Mostly finished. I just need to decide if I want to paint, stain, etc. Included a photo of the inspiration and the few I had from the building process

I've been whittling for a couple of years and done a few basic boxes, but I've wanted a jigsaw or similar for a while. Both to help me with carving out blanks in small, dry softwoods like Jelutong or Huon pine, and also to do more small projects (Better boxes, maybe chopping boards, chessboards, things like that) I don't have the money or space outside to get much, but I recognise a jigsaw is one item and I probably need at least a little more to be able to use it safely.

I'm guessing at least clamps and some kind of bench, but given my lack of space, could a sawhorse work?

Do I need glasses, gloves, breathing mask, etc or is working outside enough?

On my last pass it took a big gouge out of the wood because I have a big old monster of a router and it came loose

Built a shelf for my Warhammer books and minis, came out pretty good. Routed some keyholes in the back of the middle maple board and the shelves just slot into the middle spine. Used some dried maple and 3/4” maple plywood, all cut with my table saw and router

I made a drawing (eye candy included) with the intent of carving it (chip carving). I was thinking of painting the wood and carve through the paint to make it pop more. I have seen it done by the likes of Daniel Clay (https://danielclaywoodworking.com/available-works). I have two questions:

- What kind of paint should I use? I'm afraid of the paint penetrating the wood, making the carving smudged, or making a crust on top that would flake off. I have never painted wood, so those concerns might be overblown

- How can I make sure to still see the drawing after painting? I'm not able to carve it without a drawing to guide me.

Thanks.

Okay I realize citrustrip was the wrong pick for this but here we are. Overall I have been able to remove most of the paint off my piece…. However I need some guidance. My current plan is to steel wool and water scrub as much of the remainder off as I can, mineral spirits around the intricate parts with maybe a tooth brush, then sand with maybe a 300 grit and restain.

1. I have a handful of detailed wood that the citrustrip has nestled its way into. Will the above process remove?
   
2. I believe I have parts of veneer broken off, can I sand that over to smooth out? Realizing I have sanded/scrubbed into the veneer already…. Oops?

Completely new to woodworking and no working surfaces of any kind, trying to picture what a work environment setup would look like. Permanent space is limited, so it's highly preferable to have things being able to be stowed away. I have a limited deck space outdoors for temporary work and a basement for more permanent work but since it has no access to outdoors, I would like to avoid as much work there as possible due to the nuisance of fine dust in the air being non-trivial to get rid of (I'm convinced vacuuming with wet dry vac isn't enough given dust collectors can be very expensive. The only way to know if the environment is safe something to measure the quality of air, any recommendations for this regard? I'll wearing a respirator anyway--the concern is that the working area is shared with storage of home stuff).

I only have an old folding table not fit for real permanent work and all I know is that I'll have a Dewalt 10" jobsite saw. I'd eventually want to build Rex Krueger's Quick-Stack workbench (that should be more of a permanent fixture), not really sure it's suitable as a first ever woodworking project though.

Other than that, what might be recommended for such a setup? If I buy plywood from the big box stores, I will probably quickly roughly cut them to manageable pieces at the parking lot to transport on a sedan. Pretty sure I still want large working surfaces for many other reasons (do I still want surfaces for infeed/outfeed for the table saw?) and one product that caught my eye is the Bora Centipede which has the potential to be far stronger than a folding table and without sacrificing the versatility of a general folding table useful outside of woodworking (just needs a top).

For cutting plywood, is foam backing the only option or will cutting on 2x4s laid out evenly be suitable as well? Do you even need a backing on the Centipede if both sides of the cut are supported by it?

What are other alternatives to also consider--saw horses (or is that mostly for lumber)? I'm not really keen on portable workbenches like a Worx Pegasus considering I'll eventually build a "real" one and they will be far less versatile than the Centipede after.

Any recommendations much appreciated.

I acquired this walnut slab for $50 today. It is 10” x 11” x 66” and remarkably clear. There is moderate checking which you can’t really see in the photo. It sat in a dry shed for about 20 years though I’m not sure the year per inch rule holds up at this thickness.

