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How To Distress Wood With Paint
Do you want to give a painted piece of furniture a well worn and aged look? Here is an easy technique for distressing a painted piece of furniture, door or just about anything. Are you interested in a distressed stained finish? Check out the two part series on Distressed wood finishing: How to make new [...]
How To Mount a Mantel To A Wall? Part 1
“Do you have any suggestions for mounting a 3″x6″x6′ mantle to a wall? Thanks, Judy”
I have a couple of different solutions and tips depending on the type of material the wall is constructed from. Let’s talk about the different materials walls are constructed from and what fasteners work best.
Sheet Rock / Wall Board / [...]
How to keep the clamp on the corner without damaging the corner?
You need to clamp diagonally across a case. The problem is the clamp has a flat face and needs to be steady on the point of the corner and not damage the corner when clamping pressure is applied.
How to square up a cabinet before gluing or nailing it together?
After having cut all of the pieces of a cabinet it is time to dry fit them together and check how well everything fits together. Now it is time to determine if the cabinet is square.
Note: This technique applies to any box you are building from a cabinet to bed frame.
How to plane a straight face on a warped or twisted board?
In a previous post I pointed out a technique for cutting a flat surface on a twisted or warped board by using a joiner. Well, what if you don’t have joiner? What if the board is twelve inches wide and you have a six inch wide joiner? A fellow wood worker came up with an [...]
Woodworking Terminology
For the beginner woodworker the terminology of the woodworking can be rather confusing. There is a plethora of acronyms and terms that only make sense within the woodworking world. Without understanding the initial jargon of woodworkers it is hard to understand and communicate without feeling out of place.
What are the common woodworking joints?
There are a wide variety of techniques in joining boards together from simple butt joints to through mortis and tenon joinery. Each joinery technique has a set of applications where it works very well at. Learning how to make these joints will greatly increase your woodworking skills and expand the types of projects that you [...]
Woodshop Safety
Woodshop safety is not a very popular topic. Most woodworkers want to know the latest tool, free plans, or learn more advanced techniques. All of which are important; however, without paying attention to shop safety, the likelihood of having a major accident increases greatly.
10 Ways to Save Money When Purchasing Lumber (part 2)
This is the second installment of tips to save money when buying your lumber.
6. Use proper board storage.
When lumber is stored properly it reduces the risk of warping and splitting. This will let you hold on to the discount lumber purchases for a long time. The proper way to store lumber is on [...]
10 Ways to Save Money When Purchasing Lumber (part 1)
Who doesn’t want to save some money when purchasing wood? Here are ten tips to help reduce the cost of purchasing lumber without reducing the quality of your wood working project.
1. Build less visible parts from lower cost woods.
Hidden parts of the project do not need to be built out of the same wood [...]
What is a board foot?
The basic definition of a board foot is a measurement of the volume of wood, sort of. In its simplest form one board foot equals 144 cubic inches. Or a board that is twelve inches wide by twelve inches long and one inch thick. That is the simple definition.
How do I prevent marks on wood when cutting on a table saw?
Do you have problems with your table saw rusting? Or are you getting black marks on the wood stock when cutting it on the table saw? Here is a simple solution to stop a cast iron table saw top from rusting and stop an aluminum top from marking the wood when being pushed [...]
Tip to edge joining narrow width boards
Does your table saw blade leave ‘chatter’ or vibration marks on the stock you are cutting? Most of the economical table saw blades vibrate while they are spinning. When ripping stock, this vibration leaves a slightly uneven cut.
An edge joiner is the way to square up and clean up the edges of the wood. However, [...]