Techniques

Getting to know the what and why of cupping lumber. In our 1960s house, many of the old-fashioned closet shelves were crafted from solid carpentry-grade softwood. It appears that the lumber for [...]

A hassle-free fast track to frameless cabinets. I’ve always liked the clean, modern look of cabinets built without face frames. My early attempts involved building plywood boxes first and [...]

Demystify cutting tenons on curved parts using these simple steps and jigs. Ever wonder how furniture builders cut joinery on curved parts? A common place to see this is on chair backrests, [...]

After completing the reconstruction of the main broken molding piece, I glued the molding back onto its panel and began restoring the adjacent corner that was also damaged and required repair. [...]

After completing step (F), I used a gouge to hollow out the cove portion of the molding. I selected a gouge with a sweep that matched the cove radius and carefully shaved the wood in the [...]

Upgrade your shop lighting to help you see what you are working on and to make your shop more inviting. Did you know that at age 60, you need approximately 3x the amount of light to see as you [...]

Learn how to choose and use these versatile shaping tools. As a Windsor chairmaker and spokeshave maker, I use a spokeshave more than any other tool. I have three: two straight shaves (large and [...]

Read part 1 After allowing the glue to set, I carefully removed the clamped molding from the guitar maker’s vise. At this point, I removed excess wood from the glued-up block using a bandsaw to [...]

A few months ago, I restored a tall case of drawers in green. While the piece was not old, antique, or of substantial emotional value, it was still quite practical as it was tall and had several [...]

Quick inspections reveal much about a piece’s age and possible origin. A while back, my wife and I were visiting friends who wanted to show us their collection of antique furniture. At one point [...]

Tighter Corner Joints Ahead Dadoes and, rabbets are two of the most widely used cabinetmaking joints. Cabinet carcasses, drawer boxes and jewelry boxes all lend themselves to this simple but [...]

Having lived in our house for over three years now, we’ve had to make some difficult decisions about our trees. Unfortunately, we had to fell a few trees upon moving in, including some sick [...]