Turn off the flash to eliminate the harsh shadows around the object's edges. This means the shutter will stay open longer and increase the chance for blurring, so use a tripod and put the camera on a timer release to avoid your hand shaking the tripod (unless you have a heavy, professional tripod).
Use two lights at 90 degrees to each other with the camera in the middle. (45 degrees from each light.) This will reduce harsh shadows, but more importantly eliminate glare and reflections.
I like daylight spectrum fluorescent bulbs since they work well with natural light. Make sure you get a bulb with at least a 95 Color Rendering Index (CRI) which is basically a percentage of color accuracy compared to natural daylight. (Normal fluorescents are typically 72-85.) Most photographers would say fluorescents are too cool (especially for wood) but they give a natural, crisp look to the photographs. Turn off all other lighting, even one incandescent bulb in the distance can alter the look and ruin the control you want to be able to predict what you get each time you do it. Shutter natural lighting, too.
Then experiment with supplemental lighting color, quantity, and location. Repositioning accent and highlight lighting can make a big difference. Adding an incandescent bulb can warm up the whole thing.
Record your camera's settings like aperature, shutter speed and white balance. Turn off automatic color control features and anything else that the camera's software uses to "help" you. Record everything so you can reproduce and experiment.
Take a look at professional camera lighting. It gives you much more power even though it might cost more than a woodshop.
Experiment with background materials and color. A perfectly white sheet is good, but textures can be interesting. Professional backgrounds are not that expensive. Note that when you switch to anything darker, all your camera settings will change. Record all the new settings for consistency and reproducability.
Get bigger tents for larger objects. Realize that you need more lighting. Figure out that all your camera settings changed again.
Buy a better camera. Re-setup all your settings again. Record everything before deciding to upgrade your camera and lighting again. Setup again and record everything again.
Offer to photograph other woodworker's projects. Realize that you don't have the room or the money. Decide to build a dedicated studio and charge money. Get into portraits because you can charge an arm and a leg for weddings, after all, woodworkers are cheapskates. Buy another better camera right before Canon releases an even better one. Record all settings dozens of times, get half your gear stolen, get into a licensing dispute with several websites, and go broke. Go back to woodworking and try to find someone with a good camera setup that can shoot your work for you for a few beers, after all, you're a woodworker.
I think that about sums it up.
