Wing nuts can be great conveniences, but two major problems interfere with their usage: 1. Too often you have to make a special trip to the hardware store to get the size you need. 2. Those metal wings are hard on your fingers, especially if you wish to tighten the nuts securely. Sometimes, you need a pair of pliers to get the necessary leverage.

Combine a hexagonal nut and a scrap of wood to make an oversized wing nut as shown. Bore the upper hole slightly smaller than the corner-to-corner diameter of the nut, and drill the lower hole for the bolt 1/64" larger than the bolt's diameter. Apply epoxy glue to the walls of the nut hole and press or tap the nut into place. This technique also works well on bolt heads.

--Paul R. Cook, Westfield, N.Y
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Painting one side of a small wooden wheel, waiting for it to dry, and then painting the other side takes a lot of time and often leaves paint streaks.

With this holder, you can paint both sides of the wheel at the same time and dry the finished wheels on an old coat hanger. Start by driving a brad through a dowel rod that fits the wheel axle hole. Bend the point of the brad up.

Next cut one end of an old coat hanger and form a loop as shown above. Paint one side of the wheel, then pick it up by inserting the dowel rod in the axle hole. With the wheel balanced on the brad, paint the other side and transfer the finished wheel to the coat hanger using the dowel rod. When you're done, insert the bottom of the coat hanger in the loop so the wheels don't fall off. Then hang them up to dry.

--David Burr, Rockville, Md.
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In the old days, master craftsmen carved the date of completion on a seldom-seen surface of a big project. You would like to leave a small mark in history too, but you're not sure about your wood-carving skills.

An easy way to date your heirloom projects is to use a shiny new penny. Take a 3/4" Forstner bit and bore a 1/16"-deep hole in an out-of-the-way place on the project. Secure the penny in the hole with a dab of epoxy.

--Carl Sarine, Largo, Fla.
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It's difficult to find the center of cylindrical turning stock and other circles with only a straightedge and pencil.

An inexpensive and simple jig quickly and accurately pinpoints the center of a circle. Cut a 90° notch from 3/4" stock. Screw a straightedge over the notched base, as shown, to create a 45° angle. Place the circle against the guide and scribe one line. Rotate the circle about 60° and mark another line. To check the accuracy, rotate the circle once more. If the lines form a small triangle, the center is inside the triangle.

--George Harenberg Chincoteague, Va.
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When using multiple router bits to create fancy profiles, the bits tend to clutter up your work area unless you take the time to put them back in a case or holder.

If you're using router bits with 1/4" shanks, you can simply slip the shanks into the holes of any empty section of perforated hardboard with 1/4" holes. The shanks of the router bits will fit snugly and the bits won't fall out. If you use 1/2"-shank bits, you can drill a few 1/2" holes in your hardboard near where you do most of your routing. Space these holes far enough apart that the cutters on your bits don't touch.

--From the WOOD® magazine shop
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Without a drill press, accurate control of hole depth with an electric drill is difficult to achieve, at best.

Drill a hole in a short length of dowel that's large enough in diameter that it won't split and fits snugly on the bit. To adjust for the depth of the hole, vary the dowel's length and the placement of the bit in the chuck. You can make several of these for a variety of depths and bit sizes to keep on hand, or toss them when finished.

--From the WOOD® magazine shop
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You like to make certain cuts with your table-mounted router in steps. What you don't like is reaching under the table to adjust the router 1/16" or 1/8" after each cut--it sure slows down the job.

Set your router to the final cut depth, and then leave it there. Now, make your depth adjustments by laying several pieces of thin cardboard, artist's mat board, or poster board (all available at art-supply dealers and some crafts shops), or even 1/8" hardboard on the router table. Each piece must be wide enough and extend far enough past the bit on each side to support your workpiece properly. Cut a hole in each piece for the router bit to protrude through, and secure the pieces to the table with double-faced tape. Make your first cut with all of the shims stacked in place. Remove one for each subsequent pass until you've removed them all for the final cut. Each one you remove increases your depth of cut by its thickness.

--Bob Agner, Muskego, Wis.
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You hate to drive screws into end grain because they can pull right out. But sometimes, you can't avoid driving them into the end of a board, such as in the case of the bed hardware shown right.

