36 Workshop Tricks That Actually Work

These are workshop habits that actually make a difference — the tricks I use constantly, the ones that took the longest to figure out on my own, and the ones I wish someone had told me earlier. Expanded here with context on why each one works. The video below covers related shop content if you want to go deeper.

The 12 Best Tricks, Expanded

01 Always cut a test piece first. Doesn't matter how many times you've made this cut. Material varies. Blade wear varies. Your fence might have shifted. A test cut on a piece of scrap takes 30 seconds and has saved me from ruining expensive stock more times than I can count. This is the single most important habit in the shop.

02 Mark your "good" face immediately. When you mill lumber, the first thing you do after jointing is put a pencil X on the face that came off the jointer. From that point forward, that face is always down on the table saw, always against the fence, always the reference surface. Confusion about which face is reference is the source of countless expensive mistakes.

03 Tape prevents tearout. Running a strip of blue painter's tape over your cut line before you cut dramatically reduces tearout — especially on cross-grain cuts with a circular saw or jigsaw. The tape supports the wood fibers at the cut line. Cheap, fast, effective. Works on plywood, hardwood, and laminate.

04 The awl trick for layout. Instead of measuring to a line and trying to see if your pencil mark landed exactly on it, use a marking awl to scratch a precise line. The scratch is thinner than any pencil mark and won't smear. For cutting or chiseling to a line, a knife line or awl scratch is always more accurate than pencil.

05 Use a spacer for consistent spacing. If you're putting shelf pins, hanging holes, or fasteners at regular intervals, don't measure each one individually. Measure and drill the first one, then use a scrap block as a spacer to locate every subsequent one. Eliminates accumulated measurement error and is faster than remeasuring.

06 Wax your saw blades and bits. A coat of paste wax on a table saw blade, router bit, or drill bit reduces friction and heat, extends blade life, and gives you cleaner cuts. Beeswax or a candle works in a pinch. This is especially important with green or resinous wood that gums up blades fast.

07 Store lumber vertically. Flat-stacked lumber on a floor or shelf is harder to sort through, harder to access what you need, and more likely to develop a warp or bow from being piled under weight. Storing boards vertically — like books on a shelf — lets you see the grain on every board at once and grab exactly what you need without moving everything else.

08 Label everything in the shop. Scrap bins, hardware drawers, finishing products, drill bits — label them. This sounds obvious. Nobody does it until they've wasted 15 minutes looking for something obvious. Takes two seconds with a paint pen or label maker. Future you is genuinely grateful.

09 Use downward pressure, not forward pressure, at the table saw. Most beginners push forward through a cut. The force that matters is the downward pressure that keeps the board flat on the table and against the fence. Feed forward, yes — but the hand placement should be keeping the board down and against the fence, not just pushing it through. This gives you straighter cuts and more control.

10 Test your square on itself. Any square you're using for layout should be verified by scribing a line, flipping the square, and scribing again. If the lines don't align, the square is off. Don't trust a square you haven't tested. Even good squares drift over time.

11 Don't sand across the grain. On the final sanding passes — especially anything 150 grit and up — always go with the grain. Cross-grain scratches show under finish even when they're invisible to bare eyes. Finish reveals scratches that sanding hid. If you're seeing swirl marks under your top coat, cross-grain sanding is probably why.

12 Measure twice, cut once — but also write it down. Everyone knows the saying. Fewer people actually write their measurements down in a dedicated spot before they cut. Keeping a shop notebook (even a cheap spiral-bound one) where you write dimensions and calculations before you go to the saw has prevented more mistakes than any other habit I have.

The video above covers related shop content — worth a watch if any of this resonated.