r/woodworking • u/canondrums • 6h ago
General Discussion Magnificent cabinets from 18th century
466
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Some pretty incredible handmade cabinets I’ve encountered in a museum in Fribourg, Switzerland.
r/woodworking • u/theclafinn • 6h ago
Project Submission Traditional(ish) Finnish dough pail (staved bucket with lid)
170
Upvotes
TL;DR
I made a traditional(ish) Finnish dough pail i.e. a staved bucket with lid. It's made out of Eurasian aspen (Populus tremula) and finished on the outside with 100% tung oil. The staves have small dowels in between them to help keep them aligned, as do the boards that make up the bottom. The hoops are stainless steel. No glue was used to assemble the pail, as that would hinder wood movement and increase the risk of cracking. I also had to make a lot of the tools and jigs, such as a 3D printed croze plane.
Disclaimer
This is the story of a beginner woodworker muddling through an ambitious project. I am not an expert at woodworking, or staved buckets. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Background
A couple of years ago I bough a dough pail for making traditional Finnish rye bread, and used it with great success (as in the bread was amazing) for about a year. The point of a dough pail is to house the bacteria and yeasts that ferment the dough, give it it's distinctive taste and make it rise. After baking the pail is allowed to dry, so that the microbes on and in its walls go dormant. When you want to bake again you simply put water and flour into the pail, causing the microbes to wake up and get to work. This results in extreme wet dry cycles for the pail, especially in modern Finnish houses where the air tends to be quite dry. The pail I had bought couldn't handle these conditions and developed bigger and bigger cracks with each use.
Diagnosing the problem
I wrote about my cracking dough pail and what could be the cause in this thread: How to make a staved bucket that can tolerate wet dry cycles?. In the end I came to the conclusion that the most likely cause is that the staves on the bucket are glued together, which inhibits wood movement.
Looking for information
My primary source for information was a book by Toivo Malkama: Koti- ja maataloudellisia käsityöpiirustuksia työohjeineen (roughly translates to: Domestic and agricultural handicraft drawings with instructions), printed in 1948. Unfortunately, that one is unlikely to be available to most people here. I also watched many youtube videos, and these two are the ones I found most helpful: Making a bucket completely from wood – without glue or metal by Andi's workshop, and Traditional Cooper - George Smithwick - History and how to make a wooden bucket by Museums of History NSW.
Choosing the wood
As I was making a traditional Finnish dough pail, I wanted to stick to traditional Finnish wood as the material. Old wisdom says that juniper (Juniperus communis) is the best wood for staved containers. It has fine grain, it's tough, moves little with changes in moisture, and as a bonus it smells amazing. Unfortunately in Finland it rarely grows large enough for the size of pail I was making, and it isn't commercially available really at all, so juniper was a no go.
The next best (and probably most used) material is spruce (Picea abies), however, my sources also specified that it needed to be slow grown "korpikuusi", which may mean either a spruce that has grown in the wilderness or on swampy land, I'm not sure which. In any case, most spruce one can buy has grown in managed forests where it grows rather quickly. Spruce also tends to be quite knotty, which is bad for a bucket.
The third most preferred option seemed to be aspen (Populus tremula). That I could find easily, it's naturally very low on knots, and the mill I bought it from said theirs was air dried ouside for two years, which might be beneficial for the durability of the bucket (bugs are not much of a problem in Finland, due to the cold climate I guess, so kiln drying isn't a must). That is what I went with.
Designing the pail
I did like the dimensions of the bucket I had bought, so I followed them quite closely: about 20 cm high to the brim (8"), 33 cm diameter at the brim (13"), 9 degree slant on the side, with an internal volume of about 9 liters (2.4 US gal). This is small for a dough pail. Old pails tended to be much bigger as rye bread was a staple food and even a small family ate a lot of it.
I used 3D CAD to model the pail. That way I could just measure the angles of the staves and also design jigs and tools to fit them. I like math but doing trigonometry in 3 dimensions is a PITA. The bucket has 12 staves, two of which are longer to form the handles.
