Columns/Blogs

I just finished the most difficult project I’ve ever made. It was a project I never really wanted to do, but I was asked to do it and couldn’t – wouldn’t – refuse because it means so much to me.

What’s the longest it’s taken you to complete a shop task? For me, it’s about 30 years – give or take a decade.

Getting sick often means you don’t feel like doing any work. But for woodworkers, it frequently means that you shouldn’t even try.

Despite your best efforts, sometimes things go sideways no matter how carefully you plan.

Woodworkers are nothing if not do-it-yourselfers. But there are a few things that baffle me that anyone would want to do themselves.

Remembering to open a blast gate is a pretty basic first step in effective dust collection.

After more than four decades of woodworking, there are still some basic things I can’t do. For those, I get help.

Navigating a project with a third party

Using things while it’s fresh is always a good practice, whether in the kitchen or in the shop. Glues and finishes come immediately to mind.

Sometimes the hardest part of a project is the first step: Picking which side of a piece of stock to be the one everybody sees.

Whatever happened to NiMH tools? For that matter, do you even remember them?

Wood prices and availability are getting better every day. But the quality, not so much.

Nothing kicks your brain into safety mode in the woodshop like a blood stain.

There’s such a thing as “Too Much Information.” Right now, though, I’m experiencing a different kind of TMI: Too Many Ideas.

Lumber prices are coming down. Whether you’re benefitting yet depends on a couple factors.

Small tweaks to projects are often necessary, but they never take long. Except when they do.

The drum sander is another simple machine that can perform in a way that will save a lot of effort and easily dimension or flatten some rough stock.

In his most recent “Taking Stock” column, Woodshop News Editor Tod Riggio discussed knock-off tool batteries. I decided to look a bit more deeply into them.