Category: Tips

How to clean wood

  Home owners who desire to keep wood floors and furniture in optimum condition throughout its life span do not just use any old cleaning and polishing product.  Many of us have our favorite cleaning product for wood.  For instance, some people swear by using white vinegar.  But if...

Nailed it! The Right Nails for Your Shop

Have you ever been in the middle of a project, only to realize that you don’t have the right nail? So you hop in your truck and, the next thing you know, you’ve spent more in gas than the nails cost. We’ve all been there. But here’s a list...

Dovetails: Machine-cut vs. Hand-cut

Created through a pin-and-tail interlocking system, dovetails are commonly known as the most beautiful joints in woodworking. Historically, dovetails were purely functional. But now, dovetails are used in modern woodworking projects primarily for aesthetic purposes. The ‘half-blind’ dovetail shown below is a popular decorative joint for drawers, but there are...

How to Make a Jig for Adjusting Miter Saws

Turn a scrap piece of plywood into a jig that will make setting your miter gauge quick and easy. From WoodNet.net, here is how to make your own jig miter adjuster. Take a piece of plywood that’s around 8″ by 12″ and rip both sides to make them parallel. Cut...

How to Stabalize Irregular Shaped Blanks for Turning

Sometimes the most beautiful turned pieces can come from the most oddly shaped blanks. That’s why it’s important to know how you can stabilize irregular shaped blanks, such as sow’s ears, onto your lathe. First, you will want to cut the blank to fit on the lathe and to...

How to Get the Best Brushed Finishes

After you have properly prepared your wood surface, how can you ensure you get the best results with a brushed finish? We found a fantastic article from Popular Woodworking Magazine that breaks through the convoluted, counter-intuitive methods and gets back to the basic rules of thumb when it comes to brushing. The...

What Height Should Your Workbench Be?

In our last post, we encouraged you to make a New Year’s resolution to learn something new and learn the basic skills of woodworking. The first think you will want to do if you are to begin woodworking is to establish a proper workbench. To ensure comfort, safety and workability, one of the...

Children & Woodworking: Creating a Lifelong Passion

The fine art of handcraftsmanship in many cases is being lost these days and people are no longer taking pride in being able to say, “I made this.” Introducing children to the art of woodworking not only gives them that sense of pride in something they have accomplished on...

Christmas Tree Safety Tips for a Happy, Haphazard-free Holiday

For many American families, the holidays are simply not complete without decorating a Christmas tree. As soon as the scent of evergreen fills the air and the tree is sparkling with hundreds of lights, an abundance of beautiful holiday memories to come rushing back making the season instantly brighter....

Great Gifts for Woodworkers

There are only a few more weeks to cover everyone on your Christmas list. Here are a list of great gift ideas we found on the Fine Woodworking website that can help make your woodworking friend or family member’s Christmas wish come true.  A pocket-size driver A Set of small...