Active Furniture & Woodworking Posts
How To: Apply Edge Banding to Plywood
Plywood is flat, stable, and comes in lots of varieties. You can even use your plywood as a base for exotic veneers. But there is a consistent problem with plywood: how to treat the edges. This how-to video teaches you how to apply edge banding so it will hold up to wear and tear. All you need is iron edge banding, roller, sandpaper and an utility knife.
How To: Repair an Old Wooden Chair
Unscrew chair and knock apart gently with a rubber mallet. To fix a broken stretch, use quick dry polyurethane glue, using plenty (better to have too much than too little)
How To: Remove Watermarks from Wooden Surfaces
Everyone has those watermarks when you forgot to use a coaster but the solution is easy!! Here is a little step by step guide and a little video that might help - let me know what you think!
How To: Faux Ebonise Wood
If you have some worn scuffed wood and want to give it a little bit of life. These steps might help you to ebonise, taking half the time!!
How To: Remove a Scratch from an Antique Table
Hi everyone, I have been working on some videos and tips about restoring antique furniture, in this tutorial, I will be showing you how to remove a scratch from a wooden table.
How To: Build a Passive Solar Garage Door and Keep Your Garage Warm During Winter
I hate being cold. That's why I live in Los Angeles. But, there are plenty of folks who are experiencing some pretty chilly temperatures this year, despite global warming, and one of the worst places affected is the garage. C'mon, who has a freakin' heater in their garage?
How To: Assemble Wood Magazine's universal tablesaw jig
Eagle Lake Woodworking, hosted by John Nixon, offers great do-it-yourself guides for building your own furniture, especially in the American Arts and Crafts style, and turning your garage into an amateur woodshop. Search Eagle Lake on WonderHowTo for more carpentry tutorial videos. From Eagle Lake Woodworking on this specific lesson:
How To: Make a Garden Trug
This is a simple design built from reclaimed wood and purchased ¼” wood slats. It cost very little and only took a couple of hours to complete the build. The goal was light weight, shallow and wide for collecting leafy vegetables, easy to handle and somewhat attractive.
News: This High Voltage Furniture Technique Burns Lightning Designs into Wood
Lightning is scary and powerful, yet when harnessed correctly, it can become a beautiful pattern for hand-crafted wooden furniture. Muchd like Zeus in ancient mythology, Canadian Woodworks is harnessing the power and beauty of lightning, but they're doing it for aesthetic purposes.
News: The Slatted, Morphing 'Wave' Cabinet Opens Up Like a Paper Fan
If you're looking to mix up your home décor with something a little bit outside the traditional cabinet box set, check out the amazing Wave cabinet from NYC-based, Chilean designer Sebastian Errazuriz. This revolutionary design will change the way you think about interior decoration and furniture functionality.
News: These Beautiful Chairs Are Grown, Not Made
For anyone who has spent an entire afternoon attempting to assemble a set of IKEA chairs, these wooden masterpieces probably seem pretty appealing.
How To: Make a Unique Cardboard Chair
There have been numerous chairs made out of recycled or reclaimed cardboard. This week on the GreenerBusiness Podcast, we attempt to build our own unique comfortable cardboard chair.
How To: Build an Outfeed Table for a Table Saw
An outfeed table is a device to catch the workpiece after it's been machined. This how to video shows you how you can build an outfeed table for your tablesaw.
How To: Make a sharpening jig set up for bowl gouges
This instructional woodworking video to make a wooden jig for sharpening gouge tools on a grinding wheel. These sharpening jigs give consistent grinds. The jig makes sharpening a gouge almost foolproof so you can get back to wood turning.
How To: Make a flower arrangement using old CDs
In this video, Steven Marin shows us an interesting method to recycle old CDs to make beautiful flower arrangements along with other recycled materials. In order to make the flowers, you need to take your old CDs and heat them up in a toaster oven. As demonstrated in the video, the CDs are very hot when they are taken out and should be handled with care. They are easily molded into the interesting flower shape by pressing them down over the neck of a bottle or by holding them in a cloth and s...
How To: Make a Vase from a Slab of Wood Using a Scroll Saw
The video link included shows in text how I do it from start to finish. The description tells a little more. This particular vase is made of Aromatic Cedar and is 10 inches around.
How To: Make a Portrait Scroll Saw Pattern
I do mine on paper and in these two videos I will show you how to do them. Doesn't involve a computer unless you want to clean them up and color them in to show others.
How To: Make a Scroll Saw Pattern
This method can be used on any kind of scroll saw pattern. Animals, people, inanimate objects, etc. Done on paper and scanned onto my computer only to clean them up and color them in to display. Three part series.
How To: Build a retaining wall to flatten a sloped lawn
In this video you will learn how to build a retaining wall to flatten a sloped lawn. He says that if someone wants to garden but their yard is sloped and they know they can't do it, they should know that this is a lot of work. So be prepared to dedicate a lot of time and effort. You start by getting a building permit. If you're looking to build a low retaining wall you start by digging a trench a little wider then the stones and a few inches deep (the higher the wall the deeper the trench). F...
How To: Make adjustments to a wooden clock
Watch this instructional woodworking video to make some typical adjustments to a wooden clock. If the tick is running unevenly you can add some lead discs to the weight. You can also adjust the pendulum length.
How To: Make a wooden toothpick holder with a clown that pops out
Toothpicks are an almost essential part of proper oral hygiene, and toothpick holders are a great way to make them available to your houseguest without sacrificing style. This video will show you how to make your own very cool wooden toothpick holder that features a jack-in-the-box-like clown that your grab to lift the toothpicks. It's not too hard, practical, and good-looking, and thus a great woodworking project for you to look into.
