Epoxy is a two-part glue: a hardener and a resin that combine to form a hard, durable plastic. It’s important to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations and use correct ratios of resin and [...]
If you’ve had trouble grinding a straight edge on a chisel or plane iron, try using your disc sander. All you need is a guide that slides in your sander’s miter gauge slot and an 80 or 100-grit [...]
Toggle clamps are great for all sorts of jigs and fixtures. However, you need a wrench to adjust the length of their posts. To make life easier, replace the clamp’s hex nut with a wing nut. [...]
Drilling small pieces on the drill press can be difficult because most clamps won’t reach to the center of the table. This simple three-piece platform jig solves the problem and ensures a fast [...]
My beam compass is perfect for drawing huge arcs. It’s super easy to make, and I can adjust it quickly without using screws or clamps. To change the arc’s radius, I just slide a [...]
As hard as I try to avoid it, every now and then I need to mill a small part on the router table. I’ve learned the hard way that you should never hold that part by hand, for three good …
The fastest way to rabbet the back of a cabinet is to do it all at once, after the cabinet is assembled. Unlike rabbeting individual pieces before assembly, I don’t have to worry about where to [...]
Achieving exact thickness is really important when making splines to reinforce box corners. The splines have to fit perfectly in the saw kerfs—a few thousandths of an inch one way or the other [...]
Drawer knobs that work loose and spin around drive me crazy. So instead of drilling a hole through the drawer front and screwing the knobs on from the back, I fasten them to a post that’s [...]
As a guitar maker, I rip a lot of very narrow wood strips, which can be difficult and dangerous to cut on a table saw. Instead, I cut them on the band saw using a low-profile fence, which allows [...]
To save space, my trash can doubles as a work support. I made a dolly with locking casters to fit the can’s bottom, so I can roll the unit to wherever it’s needed. The work support is adjustable [...]
I use lots of Phillips-head sheetrock screws, which are made of hardened steel. They’re tough on bits. A worn-out bit can’t be re-sharpened, so I reshape it to fit a slotted screw [...]