Construction Techniques

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Ian Taylor  |  Sep 20, 2008  |  0 comments
Dovetail joints can be pretty unforgiving. They are major showpieces - visible when drawers are open and sometimes permanently on display when they are used for carcase construction. A badly fitting dovetail is something that is difficult to live with. As for loose tenons, there's often a simple fix that can recover the situation, especially if you do it carefully.

Whether the problem comes from the tails being too narrow or the recesses…

Ian Taylor  |  Aug 21, 2008  |  0 comments
Sometimes, even when your tenons are tight, the joint doesn't come together properly - there's a gap between the two mating timbers. The problem could come from the tenon being too long for the mortise, but that is easily fixed - simply trim the tenon. But more likely it comes from the shoulders on the tenon stock not being cut properly. If one side is cut at a shorter length than the other, the longer side will close up tightly, but…

Ian Taylor  |  Aug 22, 2008  |  0 comments
The last demo shows the dangers of mixing iron filings with some timbers. Oak and chestnut and some other timbers have a high tannin content. If you add iron filings and water a dark stain is the result.

Why would you add iron filings in the first place? Well, if you used fine steel wool to burnish the surface after sanding, fine iron residues are trapped in the grain. Add water, a chemical reaction takes place and you end up with a black…

Ian Taylor  |  Aug 22, 2008  |  0 comments
If your workshop is tight for space, like mine, you might find that your projects can take a bit of a battering before they are complete. Knocks from banging into tools and machinery can take their toll. However, if the wood fibres aren't broken, dings and dents are easy to fix. What happens when you dent a piece of timber is that he wood cells get compressed. You can ‘plump them up’ again by infusing them with hot…

Ralph Laughton  |  May 12, 2010  |  0 comments
Join Ralph as he talks through what to look out for when buying and selecting timber for use in furniture grade projects.
Ralph Laughton  |  May 11, 2010  |  0 comments
earn how to create face sides and edges using a combination of basic handtools – fundamental to the process of squaring up wood.
Ralph Laughton  |  May 10, 2010  |  0 comments
Having created the face side and edge in the previous video Ralph now progresses to thicknessing the wood with basic handtools.
Ralph Laughton  |  May 09, 2010  |  0 comments
The first three episodes in this series concentrated on the use of hand tools. In this final instalment Ralph turns his attention to squaring and thicknessing material with machines.
Ian Taylor  |  Nov 21, 2008  |  0 comments
Nowadays we take drawers very much for granted. They appear everywhere in the house – in the kitchen, the bedroom, the study and the workshop. They come in different sizes and designs. Some have mechanical slides and others run on wooden supports (called runners). But they all have one common feature: they are basically open-topped boxes that can be accessed separately and conveniently. Drawers in history It wasn’t always this…

The Woodworker  |  Jan 23, 2008  |  0 comments
This one's definately worth a watch! It's a demonstration of the Joint Genie system. We've tested the system for The Woodworker and we're thorouly impressed with it! Ralph Laughton has also but togeather an article on using the Joint Genie system which will feature in The Woodworker magazine soon.
Tegan Foley  |  May 25, 2022  |  0 comments

Andrew Lawton – one of our three expert judges for the Alan Peters Furniture Award 2022 – presents an exhibition piece made using a very unique material

Pages

X