Workshop Setup & Tool Maintenance

Dust collection blast gates, such as Rockler StableGates, Tool Port Blast Gates, or Tool Port Blast Gates are like the traffic cops in your system. In this Rockler demonstration you'll see several types of blast gates and how to install them in your dust collection system.

The spokeshave is a small plane blade that is mounted between two handles. It's the perfect tool for smoothing small areas and cutting round and curved shapes into your roughed-out workpieces. The spokeshave is often overlooked, but it is a tool every woodworker should have in their shop. Many designs exist, mostly flat bottomed, but there are also soles that curve from front to back, and even some that are concave from side to side for small diameter parts like wheel spokes. Like any tool of this sort, proper setup — most importantly, a very sharp iron — is essential for successful use.

Running out of room in your shop? Try These 5 Space-Saving Work Tables. If you do your woodworking in a small workshop or even the corner of your garage, these five work tables are strong, sturdy and easy to store when you're not using them. Some act as a table top extension for small workbenches and work tables. Others are work tables that fold up to save space and easy storage.

Now you can have the capacity and efficiency of a cyclone dust collector that doesn't take up a lot of space. The Wall-Mount 1250 CFM Cyclone Dust Collector . Thanks to its wall-mount design, it consumes a minimum area of floor space. HEPA filtration ensures that the air in your shop is clean, and 2-stage dust separation keeps the filter clean for longer, and minimizes the need to empty the drum. The filter is easy to clean by rotating the top handle to agitate the pleats inside the filter. When the time comes to empty the drum, simply raise the lower handle and roll the drum away on its casters. This dust collector also includes a remote that makes it easy to activate the collector from anywhere in your shop.

There are some tools that just about every woodworkers needs, and clamps are at the top of that list. This is a list of the top 10 most popular and useful woodworking clamps. The best clamps for your woodworking will depend on the projects you make, but these are the clamps that will be useful in most workshops. See how many of these you have in your shop and maybe there will be a few you didn’t know you needed.

What is the best wood dust collection hose for small power tools? Small benchtop tools and held power tools, such as sanders, circular saws, and track saws generate a lot of dust right where you least want it: directly under your nose. Unfortunately, the confusing array of non-standardized small dust ports on these power tools makes it hard to connect a dust hose—until now. The Rockler 3' to 12' Expandable FlexiPort Hose Kit and 12' Fixed Length FlexiPort Hose Kit feature tool port fittings that flex to fit on almost any tool and a 2-1/4'' hose port fitting that connects to most shop vacuums and dust separators. Plus, a redesigned quick connection system makes it faster and easier to connect and disconnect the hose to your tools.

Working in a small shop with little to no wall space can be a challenge. This project solves that challenge by mounting a Dust Right Wall-Mount Dust Collector 1250cfm on a stand with casters. This is typically used as a stationary dust collector, but this cart makes it mobile. This cart can be built with one sheet of plywood and a few 2x4’s in just a few hours!

Project design and plan by Char Miller-King from The Wooden Maven.

If you're like most woodworkers, you've spent a lot of time picking out the best woodworking machinery, hand planes, chisels, scrapers, rasps, clamps and all manner of specialized jigs, tools and accessories that help make your work more accurate and go more smoothly.