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I own several routers and they all have thin wrenches that are awkward to hold. To avoid frustration, I made the handles thicker by housing them in transparent plastic tubing from the hardware [...]

I have a hard time throwing things away, such as these chucks from a couple of worn-out drills. To put them back into service, I bought a 3 ft. long, 3/8″ dia. threaded rod at the hardware [...]

On a crosscut sled, the fence must be absolutely square to the blade. Here’s a super-accurate method of testing for square. It makes errors easier to detect by magnifying them by a factor of [...]

My crosscut sled is my “go-to” jig for precise, square cuts. Recently, I added this self-adhesive tape scale – called Peel-n-Stick Ruler Tape – that makes it even more efficient. You [...]

My simple tenoning jig produces flawless tenons in minutes— even haunched tenons. The jig consists of a sled with a glued-on support block and a screwed-on sacrificial backstop. The sled and [...]

My contractor saw shares a garage with my car, so it’s stowed against a wall when not in use. It’s not an easy thing to drag into place when it’s time to set up for woodworking, so I decided to [...]

Spring clamps are easily converted to miter clamps by adding swivel jaws. Remove the vinyl tips, and then hacksaw a 1/2″ long slot down the center of the metal jaws. Use needle-nose [...]

A sharp pencil is a must for accurate work, but having a pencil sharpener permanently mounted in one place isn’t always ideal. The further away I am from my pencil sharpener, the less [...]

Planing stock to fit standard dados is much easier than trying to find the right chipper and shim combination to fit the dado to your stock. I cut five grooves in a scrap of plywood, using only [...]

Occasionally, I like to veneer my own cabinet doors. Like many small-shop woodworkers, I do the job by covering the veneered face with a platen, then applying clamping pressure onto the work via [...]

Planing or scraping parts with angled or mitered ends is tricky. Bench dogs will damage a crisp corner, and clamps get in the way. To hold the work, I use an over-sized bench hook with a new [...]

A coping sled is a must-have accessory for router table work. It helps you hold a narrow piece, such as a door rail, perpendicular to the fence and backs up the cut to prevent blowout. At least, [...]