We had fun taking a TV tour of the Stanley Bostitch testing facility to see just how they test tools for long term endurance, power and reliability.Then we took a closer look at their new cordless roofing nailer. This is quite a technological development -- it is the first nailer that runs o...
There is really no way to repair a bad burn in a plastic laminate countertop, but you can still save the counter. In this segment I used a plunging router to cut out a very flat hole in the counter, just the right size to put a cutting board right where the burn was. Don't forget to careful...
Some time ago I had a demonstration on upholstery where I showed that a hand operated staple gun couldn't staple into the hardwood normally found in upholstered furniture. I showed the two standard alternatives: a pneumatic stapler complete with air compressor and hoses, and good old hand ta...
Sandpaper is expensive and there is a lot of it to choose from, so you want to get the paper that will do whatever sanding job you want to do most efficiently. Whether you are working by hand or with some kind of a power tool, the right sandpaper is more important than the tool itself.Look o...
The best tool to use for sanding curves is a drum sander. The thing interesting to note is that drum sanders come in all kinds of sizes and even different textures aside from all the different grits and types of sandpaper.For very small work, there are miniature drum sanders that are used wi...
In woodworking a slot is a channel usually made to receive another piece. It is either designed to be a tight fit to hold something together like shelving or T&G flooring, or a sliding fit to permit things to move. A little research on vocabulary will tell us that a dado is a slot cut a...
The right bit for the right hole can make all the difference in getting the job done well.The first photo shows a power auger. You can't see in the photo but this particular drill is 18 inches long. The key to it working well is that screw head that actually pulls it into the wood for you. D...
Probably your first cordless tool was a flashlight, but you never even thought of it as a cordless tool. Then we got some low powered battery operated drills, B&D made the first one in 1961. However it took another 30 years before cordless got powerful enough to go mainstream. Not so l...
As wood dries out, it tends to twist and turn in all kinds of directions.
Generally furniture grade lumber arrives in a shop with a bit of a bow along its length, a bit of a cup across its width and maybe a twist to boot. How do you get this rough cut twisted lumber into perfectly straight and f...
The larger and wider the blade, the more power is required to drive it through wood. When we are talking about corded tools, this usually translates into a question of weight and over-all size of the saw. Using a very large and heavy saw for light duty work is simply cumbersome and tiring. When w...
