Wood Working

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Picture of Jointer Jig assembled

How to Make a Jointer Jig

This post shows how to make a Jointer Jig that turns your table saw into a jointer. Often when we buy wood, even surfaced wood, the edges are rarely square. With this jig and a properly squared table saw (blade and fence – which yours should be for safety as well as accuracy) one can produce consistent straight and square reference points for your lumber! The benefit of this jig is that it replaces the commercial equivalents that could end...

Ikea Regissor Hack

IKEA Regissor Cabinet Hack – Cane Alternative!

We rescued an IKEA Regissor Cabinet and decided to give it hack it – give it a makeover by redesigning the doors and paint color. We wanted to use cane as the front covering, but cane is costly and we were looking for a less expensive alternative. Here is our hack for how we transformed this IKEA Regissor cabinet into a great piece of furniture with a simple burlap hack. This approach would also work as a rattan or cane...

How to Build Floating Shelves

We had a space above one of our side counters where we would store odds and ends and had even hung a board to display our kid’s art. One might say it looked a wee bit cluttered. Enter a desire for floating shelves and a will to try to build something new. There were some great skills tested on this one including drilling super straight holes, using a router perfectly down the center of a board, and even some finishing...

How to Install Edge Band Veneer

There are a few tips and tricks we wished we had learned prior to applying edge band veneer. Here is a way to make the process easier: Step 01. Buy Right Size Veneer Try to buy the veneer that is as close to the size that you need. It’s possible to use 3/4-inch veneer on 1/2-inch pieces you just need to be a little more careful. Step 02. Get Tools Together We don’t recommend grabbing your good iron, unless you...

How to Build Drawer Boxes

Drawer boxes for your cabinet is a place where you can keep it simple with pocket screws or brad nails or flex your skills a little and try for some joinery like dovetails or box joints. After much messing around making and buying various jigs for the router and table saw, we settled on box joints for our project. This provides a nice professional looking feature to your build, but it also adds time to the process. Step 01. Determine...

How to Build Cabinet Doors and Drawers

A cabinet door is just a much larger cabinet drawer face. We built our cabinet doors and drawers from 2-1/2 inch poplar with 1/4-inch baltic birch panels. This combination did not create any flex in the panel when installing drawer pulls. This post will show you how to create professional looking doors and drawer faces. Before cutting commences, there are some sizing considerations to work through: #01. How much overhang will the hinges have and how close will the doors...

How to Calculate Undermount Drawer Slide Lengths

Determining the right size drawer slides can be tricky the first time – especially if you want the drawer slides ready to go as your building and not hold up your project. Here are simple methods for calculating your drawer slide lengths for overmount and flush mount drawers. Project Considerations and Measurements You’ll Need #01: Determine if your cabinet will have a back panel. Usually a 1/4-inch piece. #02: Make the decision to use under-mount drawer slides (I’ll show you...

How to Install Undermount Drawer Slides the Easy Way

Undermount drawer slides are the way to go! This post will show you the simple method to mount your drawer slide hardware, get it into position perfectly level, and move on to building your drawer to fit it properly. Before you begin, make sure that you check out How to calculate the size of under-mount drawer slides that you need. Step 01: Cut Rear Bracket Mounting Pieces Rather than doing some fancy complicated yoga moves while you try to measure...

How to Build a Cabinet Carcass

Building a custom cabinet is a rewarding project that is possible without an expensive tool shop. This post walks through the first step in building your custom cabinet – the carcass. There are three things that when we started this project that I wish my research had enlightened me on: #01: How to size the carcass. #02: How to calculate the drawer mount hardware length. #03: How does the door overhang on hinges impact the door and drawer placement. Read...

DIY Custom Closet – Update Your Bifold Doors

We created a custom built-in closet in our hallway to replace our boring bifold doors and it turned out fantastic – we eliminated those pesky bifold doors and ugly wire racks. We built custom box-joint drawers with mortise and tenon face frames and built-in shelves. All of this using affordable tools and picking up skills along the way. We’ll show you how we did it with tips and tricks, including ways to flex your woodworking skills if you so desire...