Box joints are an easy yet effective joinery method! Box joints, or sometimes referred to as finger joints, can be cut with a regular table saw blade or with a dado stack of your preferred width. The ones featured in the video are cut at 1/4" wide and were perfect for my current shop project, which will be a wall hanging router bit storage cabinet.

** Other videos on youtube

DON'T USE 3/4" PLYWOOD If You Don't Need It...TRY THIS! (1/2" Plywood Vs. 3/4" Plywood--When to Use)

Many new woodworkers and DIYers rush to use 3/4" plywood for any small project. But, in many cases, 3/4" plywood is overkill! This short video from The Honest Carpenter will show you a better alternative for many DIY projects--1/2" plywood!

1/2" plywood comes in nearly every variety that 3/4" plywood does. It's extremely strong and stable.

Many people seem to avoid 1/2" plywood on the assumption that it's weak. But, it has many of the same properties as 3/4" plywood.

(3/4" is a much more common measurement for wood in general--this may be one of the reasons that people assume that they need to purchase 3/4" plywood.)

BENEFITS OF 1/2" PLYWOOD:
--It's lighter (by almost 20 lbs. per sheet)
--It's cheaper (by $10-12 on overage per sheet)
--It's easier on tools
--It produces less sawdust
--It is easier to handle and manipulate
--It has an edge just wide enough to be hit with brads and trim nails

SITUATIONS WHERE 3/4" PLYWOOD IS PREFERRED:
--Anything that will be walked on
--Anything that will be hit hard with tools
--Anything that will be roughly handled.

TIPS FOR WORKING WITH 1/2" PLYWOOD:
--Try not to span it more than 24" unsupported in any direction
--Get support directly beneath the edges
--Use glue when bonding pieces
--Use face frames for additional support on trim projects

Thanks for watching! Be sure to check us out at The Honest Carpenter Website:
www.thehonestcarpenter.com

jointer and angle table saw jig

Build this handy mobile workbench that folds up to only 7 in. You only need two hours, some 2x4s, 3/4-in. plywood and 8’ of 1x4.

I put the first coat of polyurethane on some oak plywood shelves last night, and it turned out horrible. The surface has a bunch of little tiny rough bumps...

Oil based poly, especially the typical brands at the big box stores, is way too thick to be applied by brush by most of us mere mortals. And stretching the finish over a larger area in order to obtain a thin coat exacerbates the problem even more. It is just too thick to level on its own if you over work it even slightly.

Even though the can will likely tell you not to thin it, thinning with mineral spirits or naphtha even 10% by volume will vastly improve its ability to level on its own. Naphtha flashes off faster giving the film less time to collect dust nibs, one cause of the bumps you talk about.

Poly on the first two coats does feel bumpy but the more coats with proper treatment between coats will be very smooth.

Designed from an original Arts & Crafts chair by Charles Limbert.

Wooden hand screws are versatile, but they can be confounding to use. We'll help you eliminate frustration and show you a few tricks to get the most from these clamps.

The trick is to always hold the top handle in your left hand and the bottom handle in your right hand. When you tighten the clamp, you only spin the handle in your right hand, which is much easier to control than spinning both handles. Plus, if you hold the clamp like this on a consistent basis, you build muscle memory and soon you won’t even have to think about which direction to turn the clamp to get it to tighten or loosen. I struggled with these clamps for years until I realized that I wasn’t holding the clamp consistently, so I never knew which direction would tighten or loosen the clamp.

In issue #285, Clark Kellogg assembles the sides of his hexagon boxes with some innovative clamps from an unlikely source: a bike shop.

Card scrapers are incredibly versatile, making them an essential part of my surfacing kit for any project. Learn how to sharpen card scrapers, here.

#2 – A Handscrew Is a Stop Block, Too

My drill press fence has a built-in stop block, but for some tasks I need a second stop block. On those occasions, I simply clamp a handscrew to the fence at the desired position.

#5 – Turn a Handscrew into a Bench-Top Vise

Did you know you can plane a long board held in a bench vise without the need for a deadman? Here’s how. First, glue or screw a board as a wing to the side of the outer jaw of a handscrew. Then, secure one end of the workpiece in the handscrew and clamp the wing in the vise. Now, you have a benchtop vise working for you!

• Add a flag when wrapping around a drill bit - stop when flag blows away sawdust
• Put on wood before drilling holes - Mark on tape, not on wood!
• Wrap around piece before sawing on miter saw to avoid tear-out
• Tape piece to bench for extra hand / clamp
• Use tape as epoxy dispenser
• Mark start and stop on router table (and miter saw??)
• Mask off work before gluing to avoid drips

Mike Pekovich makes blue tape an integral part of his dovetailing technique.
Outside of sawing technique, most dovetailing issues can be traced back to a bad transfer from the tail board to the pin board. In this video, after having already sawed the tail board, Mike demonstrates the blue-tape technique, which makes transferring as simple as can be.

Lots of other useful information for finding sizes of screws and washers

Medium-size storage for bits and bobs

I made my red boxes out of wood and kicked them up a notch by making them in three different sizes, 6 in., 12 in, and 18 in. wide.

By Asa Christiana #226–May/June 2012 Issue

• ceramic alumina wheels
• diamond dresser

The Outermost Chair is a loving homage to the original Adirondack chair designed by Thomas Lee in 1903. That first design has spawned thousands of variations, but Outermost Home founder Chris Nagle wanted to return to the elegant, dynamic form of the original — timeless in design and constructed for endurance and longevity. Each chair is crafted of solid sapele mahogany, notched for structural integrity, and finished using stainless steel fasteners. All Outermost Chairs are crafted in partnership with Cape Associates Custom Builders, located on the Outer Cape.

By Sean Clarke Issue 225
I’ll show you how to prep a wood door properly whether it has been painted or varnished, how to make minor repairs, how to apply an epoxy sealer, and finally, how to build up a varnish finish that yields a durable, clear shine.

If you’ve got a table saw, here’s a new way to put it to work: making cabinet doors. You don’t need any special jigs— just your saw, large or small, a miter gauge and a sharp blade. And you don’t need any specially prepared wood; material from a home center will be fine.

I made my planter box out of cedar, which smells great and weathers very well. I kept mine natural to easily blend with any outdoor patio style. You could also paint or stain it to match your own personal style.

Garden bench
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/discover/woodworking/2020/july/how-to-build-contemporary-cedar-garden-bench

Learn how to make and use router templates when you are building your woodworking projects. Router templates can help you do three main things: First, they can help you trace complex shapes onto your project parts quickly and easily. Once you’ve got the template, you don’t have to lay all of this out again manually. Second, you can use your templates to actually make your project parts with a router and the right bits. And finally, you can keep your templates for possible re-use. That can save a lot of layout time down the road, if should you decide to make the project again.