14 votes
Accepted

Type of wood glue-up used in some Ikea furniture?

This is called a butcher block. It comes in two types - edge grain (like in the Norden tables), where the surface shows the edge (long) grain of the pieces of wood: And end grain, where the surface ...
Eli Iser's user avatar
  • 3,375
13 votes

Attaching Legs to a Table

Pocket hole joinery One of the simplest ideas I could think of to address this would be to flip up the boards vertically and use pocket holes and screws into the legs. Some good examples and picture ...
Matt's user avatar
  • 20.1k
11 votes
Accepted

What are strong methods to secure a stripped wood screw in hardwood?

I'm working to repair the pictured round wooden table. It has a wood screw that's completely stripped out, in addition the center post has cracked: My suggestion is to use increasingly-larger drill ...
grfrazee's user avatar
  • 12.1k
10 votes

How can I create a wood-like pattern in white-painted furniture?

What you want is called a "wood graining tool": The basic idea is to use a darker color stain on top of a lighter color. You rock the tool back and forth to create the knot look of real wood grain. ...
JPhi1618's user avatar
  • 381
9 votes
Accepted

How do you use a 2D template with a lathe?

I can think of at least two options: use the template on a duplicator use the template to set calipers .... basically what keshlam said. The first if you have a duplicator you can use the template ...
bowlturner's user avatar
  • 15.6k
8 votes
Accepted

Is there a generic reason to mark work with Roman numerals?

What do you think this is assuming it is not a personal practice? Marking mating pieces with numerals is standard practice in timber framing, at least in a historic context. These were often called "...
grfrazee's user avatar
  • 12.1k
8 votes

Options for sanding this type of bandsawn woodwork

If I were going into production, a dedicated special purpose sanding machine would seem appropriate. However, for the one-off sort of project that most of woodworking SE contributors are likely to do,...
Ast Pace's user avatar
  • 3,667
7 votes
Accepted

How do I remove a watermark?

The only entirely foolproof way I know to remove deep, long-set water marks is to sand to bare wood, restain (if your piece was stained) and refinish. However, fresh, less deep stains may be more ...
grfrazee's user avatar
  • 12.1k
7 votes
Accepted

What is a camber exactly?

From Osborne Wood Products -- It is important to note that our table slides have a camber to them to compensate for the natural sag of the table. Choosing the incorrect type of slide for your table ...
Aloysius Defenestrate's user avatar
7 votes

What techniques are there to find the optimal wood cutting list for a project?

If you're looking for quick and easy, I am currently using CutList Plus (no affiliation) and it does everything you mentioned in your question. I don't want this to sound like too much of a software ...
Steven's user avatar
  • 4,798
7 votes
Accepted

What joining methods would be best for the legs and other areas of a height adjustable desk?

In the linked design (above) for the desk they use butt joints and they use screws to construct the legs. But I was wondering if it would be better if I used wood glue. For some joints screws can be ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 63.5k
7 votes

Do pocket hole screws allow for proper expansion and contraction in planked table tops?

Do pocket hole screws allow for proper expansion and contraction in planked table tops? It completely depends on where they're sited. They're perfectly acceptable in some places and utterly wrong in ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 63.5k
7 votes
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Mortise and tenon joint proportions for 3 wooden beams corner

This doesn't make a lot of sense in my situation, because one third of 60mm is 20mm and 5 times that is 100mm, which is longer then the beam width. I think it's important to remember that these, as ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 63.5k
7 votes
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What is the functional purpose of fluted dowel?

There are two main purposes that I know of. First, the flutes allow air to escape and glue to fill the voids as you are inserting the dowels. Without them, it is possible that you would not be able ...
Steven's user avatar
  • 4,798
7 votes
Accepted

Extract snapped screw buried in wood (not just stripped head)

I believe there are six ways you can go when you break or strip a screw: screw extractors left-handed drill bits do something to the top of the broken screw that would allow you to extract it ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 63.5k
6 votes
Accepted

What material is suitable for a children's desk/furniture?

What would be a suitable material, in terms of durability and cost, for a children's desk? For a piece of furniture that's destined for the lifetime of abuses that children can inflict upon it, I ...
grfrazee's user avatar
  • 12.1k
6 votes

How do you use a 2D template with a lathe?

Template-guided turning requires a jig which holds a tracing tip to follow the template, and a cutting tip that tracks this motion to bring the workpiece into conformance with that shape. It's sorta ...
keshlam's user avatar
  • 9,171
6 votes
Accepted

Do pocket hole screws allow for proper expansion and contraction in planked table tops?

will pocket hole screws allow the table to expand and contract as it is supposed to? I'm assuming you built something that was fastened together along the lines of this (source) where you used ...
grfrazee's user avatar
  • 12.1k
6 votes

What options do I have to repair this chair?

As the picture of the underside of the chair isn't showing currently I'm not entirely sure I have the right picture in my head about what's going on underneath, so I may revise this once the link to ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 63.5k
6 votes

Mortise and tenon joint proportions for 3 wooden beams corner

I would try to keep the geometry of the tenons as simple as possible. The important thing is to maximize the contact surface between the side grain surfaces in the glued joint. Since your making a ...
Ashlar's user avatar
  • 8,129
6 votes

Options for sanding this type of bandsawn woodwork

The guy I bought my used bandsaw from, only got a new one because of one feature I found fascinating. He wanted a bandsaw he could fit a sanding-band into. I just tried looking for this on ...
Stoppal's user avatar
  • 851
6 votes
Accepted

What are these wooden posts?

These are known as Gridbeam They are made from reclaimed wood and they also make an aluminium variety. We hand manufacture wood Gridbeam™ from 100% recycled douglas fir in Northern California. ...
Zak's user avatar
  • 228
6 votes
Accepted

Are barrel nuts strong?

Yes barrel nuts are strong enough for this application. However, they're not your only option. Would they be equal to, or greater than, nails/screws in terms of strength? Like so many things it ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 63.5k
6 votes
Accepted

Furniture name for waist-high floor-sitting shelf cabinet thing

I would call that a credenza: A sideboard, buffet, or bookcase patterned after a Renaissance credence; especially: one without legs Wikipedia adds: particularly one where a central cupboard is ...
johannes's user avatar
  • 176
6 votes
Accepted

"Presanding" wood, before assembly?

Prefinishing (and thus presanding) are talked about fairly often as a suggested step to avoid having to apply finish or sand into corners and other tricky areas. General idea is to get everything ...
Dave Smylie's user avatar
  • 1,045
6 votes

Unstable wood bench

how can I stabilize this without completely ruining the aesthetic of the bench? Assuming that you don't want to fasten it to the floor or install powerful magnets or a massive flywheel, you need to ...
Caleb's user avatar
  • 9,508
5 votes

Why is this yellow colour coming through the finish

Why did the finish turn yellow in those few places? I think it has something to do with the wood itself. I actually just had a similar conversation with my dad on this topic. He's a polymer chemist ...
grfrazee's user avatar
  • 12.1k
5 votes
Accepted

Arcade Coffee Table drawer

The retracting control console may be a lot simpler than it looks. For example, you could simply route some diagonal grooves in the sides and insert (stainless steel) dowels into the side edges of the ...
rob's user avatar
  • 18.7k

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