You can't rout assembled box or drawer edges very well with a hand-held router, especially inside edges. The narrow edge doesn't support the router properly, so you end up with a poor cut. A table-mounted router does the job, but what if you don't have one, or if the work is too cumbersome to handle on a table?

Build an extended base for your router from 1/4" plywood and 3/4" hardwood, as shown. The plywood width should equal your router-base diameter. Make it long enough to span your project.

Round one end using the router base as a template, and mark the mounting holes and router-bit opening. Then, drill the opening for the router bit. Drill and countersink the mounting-screw holes. Cut the hardwood stiffening spine, and then glue and screw it into place. Mount the router to your new extended base, and you're ready to tackle those outside or inside edges with ease.

--Ken Seals, Edenton, N.C.
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You need a small piece of thin stock for a project, but not enough to justify the cost of a planer. Or, maybe you have a planer, but the piece you need to plane down is just too short to run safely through the machine. Are resawing or hand-planing your only choices?

Put your router on the job with an easy-to-build elevated base, shown opposite. Bore a 2" hole through the center of a piece of clear acrylic plastic or plywood that's as wide as your router's base and about twice as long. Attach the router over the hole on top of the piece with the handles aligned lengthwise. On the bottom, attach a 3/4x3/4x12" cleat centered across each end.

Fasten the workpiece to a saw table or other flat, smooth surface with double-faced tape. Use plenty of tape, and tap the face of the wood lightly with a non-marring mallet to ensure a tight bond. Now, with a hinge-mortising bit in the router, adjust the depth of cut to skim off enough material to leave the thickness you need. If you need to remove a lot of material, take it off in small increments.

--William Kappele, Mission Viejo, Calif.
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Handscrew clamps, your helpers for so many shop tasks, can leave you feeling helpless when it comes time to put them away. They sure fill up a lot of storage space, fast.

For out-of-the-way yet easy-to-reach storage, hang those handscrews high on a wall with the storage rack shown below. Make it out of 3/4" plywood 12" wide in a length to suit your situation.

Allow ½" spacing between clamps when you lay out the ½"-wide slots. To determine slot depth, measure from the front side of the threaded rod nearest the clamp tip to the back of the clamp and add ½". For each slot, drill a ½" hole the proper distance from the front edge of the rack, and then cut to it with a portable jigsaw. Screw and glue a 1x2" strip, on edge, to the topside of the rack at the back edge.

Mount the shelf high, using appropriate brackets. By leaving 3" between the rack and the wall, you can hook large C-clamps over the back for storage.

--Dan Wilks, Gowrie, Iowa
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Sanding round-overs on several dowel ends can be a trying task, especially when you want the round-overs to match.

Do the job with your table-mounted router. With a piloted round-over bit of appropriate radius in the router, set the depth as you would for rounding-over any edge. Then, clamp a fence to the table with the distance to the center of the bit equal to half the dowel's diameter, as shown above. Turn on the router, and then slide the dowel along the fence into the bit. Rotate the dowel to form a perfect round-over.

--From the WOOD magazine shop
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When you need to sand something at a right angle, you should use an edge sander. But these specialized machines cost a lot of money and can take up valuable room in a small shop.

Make your belt sander do double duty as an edge sander by laying it on its side and securing it with a plywood cutout and clamps. Trace the outline of your belt sander on a piece of 3/4" plywood about 2' square. With a jigsaw, cut out the shape of your belt sander, and leave an extra 1/4" clearance at the bottom of the template for the belt to move freely. If your sander cuts into the bench below, shim it up 1/8", and clamp the sander to steady it.

--Daniel Knippel, Ft. Huachuca, Ariz.
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Locating the center of a wooden dowel can be a hit-or-miss proposition if you try to do it with a straightedge and a pencil. Typically, the smaller the dowel, the greater the chance of missing the middle.

Hit the center by using a Forstner bit of the same diameter as the dowel to bore a hole through a block of scrapwood. Then, insert the dowel into the hole on one side of the block and the bit on the other side. Press in slightly as you twist the bit a few times to mark an indent in the center of the dowel.

--From the WOOD® magazine shop
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Sometimes you need to pencil straight, parallel lines along the axis of round stock, such as when you align spindle holes on a dowel rail for a chair back. This can be frustrating without some kind of jig.

On a flat, smooth work surface, snug together the round stock to be marked and a thin wood strip. Draw the first line on the round stock along the edge where the two pieces meet. (You may need a helper to hold the pieces together while you mark the stock.) Rotate the round stock to draw other parallel lines at the desired spacing, as shown in the drawing below.

--From the WOOD® magazine shop
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Often you'll start a project and not be able to get back into the shop for several days. By then, you may not remember where you were in the job.

Add a hand-held cassette tape recorder--the kind used for business memos--to your shop equipment. Then, talk to it about your project. Talk about steps you have completed or have left to do, machine setups, dimensions, and, things you need to check. Start the taping for each workshop session by announcing the date. (Remember to reset the tape counter to zero, too).

Now if you're away from the shop for a few days, just rewind the tape to the beginning of the notes made the previous time and listen as your recorded comments bring you right up to date. Store the recorder in a resealable plastic bag to protect it from sawdust.

--Dan Wilks, Gowrie, Iowa
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Using short strokes, it's practically impossible to paint a neat pinstripe of consistent width on a wheel or other circular object.

