The housing joint is a useful structural joint, particularly in cabinets and shelving units. It’s sometimes also called a dado joint, and is effectively a trench that’s cut across the grain of the timber, into which the end of another component is inserted. The difference between a groove and a housing is that a groove always runs along the grain, whereas a housing runs across it.
The most important part of any project is probably the initial stock preparation: without proper preparation no other part of the project can happen, it’s as simple as that. When it comes to preparation you have three options: buy PAR timber, which is relatively expensive; buy rough sawn timber and process it using machines; or break out the hand planes and do it yourself. My preference is for the latter because it’s cheaper, safer…
Despite YouTube being a fantastic woodworking resource, it’s easy to be misled by what you see. In response to a ‘myth busting’ video on end-grain gluing, Jeremy Broun felt compelled to reveal his half-century experience of glue-only joints using some of his most iconic pieces as examples
Choosing suitable jointing methods for your projects can be like gingerly entering a minefield of booby traps but we hope that GW’s guide will make your decisions a little more bomb proof.
The spline dovetail is a joint that can be used both for strength and decoration. It looks especially attractive on small carcases and is very popular with boxmakers. It’s simple to make, and the only tools needed are a router fi tted with a dovetail cutter, and a tilting arbour table saw. However, you do need to make a simple jig fi rst. This can be modifi ed to suit your particular router/ guidebush combination. The design here uses a…
In its simplest form, woodworking involves taking a large piece of wood, cutting and shaping it into smaller pieces and reassembling them in a different order to make something useful or decorative. The cutting and shaping is relatively straightforward bit. It’s when you come to join all the pieces back together again that the fun begins
The Joint Genie System is the one I've used here
Joining options
Making a beautifully…
The bridle joint is also referred to as an ‘open’ or ‘slot’ mortise-and-tenon joint. This is because the mortise is open-ended and the tenon may be slid into it sideways. The joint can be used on corners, either cut square or mitred, where it’s signifi cantly stronger than a halving joint by virtue of its large gluing area.
Tools you’ll need to cut bridle joints:
• Try square
• Pencil
•…
There are several varieties of dovetail joint, but perhaps the most common – and the most familiar – is the lapped dovetail. This is used when you want to hide the joint on one side, but make it visible on the other. Its most common use is in drawer construction. Here the mechanical strength of the joint is needed to fi x the sides to the drawer front, but you don’t want the joint to be visible when the drawer is closed.…
This technique is a simple method for joining two pieces of timber. Although this joint has many applications, it’s particularly useful for a bearer on the inside of a cabinet to secure a solid wood top in place. In this case, screws would fit into slots cut in the bearer to secure the top down. The slots allow the top to expand with the varying humidity in addition to preventing it from cupping or bowing.
It’s most useful,…
We all make mistakes from time to time, some of us more than others. There's nothing more frustrating than the job going wrong when you have invested many hours of work and committed expensive materials. Well, don't despair, there's often a well-tried escape route which lets you recover the situation. And if you're careful, only you need know that it nearly went wrong. This article sets out a few fixes that have worked for me -…
