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23 votes

Completely split butcher block

It appears that the split is not complete, that is, the wood is still secured at one end. This bodes well for a repair. To keep this aspect of the repair excludes any pins or dowels. The trickiest ...
fred_dot_u's user avatar
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20 votes
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Substitute for Pocket Hole Jig?

I'm glad someone finally asked a Question about alternatives to these jigs. In the US at least, and probably in other parts of the world by now, pocket holes have become synonymous with Kreg. While ...
Graphus's user avatar
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14 votes
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How to make a good joint by hand planing both edges at the same time?

I've been curious about this as well. Illustrated using my mastery of MS Paint, it appears you clamp the boards together, plane to your heart's content, then un-clamp and just flatten the boards out.....
popdan's user avatar
  • 896
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
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13 votes

How do experts make dovetails by hand that fit so well?

When I first started woodworking I went out and got a router jig too. It seemed a lot easier than hand tools (of which I lacked good quality ones). Like you I was never really satisfied with machined ...
Ashlar's user avatar
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12 votes
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Creating a speaker stand using only joins

If you want to make joins using only wooden parts, and no metal hardware, and no glue, there are many types of joint you could use. On larger pieces of furniture, such as tables, woodworkers ...
RedGrittyBrick's user avatar
12 votes
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How do experts make dovetails by hand that fit so well?

I'd say that 1/16'' tolerance, or 1.5mm respectively, is actually pretty bad. You should rather aim for 0.1mm tolerance, not 1.5mm. The final piece should have no visible gaps. How to do that? First ...
Damon's user avatar
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12 votes
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Make a table top using pocket holes?

For strength, a good glue bond is all you need. If you want to minimize clamping, you could use pocket screws, but I would recommend against it. When you tighten a pocket screw, it tends to pull the ...
LeeG's user avatar
  • 8,036
12 votes

Can I hammer 25.4mm x 300mm oak dowels into a 25mm hole?

On a small scale wood is highly compressible, so the basic answer here is yes. As a joke goes, you might just need a bigger hammer ^_^ Is that normal? Yes it's quite normal for shop-bought dowel to ...
Graphus's user avatar
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11 votes
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Does this butt joint with a beveled profile have a name?

It is a coped joint. You make it by cutting the adjoining piece at a 45 degree angle, then using the cut line as guide to remove the area below the line. Here is an image of how to do it.
LeeG's user avatar
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11 votes
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What are the different grain directions, and how do they affect joint strength?

Update, September 2021 We might need to re-learn what we thought we knew about the strength of glue joints..... see Glue Myths: 1. End grain from Patrick Sullivan on YouTube. Spoiler alert: end grain |...
Graphus's user avatar
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11 votes
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What type of table saw blade is best for jointing?

Jointing on table saw is rip cutting, so often I have read advice to use good rip blade. Many recommendations today to use high quality glue-line blades so jointing step can be skipped. But this is ...
Volfram K's user avatar
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11 votes
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Why are table legs attached to the edge of tabletop so rare?

Why are table legs attached from the bottom in almost all cases? Are there some considerations when attaching legs from the edge? Attaching legs to the edges of a table top would provide very little ...
Caleb's user avatar
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10 votes

When it comes to dovetails what is the significance of 1:6,1:7,1:8

What is the significance of the numbers? They represent ratios that determine a dovetails angle. So in the case of 1:6 - for every unit you move up you also move 6 units over. These ratios are not ...
Matt's user avatar
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10 votes
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How can I flute my own dowel or create dowel with similar properties

That style of dowel would be difficult to emulate. Not so much actually! You can do a decent job of simulating this texture by simply gripping the dowel in pliers, vice-grips etc. and drawing it ...
Graphus's user avatar
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10 votes
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Panel Glue up Question

In general, panel glue-up requires accurate square faces on the boards being glued. However, not all is lost. One possibility is that your combination square is not perfectly square. To try and ...
Eli Iser's user avatar
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10 votes
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Gluing joints with no clamps

If you're using most modern glues you do need clamps*, or some substitute, here. Hide glue is the one exception since it can be used to create rubbed joints. Although some people use PVA-type glues in ...
Graphus's user avatar
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10 votes
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How do I achieve flush joinery when the pieces need to be stained differently?

Stain the pieces separately before they're glued up, hoping that I don't have to sand through the whole stain to get the joints flush. Even the deepest penetrating commercial stains, applied in the ...
Graphus's user avatar
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10 votes
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How do biscuits work?

Your question starts off with a wrong premise. The alignment of the biscuit joiner in the slots made at 2:04 is quite precise. At 1:20 to 1:28 he makes 3 pencil marks across the join line of the two ...
WhatRoughBeast's user avatar
10 votes

Why are table legs attached to the edge of tabletop so rare?

In addition to Caleb's excellent points, an additional drawback to edge joined legs is that all of the weight on the table is borne by the fasteners and a thin strip of wood (left in the top above the ...
FreeMan's user avatar
  • 6,296
9 votes

How to make a good joint by hand planing both edges at the same time?

I'm going to take a stab here and guess that the intention is that if you take two boards clamped together you could plane two edges at the same time (assuming your plane blade is wide enough). Those ...
Doov's user avatar
  • 1,409
9 votes
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Finger Joints on a 2x10

A jigsaw and chisels are quite adequate for making finger joints in thick stock like that. Some tips: Carefully mark both sides of the joint, making sure to mark the waste clearly. When cutting the ...
Eli Iser's user avatar
  • 3,565
9 votes

8 to 12 mm plywood box joints: brackets vs glue(box joint) vs screws

The box size would be height=400mm, length=800mm, width=400mm, made of 10mm plywood. Say the max load on boxes when used as benches = turned open side down is 200kg and the load when used as a box is ...
grfrazee's user avatar
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9 votes
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Mortise and Tenon for shed wall framing

TL;DR warning. While using 'proper' joints is the way that some shed walls were constructed in the recent past* I think I should say something about why this isn't done as much today — because other ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 64.4k
9 votes
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Quick corner joints in practice

It's actually very difficult to keep the joint flush and straight while at the same time somehow positioning the block in the corner, putting two clamps on, and not getting glue everywhere. It's ...
Graphus's user avatar
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9 votes
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Not-so-obvious disadvantages of butt joints

In practice, though, I found they are very difficult to align precisely and even a very shallow dado / groove or biscuits (though that's another tool) would have helped with alignment immensely. ...
Graphus's user avatar
  • 64.4k
8 votes

How do experts make dovetails by hand that fit so well?

There are numerous good tips and suggested ways of approaching this already in the replies so I wasn't going to add another Answer but I found that what I wanted to add was too long for a Comment. ...
Graphus's user avatar
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8 votes
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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

Connecting the MDF corners, so there's no gap

The other answers are great from a technical standpoint, but they overlook the much simpler solutions which are actually used on mass-produced arcade cabinets. If you look at commercially-produced ...
rob's user avatar
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8 votes
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How should I have avoided breakout/spelching here?

Don't beat yourself up too badly over this. You've just learned empirically (as many of us have!) the one key lesson of flushing projecting tenons or dowels — don't work them1 until they're almost ...
Graphus's user avatar
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