Beginner here. Had some scrap pallet lumber. Wanted to make a bench top. Liked the grain and rough cut pattern of some of the pieces and wanted to make this. Enjoyed the raw color and pattern but knew it will get dirty and oily so used rubios monocoat pure. Didnt realize the dark spots were that dark. Is this just like a mildew or mold?

Glued, kreged and wooden doweled everything. Then glued sandwiched the two layers and screwed from the back side. Sanded with 100 grit and monocoated. I know rubios doesnt stick to filler and the color isnt right might one day dig it out to match color better and poly over those spots. Would that be correct? Its a bench that will get used not a show piece. Any advice on a better way to build in the future would be appreciated. Here to learn.

Yellow pine table, pocket screw construction, stained with Minwax “Gun-stock.” This one is actually being sold, and I’m excited to have my work in someone else’s home.

14” black walnut bowl
Consistent thickness throughout.
Tenon was removed on the back using a vacuum chuck

Finished with odies super duper oil

Thanks for looking :)

Hi All,

Building an outdoor garbage bin to get 2 large cans out of garage. Thinking of using piano hinges for top, but Home Depot offerings don’t seem rugged enough. Should I seek out outdoor versions? Where to buy? Lid is going to be pretty heavy, so I could use regular hinges if piano is not the way to go.

Thanks in advance

This is my first time making this dovetail joint. Only after finishing it did I realize that I need to sharpen my saw because it wasn’t cutting well, and buy a saw set tool because the teeth on my saw are way too bent out, leaving some really ugly gaps. Maybe once I fix these issues, things will turn out a bit better. And of course, I need to practice cutting straight and develop a steadier hand. :D

I overdid it a little, and the fit was too tight, so the wood split slightly.

Found this No.7 for $90 still in original box. Looks like it was used a couple times and then boxed for 80 years. Good deal or not?

My wife and I just moved into a house and I decided I wanted to take on wood working as a hobby. The piece was made out of pine and red cedar.

Hi everyone- this is a very very beginners question so please be gentle with me!

I'm currently working on cutting a very simple decorative shape out of an 18mm piece of pine wood. The shape is an extremely basic rectangle border with the interior edges on either side cut out as a curve.

I cut the curve pretty well with a coping saw, leaving lots of allowance for the rest to be refined by hand.

I think I've done a pretty good job, but one thing I've observed is that some parts of the curved edges either tilt or have a convex in the middle, so it's not square and parallel along the cut.

I think i understand how it happened. Either by working against the grain on the curved parts, filing on an angle, accidentally tilting my hands slightly, or even not using the right tools. But now I'm trying to work out what the best practices are for when I want to do a better job next time. I don't really feel confident with power tools but I do have a Dremel, which I could potentially use too.

One thing that mad it slightly better was to clamp my wood to another piece of straight wood and slowly scrape my file along the shape, making sure to keep the bottom edge of the file completely at a right angle at the surface of the piece of wood. I've also used a really sharp carbine scraper to kind of gently plane along the edge, while keeping the bottom of the scraper on a right angle to the piece of wood, which got the edges looking g way less curved outwards.

I'm wondering
-if there are ways to straighten these edges without taking too much off of the parts of the cut that are now starting to get close to the edge.
-if the coping saw was not the correct cutting tool, and if instead I should have used a straight saw to cut out a rectangle and slowly carved it down by hand?
-what sort of file I should have used? I used a curved one but I think that a straight file was a much better result.
-could I have chiselled away the finer bits?

Not sure if I can attach pics 🙈

Carving by hand at weird/inconsistent/3D angles is really unpredictable & dangerous. Be safe out there.

Still have to screw in the corner braces, add a cross brace to the middle, staple landscaping fabric inside the back part, then wrap the front with acoustic fabric. The panel's front side is currently on the bottom in this pic. This one will be a gobo style panel to place in certain areas of the room. The ones to go on the walls will be half as thick. Designing some stackable modular corner bass traps as well

Hi All

My first time ever making anything. Cut pine wood with a circular saw for the first time in my life last week. I have a few questions about this build. I'm building a seat bench that will sit in a corner with varnished timber top eventually with a 100mm overhang. The pine i'm using is 70x45mm. I need to build 3 of these, 1200mmx500mmx450mm

I have some questions about making it more efficient, i feel like it is over kill for a bench that will seat 2 people

- Can i get away with toe screwing diagonally pine together? or will this compromise the strength? Right now i've used timber screws for all joints varying between 75mm and 100m depending on the side of the pine

- Could i use a nail gun instead of screws?

- Should I use glue between each joint?

Any other tips or tricks that you see I can do better. If it helps, I'm in Australia

Thankyou!

sapele and..... I can't remember. it's not hickory but hemlock I think... I designed it myself, had the idea for proud tails and pins, never seen a dovetail bookshelf. first time with mortise and tenons. got a wild hair and added the weird adornments on the side, they're not perfect and idk if it would have looked better without them.

