Finishing Wood: Applying Polyurethane After applying each coat of polyurethane, examine the surface after it dries using a bright light. You can wet-sand with a fine abrasive pad to remove dust and other surface problems, like air bubbles. After sanding, wipe the surface clean with a tack cloth.

Power Planer And Belt Sander If you have a lot of planing to do, buy a power planer. The depth is easy to adjust, and as long as you hold the base flat against the surface, you will get a smooth cut with little effort. Be sure to use carbide-tipped blades, or you will be changing them often. If you can work carefully, a belt sander shaves material, especially softwoods, with relative ease. Start with coarse sandpaper. Hold the belt sander flat to the surface. If you tilt the tool you'll make gouges in the wood. Once you have taken off most of the material, switch to smoother sandpaper.

Repairing Furniture Joints

Use wood sweller to tighten loose joints. When squirted into a loose joint, like a chair spindle, sweller causes the wood in the joint to swell and tighten. Use wood swellers only on interior spindles and other parts that do not support much weight when the furniture is in use.

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Outlet Caution Many older homes were wired before the need or understanding of a ground wire was understood. When the wiring system is examined, there is a conspicuous absence of a ground wire. The receptacles in these buildings are of the two-prong variety. Many times when a receptacle is replaced, it is replaced with a grounding type or three-prong receptacle. This makes it easier to plug things in but it provides a false sense of security. There still is no ground but now it is not obvious to the user. Play it safe and don't replace two-prong outlets with three-prong receptacles.

Bootleg Ground

Here is a bad and dangerous habit. On an ungrounded wiring system, some folks will loop the neutral (white) wire around to the ground screw and in effect create a bootleg ground. The argument for this practice is that the service panel is grounded and the neutral is tied in with the ground at the panel so the neutral and ground are really the same thing. This is a classic case of bad reasoning and could present a dangerous situation to others working on the wiring. Don't do it!

Three To Two NO NO If we are stuck with a building that has two-prong receptacles, then how do we plug in modern appliances and tools that have a three-prong plug? The most common way is to get an adapter that allows for three to two. Things will work but they still aren't grounded and that's not a good thing. Short of rewiring the building, the situation can be made better by replacing an ungrounded receptacle with a ground fault receptacle. These receptacles provide added protection for people but they are not foolproof.

- Stephen Corwin

Stop Your Router Wobbles

When you're cutting a decorative edge, the slightest wobble can ruin your work piece. You can keep your router base flat by clamping a piece of scrap lumber the same thickness as the work piece to the surface of your workbench.

Tune Up That Threshold

Right about this time of year, it is pretty easy for you to tell if the thresholds on your exterior doors are doing their jobs. Get right down there and check for cold air. If you can feel a breeze blowing or see light under the door, then it's time for a threshold tune-up. Most thresholds have a rubber strip that "snugs up" under the door as it closes and over time this strip wears out. If you need to replace your threshold, then remove the strip by giving it a pull and head to the home center for a replacement. Reinstalling the strip usually involves trimming to length and pushing it back into grooves in the threshold.

- Stephen Corwin

Miter Saw Blades

The quality of the cut produced by your power saw depends on the type of saw blade you use and the speed at which the blade is forced through your work piece. In general, let the saw motor reach full speed before cutting, and lower the saw arm slowly for the best results. A 16-tooth, carbide-tipped saw cuts quickly, so it's good for rough cutting of framing lumber. A 60-tooth, carbide-tipped blade makes a smooth cut in both softwoods and hardwoods. This blade is a good all-purpose blade for general shop work.

Table Saw Tips

Apply wax regularly to your table surface, sides of the rip fence, the insides of the rip fence, and the insides of the miter gauge slots. Buff the surface with a soft cloth. The wax prevents rust and helps your work pieces slide easily across the table surface

Lights Out

If you have a light out and it just doesn't respond to the usual fixes, try this. Unplug it or turn the power off and then remove the bulb. Examine the area of the fixture that the bulb screws into. Down in the bottom in the center you will find a metal tab. The base of the bulb must make contact with the tab to complete the circuit. Pull the tab up slightly with a small screwdriver or similar tool and the problem may be solved.

- Stephen Corwin

A Variety Of Tool Tips

Use a hot glue gun to secure corner braces or reinforcements, or to fasten small objects that might split if nailed.

Fit your shop files with handles to provide a safe and comfortable grip.

Keep your chisels and other cutting tools sharpened. Forcing dull tools could be dangerous.

Random Orbiter

The next time you're thinking about buying a power sander, take a look at the random orbital sander. Like its cousin the orbital sander, the random orbital sander moves the abrasive in tight little circles, but the circles in this case are random, first moving in one way, then another, then another,. As a result, the sander removes stock faster and doesn't leave those little circles on your finished work piece.

Windows: Energy Sinkholes

Windows, even good ones, are energy sinkholes. There is plenty that can be done to old windows to improve their performance, like caulking, weather stripping or replacing, but they still loose heat. Here is an old-fashioned technique that works well. Install drapes and keep them closed a night. Drapes are window insulators, that is, they slow down the movement of heat by getting between the warm air in the room and the cool surface of the window. Heavy drapes that completely cover and hang close to the window are the best treatments for energy conservation.

Smart Landscaping

Weatherizing can go well beyond the house. Landscaping can greatly enhance the comfort of a home. For example, deciduous trees block the sun in the summer and loose their leaves to allow the sun to warm your home in the winter. Evergreens make great wind breaks all year. Plan to have a smart landscape.

- Stephen Corwin

Marking Tools: Making Circles

A two-inch-wide perf board makes a great substitute trammel--a tool used to mark large circles--because the perf board's holes offer a variety of radii. To use your perf board trammel, first locate the pivot point by fastening one end of the perf board to the work piece with a screw. Use the screw that fits the hole, but leave it a little loose so that the perf board can pivot freely. Place your pencil in the appropriate hole and rotate the perf board to draw your arc or circle.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2002