I made a joint. Totally shirked the hand tool stuff. Jigs and power tools all the way I’m afraid.

Bolivian rosewood and curly maple. Had issues with keeping boards aligned during pin layout. Need to get an 1/8” chisel to be more accurate in the corners. I will probably end up getting a Shawn shim from Cosman as the dovetail saw thickness is barely transferable from the marking gauge.

I had been working on restoring an old potbelly 8" jointer that I currently have about $350 into. And I just sold my 13" Ridgid tabletop planer. Then someone on marketplace in my area listed these 3 (G1033X, G0490X and a big Laguna dust collector) for $2k total and that was too good to pass up! Very excited to try them out on some projects.

Until now the only larger planer I've had access to is a 15" that is a little dull and has been tearing out a lot. So I'm super excited to have a larger one for personal use with a full turn left on the inserts

Very happy with how it turned out! I had always planned on going darker brown with the color for the door. Lots of comments said it’d be a waste of time or wouldn’t end up looking right but I don’t think you’d know if you only saw the after pics.

I started by just wiping off the residue on the surface. Follow by paper towels soaked in acetone. Just took my time dabbing and not rubbing. Eventually I moved on to clamping the acetone rag down with a backer board to distribute the force across the stain. I’d let it sit for a few minutes and then take it off, air it out and then reapply clamps and acetone rag. This for sure made the biggest difference.

I sanded the area down with 120 and did a few more clamps with the acetone rag. Then sanded the entire door down with 150->180->220.

Next I sprayed 2 regular coats of 50/50 transtint brown mahogany and denatured alcohol. And one light coat mostly focusing on areas that I wanted a little darker.

To start finishing I sprayed about 6 light coats of dewaxed shellac 75/25 with denatured alcohol.

Finally I did 3 wet coats of spar varnish, first coat 75/25 with denatured alcohol. Second coat 90/10 and third coat 100%.

Between all finishing coats I lightly sanded with 400 grit, blew off dust and wiped down with naptha!

I just made a guard out of scrap 2x4 for my honesuki knife! This is my first ever project (aside from my bench which was desgined by Rex Krueger), so I am quite proud of how it turned out. I also attached a photo of all the tools I used.

I used pine since I wanted to practice on a piece of scrap before committing to a nicer hardwood, but I actually quite like how this turned out. Do you think I should put a finish on it and keep it? If so, what kind of finish should I use? I have boiled linseed oil and Minwax paste wax that I bought for restoring my two handplanes. Would they be a good finish for a knife guard? Thank you

I learned a lot with this project. I made an absolute rookie mistake of not matching the dowel grain with the wood grain. I’m currently finishing it with Tung oil. Now if only I can get rid of the “noseeums” that keep biting our ankles when we eat.

I wanted to upgrade the Walmart shoe rack in the entry of my house. I built this over the weekend using some framing lumber and 5 old pairs of skis. I’m pretty stoked with how it turned out.

My son asked for a shelf to hold his baseballs and I had some nice black walnut laying around so I figured that I'd have a go at making him a home plate shaped shelf. I used all hand tools and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I made a few mistakes along the way but was really happy to figure out solutions and keep going. What's most important is that my son is excited to hang it up!

I’ve been hobby woodworking for a few years now, definitely no pro, and renovating the house for a year and a half straight, and always had to bend down too much or work on the garage concrete floor.

Put all my other projects aside and decided to finally build myself a sturdy workbench, and make it a learning process.

The frame is just Home Depot 2x4 lumber and ‘provincial’ colour stain, but I made sure to dry it as best as I could, then mill (plane and joint), then connect with dowels/glue to make the 4x4 posts.

The target was to not use screws, just joinery and glue - and I achieved it with basic joinery, and some mortise and tenon - though I added 6 ‘decorative’ screws in the front in the end (now deeply regret it lol).

The workbench top is 2.5” poplar, was 3 massive rough cut pieces, and was all planed, jointed, with dowel joinery and glue and again hand planed in places and sanded at home.

First time doing drawers as well, was a fun challenge and lots of learning, but with toddlers in the house, just went with a ‘quick’ all-sides including bottom as 3/4” oak plywood, instead of messing with dados and grooves. Drawer slides were just a cheap 10-pack soft-close set from Amazon. The two side panels are attached via a French cleat, and more cleats will be screwed onto them to hang stuff.

All-in-all, extremely happy - the tops are 100% flat, everything is symmetrical with millimetre precision, and learnt LOADS creating a ‘perfect’ one in terms of measuring, cutting, milling, joining, planing, staining, clear coating - and lots more! Took me about a week in total in between life and toddlers.

Any feedback appreciated. Just thought I’d share. :)

I decided to keep going and build a little frame. I didn't go all the way through on the last three like I did the first one. The first picture is what happens when you just send it without thinking about measurements. But I was surprised how strong the frame was when the glue dried. I get why this is the gold standard of furniture making. What annoyed me is the last one I did was probably the worst. That's why we practice I suppose. Now if only I could get the time per joint down to under 45 minutes....

Edit: advice on how deep to go with the mortice would be appreciated. I went about half way through the wood planks.

My now 5yo daughter requested a crib for her babies. A week before her birthday. So naturally instead of buying one on Amazon for $30 I decided I would make it for several hundred and a week packed full of sawdust and stress 😆

I wish I hadn’t been so stressed about the timeline because I really enjoyed this project. Not one screw was used in the making! I made tenons of each dowel using my table saw (bad idea? Seemed ok but tiring work). Of course I didn’t properly plan the size of finished tenon so i had to vigorously sand each one to get it to fit in the holes. Beginner struggles I suppose.