First, attach the object to its actual axle or a temporary one. Then, with your hand resting in a fixed position, slowly rotate the wheel and apply the stripe with the brush at a right angle to the wheel. Use a good brush and practice both thinning the paint and handling the brush. The paint must be thin enough to flow, but not run.

--James Wilhoit, Aiken, S.C.
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You can do a lot with a molding head and cutters on your tablesaw. One thing you can't do, though, is put the blade guard in place to protect your fingers.

Make a jointer-type pivoting guard of 1/4"-thick clear acrylic, as shown right. Cut a curved edge where shown on a 6x8" piece of acrylic (or one large enough to cover your cutter) with a scrollsaw or bandsaw. Sand the curve smooth. Bolt the guard to a piece of 2"-wide stock the length of your saw table and thick enough to clear your molding cutter. Attach a rubber band where shown. Clamp the guard assembly to the saw table so that the guard rests against the saw's rip fence and over the cutter.

--Gerald Spalla, Canonsburg, Pa.
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Tracing around miniature templates made of paper or thin scrapwood can be difficult because the patterns tend to slip.

After transferring the shape onto the back of 60-grit sandpaper, cut out the shape with heavy scissors or straight-cut tin snips. Place the pattern facedown and apply finger pressure to keep it in place as you trace around it.

--Al Schlabach, Flora, Ill.
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The edge-forming router bit you're chucking keeps sliding all the way down in the collet, but it needs to be higher. With both hands occupied with collet wrenches, you can't hold the bit in position.

Slide a rubber O-ring onto the router-bit shank, as shown below, before you insert it into the collet. (You'll find 1/4" and 1/2" inside-diameter O-rings in the plumbing aisle.) Position the bit at the height you want, and slide the O-ring down to the collet face. Now, you can tighten the collet nut while the O-ring holds the bit in place for you.

--William Sand, Morristown, Minn.
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You won't have to search for a straightedge with this always-at-hand technique.

Here's an easy trick for marking rough layouts or dividing boards into approximate cuts. Cradle a pencil between your thumb and index finger, resting it against the middle finger. By sliding the tip of your middle finger along a board's edge, you'll mark a parallel line. Adjust your middle finger's position on the pencil to control distance from the edge. Watch out for splinters.

--From the WOOD® magazine shop
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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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It's a challenge to turn a wooden bowl with thin walls and remove interior stock without cracking or breaking the bowl's outside edge.

After turning the lip of the bowl, reinforce the lip with a strip of masking tape. Make sure the tape doesn't unravel by wrapping it in the direction opposite of the rotation of your lathe.


--David Arnall, Berkeley Vale, New South Wales, Australia
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Pipe clamps work best on glue-ups that are wide but not very deep. What do you do when you need a clamp with longer reach?

Thread together 3/4" black-pipe fittings to fabricate a set of sliding extension jaws for a 1/2" pipe clamp. Pick a nipple length that fits the situation, and then thread a tee fitting on one end and a 90° elbow on the other. Make two such jaws. Remove the sliding jaw of the pipe clamp and slip the tee fittings over the pipe with the open ends of the elbows facing inward. Replace the sliding jaw, and clamp your project, protecting the wood from the rough iron of the elbows.

--E. E. Reynolds, North Charleston, S.C.
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While building a Morris-style chair and ottoman recently, I noticed that my benchtop mortiser required a great deal of force when making its first cut. To avoid overtaxing the machine and chisel, I predrilled the first hole with a drill bit smaller than the mortise, as shown below. Removing just this little bit of material made cutting the first and succeeding cuts effortless, and kept me from overheating the chisel and bit.

-Joseph Amara, Melrose, Mass.


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I move my jointer around the shop thanks to its mobile base, but it seemed like wherever the jointer was, my pushpads weren't. So, I bolted a length of angle iron to the infeed table, and a shelf to the angle iron, as shown below, to keep the accessories handy. The banding stands 1/4" proud to keep shelved items from vibrating their way to the floor.

-Randy Courts, Sonora, Calif.


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Q: When I buy glue, I can't find a production or expiration date on the containers. It could have been sitting in the store for years—how do I know how old it is?

-Dave Starr, Zumbrota, Minn.


A: Dave, the answer is right there on the glue bottle-once you know the code. Here's how to interpret the line of numbers and letters stamped on the containers of white, yellow, and polyurethane glue produced by Franklin International, maker of Titebond and the biggest supplier of woodworking glue.

In the typical code shown at right, the first number represents the final digit of the year in which the glue was produced; it’s followed by a letter designating the month, with "A" standing for January, "B" for February, and so forth. (They skip "I" because it looks like the number 1.) You can ignore the rest of the code, which relates to the particular batch of glue.

Elmer's glue carries a similar code. In this case, however, the series starts with a letter corresponding to the year of manufacture, with "H" standing for 2005 and "I" signifying 2006. The two numbers following tell you the day of manufacture, and the next letter reveals the month, with "A" designating January, etc.


Now, what should you do with that information? According to Franklin spokesman Dale Zimmerman, white and yellow glue have a shelf life of two years; polyurethane and liquid hide glue have a one-year shelf life. Note: Franklin's hide glue carries an uncoded expiration date to make sure everybody can read it. That's because degradation is a greater problem with this type of glue.

If your retailer removes the code, look elsewhere for that bottle of glue. When you take the glue home, write the date of purchase on a piece of masking tape and place it on the container as a clear reference to the glue's age. Then store it out of direct sunlight.
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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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