Tips & Techniques

When carrying lumber on my shoulders, I put one of my knee pads on my shoulder underneath my shirt. It saves a lot of wear and tear on my body…

Cutting large curves or compound curves with a high degree of accuracy can be time-consuming. The task typically involves first creating a template that will guide either a jigsaw or…

All carpenters know that a dull pencil can lead to inaccurate measurements, and wasted material and time. To avoid these problems, I installed a small, hand-spun pencil sharpener in the…

Having given up on the questionable reliability and durability of dehumidifiers for our basement, I decided to try a low-tech, low-cost alternative to deal with summer humidity problems. Opening the…

In my remodeling business, I am constantly using many different power tools. In certain situations, I repeatedly plug in and unplug different tools all day long. I always found it…

Portable tablesaws are great when it’s time to set up a job-site shop, then break it down again for transport. The problem is that they’re not so great in between…

A small amount of water can go a long way toward reducing dust if you have to cut concrete with a circular saw and a diamond blade. For dust control…

I hate installing fiberglass insulation, especially overhead. Faced with this task, I reach for the forklike tool shown in the drawings below. Made of 2x2s screwed and glued at their intersection…

I like to reuse vintage architectural elements where possible. It keeps them out of the landfill, and they add charm and substance to new projects. Sometimes, however, code issues can…

Some jobs require down-and-dirty elbow grease. After scraping loose some of the creosote buildup inside a fireplace, I found wire-brushing the most-effective way to remove the caked-on patches. I could…