The thing that had me scratching my head the most was the joint between the sides of the pail and the bottom. I found it very hard to find exact information on how it should be made. The second video I linked to earlier was helpful, but I decided to go more with the instructions in the book by Toivo Malkama, as they were reasonably clear. I drew a picture to show the basic idea and proportions of the joint. The top edge of the bottom is beveled so that the very edge is the same thickness as the width of the croze, and then it gets thicker towards the middle, though only by a millimiter or so. Pushing the bottom into the croze creates an interference fit. The diameter of the bottom is maybe 2 mm less than the diameter measured at the bottom of the croze, leaving a little room for the bottom to expand.
Grain direction of the staves was another thing that gave me pause. Most sources were rather vague about it, but I got the impression that radial sawn staves are ideal, and if you can't have that, you should orient them so that the heartwood side of the stave is on the outside of the bucket. That way the staves hold their shape the best.
For the hoops I decided to go with stainless steel. Wooden hoops would be the traditional thing, but that would require being able to go to a forest to select exactly the right kind of young trees or brances to make the hoops. I don't have the skill, or the access, or the time, plus I kind of like the more sleek look of the steel hoops. A friend was nice enough to cut the hoops on a water jet cutter, so I could skip the part about hammering a straight strip of steel into the correct shape. All I had to do was to bend them into circles and rivet them. The lowest hoop needs to be at the height of the bottom and wide enough to span the whole thickness of the bottom (or the width of the croze). That way it's best equiped to resist the force than comes from the bottom as it expands and pushes against the sides of the pail.
The lid is a simple glued panel. It is quite thin, though, so it needed cross bars to make it stronger. The grain on the cross bars runs perpendicular to the grain on the panel, so the joint cannot be glued. It needs to allow wood movement. A sliding dovetail is the traditonal way to join them, and that's what I used.
Tools and jigs
I do my woodworking at a class where I have access to a fairly nice selection of woodworking machines, however, there were several tools and jigs that I had to design and make (or have made). All 3d printing was done by a friend of mine, from my designs. 3d printing helped save my limited woodworking hours for doing the actual pail.
Angle guides: 3d printed angle guides for setting the table saw blade at the correct angle, one for cutting the ends of the staves and another for cutting the sides of the staves.
Table saw jig for cutting the staves: a piece of plywood with two 3d printed pieces for positioning the stave, one for each side of the stave, and a toggle clamp to hold the stave in place.
End holders for staves: since I chose to cut the ends of the staves at a angle fom the start I needed little pieces to help compensate for the angle when clamping the staves in place for planing them. These were 3d printed in PLA, which in retrospect wasn't the best material. Both of them cracked, but fortunately only after fulfilling their purpose.
Drilling jigs: there are two dowels in each joint of the staves and they needed holes drilled perpendicular to the side of the stave, which is not perpendicular to the face of the stave, which made using a drill press difficult. I designed 3d printed guides that fit over the sides of the staves, so that I could drill the holes with a hand drill. The guide holes have brass tubes glued into them to make them more durable.
Plane for the convex side of the staves: shaping the concave inside face of the staves required a special plane. I could not find a suitable one available to buy, so I got a Veritas scrub plane iron (which has a curved edge) and designed a basic body for it, which was then 3d printed by my friend. It was made out of black CF-ASA, which turned out not to be the best material. It did provide excellent dimensional accuracy, but it also had a rough surface that caused a lot of friction against the wood, making planing rather laborious. The body shape was not ergonomic at all, and my hands were pretty sore after I was done with the planing. It aso left black marks on the wood, but they fortunately came off with sanding.
Coze plane: probably the most interesting of the tools was the plane for making the croze i.e. the groove for the bottom to fit into. It was also the most difficult to design and required three iterations to turn out the way I wanted. The basic design I copied from the first video I linked earlier, but I made some changes to fit the size of my bucket an the size of the croze I wanted. It has two jigsaw blades, sharpened at the tip, that cut the sides of the groove, and a chisel that removes the material between the cuts. It was 3d printed in white GF-PETG, which was a much more suitable material than the CF-ASA used for the other plane. It wasn't effortless to use, but the end result was beautiful.
