Tag Archives: woodwork

Joint This! How to Joint a Board With a Router

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Sometimes you have a great piece of wood that has a natural edge, a bit of crook, or you want to put a taper on a board.  There are a

couple of ways to get a clean, straight edge on a board. The quickest is, of course, on a jointer.  You can also use a router table.  But you can also do it with a hand router and a straight edge guide, just like cutting with a circular saw.  In fact there are times when the combination of circular saw and router is the quickest and most flexible solution.  So, here it is, how to joint a board with a router. Continue reading Joint This! How to Joint a Board With a Router

Get a Grit on Sand Paper

sandpaper (1 of 1)-2In a recent post, I discussed the various tools for sanding projects (Tools for Sanding Success) , and just as there are a lot of ways to sand, there are a lot of options in sand paper.

Rather than going into a long technical explanation about sand papers, let’s explore the basics and make recommendations specifically for woodworkers. Continue reading Get a Grit on Sand Paper

How to Build a Table From Reclaimed Column for Less Than $35

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From the moment we moved into the new house, the wife has been looking for a side table for the living room.

She looked everywhere, and we tried several tables of various shapes and sizes to no avail.

Finally, while at a furniture store, she found a table made from what looks like an old baluster, that she thought was a great inspiration piece.

Continue reading How to Build a Table From Reclaimed Column for Less Than $35

Hall Tree – How to build one from scratch

Recently a friend asked me to design and build a hall tree for her entryway. Her husband farms, and she was tired of his muddy boots on her floors! She sent me some pins (Pinterest) of what she was thinking. I designed the piece two different ways for her using Google Sketchup. One as a corner unit, the other as a single bench.
Continue reading Hall Tree – How to build one from scratch

Getting started with a small shop (or no shop)

Sometimes, when we watch those DIY or woodworking shows, it looks like you need a huge shop and a lot of expensive tools to do anything. Well… it’s not true. I started with a few hand tools in the driveway, and stepped up to a skill saw and a sander, and a small shop, when I got married. With this massive set of tools (ha ha) I built our first dining table (with benches), a bookcase, end tables, an entertainment center and a chair. Now, this wasn’t the most beautiful stuff, it was a knock of of Cargo Furniture’s style (it was supposed to look like it was made from crates). These pieces of furniture lasted my growing family almost 15 years, before we sold them to someone else in need of some solid basic furniture.
Continue reading Getting started with a small shop (or no shop)