Miscellaneous Carpentry

To get a better grip in a stripped screw hole, insert a few wooden toothpicks before rescrewing.

There’s a solution for dealing with wood screws which have broken off below the surface of the wood. If you don’t want to risk damaging the wood by digging it out, try driving the screw deeper into the wood with a nail set. Then just fill the hole with a wood filler, and drive a new screw next to the broken one.

When you process wood in your shop, it is helpful to make notations on boards so you remember which have been cut to length or run through equipment like planers or jointers. Instead of using pencils for the notes, use chalk. Chalk lets you mark the wood without marring it so you can be more liberal with your notations. An inexpensive children’s sidewalk chalk set will provide several colors so that you can color-code your marking system.