A.J. Hamler

I love big, involved projects, but the smaller ones around this time of year are often the most rewarding.

After more than three years, I’ve finally unpacked the last boxes leftover from our move. And there were a few surprises.

Sometimes, the hardest part of making a wooden reproduction isn’t the woodworking.

There are multiple ways to achieve a single result, and in woodworking that means favoring one method while others go unused.

Here’s another one you can add to my list of bad woodshop habits.

Build it permanent, or make movable? Sometimes the answer isn’t clear.

Few things are worse than really being on a roll in your woodshop, and having to come to a grinding halt to wait for something.

My long-distance table repair project turned out fine, despite my diagnosis not being quite on the money.

Nothing feels better at the end of a woodworking day than a sense of accomplishment.

Of all the shop habits I wish I could change, there’s one that leads the rest.

Diagnosing a wobbly table is a cinch. Unless, of course, that table happens to be 175 miles away.

I’m a pretty gregarious guy when it comes to shop sharing. But I do have a few rules.

Hyperbole is great for blockbuster movies, but the best way to boast about a woodworking product is to back it up with results.

Tool manuals are getting out of hand. And I mean that literally, since it now takes three hands to read one.

As hard as it is to believe, there’s been an upside to COVID-19 social distancing – and it’s woodworking related.

For the first time ever, I plan to build something up to about 95 percent complete – and then just stop.

I love Torx exterior screws, especially for interior projects.

Been a long, long time since I’ve had to think about childproofing things. But as soon as I finish this, I’ll be doing exactly that to my woodshop.

It’s rare, but sometimes work projects lead to fun projects. I love when that happens.

It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I try a tool I’ve never used before. This time, it was a pneumatic sander.

My wife got her first major glass-working tool, and the parallels to woodworking are both notable and enjoyable.

I have a very healthy respect for experts in fields I’m not so good at. Electricians top that list.

It’s unwelcome news, but not totally unexpected: IWF 2020 has been canceled.

My wife wanted me to build yet another decorative project for her. I told her to do it herself.

When it comes to woodshop accidents, you don’t want close calls. However, a close call is always better than the real thing.

I don’t like buying ready-to-assemble furniture, but I have to admit I was recently impressed by some.

The furniture polish people have a fine product as long as they tout it as polish. It’s when they hype benefits to the wood that they stray into PR-speak nonsense.

I hated to do it, but I just ordered some ready-to-assemble furniture. Do I feel guilty? Nope, because it’s saving me valuable time.

I’ve long maintained that stain is a pain. I now realize that kind of thinking was, well, inane.

Not everything made in the woodshop has to be related to work. In fact, sometimes the whole point of making something is to have fun.

Imagining a perfect woodworking world only takes a bit of imagination.

Our governor has allowed certain construction jobs to resume. From the few examples I can see, it’s going well.

I’ve worked with some machines for decades, and while I’ve grown confident in their use, I’ve never grown comfortable with some of them.

Isolation tends to make folks a bit antsy. I’d say that woodworkers are no different. At least, not this one.

It took cutting my wife’s hair to get a whole new appreciation for the tools of other people’s professions.

I’ve been making the most of self-isolation, and so far, so good.

Planning shop layout doesn’t always work. But when it does, it’s awesome.

Even the simplest of tool upgrades can make a difference.

I have a whole shop full of new tools. Or, at least it seems like it.

Sometimes, old neglected tools don’t work so well when you dig them out. Sometimes they work fine… but you should still get rid of them.

You just never know when you might need rarely used tools. Of course, you still have to keep them in working order…

At some point in every project I make, I include something personal that, most likely, no one will ever see.

There’s an old saying about doing as I say, not as I do. Good advice.

Of all the things woodworkers buy, use and accumulate in the woodshop, drill bits have to be at the top of the list for sheer volume.

Contractors, woodworkers or anyone else who installs furniture or cabinets try to contain their mess, but there’s something they almost always miss.

“You can never have enough clamps” may be a cliché, but it’s true. You can say the same thing about light.

Sadness, remembrance, appreciation, connection – just some of the things you feel when a gift project comes back into your life.