Woodworking: Expert Guides and Resources

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.

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.

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.

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).

Repairing instead of discarding is one of the primary tenets of living a green lifestyle. Wobbly legs are common on older wooden chairs, but that doesn’t mean the chair has to sit in a landfill. You can fix a slight wobble on a not-too-valuable chair with metal shims or glue from the hardware store, but to do the job completely, follow these steps:Take the chair legs and rungs apart.

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.

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.