Center for Furniture Craftsmanship

One of the hallmarks of quality furniture is well installed hardware. A butt hinge is a standard hinge that is seen on many kinds of doors. They come in a variety of formats and can be installed in a couple of different ways, the two most common being an overlay door and an inset door. The installation will depend on which type of butt hinge is being used; an extruded flat-backed hinge or a swaged hinge. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

A spline is a small piece of wood that spans between the miter joint helping to reinforce the miter. It is not the strongest of joints but is a quick and decorative way to strengthen a mitered joint. There are two different methods to spline a carcase miter; one where the splines are inserted in through the exterior of the miter, bridging the joint, and one where a spline is added inside through the length of the miter. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

L-tenons are a new popular joint that is incredibly strong. The L-tenons are inserted into mortises that are routed into the carcase sides with the grain allowing more length for glue bonding, unlike a lot of reinforcing joints that go into miters perpendicular to the cut face. This video walks through the straightforward and accurate process that the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship has developed over the years to make L-shaped tenon joints. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

A carcase miter is a miter that is cut on a case piece that allows the grain to wrap around the case. A domino is an inserted tenon that is cut with a domino machine made by Festool. Dominos come in a range of sizes and are an incredibly quick way to strengthen many different joints in furniture making. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

A dado stack is a blade or several blades that can be stacked together to produce a wider kerf than a normal table saw blade. They can be run as a pair or stacked with smaller blades called chippers that can be inserted between the two outside plates to create dadoes or grooves of very specific sizes. This video shows specifically how to change the blades with a Sawstop table saw but is applicable to most dadoes in table saws. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

A lamination is when wood is sliced thin enough that it can be bent over a form and glued back together. A parallel lamination is when it is a constant thickness all the way through the part that is being bent. This video covers how to calculate layers and thickness of laminating pieces as well as glue options and clamping methods. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

Solid forms for steam bending or laminating on come in all different shapes and sizes and may be made for a variety of processes, such as bent lamination and steam bending. Forms come in two formats: a single bending form and two-part bending form. They can be made out of chip board, MDF, plywood or solid wood depending on the needed tenacity and materials on hand. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

A rub collar mortising template is used primarily for cutting mortises into odd, shaped components such as curved parts. You can use them to cut standard mortises as well but, sometimes other machines are better suited for that. How it works is simple. There is a template that’s made with a window that allows a rub collar to ride in the template. The rub collar attaches to the base of a router and allows a router cutter to come up through the top and cut a mortise into something. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

If you want to make components that are the same size and shape repeatedly, pattern routing is an excellent skill to have in your arsenal. With pattern routing you create a template out of plywood that is used to cut identical components. Pattern routing skills can improve your woodworking creatively as well as technically. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

A knife hinge is a contemporary hinge that comes in two formats; an L-shaped hinge and a straight hinge, which have different purposes and results. An L-shaped hinge allows a door to be inset and swing out and around a carcase side or leg. A straight hinge is for an overlay door where the door is covering the carcase frame, the hinge sits on the side and allows the door to swing out and away, which is used when there will be a drawer to pull beyond the door. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.

A rub collar or template guide is a bushing that attaches to the base plate of a router to ride against a template to cut out patterns. There are kits of guide bushings with standard sizes, but sometimes there is a need for an odd sized template guide to route a gap that is not a standard size. This video instructs you on how to make your own rub collar template guide using basic tools. This video was produced for its free video library by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. The Center is a nonprofit, international woodworking school dedicated to providing the best possible education in wood craftsmanship and design.