In our twenty-first century world, where everyone is much more aware of the environment and the importance of protecting it, people are more and more often looking for "green" ways of doing things.

When it comes to refinishing, a product called SOY-Gel™ is rapidly becoming the stripper of choice. This soy bean-based product is safer to work with and safer for the environment than harsh chemical strippers. It's non-toxic, non-caustic and biodegradable!

Our customers are raving about SOY-Gel™. I'll let you hear it straight from their reviews:

• Soy Gel is awesome. It... saved me a lot of time, money and sandpaper.... I was amazed how quickly this product worked.... The surface cleaned off easily with just water and a damp white rag. It has very low odor and was extremely easy to use. Thanks for a great product. It made my life easier. -David, from Rockford, IL
• I was initially drawn to this product as it's made from a natural and renewable source and doesn't have the same dangers and cautions as other strippers - the fact that it's safe for use on lead paints too as the gel encapsulates the lead particles is most impressive and the ease of use and performance is amazing! -Rachel from Rawley, MA
• It worked beyond my expectations. -Adam from Hickory, NC
• The stripper adhered to vertical surfaces without running, stayed active for hours and was easily scraped away using only old credit cards. I was not able to smell it. I didn't sting my skin. I recommend this product without reservations. -Al from Los Angeles, CA
• Best paint stripper I've used... it does all the work for me. I highly recommend. -Tom from Savannah, GA
• Perfect for stripping paint... in the winter when you can't ventilate the house. -Karen from New York, NY

These are just some of the many five-star reviews for SOY-Gel™ on Rockler.com. If you haven't tried SOY-Gel™ yet, pick some up for your next refinishing project, then let us know what you think!

Rockler.com has over 15,000 customer product reviews to help you choose the right product for your application. Just another way we help you Create with Confidence™!

You invest a lot of money in your router bits. Even buying inexpensive ones, the money adds up quick. That's why I hope your bit storage does not look like this!

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It's great when you can think outside the box, and find a use for a product beyond the advertised use. Jim Quinn of Riverton, New Jersey, did just that with our Heavy Duty Pantry Slides. Rather than use them in the kitchen, Jim used them in his bathroom to turn a deep, narrow closet into a convenient and functional slide-out linen cabinet!

In his five-star review of the slides Jim says:

Rockler's heavy duty pantry slides made it possible

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Making curved parts from templates often requires re-tracing the template in a larger size. You may need to bandsaw a cutting board to rough shape before flush trimming it to a template. Or you want to trace off a curved table top to create a wood edging for it. Accurately reproducing the shape in a larger size is nearly impossible freehand, but a basic set of washers can make the task easy.

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It's always fun to hear about someone coming to the States and making a trip to visit a Rockler store. We discovered this post and picture on Woodworking Australia's Woodwork Forums, a popular woodworking site down under. Poster Michael writes:

Thanks to some careful planning on our current holiday I was able to make the subway trip out one cold morning in Boston to Rockler Hardware. Dressed in two beanies, long johns, merino shirt, wind proof jumper, scarf, leather and merino gloves and it was still cold!

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Reading the recent Buzz Saw blog post by Barbara Howell got me thinking about how I got started as a woodworker. Having read Barbara's book ''Splinters'', I knew that she got her start out of necessity, having to learn the craft to take over the family business as her husband fell ill. My start was a bit less dramatic.

My father always had a small workshop as I was growing up, but he was so busy supporting our family, that he rarely got the time he wished to spend in the shop. My brother and I were always getting into trouble, sneaking into the shop for our own ends. A large nail, pounded into the top of a pair of 2 x 4 cutoffs became ''walkie-talkies'' for our neighborhood war games, or his wrenches and hammers were drafted to fix and modify our bikes. Invariably, we left tools out, frustrating our father quite a lot.

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Rockler was the proud sponsor of the Winter 2010 LumberJocks' Woodworking Awards, and the winners were announced today! LJ had a record-breaking 151 entrants for this season's challenge which was "Yin Yang, The Dark and the Light". The idea was to create a project that used color (dark and light) "to convey how contrasts work together to make the whole". Imagine 151 variations on this theme! Completing and submitting an entry for this contest was a huge accomplishment, and we congratulate all the entrants on their efforts!

The voting was done by the LumberJocks themselves. Anyone who had ever posted a project on the site was eligible to vote, and the four top vote-getters won prizes from Rockler.

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Editor's note: Our guest blogger today is Barbara Howell: woodworker, business owner, and author of the 2009 book ''Splinters: The Pain, The Passion, The Point''.

Hands come in all sizes and shapes!

But if you are a woodworker there have probably been times you wished your hands could do more. Good grip is a major requirement.

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The router table is the ideal way to rout parts to shape using a template. A flush trimming bit, the proper template and you are off! But getting the cut started can be a bit tricky. As the bit begins to cut the wood, the cutting edge wants to pull the bit into the stock. The bearing will keep the bit from cutting too deep, but until contact is made, there is real risk of tearout and dangerous kickback.

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Ah, Pinewood Derby time. That magical time of year when you and your child spend hours in your workshop turning a plain block of wood and four plastic wheels into a lean, mean, racing machine.

    

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