In the early spring, I was up in Oregon straightening out my fly line—sometimes that takes a week or more, if you know what I mean. While I was up there, Brandon Vaughn from SawGear invited me to his office for a peek at their new automatic length measuring tool. Read the full article…
Every carpenter should know that when you buy a new chisel or hand plane it’s not razor sharp out of the box — you have to sharpen it before using it. Well, the same is true for miter saws. They don’t come from the factory in perfect tune.
Besides, after you’ve dragged your saw in and out of the truck a few dozen times, or jammed heavy stock against the fence, or maybe even had it flip off the back of a saw stand — or a tailgate — all those precise adjustments can get seriously out of whack. If you’ve noticed joints not quite closing up for you lately, it’s probably time to tune up your saw. Here are a few tricks to get that big investment dialed in just right. Read the full article…
On most jobsites today, the sight of a hand tool brings stares, questions, and, more frequently than not, a shaking of heads that some poor fool couldn’t afford a tool with a cord or a lithium-ion battery attached to it. Yes, many times a battery-powered tool is exactly the right tool for the job. But not always. Read the full article…
Finish carpenters carry a lot of tools. In fact, we carry more tools than any other trade I know, maybe more than any two combined. Sure, plumbers carry a lot of weight, but that’s mostly pipe. We carry tools: table saws, table saw stands, outfeed tables, miter saws, miter saw stands, work tables, nail guns (at least four), drills (at least four), routers (at least four), planers, grinders, sanders, circular saws, track saws, compressors, air hoses, extension cords—and that’s just the big stuff. Then there’s the nails, screws, glue, sand paper…the list goes on and on.
You’d think that after 15 years in this business I’d hate tools, but I love them. The problem is, how to get them to the job, and how to store them so I can find them! Read the full article…
I recently had the honor of being invited to participate in Festool’s cabinet-making class at their corporate headquarters in Lebanon, Indiana. The class was two full days of solid training…and it was a lot of fun. They have a complete training room set up there, stocked full of tools—more than a person could dream of having in their own shop. In fact, when the class was over, I didn’t want to leave and go home. They had to make me. Read the full article…
No matter how much or how little you invest in a miter saw, the quality and enjoyment of your work will depend more on your saw stand than on the miter saw itself.
A miter saw stand is more than just a place to set your saw—it’s a work station.
Manufactured stands are available that are easy to set up, transport, and store, but if you’re working at your home, in a couple hours, with $50 or $60 in material, you can make your own. In this chapter, I’ll show you how. Read the full article…
Some of you may have noticed the loss of Acme Tools’ online website several years ago? Well…THEY’RE BACK! Read the full article…
When I started teaching carpentry clinics at lumberyards around the country, one of the first companies I sought support from was Stabila—I used their levels for a couple of decades and wouldn’t think of switching brands. There was no other spirit level available that guaranteed the same degree of precision, whether the vials were right-side up or up-side down.
When I first started in the trades, I used an adjustable level, but threw it away after setting door jambs in a home getting bull-nose drywall. Read the full article…
For years, the only oscillating tools made my contractors, capable of cutting, sawing, grinding—a multitude of tasks per- formed by no other single tool—were the Fein Supercut and the Fein Multimaster. Rumors have circulated that the patents held by Fein on its well known Multimaster have expired and now the doors are wide open for other manufacturers to introduce their own versions. Whether the rumors are true or not, today there is a multitude of multitasking tools available for carpenters, among them, the Fein, Dremel, Sonicrafter, Bosch, and Chicago Tool’s model. Read the full article…
A few years ago, other than the noise of saws and nail guns, jobsites were pretty quiet. But today, on almost every construction site, you’re liable to hear the clacking of an impact driver. After all, most of us have become completely dependent on them for driving screws: they never strip out a head, even when you’re driving a screw in tough wood; even if you’re standing on a ladder reaching over your head, you can still drive a long screw without throwing your weight behind the driver; and you can drive handfuls of screws without tiring. Read the full article…
Walk around any carpentry tradeshow and you’re bound to see a million gimmicks and gadgets. It’s rare that one warrants a second look, much less my full attention. But last Spring at JLC Live in Providence I had to stop when I walked by the FastCap booth.
FastCap is a company renowned for its innovative tools and gadgets designed by the folks that actually use them—there’s a concept!!! They have come up with a hood that mounts to any chopsaw or sliding compound miter saw. Read the full article…
In New England where I’m from, carpenters wear many hats, from framing to finish and all in between. I’ve always had an array of hammers depending on which hat I might be wearing on a given job or given day. I have my 22 oz. long-handled hammer with a waffle head for framing, but I pick up a 16 oz. and sometimes even my 12 oz. hammer for finish work. So why is it that I’ve always used the same big, heavy, clunky 30-ft. tape for all my work? Read the full article…