Over The Workbench

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.