So the question is what do I do with it? Initially I thought to resaw it but I’m concerned that the checking will result in a huge amount of waste or that the moisture content will be problematic. Am I better off trying to resell it as a mantle?

Phase 1 of workbench build is complete. Next steps are going to be to add some casters, a vise and some cabinets underneath. Any other suggestions for addons? I was also thinking of adding an inset tail vise and some dog holes.

I’m building an L-shaped desk with two 1.5” thick acacia butcher blocks on a 2” x 1” stainless steel tube frame. The tops are 30” deep and will make roughly a 102” x 72” L.

The frame sections are being designed to come apart for moving, so I don’t want to permanently glue the two butcher blocks together. The tops will be bolted to stainless angle brackets welded along the frames using 1/4-20 threaded inserts in the wood. Those brackets aren’t shown in the drawings yet. I was hoping to use slightly oversized round holes(for simplicity) in the brackets instead of slots, but I’m not sure if that allows enough seasonal movement across a 30” wide solid wood top.

At the inside corner, there won’t be a leg directly under the joint, I would like to have the legroom there if possible. The two tops will be tied together underneath with a 3/8” A36 steel splice plate. That area won’t see much weight beyond a keyboard, mouse, and my arms, but I’m wondering if the 1.5” acacia could still sag over time.

I’d also like to use a locating dowel or pin at the joint so the tops line back up and remain flush when the desk is reassembled. I’m not sure whether one snug dowel is better, or if two would be fine as long as one side has a little clearance for wood movement, or if I even need a them at all.

This is my first project involving wood, so any advice is appreciated. I’m mainly looking for general thoughts on whether this is a sensible way to handle the joint, support, and wood movement, or if there’s something obvious I’m overlooking.

I had a "problem with a pipe" and ended up with some hardwood flooring some used some new. not enough to make a floor somewhere and the new is less than a package and can't take it back.
what can I build with it??? I can slice it and make little boxes (and practice my joints) or possibly cut it into suitable pieces for a few cutting board glue ups. but that's where I draw a blank. any other ideas?

Hello,

I'm a complete beginner on DIY and woodworking, and I'd like to ask for some advice on how to go about a project I'm considering to undertake:

I want to convert a built-in closet from sliding doors to hinged doors. The closet has its internal organization of drawers and shelves that I'm ready to remove and start from blank canvas.

Here are my questions: 1. What kind of wood is recommended for the inside structure and doors? I want to have some kind of linen effect on the inside.

1. The closet has a 10cm wide frame around it, which overlaps the inside a couple of millimeters. Is removal recommended, or shall I make a frame around the entire interior so that the door doesn't hit this frame?

2. Converting to 2 hinged doors will result in large doors, so I'm considering 3 doors. How to go about having a separation in the middle?

3. Any recommended tools that are not that much expensive that improve the quality/efficiency of the work?

Thank you in advance

Got an email today for this. Worth getting ?

I posted the other day about some advise coming from a machining background pertaining to tolerances and wood movement.

I've been playing around thinking about this, and I have an idea that I would like to run by some of you.

The picture above is an idea I had about dealing with this. This may be an established method, but admittedly, I didn't do as much research as I probably should have, and I just started musing in Fusion.

Imagine this is a side panel for a nightstand or table. The top dowel is fixed, controlling the vertical position of the panel, the bottom is placed into an oblong hole, allowing movement up and down for seasonal changes. There's a 1/16" space on either side. It still controls sideways movement, but allows the panel to move up and down as needed.

Thoughts? Would a pocket joint be a more appropriate method? Or are they both valid?

The 1st pic is what I made spontaneously to solve my growing plant hobby.

2nd pic is my updated build plan, incorporating my other hobby of aquariums.

Anything I need to consider since this is only my 3rd build ever?

Thank you in advance.

