Big Box Surprise
I never expected to find thick, live-edge boards at my local Big Box store. While shopping for odds and ends, I did a double take as I walked past the lumber racks. In the board section was a [...]
Mix and Match
When done carefully, mixing wood species in a single project piece can be beautiful. When I first started woodworking I loved mixing different woods together. The more contrast – and the starker [...]
Bump Protection
Not every woodworker needs a hardhat. In fact, very few need one at all unless mandated by an employer to meet OSHA requirements on a jobsite. Still, there are lots of occasions in the woodshop [...]
DIY Domino?
I’ve been a Festool Domino fan since they came out. The ingenious tool combines a biscuit joiner’s plunge action with an oscillating router to cut precise, repeatable mortises for loose tenons. [...]
For The Birds
Every woodworker has made at least a few birdhouses, but probably nothing like these. When you think of a birdhouse, you think of a square wooden box with a hole in the front. Birds don’t ask for [...]
Don’t buy, build!
If you can build it yourself, why would you want to buy it? I’ve always gotten “in a mood” whenever my wife would buy something online – whether wooden, or not – that I could have built cheaper, [...]
On the Fence
The key to good rip cuts is a good rip fence. The Biesemeyer table saw fence is so much a part of the modern shop that the name is almost an adjective: Even if your saw’s fence is designed by …
One size fits all?
I’ve been getting into laser engraving and cutting in a big (and small) way. I continue to be impressed by what today’s laser engravers/cutters can do. Chief among them is the huge range of [...]
Wood ’n’ nails
As everyone knows, nails are made of metal… except when they aren’t. I enjoy learning about new woodworking technologies, especially when they change my conception of something really basic. For [...]
Of Myths and Machines
Which is more mythical – a unicorn or a DeWalt band saw? I’ve been asked over the years why some tool manufacturers don’t make certain tools. Mostly, tool companies restrict their offerings to [...]
Fashion Statement
Work clothes for men are easy to find. For women? Not so much. Heavy-duty work clothes for men have been around for probably the last century. You can wear any heavy clothing while working, of [...]
Hands-on Heroes
The best way to get kids interested in woodworking? Help them build something. Ask a kid what they want to do when they grow up and you’ll get a hundred answers. Chances are good that [...]
