Every year since 1989 I’ve prepared firewood to heat our rural Manitoulin Island, Canada home, and over the years I’ve settled on an approach that works well. I used to cut firewood alone, but these days I’m lucky to work with…
Do you have a cold room that is too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer? Steve Maxwell explains how to turn that room into a cold cellar for preserving food.
There’s an allure to handmade tools for Steve Maxwell, Canada’s Handiest Man. Here he talks about axes, specifically Gransfors Bruks small carpenters axe.
It’s easy to look past the obvious fact that lumber comes from logs, but once you start thinking this way, interesting things can happen. It’s surprisingly easy to mill short, small logs into furniture-grade boards in your workshop, all without…
For those of us living in cold climates, one of the most annoying (and mysterious) problems happens when rooftop plumbing vent pipes get plugged with frost. This is called “ice capping” and the longer the cold spells you get in…
Got some old cabinets that are looking tired? Painting your kitchen or bathroom cabinets may be the fastest and cheapest way to make a big improvement to your home. Click above to watch a 90 second video tutorial on how…
I’ve been thinking about beauty lately and find that as much as I love to see it, and love to make beauty with my work, I can’t really put my finger on what it is. At least not with any…
Want to make stuff from steel pipe? It’s a great material for the home workshopper. In this week’s video lesson, see how a simple tube notcher cuts perfect curved profiles on the ends of pipes; watch how a bi-metal hole saw cuts dozens of pipe ends yet stays sharp; see how the shape of end profiles on pipe can be changed to suit the project.
Click the video window below to watch . . .
Over the last 20 years, something great has happened to wood screws. Steve Maxwell gives DIY homeowners a history lesson in the evolution of screws.
The phrase “cold feet” is more than just something someone says when they’ve lost enthusiasm. In some houses it’s a permanent source of literal discomfort each winter. Bathrooms, basements, floors over crawlspaces and those notoriously cold bedrooms over garages are…
Cedar sidewall shingles have got to be the most under-appreciated exterior siding option going. Long-lasting, beautiful and a pleasure to install, I know about these virtues first-hand. Besides the fact that I live in a part of Canada with a…
If you’re interested in reducing the cost of owning a vehicle, then learning to do basic paint repairs and autobody work in your driveway can help you keep your wheels looking respectable at minimal cost. I’ve found that well-engineered vehicles…