How To: Make a traditional trug
The trugs are made from finished birch and lamium (sp)birch plywood. 1 inch wide and 4 millimeters thick plywood in three thickness. Laminate three pieces together to make a handle. Make a rim in the same way. It is made in two halves, put in a drying rack overnight and then trimmed and pinned together at the side with solid brass pins which won't rust. They are placed in a former where the boards are plced into the trug. The boards are 1 1/2 millimeter aircraft ply. The handle and rim are so...
How To: Build a simple window flower box
Add appeal to your new home with a new window box you make yourself. This video shows you how.
How To: Build a fireplace mantel from scratch
If you have a bare fireplace in your home, it can sometimes look unfinished and boring. Installing shelves or a new layer of brick or stone can help the cause. But a mantel can do so much to a fireplace as well. In this tutorial, you'll discover how to build a mantel from scratch. It's a great way to add character to not only your fireplace, but to your home as well. It's project that can take a day or two to complete depending on your level of expertise. So good luck and enjoy! Build a firep...
How To: Build a Puzzle Box
Watch the video and animation for to see how it works. The drawing(free PDF download) is included in the description of the videos.
How To: Laminate stairs
In this tutorial, we learn how to laminate stairs. First, you will need to grab your laminate and measure out the stairs. Then, cut out the nosing to the stairs. After this, you will need to cut out the laminate with a chop saw to place it on the front of the stairs so it looks nice and is fully covered on the stairs. You will need to place down glue on the laminate then press it down on the stairs and allow to dry. Behind the front piece you will place another piece of laminate and glue it d...
How To: Make a heart picture frame using red cedar wood
Nothing says 'I Love You' more than a gift that was made from scratch. Especially if that gift is shaped like a heart and is made from wood.
How To: Make a collapsible basket with a scrollsaw
In this two-part tutorial from the Scrollsaw Workshop, Steve Good demonstrates how to create a collapsible basket with a scrollsaw. As always, the pattern is available through Steve's blog, scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com. Make your own collapsible basket with this great scrollsaw tutorial.
How To: Build a Rok-Bak chair out of a single piece of plywood
This is a guide to making a recliner which is comfortable, inexpensive and easy to make. All you need is one 4 by 8 half-inch piece of plywood, as well as a few power saws and some paint. Then follow along, and end up with your own chair!
How To: Store your lawn equipment on your garage walls
Home improvement expert Danny Lipford provides tips to help organize your garage. Watch this video tutorial to see how to store your lawn equipment on your garage walls.
How To: Assemble a outdoor garden bench from leftover wood
You've made wonderful furniture, but what are you going to do with all the leftover piece of wood? Watch this how to video to learn how to use waste wood material to create a your own outdoor garden bench.
How To: Insulate your garage doors
This video looks at ways to insulate garage doors to help keep the shop cool in the summer, and warm in the winter.
How To: Treat treated wood
When a thick piece of wood is treated the treatment doesn't soak into the center of the wood. If you are using the wood for a fence post you need to treat the bottom of the wood so that the ground moisture doesn't damage it. In this how to video, home improvement expert Danny Lipford gives a great way to treat the bottom of your pre-treated wood.
How To: Make a Super Cheap Coffee-Stained Wood Pallet Coffee Table
Turning unused items into usable pieces of furniture is a great way to save money and create some really good-looking pieces for your room. And nothing beats repurposing old wooden pallets. Redditor BaconStripsandFishin used old wooden pallets and a month's worth of coffee to create his own unique coffee table. To make this, unscrewed all of the wooden panels (top and bottom), placed them all together, and then screwed them back in reusing those same nails. Once he had all of the board togeth...
How To: This DIY Burger King "Fly-Thru" Dishes Out Fast Food for the Birds
As our society and population grows, more developments such as housing and restaurants are built. While this is beneficial for us, it's not so great for the environment and the animals that occupy it. Some of the victims of our prosperity have been the birds, forced from their natural habitats.
How To: These Google Maps Birdhouses Make It Easy for Birds to Find Their Way Home
With Google Maps, we can fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Paris and New York—all in a matter of seconds. We can zoom in with relative ease and flock around the city of our choice, checking out restaurants, historical landmarks, traffic and scuba divers. Easily the most recognizable and iconic part of Google Maps are the markers that signify all of these locations and point of interests. The iconic markers have already spurred artists to create Google Map inspired art pieces—with one such arti...
How To: Make a step stool with free Craigslist wood
Did you know that right now people are giving away all sorts of stuff for free on Craigslist? Check out the "free" listings, and you'll be surprised by what you can find. In this video, we see how to make a folding stool using wood that was picked up for free off of Craigslist.
How To: Re-paint old furniture
If your furniture has seen better days but is nevertheless structurally sound, restoring it might be as simple as applying a fresh layer of paint or wood stain. This free video tutorial demonstrates a method for refinishing furniture with a power sander. For more information, and to get started rejuvenating your own antique furniture, watch this video tutorial.
How To: Make a cardboard chair
This is a quick demo of how to make a cardboard chair.
Quick Tip: Fix a Stripped Screw Hole in Five Minutes with Toothpicks
There's nothing that halts progress on a DIY project like a stripped screw. It's incredibly frustrating to get out, and that's just the beginning of your problems. Once it's out, you might also have to fix the hole if you want to use it for anything else. There are tons of ways to do this, but if you're looking for something quick and simple, Chris over on Man Made DIY has you covered.