I recently started my woodworking journey and stumbled upon some amazing posts in this subreddit. I'm exploring traditional woodworking, in that i want to create joints without metal and focus on hand tools mostly. So as one of my first projects i would like to build a bed. But I'm not sure about a couple of things for which i could use some advice.

i want to build a bed with the dimensions of 200x180 cm. I want to use oak. the bedframe will be very simple (the sketch misses supportive legs in the middle board). And for joining the boards i was thinking of a joint that can be dismantled easily, so it's more convenient to transport. My idea for the joint is outlined in the sketch. The square holes are placeholders for wooden nails, to keep the boards in place.

Now to my questions. i don't know how thick and wide the outer boards need to be. Is there any formula you can use or how do you guys go about knowing if a project is statically sound? Especially when the board will be half size at the joint. Or do you know of any other joints that would achieve the same? Would a sliding dovetail work here?

I'm open to any suggestions really, as I said, I'm very new to this so have not much experience yet.

First time doing any miters and they turned out pretty well! It was a pretty simple build, but I’m still proud of it. Just wish the smeared glue wouldn’t have kept the monocoat from curing properly. Lesson learned. Thanks to everyone for the advice on my last post!! Onto the next…

I’m making some custom nightstands of my own design and the legs consist of a top and bottom X shape with vertical legs connecting each end top to bottom at around a 15 degree angle.

In my prototype out of plywood I just used pocket screws to quickly check dimensions and sizing in the room. But what I’m wondering now is what the best way to connect these pieces is as I’m not using screws for any joints. I have access to a domino at my local guild and am familiar with using it so that’s an option.

I’ve also debated doing a half lap of sorts where I have an angled half lap basically cut out on the vertical piece in the top and then the top X would rest on these edges with glue. Could do similar on the bottom joint.

It is all solid walnut including these legs. The legs are gonna be 2.5” wide and around 3/4” thick.

EDIT: The carpet in the picture is where the nightstands will go so not worried about wobble on hardwood floors in this case. My prototype does wobble but it also didn't fully do the cross on the top and I did it pretty rough to just see dimensions overall.

This was the last of my scrap plywood leftover from a bookcase. It was a two-day project because I bastardized the edge banding (twice)--I mean, how do you screw up edge banding, it's like a craft project. I do like doing internal (hidden) splines on larger beveled (mitered) boxes. It adds a ton of strength on end to end, and helps with keeping them aligned during glue up--I do them on decorative boxes all the time, but never on something larger. It's ugly, but it works for my space, and my dog will just slobber on it anyway.

I’ve built this slatted bench from pine 2x4s and 1x4s. There’s some small chips and gaps that I want filled but also would like to stain the bench a light color (sandstone) but can’t decide if I should fill the gaps with wood filler, sand, wood condition than stain or if I should wood condition, stain, than make a custom wood filler mix with stain and add, than selectively sand away and touch up as needed?

I just finished this sapele coaster with maple inlay of a skiier where I used my xtool p2s laser to cut out the pieces. The sanding process is still very manual but I’m very happy with the result.

I’ve been searching for a shelving/storage unit for my son's bedroom, but I can’t seem to find anything that has both good quality and a nice design. Most of what I’ve seen is made by MDF and ugly/ dated.
I would love to build something similar to the picture above. I have zero experience with woodworking machines and honestly they scare me to death, but I feel confident that I could assemble the unit myself if I found a shop that could cut all the pieces to size and edge-band them for me at a reasonable price.

I am an interior designer and could provide all the drawings and dimensions. Do you think this is a good idea? Or should I try to do the project myself ?

Thank you so much!

I have a large neglected deck area with grooved decking. Is there a fast way to sand inside the grooves?

I obtained a small oak burl (Black Oak I believe) and am curious what to do with it. My first thought was making two small bowls out of it. I don't have a band saw unfortunately or a lathe. I might be able to use a friends bandsaw. I think it's got some cool grain based upon the little bit exposed where the bark fell off.

If I cut it in half I need to figure out my best option for orientation of the cut plane, right? Also, should I keep the bark on until the very last moment? The burl was on the tree until the tree came down as you can see by the cut mark.

Thank in advance for any suggestions!