|
Published:
October 31, 2003

Woodworking For Dummies

Overview

Make stunning furniture, shelves, and more, with this easy guide 

Woodworking For Dummies gives aspiring woodworkers step-by-step instructions for creating successful woodworking projects. Set your sights on creating beautiful wooden pieces, with your own two hands. Woodworking is a fun and fascinating hobby, and you’ll love developing your skills and enjoying the satisfaction of craftsmanship. This book explains, in simple terms, the basic tools you’ll need, the different types of wood you can work with, and the process of creating plans for a successful project. Start sawing, sanding, joining, and finishing wood projects you can be proud of. One-of-a-kind, handmade woodcrafts are excellent as additions to your home and gifts for others, and you can even start a small business selling your handiwork. This For Dummies primer makes this cool activity accessible to anyone. 

  • Start a new hobby, work with your hands, and see your visions come to life 
  • Learn about classic and cutting-edge woodworking tools 
  • Differentiate between the different kinds of wood and select the right materials for your project 
  • Become a woodworker with easy-to-use photos and instructions 

Even if you’ve never picked up a saw before, this For Dummies guide will help you get started—and it’s a great reference and refresher for those who already know what they’re doing, too. 

Read More

About The Author

Jeff Strong began creating sawdust at a very young age while helping his father, a master craftsman, build fine furniture. An accomplished woodworker, Jeff has designed and built countless pieces of furniture. He is the author of several previous For Dummies titles, including Drums For Dummies and Home Recording For Dummies.

Sample Chapters

woodworking for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Woodworking brings together nature, humans, and technology to produce long-lasting pieces of functional art. A great woodworking project begins with knowing how to choose the right type and piece of wood. Then, following a step-by-step process helps you craft a successful piece every time.How to buy wood for woodworkingWhether you see woodworking as an art or a craft, your finished piece begins with a great piece of wood.

HAVE THIS BOOK?

Articles from
the book

When you get to the lumberyard (or when you order wood over the phone), you have three choices of board cuts: plain-sawn, rift-sawn, and quarter-sawn. The difference between each type of wood cut is in how the tree's growth rings relate to the face (the wide side) of the board. The relationship between the growth rings and the face of the board determines its overall stability (the amount of movement that occurs with changes in humidity).
You'd be hard-pressed to find a woodworker who hasn't had some unexpected thing ruin his project (or at least something that forced him to do a ton of work to fix it). Below are some of the most common pitfalls in woodworking, and ways to either fix them or avoid them in the first place. Many mistakes can be avoided altogether if you slow down.
Whether you see woodworking as an art or a craft, your finished piece begins with a great piece of wood. As a woodworker, buying wood can be a challenging experience. You have to think about a lot of details such as the grade and cut of the wood and the way it's sized. The following sections help you make sense of these details.
Woodworking is painstaking and rewarding work. Following a plan helps ensure that your woodworking project comes out the way you envisioned. The following list sets out the steps to follow to build a piece of furniture (or any project for that matter): Read the plans. Familiarize yourself with the plans and procedures before you buy or cut any wood.
Of all the modern tools in a wood shop, the table saw is the most used. Countless table saw designs are available, from a basic tabletop version to a contractor's version to a full-blown cabinet saw. As a beginning woodworker, start out with a contractor saw. Contractor saws have a large cutting capacity (like the larger cabinet saw), but they have an open base so they're lighter and cost less than an enclosed base cabinet saw.
Mortise-and-tenon joints are among the strongest joints in woodworking, and are used for projects that have frame construction and need to be strong. Chairs and tables use them as does most Arts and Crafts and Mission style furniture.Mortise-and-tenon joints come in several types — stopped/blind, through, angled, wedged, and many more — but they all consist of the same basic parts: a mortise (a recess cut into a piece of wood that accepts a tenon) and a tenon (a tongue at the end of a board that fits into a mortise).
To get a flat board to use in a woodworking project, you have to cut a round log. And you have to do so in a particular way so you can get the grain to run how you want it to. While most people don't have a saw mill to cut their own logs, you'll still want to know the difference in cuts to get the particular grain you want for your woodworking projects.
Solid wood — that is, wood cut into boards from the trunk of the tree — makes up most of the wood in a piece of furniture. The type of wood you choose determines the beauty and strength of the finished piece. Many varieties of wood are available, and each has its own properties. The following sections introduce you to the most common types of soft- and hardwoods.
Woodworking brings together nature, humans, and technology to produce long-lasting pieces of functional art. A great woodworking project begins with knowing how to choose the right type and piece of wood. Then, following a step-by-step process helps you craft a successful piece every time.How to buy wood for woodworkingWhether you see woodworking as an art or a craft, your finished piece begins with a great piece of wood.
Plywood and other manufactured wood cores are fantastic raw materials to use in many woodworking projects. Plywood and wood cores come in a variety of styles and with a variety of veneers and finishes, all of which determine which type of wood core you'll want depending on your woodworking projects. The inside of wood cores Plywoods come with several different types of cores (the material between the outer layers), which are covered in the following sections.
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6630d85d73068bc09c7c436c/69195ee32d5c606051d9f433_4.%20All%20For%20You.mp3

Frequently Asked Questions

No items found.