The actual process in a nut shell
- milling the planks to the correct cross section
- cutting the staves to length, I chose to cut them to the correct angle too, so that I would automatically get smooth top and bottom edge for the pail (trying to smooth it later looked difficult)
- sawing the edges of the stave to the correct angle and taper on a table saw
- drilling holes to the edges of the staves for the dowels
- planing the staves, convex on the outside, concave on the inside
- drilling the holes on the handles
- assembling the sides of the pail (no glue!) (I was able to use the hoops of my old pail to hold it in shape, so I could leave the actual hoops for later) and sanding it
- making the croze
- cutting the bottom boards (3 pc) to length and assembling with dowels (no glue)
- cutting the bottom to shape on a scroll saw, with the edge at the same angle as the sides of the pail and the bottom of the croze
- beveling the top edge of the bottom with a knife and sanding it
- putting the bottom in place
- shaping and riveting the hoops and putting them on the pail
- making the lid
- finishing the lid and the outside of the pail with 100% tung oil (not traditional at all, and I hope I don't come to regret it)
To be honest, almost all steps of the process required some trial and error, fixing mistakes, much sanding, and a lot of sweat and a little blood (the blades on the croze plane were indeed sharp).
Concluding remarks
This whole thing took me roughly 150 to 200 hours of work (could be more, I didn't keep count), not including the work done by my friends with the 3d printing and cutting the hoops, or the time doing research. In my opinion it wasn't nearly as difficult as some people seem to think, though I had lots of tools and aids at my disposal, which smoothed the way considerably.
The end result is pretty much all that I had hoped, though the coming months of use will be the true test if I succeeded.
In short, it was fun. 10/10 do recommend.
r/woodworking • u/AutoModerator • May 03 '26
🔍🪵 Wood ID | Megathread Wood ID Megathread
21
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This megathread is for wood ID
- If possible, clean up the wood with a plane (or chisel for the end grain) so that we can see the grain clearly.
- Include a close-up picture of the end grain. Not blurry. End grain pore structure is one of the most useful bits of info for wood ID.
- Note any non-visual distinguishing characteristics. Does the wood feel particularly light or particularly dense? Does it have an odor when planed?
- 4Include multiple pictures or text info as sub-comments under a main picture, not as an avalanche of first-level comments.
r/woodworking • u/f-150Coyotev8 • 18h ago
Project Submission Made a charcuterie board for a wedding gift
642
Upvotes
Made a charcuterie board out of walnut and epoxy. I cut it in half with a jigsaw and filled it with epoxy. I had one little blow out and had to fill it.
r/woodworking • u/dleifm • 1h ago
Project Submission First Picture Frame… started small ;)
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I’ve been wanting to try my hand at picture frames for a few years now but always got sidetracked by other types of projects.
A couple of months ago, the missus came back from an art exhibition raving about a large botanical drawing of a miner’s lettuce plant and how good it would look on the empty wall in our living room. It was drawn on a long piece of brown paper and had been shown in the gallery hanging from a single piece of wood.
I got in touch with the artist and managed to bring it home. The piece is 3’W x 7’H. Larger than I had planned for my first frame, but I gave it a shot :)
I started by making a frame sample from some off cuts. Realized that I needed to rotate the wood by 90 degrees so that the face of the frame showed the long grain lines and not the “peaks.” I’m really glad I noticed that detail before starting on the large frame!
I ripped down two old cedar 2x4’s that I got at a garage sale after an old woodworker passed. He’d been storing them in his shed rafters for many years.
I cut the rabbits on my table saw and then rounded over the edges with my trim router. I cut the 45’s with my grandfather-in-law’s old mitre box, which I had been holding on to for a decade but never used. It worked like a charm.
