Over The Workbench

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.