Over The Workbench

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.