..aaaaand it doesn’t fit under my couch! The one thing I forgot to measure for. Oh well.

I’ve been working on this little couch table on and off for months, in between cleaning up my garage, etc. finally decided to sand it and stain it. Reasonably happy with my first real project. The stain is blotchy in certain areas, even though I used a pre-stain conditioner. That vertical leg in the photo is the worst part actually. Lots of lessons learned! less

Well, I did a thing.

For our new place, I wanted to build my very own table. I’d never built one before, so this turned out to be quite the adventure.

A couple of years ago, my grandparents decided an alder tree on their property had to go. We had it felled, and luckily, they had some of the wood milled into boards at the local sawmill. Those boards have been waiting for another purpose ever since, and now they’ve finally become something useful.

After spending some time figuring out how to approach the build, I decided to take it one step at a time. First, I ripped the boards into narrower strips to help prevent cupping. Then came the jointing and glue-up, which turned out to be a whole new challenge in itself.

Once everything was glued together, I took a step back and thought, Hmm, that’s a little narrower than I had planned, but it should be fine.

Well, guess what? The table base was wider than the tabletop. 🤦‍♂️

So, naturally, I had to cut the top right down the middle, add three more boards, and glue the whole thing back together. Nothing like creating extra work for yourself!

After that came planing to get everything flat, followed by what felt like endless sanding.

It was a lot of work, and there were definitely moments when I questioned my decisions. But somehow, I genuinely enjoyed every minute of the process, even when things didn’t go according to plan.

I’m super happy with how it turned out, especially knowing that the wood came from my grandparents’ tree. There’s something pretty special about turning a tree that’s been sitting around for a couple of years into a piece of furniture for our home.

This was my first table, and I’ve learned a ton along the way. Definitely not perfect, but it’s mine, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

What do you guys think? Any tips or things you’d do differently for my next build (except better measuring)?

Our chinchilla was living in a small cage, so I decided to try building her a new one. I think it turned out pretty well! Of course, it’s nothing fancy, but it has sliding doors, lighting, chew-proof shelf edges, and a lot more space. :)
The only things I didn’t make were the exercise wheel.

Finally finished my second dovetail box.
Yes it’s not perfect, yes I drill through the lid, yes I snapped off three screws in the lid, yes the lid reveal is awful... Many lessons learned. Made this for my fiancée!

sapele and..... I can't remember. it's not hickory but hemlock I think... I designed it myself, had the idea for proud tails and pins, never seen a dovetail bookshelf. first time with mortise and tenons. got a wild hair and added the weird adornments on the side, they're not perfect and idk if it would have looked better without them.

My first woodworking project! I really needed a bed because I was tired of sleeping on the couch. Nothing special, but I thought I’d share it since a lot of people here post their projects :)

My wife asked me to make a box for her colors......so........I made a box for my wife's colors. Made from cherry wood. Did a prestain with dewaxed shellac, then stained with English Chestnut stain. Top coated with semi-gloss, spray-can lacquer. Inset some small magnets to help hold the lid but there was just enough friction without them. Last pic shows raw cherry vs finished.

Hi All

My first time ever making anything. Cut pine wood with a circular saw for the first time in my life last week. I have a few questions about this build. I'm building a seat bench that will sit in a corner with varnished timber top eventually with a 100mm overhang. The pine i'm using is 70x45mm. I need to build 3 of these, 1200mmx500mmx450mm

I have some questions about making it more efficient, i feel like it is over kill for a bench that will seat 2 people

- Can i get away with toe screwing diagonally pine together? or will this compromise the strength? Right now i've used timber screws for all joints varying between 75mm and 100m depending on the side of the pine

- Could i use a nail gun instead of screws?

- Should I use glue between each joint?

Any other tips or tricks that you see I can do better. If it helps, I'm in Australia

Thankyou!

Routed out the roads on 3/4 ply with a straight bit and built the buildings out of leftover scrap that I have a problem throwing away because one day I might need it, and it turns out I did. Blondewood and lauan wood, still working on it daily. The pavement is actually chalkboard paint to give the road a bumpy feeling

Carving by hand at weird/inconsistent/3D angles is really unpredictable & dangerous. Be safe out there.

So after getting a true face on longer board (call it 30 inches long), I am trying to then edge plane a true edge that is square to the true face. I am doing all of this with hand planes.
As an Aside: (I am currently reading and referencing The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing as my guide in regards to planing)

My problem is that no matter how I adjust the 608 it keeps screwing the edge to the true face so that the two faces are out of square.

A couple of notes about the planes:
I have a No5 jack plane with a severe radius on it. I know that it needs to be reground because it is not very accurate. My goal would be to put a 1/16 inch curve on it. Any advice here on what that means would be very useful as I believe this according to the above mentioned book might help in fixing my above issue.

The other is a No608 Stanley Bedrock fore plane which I restored.

Both have been ground flat and irons are sharp.

Edit: First off, thank you for everyone’s help. The internet truly can be a wonderful place. I’m always shocked by how supportive and quickly people jump in to help.

What I am gathering and thinking is that I was pushing way too hard trying to get the iron to bite into edge and take off a full shaving with every pass (seemingly making my problem worse with every pass). Seems that is not necessary and rather I need to be really let the tool do all the work. It seems that the plane has plenty of weight to “bite” at the high spots.

The scribing trick also seemed to have helped as I quoted the entire board with pencil. I currently have a much closer to square piece except for a low bit in the middle where presumably my saw went a bit heavy into my rip cut from before (seemingly making below). I have added a couple pictures to show progress.

