Workshop Setup & Tool Maintenance

How to set your band saw blade tension, blade tracking, and guide blocks.

Make the most of your bench grinder with this collection of handy tips and tricks.

Wouldn’t it be great if all "standard size" materials were really standard?

You probably rely heavily on your table saw for accurate cuts, every time you use it. Here are some easy checks you can do on your saw to make sure it's cutting perfectly.

The GuidePRO GP5 Resaw Featherboard provides continuous pressure against the resaw fence, leaving both hands free to guide your work. Resawing lumber is cutting the stock lengthwise along the edge. Resawing a board creates a thinner piece of stock. This technique is used to make thin panels, such as veneer, and also to make book match panels.

Here's a workshop measurement problem that’s all too common: You measure an opening on a cabinet carcass for a door, but by the time you get to the saw to cut the door's stiles and rails, you've forgotten or (worse) remembered the dimensions incorrectly.

When you've got a big project ahead of you, it's tempting to cut all parts to final size following the dimensions shown on your cut list. But it's better to plan your cutting strategy out so that your workflow is efficient, and you don't end up with mis-cut parts.

Checking the length of a part seems like a pretty straightforward process, but there are several possible stumbling blocks that can mess things up.