If you’re the type of woodworker who uses curvy free-flowing forms in your work, you’ll appreciate the Guinevere System from King Arthur’s Tools — its inflatable rubber sanders conform to the shape of your workpiece.  Between the drum sanders and dome-shaped sanders, you’ll be able to prepare just about any surface.

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If you’re not a woodworker, you may not realize that the panels in raised-panel doors just float in the frame — then again, if you own a few doors that rattle, you might be painfully aware of that fact. Squeeze some Space Balls between the panel and frame when you’re assembling the door, and the panel will still be able to move, but it won’t rattle.

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Riddle time: What do you get when you cross a set of vice-grips with a clamp?  Answer: A clamp that strips the hell out of your workpiece — well, maybe if you don’t use the optional protective pads.  But no, you get a kick-ass fast-action clamp with a throat depth of 2-1/2″ that can provide 660 lbs of clamping force.

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Sometimes we need a helping hand, someone to hold the light or hand us a wrench at the right moment. Measuring just 1-9/16″ in diameter and 3-3/4″ high, Magswitch’s Power Hook can hold up to 25 lbs safely as long as it’s stuck to at least 1/4″ thick steel. It won’t replace a helper in all situations — but it doesn’t need coffee breaks either.

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Tool theft costs you twice — you lose the value of the tool and you lose the use of the tool. What if there was a way that your tools could tell you they were being stolen? Lock the Siren Padlock on your toolbox or directly onto your tool, and it’ll alert you if somebody who doesn’t have the key starts monkeying with your stuff.

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Rockler has announced a release date for their One Plate universal router base plate, a 1/4″ thick circular aluminum ring that will accept Rockler’s Inter-Loc inserts. The inserts will let you change the baseplate opening to fit your router bit or to work with standard guide bushings — somewhat like the inserts on a router table base plate. Their new whirlwind dust port will also attach directly to the One Plate.

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In the past few months while nobody was looking, Rockler.com quietly added a ton of home automation products to their online lineup. There’s no announcement on the site or in their RSS feeds, but if you look back though their new products page you’ll find a bunch of entries for security, surveillance, and access control products; audio/video products; lighting, appliance, and HVAC control; and even more unexpected products like shower heads.

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If you’ve been putting off building your dream router table, Rockler’s got a deal for you. For a limited time — your guess is as good as ours what that means — Rockler is selling a JessEm Mast-R-Lift router lift and a Porter-Cable 75182 motor for $465. If you purchase the kit before July 31st, you get an extra $25 rebate from Porter-Cable which brings the grand total down to $440.

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How do you create a round mortise that’s larger at the bottom than at the top, and how do you fit a similarly shaped tenon in the mortise? Most importantly, why the heck would you do such an infernally confounded thing?  To answer the last question, such a joint would be so strong, the wood would have to fail before the joint.  To answer the how-to part of it, Rockler created the  Tenon-Lok cutter. (more…)

Some tools don’t lend themselves very well to dust collection — you have to manhandle the dust-collection hose with complicated twists and turns to get it into position. Rockler’s new FlexForm hoses can help.

The 12″ FlexForm hoses can expand to three times their compressed length, and the segmented design maintains its shape no matter how you position it. Rockler makes the hoses from polypropylene plastic in both 2-1/2″ and 4″ diameters.

The 2-1/2″ FlexForm hose retails for $13, and the 4″ FlexForm runs $15.

FlexForm Hose [Rockler]

Reading a tape measure upside-down is a good way to make errors, so FastCap makes a tape measure in their ProCarpenter line that reads both left-to-right and right-to-left — you don’t have to twist your neck to read the scale.

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Using simple geometry, Rockler’s mortise-centering router baseplate can help you make perfectly centered mortises. Rockler makes the baseplate from 1/4″ clear acrylic, so you can see exactly what you’re routing. Two solid brass, 11/16″ pins screw into one of three sets of inserts drilled into the baseplate to accommodate different board thicknesses.

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Sometimes simple tools make our lives easier, like this bench stop from Big Horn. It sits flush in a mortise on your bench top and pops up when you need a stop. Sure, you could use a bench dog — but when you’re planing or sanding, it’s handy to have a stop that doesn’t extend past the top of the board.

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Until recently, if you wanted a CNC machine you had two choices: buy one online, or build one yourself. Today, a guy can actually go to the store and buy a CNC machine. Sears was the first big retailer to start selling a CNC machine — the CarveWright — and WoodCraft shortly followed suit. Now Rockler has announced they’ll be offering the CNC Shark. What’s more, supposedly you can watch live demos at your local Rockler.

The CNC Shark can route wood, engrave or cut plastic, and etch or cut tile. Constructed from steel, aluminum, and HDPE, the Shark’s X and Y axes can travel 24″ and 13″ respectively, while the Z or vertical axis can travel 4-1/2″. It also moves pretty fast — 120 inches per minute or more — and it moves precisely in increments as small as 0.0000625″. A 269 oz/in stepper drives each axis. And each axis also utilizes four precision linear bearing guides for rigidity. A Bosch Colt palm router mounted to the Shark supplies the cutting power.

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Conventional feather boards exert downward force at the point where the bit removes material. This results in the tendency of the panel to tip towards the bit. Bench Dog’s Panel-Loc solves this problem by moving the hold-down pressure two inches away from the fence, where the table fully supports the panel.

The Panel-Loc isn’t just useful for panels — it works well for most router operations on wider boards. The hold-down strip won’t mar the workpiece surface because it’s made from a low-friction, ultra-high molecular weight plastic. The Panel-Loc also makes cutting panels safer, since the wide hold-down doubles as a guard to protect your digits from large bits.

The Panel-Loc comes with a 20″ T-Loc track which mounts to most fences, including all Bench Dog router tables and fences. Expect to pay about $60 for the Panel-Loc.

Panel-Loc [Bench Dog]
Panel-Loc [Rockler]

Dovetail joinery can be one mark of excellent craftsmanship, but woodworkers have been joining with ‘em for hundreds of years. You can always spice dovetails up a bit by varying the distance between the pins and tails — but if you really want your project to be noticed, you should check out Leigh’s Isoloc joint templates. Isoloc templates allow you to create curved and rounded fingers that are only possible with a router.

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When you create something you’re proud of, you want people to know — you want to leave your mark. For instance, you can show your pride in your work by marking it with your personal brand. Rockler sells custom branding irons for between $50 and $90.

Rockler offers their “HANDCRAFTED BY” branding irons in either torch-heated or 110V electrically-heated. You can add one or two additional custom lines of text — all CAPITAL letters — after the “HANDCRAFTED BY” text.

The torch-heated branding irons run slightly cheaper, at $50 for one custom line or $80 for two lines. The electrically heated irons sell for $65 and $90. If you’re looking to buy a custom branding iron, plan ahead, because the delivery time is about three to four weeks.

Branding Iron [Rockler]