Samantha Reed

If you’ve ever tried to cut a tight curve with a jigsaw and ended up with a ragged edge, you already know why scroll saws exist. A scroll saw is a small stationary saw with a thin vertical blade that strokes up and down (typically 400 to 1,800 strokes per minute), and it is the … Read more

Radial arm saws once ruled every serious workshop in America. They offered unmatched crosscutting accuracy and versatility that few other tools could match. While traditional radial arm saws have largely been discontinued by major manufacturers, the modern equivalent — radial miter saws with sliding and pulling mechanisms — delivers that same precision with updated safety … Read more

Three years ago, our crew at Minor Mania got tired of destroying reciprocating saw blades cutting 1-1/2 inch EMT conduit on commercial jobs. We started this best portable band saws guide because we needed a real, hands-on comparison of every cordless and corded model we could get our hands on. After cutting through more than … Read more

If you’ve ever tried to drill clean holes through thick steel I-beams, plates, or pipe in the field, you already know a regular drill press simply can’t follow the workpiece. That’s exactly the gap a magnetic drill press fills. We spent weeks comparing specs, scrolling Reddit threads on r/metalworking, and digging through Practical Machinist forums … Read more

If you want a finish that survives rock chips, brake fluid, and years of weather, you need one of the best powder coating guns on your bench. I have been refinishing bike frames, trailer hitches, and small automotive parts from a home garage for the better part of a decade, and powder coating has replaced … Read more

After spending 90 hours testing 8 machines on rough-sawn oak, walnut, maple, and figured cherry, we can say with confidence that the DeWalt DW735X is the best thickness planer for most woodworkers in . Its 15-amp motor, three-knife cutterhead, and two-speed gearbox (96 or 179 cuts per inch) deliver glass-smooth finishes with minimal snipe, and … Read more

Curved work without a proper oscillating spindle sander turns into hours of hand sanding with inconsistent results. After testing 8 of the most popular oscillating spindle sander models in our shop over the past few months, our team put together this guide to help you skip the trial and error. An oscillating spindle sander spins … Read more

I still remember the day I bolted my first benchtop belt sander to a scrap of plywood and tried to flatten the edge of a stubborn oak board. The handheld sander had fought me for an hour. The benchtop model finished the same job in three minutes. That was the moment I understood why every … Read more

Finding the best garden tillers in means sorting through dozens of corded, cordless, and gas models that all claim to break ground like a pro. Our team spent the last three months putting eight popular garden tillers through real soil tests in clay beds, raised garden plots, and compacted lawn sections. We weighed each one, … Read more

I spent the last three spring seasons breaking ground, prepping vegetable beds, and reclaiming overgrown plots with 10 of the most popular rototillers on Amazon. Some tore through compacted clay like a hot knife through butter. Others bounced across my test plot like they were looking for an exit. After 90 days of side-by-side testing … Read more