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 ...
- 2,879
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 ...
- 64.4k
14
votes
Accepted
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.....
- 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 ...
- 20.2k
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 ...
- 8,274
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 ...
- 1,844
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 ...
- 3,895
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 64.4k
11
votes
Accepted
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.
- 8,036
11
votes
Accepted
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 |...
- 64.4k
11
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 2,119
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 ...
- 9,558
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 ...
- 20.2k
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 ...
- 64.4k
10
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 3,565
10
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 64.4k
10
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 64.4k
10
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 813
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 1,409
9
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 12.1k
9
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 64.4k
9
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 64.4k
9
votes
Accepted
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.
...
- 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.
...
- 64.4k
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 "...
- 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♦
- 18.6k
8
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 64.4k
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