When a family friend recently visited my new cabinet shop, he commented, “Your dad and grandpa would’ve loved this place. It wasn’t always like this!” He meant that although both men were pro [...]
How to choose a spray gun. A spray gun is a tool that turns a stain, paint, finish or other liquid material into a fine mist—a process called “atomization.” It then propels the liquid onto a work [...]
Add artful accents to a play table. Project #1914 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 1 Day • Cost: $150 Last Christmas my wife and I introduced our young boys to LEGO. This was a good reminder that [...]
Add GFRC to your furniture-making arsenal. I’ve always loved aircraft-inspired design. There’s just something about an everyday item inspired by a plane that evokes a sense of wanderlust in me, [...]
A tapered (not turned) post sets this stand apart from contemporaries. I have a thing for candle stands. These small tables are quick to make, don’t require a lot of material to build, and are [...]
Have you ever closed an inset door in a cabinet you were building and found that you couldn’t open it, because you hadn’t added the knob yet? Well, I have. Here’s an easy effective solution: Make [...]
Tool: Bench Dog Tools No. 5 Jack Plane Manufacturer: Bench Dog Tools Price: $169.99 I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the No.5 plane from Bench Dog straight out of the box. After [...]
Tool: InKleind Twin Turbo Vise Manufacturer: InKleind Price: $270 There’s a new twin-screw vise on the block designed by Andy Klein that I’ve had the opportunity to test in a pre-production form. [...]
My father showed me this “bird’s mouth” jig almost 60 years ago. It securely clamps 1/4- to 3″thick boards on edge. It’s so useful that I’ve never bothered to add a vise to my workbench. [...]
After years of fumbling with clamps, I decided there must be a better way to attach featherboards to my tablesaw’s rip fence. Two T-tracks screwed to the fence allow me to mount a piece of [...]
Square the table using this old machinists’ trick. Bend a piece of 1/4”. steel rod (available at home centers) into an S shape, as shown in the photo above. Mount it in the chuck and swing it by [...]
I love having a cutting list close at hand. But hanging on to it when both hands are busy was a problem—until I bought 24 clothespins for $2 at the hardware store. I epoxied the wooden pins in [...]