For a strong joint, give the screw some face grain to dig into. Here's how: Drill a dowel-diameter hole through the face of the project part, located so that the screw threads will fall mostly or completely inside the hole. Then, glue a length of dowel into the hole. Set the dowels so their end grain is perpendicular to the grain on the face of the project part. Cut the ends flush with your project part. Now, drill your pilot holes and drive in the screws.

--Tom E. Moore, Madison, Va.
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Tossing your handsaws into a drawer or toolbox is an invitation to dull teeth and maybe a kinked or warped blade.

Here's a rack that stores five saws in a 10" space. Cut the cams, compartment sides, and back from maple as shown below. Attach the compartment sides to the back with screws and glue, and then secure the cams where shown. Make sure the cams move freely. Hang the holder. To use, slide the saw in from the bottom, pushing the cam up. When you release the saw, the cam will trap the blade against the side.

--E. Q. Smith, M.D.., West Hills, Calif.
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You can fiddle a lot of time away trying to clamp hexagons, octagons, or any of the other polygons you might build. A strap-type clamp is the easiest way to hold them for gluing, but what do you do if you don't have one?

Get a rope. Then drill two holes (rope diameter) through two pieces of scrapwood near the ends. Thread the rope (sash cord works great) through the wood, as shown right, and tie a knot in each end. Drill a dowel hole on an edge at one end of one piece and glue in a dowel, leaving about two rope diameters of it above the surface. Now, to clamp your work, place the wooden pieces three or four thicknesses apart and cinch the rope around the work, taking in the slack at the end near the dowel. When the rope is tight, pass its end around the dowel and back under itself to make a half hitch around the dowel. Then, draw the pieces together with a C-clamp or handscrew to tighten.

--Joe Bailey, Russellville, Ark.
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If you have unlimited shop space, stop reading here. For the rest of us, storing project materials poses a major problem. Just one full sheet of plywood covers up a lot of precious wall space.

Move your materials into a corner. As shown right, you can stow everything from full sheets of plywood (if your shop has 8' or more of headroom) to cutoff pieces into an area that extends only 40" along each wall. Construct the dividers from plywood and 2 X 2 stock, and attach them to the floor and ceiling. Add shelves to hold cutoff pieces and small stock, if desired.

--Doug Parker, Grandville, Mich.
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Sawdust accumulating near your saw fence causes inaccurate cuts.

From a scrap of 1/4" birch plywood, cut several spacers 1" long and to a width 1/16" less than the thickness of the front table. Attach them to the back edge of the front table with flathead wood screws, aligning the spacer bottoms with the bottom edge of the table. This leaves the spacers 1/16" below the table surface. Space these 12" apart. Make sure the screwheads are flush with the face of the spacers. Install the fence and back table. Readjust the rip scales on the saw to compensate for the extra 1/4" space between the fence and table. Sawdust falls through the gaps.

--Bill Pearce, Jacksonville, Fla.
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You're getting steamed trying to make an intricate cut with your portable jigsaw. There just doesn't seem to be any way to support the workpiece firmly.

A piece of 2"-thick Styrofoam insulation board will cool you down. Lay it on the floor or workbench, with your workpiece on top. Your workpiece won't slip around, and it will be supported on both sides of the cutting line. A standard-length jigsaw blade won't cut all the way through the 2" foam board so you can cut even thin materials. The insulation board will last a long time before it needs replacing.

--Pierre Duval, Quebec, Canada
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Finishing small pieces is frustrating. Using your fingers to hold the pieces is messy, and the finish may stick to your work surface.

Build a finishing box. From 3/4" stock, cut the sides, top, and bottom of a 4 x 10 x 20" box. Clamp the top and bottom pieces together and drill 1/4" through holes simultaneously to ensure alignment. Unclamp the assembly, and epoxy 3" lengths of 1/4" steel rod with sharpened points into the bottom holes. Enlarge the top holes to permit free up-and-down movement of 8"-long sharpened rods. Now you can coat small pieces without fear of making fingerprints and smudges.

--W. P. Locke, Huntington Beach, Calif.
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Sometimes tight quarters restrict you from steadying a screw with one hand while you turn a screwdriver with your other hand.

Drop a small dab of hot- melt glue onto the head of the fastener, and attach the screwdriver or ratchet with the glue. When you finish driving the fastener, the tool will release easily. A little scraping removes any residual adhesive.

--David J. Casolino, Milford, Conn.
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