Joinery
Click on photo categories to the left to switch. Feel free to reach out with any questions about what joinery you need for your project!
Multi Piece Doors
Multi piece doors are made up of two rails, two stiles, and a center panel all assembled as one unit. Every style of door has different cut variations for the rail and stiles and all require there own type of router or shaper cutters. A wood paneled door is best made when it has rubber space balls or panel inserts surrounding the panel. Those inserts allow the panel to expand and contract, as well as keeping the panel tight and rattle free.
Solid wood panels are made of real wood glued together to the required dimensions. These panels move the most during the seasonal changes. a 12″ panel can grow and shrink up to 1/4″. Every wood panel requires a panel insert that can be squeezed when the panel has expanded. Most panels are fit to where their is a small amount of compression on the insert. That way if the wood contracts from the time that it is assembled, the panel will still be tight. Solid panels are best for stained and exposed wood doors. They are not good for painted cabinetry due to the wood shrinking and showing unfinished areas of the panel.
Plywood panels are a better solution to keeping your panel in place with minimal expansion. You have the option of keeping the wood look of a hardwood plywood panel, or you can use a maple/birch panel and paint it. When using plywood, you will end up having a 1/4″ thick sheet for the panel. This will make your door lighter in weight.
MDF panels are the best solution for painted cabinetry. It has virtually zero seasonalchanges and can be placed tight in the frame of the door. Since the panel will not shrink, it will not show unpainted areas during the dry months. You can also make the panel 1/4 or 1/2″ for shaker style or even thicker for raised panel applications.
Glass panels require a slightly different variation for the rail and stile construction, but the concept is still the same. Instead of having a three sided enclosed groove for a center panel, a glass panel door will have a full rabbeted cut on the back side of the frame to allow a glass panel to be placed into and taken back out with ease. Glass breaks easily so you do not want to fully entrap a glass panel in a glued up door.
General Joinery
Traditional joinery dates back thousands of years and it still gets used today for a reason, because it works! Some newer concepts are used today and their is an application for all of them.
Mortise & Tenon joints are used in many different ways. One highlighted way is to connect a rail to a column or leg. A tenon is a tongue protruding out of the end of a board that fits inside of a mortise hole. The hole is cut/drilled to match the shape of the tongue.
Dado joints are a slot cut into the side of a piece of wood to entrap and support another board. They are the go-to joint for supporting shelves or cabinet bottoms.
Lock Miter joints are a 45 degree mitered edge that has a tongue and groove in between. Two boards cut with the corresponding lock miter joint will form a true 90 angle. A good use of a lock miter joint is creating hollow beams or columns by putting a lock miter on each corner of the box.
Drawer Joinery
There is only so many drawer joints out there but they all are useful and have a place in the woodworking industry.
Half blind dovetail joints have a tail board (the sides) that get embedded into the side of the pin boards (front and back) without exposing the end of the dove tail. This gives a good appeal for cabinetry drawers, but still provide the superior strength of a dovetail joint.
Box Joint drawers are similar to the dovetail joint but instead of being cut with a tapered endmill, they are i cut with a square endmill or a table saw. These joints still have good appeal and strength to last for many years.
Inlays
Inlays can be used for conserving the integrity of a slab of wood, to join two pieces with a inlayed spline, or as an added visual effect with graphic art or shapes.
Bowties are typically used to stop cracks from continuing in solid slab of wood or to help join two pieces of wood together. They can also be thrown into a project to cover up knots, mistakes, or other flaws. Bowties can be made with contrasting wood species.
Graphic inlays are a good way to add an added customized touch to any project. You can inlay something simple like a name or shape into a board or something more elaborate like a barrel racing horse or chicken! There is no limits to what can be inlayed into a board.
Metal Fasteners
Generally metal fasteners are overlooked in this industry because… its woodworking, not metal working! There are an abundance of different types of metal fasteners on the market and quite a few of them make their way into woodworking.
Dog Bone Clamps are an excellent way to add an extra level of clamping between two boards. We like to use them in addition to wood glue between two large slabs that will try to work away from each other. There is a hole in each slab with a bolt that runs between each insert that you can tighten to bring the slabs together.
C Channel Supports are definitely recommended on a lot of table top builds. The idea of adding metal c channel underneath a table top is to help keep the top from warping. If a table top has bread board ends or other means of cross supporting, then c channels are not needed.
Shelf Pins are used for adjustable shelving. a 1/4″ hole is cut or drilled into evenly spaced locations on at least two sides of a cabinet or shelving unit. Little metal shelf pins are inserted into those holes for the shelf to sit on.