Working with wood, joinery and assembly methods for home made furniture. Woodworking joints explained with construction drawings. Dowels and lap joint.
Woodworking joinery for homemade furniture assembly, DIY woodjoints.
Repurposed as furniture ideas and free woodworking plans.
Examples for DIY woodworking and furniture assembly.
A growing amount of articles about making your own furniture. This cannot go without some basic woodworking tricks and woodjoining methods. Below you will see some examples for joinery that is commonly used in making furniture.
DIY construction examples.
Learn how to assemble tables and chairs with dowels and lap joints. Make nice tabletops with a mitered edge.
For some of these joinery methods you will need special tools. Other ways to assemble furniture are straightfoward and easier. No matter what assembly methods for wood joinery you will use, the end result is home made, and that is the most important.
A requisite for this joinery method is absolute perfection in your cuts. Both pieces of wood have to fit very tight together. In fact so close together that you can not even get a piece of paper in between the parts. This could still be achieved with a handsaw and chisel, but a box joint is hardly ever made by hand. You will need a special tool to make a good box joint, there is no escape from that.
The rabbet joint consists of a shoulder on one or two panels.
Double shoulder rabbet.
For this joinery method the connecting panels we attach the panels in a ninety degrees angle. It is a simple woodworking technique to make, with many different tools.
You do not have to be a carpentry expert to make these wood joints. A joint of this type stays usually out of sight. Its use is mainly for the backside of cabinets, where it makes the joint between back and side panels.
The single shouldered joint only has a groove in one of the panels. The shoulder is what supports the corresponding piece, it is also called the bearer. On this picture you see the difference between a single and the double shoulder version for this woodjoint. Continue reading “Rabbet joint or rebate, shoulder groove cut for wood joining.”
Pocket hole joints, application and tools for modern joinery.
For assembly of furniture, screws in an angle of 15 degrees. The pocket is only in one of the parts for assembly. An angled hole serves as guide for the screw and hides it afterwards. The screw head will be embedded in this slot. Therefore the screws will not obstruct other parts of the furniture, such as drawers or doors. Continue reading “Pocket hole connections for woodworking.”
You will need a special tool for these connections. These tools are called a bisquit joiner or bisquit saw. You could rent one if you are only goin to use it sporadically. It is nevertheless worthwile to buy a biscuit joiner if you will use it a lot. A bisquit saw is not cheap but it will save you a lot of work when making your own furniture. Continue reading “Bisquit joints for wood edge to edge, mitered and T – joint biscuits.”
Connection of intersecting boards and planks with a halved joint.
Most methods for joinery of wooden boards are designed to connect wood at the ends. Not so with the halved joint, this method for joinery connects the planks somewehere halfway. This halved joint method is equal to the divisions in cardboard boxes for wine bottles. All parts can be taken apart when you take the grid out of the box. Each panel, in this case with several slots, fits in its corresponding counterparts. Continue reading “Halved joint – cross lap woodworking joinery technique.”
Joinery for boats and woodworking in construction of buildings. The scarf joint consists of twelve different applications based on the same priciple.
Here are the main types to make and reinforce this joinery method with scarves. Its main application is for large timber. Lumber is often not large enough when you have to make a big construction.
Barns and sheds need very large pieces of wood that can only be obtained by elongating the lumber. A connection of those wooden beams can be done in several manners. The scarf joints are among the most used methods for this purpose. Continue reading “Scarf joints, interlocking and plain reinforced scarfs.”
Floorboards and wall panel assembly with tongue and groove joints.
Fitting boards with a tongue and groove.
One part of the board has a slot, the other side features a ridge which fits into the slot. This joinery method is ideal to make large panels from planks. The planks stay joined, even when the wood shrinks. Tongue and groove joints are widely used in the flooring industry. Another application for this joinery method are large panels to construct of wooden houses. Continue reading “Tongue and groove joinery method.”