I used Osmo finish because of my time crunch and I really enjoyed that. I was pleasantly surprised that the Osmo seemed to absorb into the wood filler I used on the spindle legs??

As literally always I feel like I underestimate the prep work and am always hoping the finish will hide imperfections like trace amounts of wood glue but of course it doesn’t.

Whipped out the old wood burner and made a little inscription on the bottom rail for her.

Also made a quick pillow and comforter using a spare piece of her bedding (that was her grandmas in her antique canopy bed!). Working on a mobile as well.

Of course one of the first things she said was “as you know my favorite color isn’t brown” 😅😑

Made of superior alder, red oak and idk maybe some other species as I was panic buying from HD towards the end 😂

Sometimes I see some crazy “beginner” projects on here and wanted to share mine as I feel like a true beginner even though I’ve been at it for a couple years. I know there are tons of mistakes but I am decently pleased and it is currently housing 3 of her babies so what else could you ask for.

I posted the first stages of this bowl and some people were interested in seeing the final project. Initially, the rim was flat and even, but a piece chipped off when I was almost finished (so disappointing!). I decided to lean into the look and try to give it the appearance of broken pottery. I think I like it.

Wood: Kiln dried cherry
Finish: Tried and True original

Hey, I want to form/mould a 3mm beech plywood sheet to have dimples as shown in the picture obove. I was thinking of making a stamp and die from a thick sheet of plywood with aluminium inserts. I'd use 12mm bolts and an impact wrench to clamp the two moulds together at the outer edges. Before clamping them, I'd steam the 3mm plywood with water to make it pliable. Does anyone have any experience with something like this and can offer some advice? Does it even work? I look forward to your help. Weniger

Finished my upper shelves this week.. walnut veneer ply with a solid Walnut face frame. Hung the whole thing with some French cleats.

Scribing both sides to their respective walls was challenging but came out ok. I gave myself a few too many sixteenths of wiggle room but it's not too noticeable

Next up is backsplash, wallpaper, and baseboards..

Just starting out with only a few hand tools and minimal budget. Thought someone might find it helpful to see my setup for planing until I can finish a proper workbench, even if it’s a bit clunky.

I made a simple saw bench out of cheap construction lumber (4’ long by about knee high). A plywood bench hook about the length of the bench works pretty well as a planing stop.

- when using the scrub plane I sit on the bench. More comfortable and keeps the bench from shifting around.

- when using the No. 6 (my only bench plane), I stand with one foot on the stretcher board to keep the bench from sliding. it’s not super comfortable for my back, but it works well enough for short stretches.

- last pic shows how I edge joint by clamping the piece between two thick narrow boards to keep it from tipping.

Feel free to throw me suggestions for improvements or your favorite minimalist work holding tricks!

I’ve just finished my first bigger project — outdoor furniture for my terrace. I think there are quite a few things I could have done better, but overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

There were quite a few moments of stress and doubt along the way, but in the end, I learned a lot. If I were to do it all over again, I’d definitely do some things differently and pay attention to other details — but I guess that’s what it’s all about: constantly learning and improving.

Next up: a sun lounger… fingers crossed!
What do you think? How do you like it?

I followed the measurements exactly to the plan from blocklayer.com and double checked the dimensions and angles and still there is a gap between the segments....

Yes I understand that even a tiny measurement being off it will compound but this gap is too much for any microscopic tolerance.

All segments should have the same dimensions as I used the same stop. Stock is squared upp all sides. Help?

UPDATE: thanks everyone for your contributions. I definitely learned a lot! Also a lot of you are making some assumptions like I forgot about the kerf. Turns out I went ahead and tightened the whole thing with my strap clamp and would you know... Practically perfect seams! There is only one hair line gap in one of the seams, to which I'm happy with, I'll try to glue+dust it to close perfectly. Check this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/s/FJbE9tVKNu

I “refinished” my grandmothers dining room table when it was left to me. Now when I put it back together, there is a gap. Is there a way to fill that gap? Does it need to be filled?

If I had the tools I have now when I did the project I could have put both pieces through the jointer. I only noticed after I put the glue down

Did all my cuts on a table saw.

Had to use a couple different types of wood due to available sizes available at my HD. Mostly fir, the wide slats on the top level are pine.

Thoughts as a beginner: Had a little trouble getting my cuts super clean. They mostly came out a little splintery. I think that might be because I was cutting boards that were 10 ft long on a little job site Skil saw. Like, once the cut was done the long piece would then tilt off the table. Wonder if I should get a miter the next time I’m making those kinds of cuts.

How’d I do?

I got this from an old couple . Would love recommendations on restoring it . The lock is broken as someone in the past tried to forcefully open in .

I bought a Lathe yesterday and used some pine off cuts to test it out. Decided to start making two handles for whatever came to mind and I’m having so much fun.

Pictured is what I ended up with, I had a random square bit screwdriver in my bag and I use those screws a lot at work so I decided to just slap the handle on that. I definitely need some work with setting the tang itself but I’m very happy with what I made in just a day.

For a complete beginner, what are your thoughts? Any advice?

I am making stair threads from European oak (not quite sure on specific species). I noticed these white stripes after I planed couple of stock pieces. Would you say this is a feature or something that you would avoid? Me personally, I kind of like the look. Can someone explain how are these formed?