WoodWorkWeb - Woodworking Community

An Introduction to Veneering

Read Time: 6 mins

Veneering in woodworking is not new, it has been around in one form or another for centuries. It has been practiced by woodworkers in many different parts of the world, often as smaller pieces, for inlays, accents and other features. Today, we have an amazing breadth of wood species to choose from, from almost any exotic hardwood you can imagine, to figure woods and burls that are spectacular. With all the varieties and figured wood veneers that are available now, anyone who wants to take the time to learn veneering can turn out wood projects that are truly works of art.

There are basically three kinds of veneering, the oldest form and the one we are going to spend the most time on here, is called cold veneering, where veneer strips are glued to a substrate or base. Also becoming quite popular are is veneering where a glue has been applied to the back of the veneer and it can be attached to the substrate by simply by peeling off a plastic or waxy backing and then sticking the veneer on to the substrate. This is called Pressure Veneering and only requires a type of blade or edge to smooth the veneer out over the substrate and is ideal for smaller projects. The third kind of veneering is done by using a veneer with a heat activated glue pre-applied to the back of the veneer, and is called Heat Activated Veneering. In this case the veneer is laid on the substrate material and something a simple as a household iron is used to attach the veneer to the substrate.

All of these methods of veneering work well, not all of them in the same situations, and that is why there are different kinds ... because some work better in one instance while another works better somewhere else. Any of the pre-applied glue veneers are more costly than raw veneers and the choices of veneers is far less with the pre-applied glue types. For larger veneering projects and where ongoing veneering is the norm, the cold veneering with raw veneers is easily the most effective and preferred method. Other types are normally more suited for smaller projects.

Make it Accurate with the Right Square

Read Time: 5 mins

Have you ever cut all the pieces for a woodworking project then tried to put them together and found that they just don't fit together nicely? Could it be that the one tool you rely on most, your square is not giving you a proper angle reading ?

One of the most frustrating things about woodworking, especially for new woodworkers, is when you are working away on your project and it comes to starting to put it together and it just doesn't fit nicely. There are gaps in the joints, some of the angles seem to be off a bit, it just isn't coming to gether nicely.

When this happens, you get out your square and start double checking your cuts and if your square is off to begin with, measured one way, your cuts will be perfect, but reverse the square and if the joint is WAY OFF when reversed, then your square is the problem, not your woodworking ability. In many cases when this happens, you cannot go back and re-set up the machinery and re-cut the wood because it will be too small, so now you have a very expesive stack of firewood, or more wood for your cut-off pile that hopefully you will have a use for one day.

One of the tools we use continuely in our work, often with out even thinking about it is the square. The lowly square has been around for ever and has remainend basically unchanged in thousands of years. Today, we can purchase all sorts of different variations of the square, large squares, small squares, adjustable squares ....

Making a Heavy Duty Crosscut Sled

Read Time: 5 mins

The table saw is agueably designed for ripping wood, that's really whate it is best at, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for other things equally well. For many woodworkers, the tablesaw is first stationary tool they purchase because it is so versatile. Out of the box, they will rip and cross cut (with the appropriate blades) and even cut dado, with a small modification to the throat plate.
With many table saws, the mitre gauges are pretty standard and have small surface that accepts wood for cross cutting, still they work ok. For someone who is doing a lot of cross cutting and wants perfect repeatable results, a crosscut sled is the answer.

These are relatively easy to make requiring only a few items, such as a good quality plywood base (I simly used a quater sheet of plywood that was 2 feet by 4 feet), a couple of decent quality mitre blanks and lastly a couple of flat boards that can be used for the front and back. The front stabilizer board only needs to be flat on the bottom the inside and outside should be reasonably flat but since this is only to stabilize the sled, it's not important that it be abslutely flat. The back stabilizer board DOES need to be pefectly flat on the bottom and inside as well, so selecting materials for this is very important.

If you have access to thick plywood that is 2 inches thick or better, that is ideal, otherwise you will need to hand pick something that is flat. I found a piece of construction grade, kiln dried 2x6 that was 8 feet long that looked like it would work. When I got it home and cut it in half, one half was off a tiny bit, but the other side was perfectly flat, just what I needed, and it was dry so it's not going to move around on me.

Making Mitre Slot Blanks

Read Time: 6 mins

Making jigs is one of the most common tasks for most woodworkers. Sometimes they are simple, sometimes not, sometimes they are used once but often they are used over and over again. Some of the most common jigs are associated with out stationary tools, like bandsaws, table saws, lathes, drill presses and so on. Many of the stationary tools that we use have mitre slots the are used for a few things, like mitre gauges, feather boards and other accessories that utilize this convenient slot.

Table saws are often picked on for making jigs where the mitre slots is used and when making jigs, it's ideal to be able to have some mitre gauge blanks on hand, rather than having to stop and make these as well as the jig.

Moisture Meters - Choosing and Using Them

Read Time: 6 mins

Surprisingly, many woodworkers do not have moisture meters, and of those who do own them, most seldom use them. With wood being as active as it is, it seems that using a moisture meter to help determine the amount of wood movement would be pretty important. To novice woodworkers, wood movement is something that is not well understood, but it is a very important component of woodworking and needs to be studied by any serious woodworker. As we all know, wood, even after it is cut is constantly either absorbing moisture or giving off moisture. This is the a nature of wood. The absorption of moisture is primarily taken in through the end grain of wood, but some moisture is absorbed through the side side grain as well.

The result of this moisture absorption is that the cells of the wood expand, and can, in some situations, damage woodworking projects by breaking glue joints, expanding doors, having some wood material bow, and generally making your hard created woodworking project distorted at the least and even destroyed in rare conditions.
But as everyone knows who is working with wood, movement needs to be understood in order without the wood coming apart on you or reacting in some way you don't know. Knowing how moisture meters work can help you understand how to use them properly ....

Apps for the Workshop

Read Time: 4 mins

Woodworking has traditionally been something we have done with hand tools, then in the last few decades we have moved to using more power tools, now with electronics, it makes me wonder what woodworking will evolve to in the future. To help me prepare for that I have invested in a small Samsung Tablet, which is similar to an Apple iPad. And for those of you who are still wondering about Tablets and iPads they are basically similar to a smartphone or iPhone ... without the phoning capability, but with all the other features.
If you are thinking of one of these units for yourself, you basically have 2 choices. You can purchase any one of several units that use what is called the Android operating system that was developed by Google. Tablets like Samsung, Nexus, Asus, Acer, etc. will use this operating system. Another choice would be the Apple iPad which uses an Apple operating system. The real difference between these units is that Apps that run on the Android units are NOT comparable with the iPad, and of course iPad Apps won't run on Android units. In a very few cases, people have developed an App for both units, but very often it will either be available on one or the other ... for now, but as these apps get more popular, many will be available for both.

On these smart electronic devices, iPhones and Tablets we can install something called Apps, an acronym that is short for the word application which is simply a small program that allows ...