A.J. Hamler

There are the plans you make, and then there’s reality. I hate reality.

Creating plans for a completed project is easy. Doing it the other way around – for me – is harder.

There are lots of expenses in woodworking (or any other business), but the most onerous are those that accomplish only to get you back where you already were.

Woodworkers tend to buy things they don’t need. I do it all the time and – admit it – so do you.

We’ve talked before about the most important (or favorite) tool in the woodshop. But which one is the most essential?

When you have bad news about a project issue, it’s sometimes better for the customer to hear it from someone besides you.

Measure twice; cut once. Good advice, but it leaves out an important part: Do the math.

Ever take a walk around your shop just to look at it? Not work, just look? You should.

I hate scams and the scammers who scam you. This particular scam isn’t new, but it deserves an update.

How do you measure things in your woodshop? Your results depend on how you do it.

Power woodworking vs. hand tools, while a hot debate for some, is just a matter of practicality for me.

How do you create a junk drawer? Trick question: You don’t.

Having a bigger shop is awesome, but increasing the size also increased the distance between everything. Hadn’t counted on that.

Slow, excruciatingly hot holiday week. Perfect time for a quick session of show-and-tell with my new miter saw station.

I was recently undercharged for some unfinished cabinets at a Big Box store, but despite an honest effort to make it right still ended up with a deal.

Ever need to buy a single piece of cabinet hardware that typically comes in a set? Do you hate doing that as much as I do?

It’s not always a case of, “You can’t have enough clamps.” Sometimes it’s just about finding the clamps you already have.

It’s a fact of life – both everyday life and woodworking life – that stuff wears out, not matter how well made it is.

When you make/fix/create/solve something, you want it to last as long as possible, right? Sometimes, that’s not always the best idea.

I love when tools are improved and upgraded, but sometimes the simplest enhancements resonate the most with me.

For those of you who’ve ever dreamed of stepping into my shoes, now’s your chance! Grab your arbor wrench, and let’s change table saw blades!

Remember me telling you a local school is getting rid of their industrial arts programs, including woodshop? I have some good news.

How do you deal with an error in a project? To my way of thinking, there are three things you can (try to) do.

I’d like you to meet my two best helpers, without whom I’d probably never get anything done.

Industrial arts education, often including woodshop, has been disappearing from high schools at an alarming rate. It just happened where I live.

Even when you do it right the very first time, it’s amazing how much you learn about everything that can be wrong.

I have a bad habit that I know a lot of other woodworkers share: Endlessly obsessing over flaws and errors in perfectly good work.

I’m finally at the point of my shop build where I’m tackling the secondary stuff. That’s a Good Thing in general, but it also means I’m getting rid of stacks.

I’ve talked before about how much I hate changing band saw blades. Guess what? I’m talking about it again.

When’s the last time you crawled around on the shop floor? Never, you say?

While a pain to do I’ve generally not really minded figuring out my taxes most years. This isn’t going to be one of those years.

Is there ever an excuse for taking the easy – read: lazy – way out on a project?

The biggest problem with being able to do whatever you want with a project is that you sometimes have way too many choices.

Most shop screw-ups are simple, one-error things. Some of mine have more components than a Shakespearean play.

I have one drawback I can’t fix in my wonderful new shop. Instead, I’ll have to change – slightly – the way I work.

Amid the constant debate of manufacturing locations, I think it all boils down to two things.

In woodworking, as in everything else, sometimes it’s the smallest of things that give the greatest unexpected pleasure.

At what point on a problematic project must you decide whether to keep struggling to get it done, or to move on to something more productive?

Eight months after moving, and I’m still setting up my shop. But I finally took care of something that I’ve really missed, and I am a happy guy.

When you’re a woodworker, few things are cooler than running into another woodworker where you least expect it.

Imagine Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent finally revealing who they really are. Like those other superheroes, I, too, have a secret identity.

There are a lot of extremely common woodworking tasks and techniques. But some, no matter how common, are things I’ve never done.

Tools companies drive me nuts. They come out with the neatest tools with lots of bells and whistles, but sometimes miss the basics.