I cut a piece of doorskin to match the size of the art and then glued up the frame using a strap clamp on my living room floor because it was flatter than my shop floor. I had to extend the strap because it wasn’t long enough to fit around the whole frame.
Sanded to 220, then two coats of tung oil.
I assembled everything on a large work table at my day job, (but after hours.) The glass is 1/8” non-glare acrylic, cut down to size by the shop where I bought it. Glazier’s points, acid-free mounting tape, and brown framer’s tape finished it off.
Everything went fairly smoothly and I’m very happy with the end result. Final weight is 24lbs.
Best part is, the missus went out of town for the week before her birthday so I was able to make the frame and assemble everything without her knowing or suspecting anything :) I strongly doubt I’ll ever be able to pull off a better birthday gift.
r/woodworking • u/Pwnxor • 2h ago
Nature's Beauty Found some wild spalting in the rough maple I picked up recently
28
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This plant was super close to rotten, figured I'd try my luck on the planet
r/woodworking • u/Riverlark • 2h ago
General Discussion Table saw question and right tilting blade
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I have a Ryobi BT3000 table saw I picked up used for $200 that included the built-in router table and sliding miter table with gauge. I'm new to woodworking, started about 3 years ago and its my first table saw. I've learned a lot about it and took a class on Table Saw Basics. I practice safety at all times and try to always stay mindful of the potential dangers. So far its been a great tool when I need it but will admit I am intimidated by it and try to only use it when my wife is around or nearby.
My issue is when I need to do angled cuts and this saw has a right-tilting blade. It just seems like such a bad design and after reading some Reddit posts and then a Fine Woodworking’s article about left tilt vs right tilt I feel validated in that feeling (photo of article). The FWW article said a fix would be to shift my fence over to the left of my blade which I can do and plan on for any future angled cuts. What has me a bit confused in this operation is what they said about how it changes the measurements in that position. I don’t really understand what that means in practical terms. I feel stupid asking about this but I am a bit challenged with mechanical and engineering type questions. Why would the measure from the fence to my blade change from one side to the other? For reference, I have a thin kerf blade on my Ryobi and it has its original fence. I tuned up my saw when I got it, checking my parallels regarding the blade to fence and miter slots as well. Things are good on both. I know my blade doesn’t sit in the center of the throat plate but can’t I just measure from fence to blade when I need to?
And is there anything I might be missing to keep myself safe when I shift the fence over and am doing angled cuts with left tilt? I understand I still need to make sure my work piece is held against the fence and use proper pushblock safety, ear and eye protection, and stance. Thanks!
r/woodworking • u/ClipIn • 2h ago
Announcement We need your ideas!: New categories "Post Flairs" and "User Flairs" in r/woodworking, it's time to update. TWO reasons: 1) Post Flairs make easy work to search/filter Posts, and 2) User Flair go next to your username and give context to your experience
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Upvotes
Hey folks,
It's been a while since we updated some subreddit settings.
We want your ideas/suggestions for post categories we don't have now (e.g. Project Submission, Hand Tools, etc), or user-descriptions (e.g. Joiner, Luthier, etc). Please drop a comment if Post Flair AND/OR User Flair you'd like to see in the subreddit.
Scroll down, for a list of existing flairs.
We're asking for edits/additions:
1. Post Flairs
A special tag community members can assign to their Post/Thread (pick one per Post). Categorizes your Post type. These show up in reddit searches, or sort/filter the subreddit by clicking one. It looks like this on the r/woodworking homepage:
2. User Flairs
A tag users pick, appears next to your username anytime you Post or Comment in r/woodworking, and only appears in this sub. Shows the type of woodworking you do. It looks like this:
These are current Post Flairs
General Discussion
Project Submission
Techniques/Plans
Hand Tools
Power Tools
Shop Tour/Layout
Finishing
CNC/Laser Project
Repair
Jigs
Safety
Nature's Beauty
Help
These are current User Flairs
Cabinetry
Carpentry
Carving
CNC
Framing
Furniture
Hand Tools Only
Joinery
Luthier
Woodturning
Please drop a comment if you'd like new categories added or have suggestions!
