Homesteading: Woodworking skills

[aldersprig]

Ever think you "had" a skill, only to realize what you had was the bare rudiments?

That's sort of what's been happening to me with woodworking.

I know how to use power tools. I know how to screw two piece of wood together - or nail, even - without making a mess of things. I can put moulding around a window with reasonable mitered joints. I can make a raised bed with no trouble at all. I can use most power tools pretty well.

Gutting and redoing a house (or making furniture, which is the next step) requires so much more than that.

Skills I need to get a handle on to finish the foyer:
* I need to learn how to use a Kreg Jig (link) to make pocket holes. This is for the overhead bin's frame, for invisible joins.

(The overhead bin is a storage unit I'm building over the coat-hanging rod)

* I need to learn how to work with a slab of maple (1"-plus thick, 4' long), how to square it, and how to fill the crack with resin (video link)

* I need to learn how to build a face frame for the bin, and how to hinge the door (the slab of maple, probably in two parts) so that it hangs evenly and looks nice.

When that's all done, the next skill up is learning to use a router. Because routers are cool.

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

But you're having fun, right? :D

I don't even know what a router is when it comes to woodworking. The only router I know is for the internet.

[aldersprig]

It makes rounded bits and carved-out bits! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_(woodworking)

I'm having fun, yes! :-D

[ranunculus]

The trick to using solid wood is to glue up 1 to about 3 inch wide boards to make a wider board. Look at the end of each piece of board, see the tree rings? See how some boards are "cupping" with the rings? When you glue the narrow boards together alternate the direction of the grain and your boards will be stable instead of warping.