Tips & Techniques

Ever walk across a living-room floor that flexed enough to make the record player skip a track? Although turntables and record players may be a thing of the past, those…

Use nails to support the weight of the crown molding when you don't have an extra pair of hands.

Instead of tossing the empty plastic spindle that comes with a bulk pack of recordable CDs or DVDs, consider saving it for a grinder-wheel storage container. The 4-1/2-in. wheels are…

Lighting is always important while doing repairs. Some lights, however, such as halogens, get too hot, while smaller tungsten-filament trouble lights are, in fact, troublesome. After they have been on…

In his article Inlaying a floor medallion, Charles Peterson showed a technique using double-face foam tape to hold a template in place for routing. I use a similar method to…

Repurpose a lost glove into a useful goggle protector to keep them scratch-free in your toolbox.

When I install crown molding, I cope the inside corners. Consequently, most pieces have one end that butts into a corner. I like nice, tight joints, so I generally cut…

Extension ladders come with feet that pivot so that they can bear fully against a hard surface, as shown in the drawing. When using the ladder on soft ground, the…

When I need to cut a tapered piece of lumber, I reach for the jig shown in the drawing. This jig is designed to run straight against the tablesaw’s fence…

A fish snake makes it a lot easier to thread electric wire through walls, but sometimes the snake needs a little help. In my experience, that help is a length of…