We'd like to make these useful, interesting, helpful. So, time-to-time we look for community to advise us on revising. Thanks!
r/woodworking • u/bassboat1 • 8h ago
Repair A customer of mine gave me a freebie, water-damaged maple bench with a decent steel base. It will be a nice upgrade over the warped solid-core door that it's replacing.
16
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r/woodworking • u/Hzrdrecon • 4h ago
Techniques/Plans Question about planning this cut
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(I’m sorry for the rough editing in markup)
I’ve received this slab of walnut (for free) and am planning to make it a desk. I’ve determined that I want to cut it 18” in width, 48” in length.
What are some considerations for the width before I cut?
r/woodworking • u/National-Standard750 • 18h ago
Project Submission My favorite cabinet project
62
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Here’s a white oak gun cabinet I’m putting the final touches on. It’s definitely one of my favorite furniture projects over the years.
Wood, guns & leather 🤟
White oak stained with Old Masters Gel stain + 3 coats of milese.
r/woodworking • u/MadalorianCubist • 1d ago
General Discussion U.S. sets tax total for Canadian softwood lumber exports at almost 35 percent | Woodworking Network
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r/woodworking • u/peaheezy • 2h ago
Power Tools This seems like a concerning amount of rust on a brand new planer. But it’s also my first planer, thoughts?
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Back when HD was doing a 60% clearance I bought a 13 inch Rigid planer for like 200 bucks because I thought it would be cool to mill my own rough boards. I bought some cherry from a local yard and used a friends bandsaw to rip it into some pieces to run through the planer. I set up the planer today and during my initial inspection found this rust on the blades. It’s been sitting in my garage for 3 weeks but bone dry so it came that way from the factory. The actual cutting edges have some protective film applied and don’t look rusty but there is a fair amount of surface rust on the curved part of the blade. It’s definitely not a protective grease or anything unless they make grease that smells like rust nowadays.
Is this a big enough issue that I should exchange it? The rust seems superficial without any clear pitting or thick rust but I haven’t tried cleaning it off with vinegar or anything. This is my first planer and couldn’t find anyone online with a similar experience. I didn’t find any sawdust or other indications that it’s a returned model. Overall it seemed pretty well built without any loose blades or other problems others dealt with.
r/woodworking • u/Wild_Parrot • 21h ago
Project Submission Farmhouse style desk
72
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Latest commission for a repeat client - this is her third. She loves a sort of shaker or “simple” style and we agreed to add the curved details to the top just to break up the squareness slightly. Also this desk will be seen from front and back, so that detail is extra nice to have.
We went with red oak for the top for cost reasons, but she asked for a finish more in the walnut world and we settled on Natura One chocolate brown. Came out a little red the first coat, so I sanded back and came out browner the second time - I think I just didn’t give it a good enough stir!
I usually go with poplar for painted pieces, but this ash was extremely discounted and perfectly serviceable. I was torn as to whether to keep the figured pieces for something special, but everything can’t go in the “keep for later” pile… In the end, the ash was an absolute pleasure to work and I’ll be looking for it from now on.
I don’t love painting pieces, as it’s so messy (in a liquidy, non-shavings-producing way), but I’m starting to get the hang of my Graco sprayer and so it wasn’t too painful this time.
Thanks - as always - for the support and inspiration, and feel free to ask any questions you may have!
r/woodworking • u/Natenator76 • 21h ago
Project Submission Urn for my mother in-law: figured bubinga with curly maple lid and bubinga handle
56
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Grain wrapped.
Finished with odie's super duper everlasting oil and odie's wax. Had planned to use super blonde shellac to try and keep the maple as white as possible but the test pieces I did looked the same as the oiled so kept everything odie's.
The last bunch of pics are me trying different lid designs lol
Is it perfect? No but turned out pretty good.
r/woodworking • u/the_balticat • 27m ago
Finishing Spots not taking up stain... any suggestions on how to remedy this?
