Magnetic, No-Math Hexagonal Coasters

Bob Clagett shows a cool project you can make out of pieces of scrap wood: Hexagonal coasters that stick together magnetically. He reveals how to quickly draw a hexagon using a compass, rather than using angles and head-scratching math, and also whips up a simple jig to help drill for the magnets. Excellent problem solving here:

Five Handy Tool Hacks

This week Izzy Swan offers up a bunch of useful shop hacks. After twenty years of recycling pallet wood and barn wood, he's come up with some quicker ways to remove those nails and staples and make the holes virtually disappear. He's also come up with a clever way to vacuum up the mess on your shop floor--without sucking any nails and screws into the hose!

Make Your Clone Reorganize Your Shop

The first or even second time you set up your shop, you take your best guess as to how to arrange it. Over time you discover your workflow isn't as efficient, and then you have to make sometimes tough decisions to sacrifice one object for another as you shuffle things around. Here Jay Bates uses a clever video editing trick to show you how he's getting his shop ready for a new workbench.

DIY Strip Sander

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Is there a power tool Matthias Wandel hasn't built? Dissatisfied with his store-bought strip sander, this week Wandel reveals how he built his own with old rollerblade wheels and DIY plywood pulleys. He's even worked out a dust port!

Experiments in Embossing

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For those of you working in busy production shops, one of the best things you can do with your downtime is to run tests with new tools that may speed your workflow; that will pay off when client work comes in with tight deadlines. Here Jimmy DiResta experiments with his new X-Carve machine to create embossing stamps for book covers, seeing what works and what doesn't.

Getting Large-Scale Things On the Level

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Making things isn't just about executing your design; it's about figuring out what to do when things go wrong in the middle of your process. Here Frank Howarth problem-solves on the fly as he discovers his welded CNC base has gone bowed. Without a perfectly level table, a CNC mill's not much good; here's his fix.

Storage Bench from One Sheet of Plywood

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Ana White shows you how to build a simple storage bench out of a single sheet plywood, and pretties it up with some trim, coving and a coat of paint. Despite the fact that it looks like she's using humble B/C plywood, the end result looks like something you'd find in Pottery Barn. Also check out the variants her followers have made.

From the Archives

Bentwood Laminations Explained & Demonstrated

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Marc Spagnuolo shows you one of his favorite techniques: Bentwood laminations. It's labor-intensive for sure, but if you don't want to mess with steaming, this is the way to go. Helpfully, he also touches on the different types of glue you could use and what their pluses and minuses are.

Sprucing Up a Nasty-Looking Built-In, Fast

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When to rip out, and when to re-use? Here Jesse de Geest takes a decidedly ugly built-in shelving/cabinet unit from the 1970s, and shows you how he spiffed it up in just a few hours with some simple techniques. Re-use FTW!

Tool Gems at a Low-Cost Retailer

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At the notoriously low-cost tool retailer Harbor Freight, it seems like every day is Black Friday. The company's quality reputation seems to match their prices, with many writing them off as purveyors of junk; but here David Picciuto shows you the "Five Best Harbor Freight Tool Gems" that'll make a visit worthwhile.