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Page 14 - Cutting and Shaping Wood
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March 11, 2019What's the best joinery method for drawers? The answer: there are several reliable options. The best one for you will depend on the tools and skill at your disposal, and on the importance you place on durability, aesthetics and last but not least, getting done fast. In this article, we'll outline a few of the most common drawer making methods, and suggest a few tools that will make the process easier and more accurate.Read more -
March 06, 2019Nature hates straight lines, and as woodworkers we spend a huge amount of time and effort in making things straight. But curves can and should be a large part of your woodworking. There are several methods for forming wood into curves, and the next few blog posts will explore these techniques. We will be looking at simple force bending, kerf bending, lamination and steam bending.Read more
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March 06, 2019We started this wood bending series exploring simple and kerf bending. In this edition, we look at forming wood parts using thin laminates. As we all know, the thinner the part, the easier it will conform to a curve. Lamination is the process of bending many thin parts together and holding them in the desired shape until the glue between them dries. Once dry, the resulting part will pretty much hold its shape forever.Read more
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March 06, 2019So far in this series we have looked at simple wood bending in thin stock or with kerf cuts, and forming bent wood parts through laminating thin strips together on a form. In this final installment, we will discuss steam bending wood. Steaming actually changes the cellular structure of wood to make it more pliable. As the wood cools and dries clamped to a form, it very quickly regains most of its original stiffness, but in the shape of the form.Read more
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Categories: Woodworking Joinery , Cutting and Shaping Wood , Assembling Your Project , Skill Builder VideosFebruary 27, 2019The butt joint (taking narrower pieces and gluing them up into a wider panel) is a fundamental woodworking joint when building with solid wood. In this video, you'll learn the basic process for gluing boards together to make a larger wood panel.Read more
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Categories: Cutting and Shaping WoodFebruary 20, 2019If you've recently purchased a router table, a table saw or any other stationary power tool, you may have noticed that your new prized possession didn't arrive with every related (and often, very desirable) piece of equipment imaginable already in the box. Don't feel cheated. By convention, power tools come with the equipment necessary to perform their basic functions safely, under typical operating conditions - and that's about it.Read more
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February 20, 2019Have you ever used a 3/4" router bit to cut a dado for a plywood shelf, only to discover that "three-quarter inch" plywood isn't all that it claims to be? It can be a shock the first time; you're left a plywood-to-dado fit that has more than just a little "slop". In fact, the typical sheet of 3/4" plywood actually measures close to a hefty 1/32" less than its nominal thickness would lead you to believe.Read more -
February 20, 2019The layout of dovetails involves cutting the tails (the pink wood on the left) and pins (the beige wood on the right), both cut to match the other. I like hand-cutting dovetails, and I’ve literally cut thousands of them. As a result, I try to execute them in a manner that hearkens back to the day when dovetails were all done by hand, and guys got paid to get them done fast and right.Read more
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February 18, 2019As durable as most table saws are, they do require attention from time to time. If you're table saw is is leaving rough saw marks, burning wood or bogging down when you rip average stock thicknesses, chances are something's amiss, and it's time to diagnose the problem.Read more
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February 18, 2019Not all woodworking machinery angle scales are created alike. In fact, there are two different conventions for the calibration of angle scales in common use on woodworking machinery. One type of scale is calibrated to treat a square cut as a 90 degree cut, while the other scale treats a square cut as a 0 degree cut. Along with that, the terms used in woodworking to describe angled cuts don't make the origin of the angle measurement perfectly clear.Read more
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February 14, 2019Fretwork and intricate cutting don't have to be expensive, there are some very affordable scroll saws on the market. The late Rodney Dangerfield probably would have felt a solidarity with scroll saws because, among all other woodworking machines, these seem to get the least respect — or more fairly, the least amount of press. When we need to cut curves, we tend to head to the band saw, and that’s a logical choice.Read more