Steve Maxwell tips on Home Workshop and Tools

Q&A: How Can I Dispose of Shavings From My Planer?

Q: I recently bought a benchtop wood planer and have been happily generating bags and bags of sawdust in my workshop. Trouble is, I just found out that my municipality doesn’t accept sawdust as garbage. How can I dispose of […]

WOODWORKING TOOLS: Three Pieces of Essential Gear You’ll Love

Steve Maxwell, Canada’s Handiest Man, shares his three essential woodworking hand tools.

AMISH CARPENTERS & CORDLESS TOOLS

Cordless tools have been at the leading edge of the building scene for decades, but not everyone who embraces cordless tools are leading edge people. Take the Amish for instance. Although they call themselves “the plain people”, they dress in […]

GREAT PLIERS: Why IRWIN GrooveLocks Are My Favourite

UPDATED 8Jun2018: In theory, I suppose it’s possible to live without tools in your life, but why would you want to? So many of today’s home maintenance and fix-up jobs are a snap to complete with just a few basics, […]

WOOD PLANERS: Tips for Choosing & Maintaining One

UPDATED 13Jun2019 (Video below): There are big reasons to like a wood planer for your workshop. Not to be confuses with a jointer, wood planers (also called “thickness planers”) are a class of stationary power tool designed to smooth the […]

SANDING TRIM: An Easier & Much Better Way

Watch and learn how a simple attachment for your drill press or drill can make a big difference in the speed and success of sanding trim. It’s surprising what this tool can do.

FORGING STEEL: Working With Iron, Hammer & Anvil

Forging metal is not a mainstream hobby, and it never will be. That said, there are still thousands of people with a little bit of garage space and hidden talents that could be used to create beautiful and useful things with […]

DECK DESIGN: How a Router and Three Bits Boost Beauty

A little time spent with these three router bits can make any new deck look much, much better. Click and learn these details for beauty that hardly any deck builders use.

TABLESAW TOUR: See Why I Heartily Recommend This Model

I often get asked for advice about choosing a portable tablesaw, and if I had to choose the best, safest and most widely available model, it would have to be a unit from Bosch. To understand why, you need some […]

OREGON CHAINSAW SHARPENER: A Fast & Effective Option

Over the decades I’ve seen various chainsaw sharpening systems in action, but this one is the fastest. It’s meant to automatically sharpen a saw chain while the saw runs (no files or guides needed), and this model is the only […]