny dust particles as well as, if not better than, a tack cloth. Unlike a tack cloth, micro fiber cloths are washable and reusable. Rockler sells Norton’s micro [...]

There’s no single surface in my shop that’s the ideal height for every job. With my adjustable-height sawhorses, I can quickly set up an outfeed table, drawing table, or assembly table at [...]

Occasionally I need to drill a hole into the end of a rail or other workpiece using the drill press. I’ve found that a metal shelf bracket makes a handy support, keeping the workpiece square to [...]

I’ve always had bad luck with really small drill bits–if I don’t break them, I lose them. I’ve stopped buying new ones, and now clip the heads off finish nails and use the nails [...]

I like to use carpenter’s pencils until they’re worn down to stubs. Stubs aren’t very handy, though–they’re hard to dig out of a pocket. To solve this problem, I gathered up all [...]

My tablesaw’s top often does double duty as an assembly table. It’s a guaranteed-flat surface. When I glue or screw together a project, it won’t come out twisted. Sometimes I use the saw’s fence [...]