Wood

Putting together your own cribbage board project is a good use of a lot of different workshop talents, and the end result can be almost as fun as making it. During those long, cold winters I spent growing up along the shores of Lake Vermilion in the far north of Minnesota, one of the ways that we wiled away the long dark evenings was playing cribbage.

When building casework, cabinetry, drawers, shelving or other box joinery there are four basic rabbet joints you should learn. This post walks you through each of the four joints and shows you how easy they are to cut using your table saw.

Even well finished projects will eventually change color and begin to show damage. In most cases, when it comes to outdoor woodworking projects, the part that comes in contact with the ground is end grain. While water sheds off the rest of the piece, those end grain surfaces often sit in it, acting like a wick. Porous wood, especially close to the ground, absorbs a great deal of water, which will eventually damage and rot even the best treated wood.

The materials used for flag storage can either assist or deter from proper preservation and unfortunately you won't notice the damaging affects until it's too late. Our woodworking experts weigh in on how to properly store a flag in a wooden case.

Assembling the layers of the shop made

Wooodworkers I talk to who haven't tried working with veneers tend to think that it's just too difficult. This couldn't be further from the truth. Veneering is an easy woodworking technique that is both fun and creative. In the last issue I covered the simple task of veneering a drawer face.

Most woodworkers who start experimenting with veneer quickly face a dilemma. They need to cover a surface wider than the capacities of their clamps but they don't want to purchase a costly veneer press. Don't fret; try caul veneering. It's cheap, easy, effective, and adaptable to most of the situations you'll come across.

While other methods work well, the author suggests using masking tape to "clamp" the edging during glue up, spacing the tape pieces around 2" apart. I asked some of my woodworker friends how they went about gluing solid wood edging to plywood, and I was surprised to learn that every one of them used a different technique, and very few were completely happy with their results.