Aside: This piece was also an off fall from a pretty rough attempt at a handsaw rip cut to size another piece.

My wife wanted a full size bed for our daughter, and after looking at all the options out there I decided to take all the features we liked from the different styles beds and make one myself. I have never done a project like this, and I learned so much. I did not use any diagrams or plans, just used some pictures as a reference for features I wanted to incorporate.

The slats are 1x4s with a 2.2ish inch gap between the slats, and three center support legs so it will support beds without voiding warranties. There is a 4x4 leg on each corner giving a 2 inch lift off the floor. Same 4x4s used for center support.

The side rails are 1x10s, and I liked the idea and look of the horizontal rails instead of vertical balusters. Less gaps for legs, arm, and heads to get stuck. Plus it looks less like a jail cell.

Canopy corner posts are 2x3s, and I used 2x2s for the canopy itself. 99% of the screws are hidden, and I used pocket holes and wood glue for most of the connections.

I sanded all the surfaces, and rounded the corners on everything that a toddler could potentially crash into. Mattress will be 11 inches in depth and will overlap the bottom of the side rail by 1 inch to prevent any appendages from getting caught.

Labelling this as finished because I basically just have to paint the left side, but this was my first carving project! I definitely got some of the anatomy off, but it’s a hanger for car keys. It’s pine and the base, which isn’t in the pictures, is mahogany I found in the scrap bin.

Just something I built a while ago.

I made these parallettes out of walnut, sapele, maple, and purpleheart with oak rails. They're about 15" in length. They were a fun project that used some of my off-cuts. Better tools would have made them a little more square, but they work great overall!

Still have to screw in the corner braces, add a cross brace to the middle, staple landscaping fabric inside the back part, then wrap the front with acoustic fabric. The panel's front side is currently on the bottom in this pic. This one will be a gobo style panel to place in certain areas of the room. The ones to go on the walls will be half as thick. Designing some stackable modular corner bass traps as well

I’m finishing up a DIY project for my living room: a coffee table made out of pine crates. I made one 5 years ago but it wasn’t very stable. This one now is more sturdy and matches the room better with the matching wood stain.
However, the table top is becoming so much trouble I’m about to get the ax out. The plan was to copy the old table and make a recessed hole to place remotes, drinks, etc. here’s a picture of the old table (lighter) and also the new table (darker). Right now I have 3 possible solutions and idk which would be best:

1.) Keep the recessed hole and make a new board. The problem is the hole itself, despite having my measurements figured out the boards I’ve put in are either too wide to fit or too narrow it leaves open slits for stuff to fall in. I tried gluing some underlay pieces under the main board but to no avail. I’m working with limited tools so I don’t have anything ideal like a compound miter saw, just a regular table saw.

2.) Make an open box that sits on the corner brackets. My grandpa used to make rectangular wooden boxes for planters. I could make one with thin walls and rest it on top of the brackets so the hole will be covered without relying on a single board. This isn’t much better as far as getting the cuts and measurements specifically correct and would take even more time and money.

3.) Cover the top with a couple sturdy boards and just have a flat surface with no hole at all. I’d just get some 8X1 - 12X1 boards or one giant butcher block, stain/varnish them and screw/ nail them on top. The issues here are that since the boxes don’t have uniform measurements I’m worried the pieces will not sit even and leave gaps in between the boards and top of the crates.

I have my specific measurements written down, but I’m at work now so I’ll post them later today. My main reason for doing this is so I can have as much storage space for my movie collection in my small apartment. I don’t have enough space and don’t really like those giant wall shelves. I would so grateful for any and all help with this! I’ve sunk too much time and money into this thing I was about to throw in the towel. Despite what my dad says I think the hole design works (the flat top was his idea) but if it’s generally less hassle and ends up looking good than that’s fine with me, it’s not a dealbreaker without the hole. Thank you for reading this and once again I appreciate any and all help with this :)

Hello Everyone, I would like to make this hanging fruit shelf. The only difference is that mine would hang without the support of side walls. I have figured on using French cleats to attach to the wall but am at a loss for how the angle is made... Are the dowels cut at an angle? Are the holes drilled for the dowels also angled? Is it only glue holding it together? Does it need side support or something underneath to hold the weight of the fruit? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Hi all, I'm just getting into woodworking (like one month in) and have access to a shop with all the standard machines. I came across an estate sale near me that has pretty extensive woodworking tools. I've posted the relevant images here. Can you all help me identify items that would be worth me stocking up on? Even if it's for projects down the road more so than right now.

Hey everyone, planning out this 10x12 shed with a 4-ft covered carport on the side.

The plan is to keep the enclosed part for tools, workbenches, and potting supplies, and use the covered side overhang to park the riding mower so it doesn't eat up interior floor space.

For those who have built something similar:

1. Is a 4-ft side overhang wide enough for easy mower access, or do you wish you went wider?

2. Any layout recommendations for door vs. window placement to maximize interior wall storage for hanging rakes/tools?

Would love to hear what functional details you’re glad you added to your own shed setup!

I’m going to install some miter track for a stop block on my miter saw, I’ve bought some laminate/formica sheet to cover my plywood worktops and wondering if it’s best to route the slots out first, glue the laminate on and trim the excess with a router and bearing bit or glue the laminate on first and route the whole slot in one go, I’m concerned about chipping the laminate this way. Any advice appreciated!

Ideas for a lock mechanism are welcome, thank you.