How do you gain confidence? Experience is one way, but a faster way is to have a safety net. Knowing if you fail and fall but you will not be harmed gives you the confidence to try. Trying gives you experience and builds your confidence. All you need is that initial security, and a little push to start.

This week on the Friday Update I share my latest project, a bookcase I’m making for my daughter. I made a lot of progress, made a few mistakes, and had a bit of a redo setting the project back a few days.

Taking product photos with your cell phone isn’t as hard as it seems as long as you do keep in mind four basics. Back drop, lighting, camera control, and editing.

Inspiration comes in a flash, striking with such ferocity it compels us to act. It is an incredible feeling to suddenly be so inspired you must drop what you are doing and go explore this new idea, letting your creativity flow, guiding you to draw, write, sculpt, create. It’s a powerful thing, inspiration, and it’s helped me create some of my finest work, but what causes the initial strike and, more importantly, how do we recreate the environment for a strike to happen?

Planer snipe is a nuisance. It’s hard to get rid of and causes extra waste. To stop snipe in it’s tracks you have to first understand why it’s happening, then combat it by fixing your infeed and outfeed tables. I will share with you the easiest method to aligning your infeed and outfeed tables which stop snipe from happening.

It isn’t often that I get asked to make something really meaningful to me. Most projects are functional, a gate, a table, a cabinet. They serve a purpose. I make them as pretty as possible, but in the end I know it’s function first. This project was meaning first because it’s a gift for my boss for her retirement.

How many goals do you have set for yourself? If you are like me, your list is way too long and they are all stored in varied states. Some are written, some I have shared verbally, and others only exist in my head (I consider these dreams rather than goals). Step one to achieving your goals is to write them all down.

Many household objects can live a second life in the shop. Here are the top 7 I use in mine.

A North Star, much like the actual North Star named Polaris, is your high-in-the sky guide, showing you which direction to head. It’s a long term, steady beacon and is always in the same place, regardless of time. It’s a lofty, nearly unattainable goal meant to inspire you and your organization to contribute considerable time and effort to achieve it.

End grain cutting boards. The cadillac of cutting boards. This article will explain how to make an edge grain cutting board, but you need to know about cutting boards first. Did you know there are three basic types of wooden cutting boards…

Sanding custom molding, millwork, and trim can be tricky, especially when you are trying to remove burn marks and chatter. My two part process of scraping first ensures easy sanding second.

Without clear visibility you have no idea what may be lurking off in the foggy distance. Retrospectives, post mortems, after action reviews. These are just a few names for attempts to gain visibility…