Kristie Pryor

I still remember the first wine flight I hosted at home. We set three mismatched tumblers on a cutting board, scribbled the varietals on Post-it notes, and called it a tasting. It was fun, but it looked nothing like the polished pours you see at wineries. That moment sent me down a rabbit hole of … Read more

I remember the first time I tried to glue up a tabletop without a jointer. I spent two hours with a hand plane and still ended up with gaps between the boards. That frustration is exactly why I built our workshop’s jointer roundup. After testing eight machines side by side over six weeks – ripping … Read more

I spent the last three months testing eight of the most popular wood lathes you can buy in , turning everything from pens to 16 inch bowls. Our team compared each model on swing capacity, motor power, variable speed control, vibration, and noise. Below is the full breakdown of the best wood lathes for beginners, … Read more

I remember the first time I walked into my garage shop and realized I couldn’t see the table saw through the dust cloud. That was the day I started shopping for the best dust collectors for shops, and I tested eight contenders side-by-side over the past three months. Dust collection for shops isn’t just about … Read more

Last summer, I found myself on a remote trail with a slowly leaking tire and no service station for 40 miles. That’s the day I decided to find the best portable air compressor for every situation. Since then, I have tested 10 different models over 3 months. I aired up truck tires, topped off sedan … Read more

Last winter my seedlings turned into leggy pale ghosts under a cheap desk lamp, so I made it my mission to test every worthwhile option on the market. After 90 days growing herbs, leafy vegetables, and flowering crops under a dozen fixtures, I can tell you which full spectrum LED grow lights actually deliver strong, … Read more

Last spring, I mounted a smart bird feeder with camera on the oak tree behind my kitchen window, and within two weeks my family was waking up to cardinals, finches, and a stubborn downy woodpecker that treated the perch like his personal stage. We were hooked. Over the past three months, our team tested eight … Read more

I tested eight of the best automatic dog feeders over a 60-day period with my own two dogs, plus four foster dogs that rotated through our home. The short answer: the PETLIBRO Granary WiFi Feeder wins for smart features and portion accuracy, while the PetSafe 5-Meal feeder is the most reliable long-term workhorse you can … Read more

I tested ceiling bike storage hoists for 90 days across three different garages, and the difference between a great overhead bike lift and a frustrating one comes down to three things: weight capacity that actually exceeds your bike’s weight, a locking mechanism that does not release unexpectedly, and installation hardware that does not bend when … Read more

If you have ever stared at a stack of metal parts wondering how to join them without ugly spatter, the best TIG welders solve that problem cleanly. We have spent the last three months running 10 different machines through real fabrication jobs, from thin-wall stainless exhaust tubing to quarter-inch aluminum fuel tanks, to find which … Read more