Need an extra hand? Try using a feather board. They are easy to make and very useful for helping to make accurate cuts in your wood.

  Want a no-fuss finish on your project? Try Tung oil, it is one of the only oils that actually dries and can be re-applied in layers for a hard, durable finish.

  Trying to cut large sheets of plywood on your table saw? Try the safer, more accurate method, flip the plywood over, put it on a couple of saw horses and use your circular saw with a good blade in it. Then do your final cutting on the table saw.

Want to makes some nice elegant dovetail corners for your project? Think about using box joints, they are easier to make, almost as strong when glued, and most people other that woodworkers and a few furniture experts don't know the difference between box joints and dovetail joints ... and anyway, box joints look great

Having trouble making mortise and tenon joints that work? Yup, they look easy but in fact they are time intensive and fiddly to get a perfect joint. Why not try using "floating tenons" they are easier to make, the joints come to gether better, you can make them as long or short as you need, they are argueably as strong or stronger than standard mortise and tenon joing and ... well, when they are glued up joint, who will know it was a floating tenon or not?

Having trouble making floating tenons, then try the Kreg Pocket Hole System. Yes convience and quality cost, but if you really want something easy to use, flexible and STRONG the Kreg system is great, and you will learn the techniques of hiding where the pocket holes will go in your furniture so that they are not easily visible.

Scrollsaw burning some of your work? Some woods are bad for his like broad leaf maple, and cherry. The simple answer is to cover the top of your project with cellophane tape. You can still see your pattern through the tape, which then lubricates the blade as the blade heats up, just enough to help is slide through the wood better.

Router bits or power saw (table saw, radial arm, sliding mitre) burning your wood? Again, some woods are suseptible to this, like broad leaf maple and cherry. Check to make sure your blades are SHARP and that your blades are CLEAN. Build-ups of glues (from plywoods, MDF etc) or build ups of sap from natural woods WILL affect how easily the blade slides through the wood and with a thin film of sap or glue on the blade it is far more likely to burn the wood. The other options are speed of the blades and how fast the wood is fed through the blade or cutting tool.

Glue ... it always seems to get mucky no matter what you do. The best (and free) glue container I have found is an old empty plastic mustard bottle. The ones with a twist top. They actually have what works like an on and off valve and are perfect for holding glues. The yellow container also makes them easy to find. And if you are a DeWalt wonk, it even match your tools ;)