Read Time: 4 mins

Hits: 1250

How many times have I gone to the lumber store for plywood, and they ask me "What size you looking for?" and often my response is "Not sure, I need to see some sizes first". All that means is I don't have clue whether I need 3/8", 1/4" or 5/16" or what the equivalent size is. I have come unprepared and hoping to make the right decision .. on the fly !!

Not anymore, thanks to the small, 4 person woodworking group I meet up with every week for an hour or so over coffee, I now have made a wood thickness set AND a leg thickness set that I can use to pre-judge the woods that I need.  

Read Time: 3 mins

Hits: 3921

I am amazed at how many different woodworking tips, tricks, and ideas can morph themselves into different areas and grow to be used in other uses with other tools and techniques. So many of these ideas are transferrable to different uses.

I don't frequent the dollar stores very often but when I do, I always take some time to see what's new or what has changed and there are invariably new things to see and to ponder to see what kinds of uses they could be in the woodwork shop ... 

Read Time: 7 mins

Hits: 3898

Wood has many variables that affect the outcomes of using it, like knots, checks, cracks, wood chipping out, wormholes, cross-grain, and more ... then there are the woodworker variables, like things we don't make accurate cuts on, or use the wrong piece and make mistakes with, in my workshop, they are called "a Colin glitch" and I make my fair share of them. 

When I first started woodworking, of course, I made mistakes, but I didn't worry too much about them because I knew I could rely on "wood filler", either shop-made or commercial versions that would bail me out. What I learned over the years, at least for me, all of the wood fillers I have ever used have left me disappointed ...