Hi Friend,

This issue of my newsletter explains how to add insulation to your home intelligently, instructions on how to sharpen spade bits, tips on cleaning ceramic tile grout in my Best Finds so your floor looks great again, and my favourite kind of exterior wall siding. There’s other information to help you in the home and workshop here too, as well as an open invitation. Send me an email if there’s anything in particular I can help you with. I’ll do my best.

Have a great 2012,

Steve

There are two ways to boost the insulation value of your home, the easy way and the hard way. The easy way uses fiberglass or cellulose fibres blown into the attic, an approach that's used for most home insulation improvement campaigns in Canada.

Many excellent hammers and axes are still made today with wooden handles and that’s because wood works so well in this tool application. But wooden handles also get damaged and wear out over time, and this is why it pays to know how to change them.

Spade bits are one of my favourite tools for boring holes in wood and most plastics. Precision is the reason why. Spade bits cut almost as cleanly as more expensive bits if you manage them properly, while also allowing at least three unique advantages.

Wide crown moulding router bits allow you to mill your own crown profiles up to 5 1/2” wide from ordinary, 3/4”-thick lumber using any good router table. But for accurate, safe results, you also need to build an extra-wide router table fence. Wide wood requires a big support surface and this technical bulletin shows you how to create what you need.

Build Your Own Wide Crown Router Table Fence>>

Dear Steve,

You are one of my fave DIY gurus!

M. Ruffman, via twitter