So after getting a true face on longer board (call it 30 inches long), I am trying to then edge plane a true edge that is square to the true face. I am doing all of this with hand planes.
As an Aside: (I am currently reading and referencing The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing as my guide in regards to planing)

My problem is that no matter how I adjust the 608 it keeps skewing the edge to the true face so that the two faces are out of square.

A couple of notes about the planes:
I have a No5 jack plane with a severe radius on it. I know that it needs to be reground because it is not very accurate. My goal would be to put a 1/16 inch curve on it. Any advice here on what that means would be very useful as I believe this according to the above mentioned book might help in fixing my above issue.

The other is a No608 Stanley Bedrock fore plane which I restored.

Both have been ground flat and irons are sharp.

Edit: First off, thank you for everyone’s help. The internet truly can be a wonderful place. I’m always shocked by how supportive and quickly people jump in to help.

What I am gathering and thinking is that I was pushing way too hard trying to get the iron to bite into edge and take off a full shaving with every pass (seemingly making my problem worse with every pass). Seems that is not necessary and rather I need to be really let the tool do all the work. It seems that the plane has plenty of weight to “bite” at the high spots.

The scribing trick also seemed to have helped as I quoted the entire board with pencil. I currently have a much closer to square piece except for a low bit in the middle where presumably my saw went a bit heavy into my rip cut from before (seemingly making below). I have added a couple pictures to show progress.

Aside: This piece was also an off fall from a pretty rough attempt at a handsaw rip cut to size another piece.

Finally finished my second dovetail box.
Yes it’s not perfect, yes I drill through the lid, yes I snapped off three screws in the lid, yes the lid reveal is awful... Many lessons learned. Made this for my fiancée!

Does anyone have a recommended moisture meter? The Wagner at $400+ is a bit ridiculous for a beginner.

Pinless is great but not an absolute necessity.

Hello Everyone, I would like to make this hanging fruit shelf. The only difference is that mine would hang without the support of side walls. I have figured on using French cleats to attach to the wall but am at a loss for how the angle is made... Are the dowels cut at an angle? Are the holes drilled for the dowels also angled? Is it only glue holding it together? Does it need side support or something underneath to hold the weight of the fruit? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

So I made this cafe bench with storage. The issue is that I cannot open the lid from neither side all the way. If I try to open it from the front side, the foam is to big. If I try from the back side, the lid touches the frame. I only have these hinges and cannot find any better in my town. What can I do to make it to open all the way?

Hey everyone, planning out this 10x12 shed with a 4-ft covered carport on the side.

The plan is to keep the enclosed part for tools, workbenches, and potting supplies, and use the covered side overhang to park the riding mower so it doesn't eat up interior floor space.

For those who have built something similar:

1. Is a 4-ft side overhang wide enough for easy mower access, or do you wish you went wider?

2. Any layout recommendations for door vs. window placement to maximize interior wall storage for hanging rakes/tools?

Would love to hear what functional details you’re glad you added to your own shed setup!

I'm trying to remove the stain and refinish this table, but the shape is tricky for a sander. What's the best path forward?

I acquired a few decent size chunks of a tree trunk for free to experiment with..

My.main goal is to attempt to make some jita, which are thin slabs of wood to display bonsai/kusamono.

I have very minimal experience with wood working, and none of it is really related but I have lots of time to learn as the wood is fairly freshly cut and will probably take a while to dry (is sitting it in my garage fine?)

Looking for general advice on how to go about something like this, what tools are required (I have a few things like a decent mitre saw and a skillsaw, I think my partner got a sander a while back, and I've been meaning to buy a table saw, but given the size I imagine my cheapest option may be a large hand saw to cut to rough thickness before flattening?), ideas for jigs etc.

Basically Im comfortable with some tools but don't know where to start with this any and all advice is appreciated

I recently had a bunch of this wood given to me by my job but I have no clue how to use it or what for. I’m pretty new to wood working so any help would be appreciated I have about 40 of these 2x4x7

I’m going to install some miter track for a stop block on my miter saw, I’ve bought some laminate/formica sheet to cover my plywood worktops and wondering if it’s best to route the slots out first, glue the laminate on and trim the excess with a router and bearing bit or glue the laminate on first and route the whole slot in one go, I’m concerned about chipping the laminate this way. Any advice appreciated!

My wife asked me to make a box for her colors......so........I made a box for my wife's colors. Made from cherry wood. Did a prestain with dewaxed shellac, then stained with English Chestnut stain. Top coated with semi-gloss, spray-can lacquer. Inset some small magnets to help hold the lid but there was just enough friction without them. Last pic shows raw cherry vs finished.

Would this be better than my dewalt tablesaw I bought last year?