This joinery method has several different names, depending on your location. The American expression is usually dado. In Europe it is called a trench or groove and slot wood joint. People in the U.K. use the term housing joint to describe this joinery method. Continue reading “Dado joint – groove and slot – housing or trench joinery method.”
The dovetail is a strong joinery technique for boxes and drawers.
There are no mechanical fasteners needed for this joinery method. This structure cannot become loose once all parts are fitted and glued together. The high resistance to pulling is a result of the interlocking parts with shape of a dovetail. Other names for this joinery method are swallowtail and fan tail. Continue reading “Dovetail joints for furniture making.”
Three expressions for the same type of woodjoint. The finger joint is, among other purposes, used to make planks longer and for construction of box shapes. You will need special tools to make these connections for wood. Fitting is very precise, if there is a slight fault then your parts will not fit together. For that reason it is a wood joining method which is very strong but only suitable if you have the right machinery. Continue reading “Finger joint – comb and box joints for woodworking.”
How to make a mitered lapjoint / scarf joint for construction with timber.
Mitered joints and miter half lap joints for woodworking. The mitered lap joint is a visually attractive method to join two or more pieces of timber. This wood joinery method is great for homemade furniture.
Chamfer large diameter dowels with a spoke pointer tool.
How to make farmhouse furniture with a spoke cutter tool.
A spoke pointer has been used for centuries to fit spokes for cartwheels. As a result of that they are still commonly known as spoke pointers. The dowels that are made with this tool form an integer part of the construction material, usually round wood.
These pointed ends are made either with the branch in a lathe or with the dowel pointer fitted to a drill. Furniture made with these wood joints is very rustic. These large dowel connections for wood are especially suited to make farmhouse furniture from thick branches.
A bridle joint is often used to make frames for furniture.
Corner of a frame made with a bridle joint.
These woodjoints look very neat and they provide reasonable strength to the structure. You will probably need a bit less wood when you use the bridle joint for your woodworking project. This method for connecting wood is especially suitable when the combined pieces have to be shaped afterwards.
Since the woodjoint spans a large surface there will be less loss of integrity when material gets removed. This is especially handy when you make furniture that requires rounded shapes and bends.
Is your beam not long enough? Make a wood clamp from two planks.
How touse a wood clamp to make long wooden beams.
This is a very basic method to make beams with a large span. For use in construction of barns and sheds, and in emergency for use in any type of building. The main disadvantage of this wood clamp are the estetics. Apart from that it is not a very strong method for joinery.
Nobody can say that these wooden clamps are visually attractive. But on the other hand they serve their purpose, make long beams to span a large width. Therefore a wood clamp for elongating beams is mainly used in case that there is no other material or time available. Continue reading “Wood clamp joinery method to make beams longer.”
The mitre joint for wood is very common in many differents types of construction. It make a nice clean angle at the corner, inside as well as outside. This joinery can be used for both beams as well as for planks. The typical way how most tabletops are made. Mitred woodjoints do not leave the faceside of the cut visible. Those short ends are always more rough and more prone to damage. Therefore these mitred joints protect the short ends, hence prolonging the lifespan. Continue reading “Mitre joint for wood connections in an angle.”
The lapjoint is mainly used when your planks and timber is not long enough. This woodjoint is not the strongest method, but nevertheless it is widely used. Large beams are often made by connecting two or more pieces with a lap joint.
The dowel and hole method is simple and effective for joining timber. The end result is invisible. Apart from that it is a strong way for connecting two pieces of wood together. There are not a lot of special tools needed, you can even make this woodjoint if you only have a power drill. In the case that you want to make hidden woodjoints with dowels then you will at least need an alignment plug. Continue reading “Dowel method for wood joints and joinery in homemade furniture.”
Joinery for timber and lumber, woodworking techniques.
Some of the most popular methods for joining pieces of wood together. These are classic methods for joinery. Most of our woodworking instructions and drawings are meant for assembly with self tapping screws. Nevertheless you can improve most woodworking plans by changing to a more conventional assembly method. Continue reading “Woodworking joints, connection methods for timber wood.”
Make it yourself: 