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I bought this MCM piece that had an abused top (see last photo) and after sanding down and then staining, I was surprised to see these areas that won't take on the stain. I have no idea what substance is there that is causing this. I tried applying a bit more stain to those spots using a q-tip 2 days after the initial staining, but no luck. Any suggestions?
r/woodworking • u/Gbhphoto7 • 19h ago
Nature's Beauty 3 Scap boxes
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I use scrap and small pieces i would throw away to make various boxes.. Saddly some dont come out the way i would like. Sucks but ill try again next time. I give them away frequently to family friends...Drs, restaurants i frequent.. and pretty much anyone lol
r/woodworking • u/Wongaburra1234 • 1d ago
Project Submission ‘Spider’ design coffee table
343
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This coffee table was designed as a continuation from my stool I made a few weeks ago (final slide) which was inspired by YouTube woodworker four eyes furnitures coffee table.
Really stoked with how this turned out and especially the herringbone pattern top which was made from old fence posts.
Definitely my favourite project so far and keen to hear what everyone thinks!
r/woodworking • u/Sea_Vegetable4444 • 2h ago
General Discussion Board long bow correction
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Any ideas for fixing this bow / dern thing appeared this morning. Glue joint edge
r/woodworking • u/Willing-Bandicoot-55 • 3h ago
Power Tools Is this much play normal in my planer rollers?
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This is a Rigid 12” planer. It knocks and rattles quite a bit while running but not sure if that’s normal since it seems to be working just fine.
Today I unplugged it and reached in to feel the play and it seems pretty clunky. Can someone tell me if this is normal and if I should adjust it? I don’t want to fiddle with the technology unless I need to.
Also, I had to crank this thing all the way up and remove a guard for this so hopefully it won’t be deemed low effort 😉
r/woodworking • u/Pulldalevercrunk • 20h ago
Power Tools Quick and dirty bandsaw wheeled base
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I have more time than money so made a base with some old castors.
r/woodworking • u/Temporary_Edge8752 • 1d ago
Hand Tools My Dutch tool chest
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Wanted a place to house and display my had tools so I built this Dutch tool chest after getting Megan Fitzpatrick's book changed basically every dimension and made a 3 pane glass lid with decorative battens I used preglued pine project panels since I plan on building another chest from hardwood when I finish collecting all the tools I want hope yall enjoy looking
r/woodworking • u/Fahrraday • 1d ago
Project Submission Small table from beech
87
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Finally it is done, my only wood.project in this year. I am a hobbyist and time is scarce these days. I like the 45 degree legs, but I would not do it again this way. Table saw, bandsaw and a jounter/planer were used and hand tools for the finer stuff
r/woodworking • u/Zealousideal-Yam6275 • 1d ago
Project Submission Outdoor Table build
227
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Table I built, got some inspiration from a fellow redditor and internet. Still very much a beginners so lots could have gone better, but it’s solid.
The top is bolted on, so it can be removed. This is because it is a very heavy piece to move otherwise.
Quite happy with most of it, but the bearer between the legs did not work out too well. It is a mortise and tenon, but I did not get it to sit well in there as I had no clamps that length, and didn’t think to use ratchet straps at the time. In the end I threw some screws on there to, and plugged the holes.
No finish on it yet, but I will likely oil it. It is macrocarpa so i can just leave it to weather and it’ll go nice and grey. I tried to leave some of the rough sawn marks on there where I could to give it a bit of character.
Next step is matching benches.
r/woodworking • u/GiddySwine • 22h ago
General Discussion Gift Ideas, I'd like to make my friend a wooden gift. He's also a hobbyist and I was thinking a wooden mallet
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However, I'm aware that often a wooden mallet is often a "woodworker's first project" and I don't want to take that away from him. Is there another woodworking thing I can make that would supplement his hobby without taking away from the enjoyment of the craft? Am I overthinking this?