This Will CHANGE How You Build!

today I want to show you that building amazing looking furniture or any other woodworking project really doesn't have to be that difficult and even beginners can get beautiful results on pieces that can last Generations so often it's just overlooking tiny details or using the wrong technique at the wrong time that is going to have a major impact on the final result of your project so throughout this build I'm going to be sharing with you all of my best tips now techniques the things that you can Implement on your next projects to take them to the next level all right so let's jump right into this the first thing I need for this project are a set of legs and everything is going to be built out from these legs when Milling legs you want to make sure that you Mill them oversiz and the longer the legs are going to be the more extra material that you want to make sure that you leave this is because once you cut the legs out of a larger piece of stock they're very likely to move on you leaving you with a table with a gimpy leg so make sure and leave your leg stock a little oversized let it sit overnight so it can do any movement that it's going to and then the next day you can Mill it to actual size and you'll end up with perfectly straight legs you also need to pay attention to the grain Direction in your legs Flats boards will leave you with a cathedral grain pattern instead look for quarteron or Rift song grain which is going to be running diagonal through the end of the leg this will give you the straightest grain pattern of the legs which looks much better now reference marks are extremely important especially for large complex projects you're going to see me use reference marks throughout this entire project be sure that you label your parts and use reference marks often to avoid mistakes cuz seriously the last thing you want to do right now is to cut a nice clean mortise into the wrong side of your legs to keep from having just straight square blocks for legs I like to add a taper to the bottom inside faces this really lightens the look of your project and adds a really nice subtle detail just Mark a slight taper on the bottom of the leg and cut it off at the band saw now make sure to grab that offcut because we're going to need it tape this back in place so that you still have your mark so that you can cut the other face at the band saw anything coming off the band saw is going to be rough and Jagged so we need to get this cleaned up now you could use a sandig block but I really recommend getting a hand plane now if you've never used a hand plane before you are really missing out a good sharp hand plane is just so satisfying to use use I mean seriously try to find a local Woodworkers Guild or a Rockler that's offering some hand plane classes and go try it out you'll be hooked and the surface that you get fresh off the plane is so much smoother than anything you can get with sandpaper have you ever moved a heavy piece of furniture across the floor and have a piece chip out of the bottom of the leg well this can happen if you don't have a heavy shamer on the bottom of the legs a few swipes with one of my favorite tools a small block plane is all it takes now I use this little guy on every project it is so handy to have one in the shop now another small detail that has a huge impact on your projects is including long flowing curves this makes a piece much more interesting to the eye and it is so easy to add this detail and all you need to do this is something long and a little floppy that's what she said that's what she said all you need to do is clamp some scraps to each end of the board that you want the curve on then push your floppy member against the blocks put some pressure in the middle and create your curve for my project I'm doing that on all of the lower rails to add a nice lighter look to the [Music] piece now once again we need to address the rough cut from the band saw however a regular plane won't do here this is a job for a Spoke shave now these are great for smoothing out curves but if you don't have a Spoke shave you can make a flexible sanding block that'll do the job as well you just need a piece of hardboard with a couple of wooden handles glued to each end and then glue on some sandpaper this makes quick work out of smoothing out curves because the hardboard is going to flex and fit the profile and sand out all of the high spots leaving you with a silky smooth curve [Music] full sheets of plywood can be very difficult to move around and dangerous to try to lift onto a table saw now I prefer to lay down pieces of Styrofoam and cut the sheets down to manageable size on the floor instead of trying to wrestle the plywood up onto a table you can use a track saw to get very accurate Cuts or you can make your own homemade version for a circular saw like a video that I did a while back now for me spending time in the shop has always been kind of therapeutic in a way it's a place where I can focus on just creating something with my hands and letting go of the stress and worries of day-to-day life but I know not everyone has that kind of outlet and sometimes the weight of it all can feel like it's too much to bear and you really need someone you can talk to well that's where better help comes in as the sponsor of today's video better help is an online therapy platform that makes getting professional help more accessible and convenient than ever before with over 30,000 licensed th IST and their Network better help can match you with someone who understands what you're going through and can help provide the support and the guidance you need to navigate through life's challenges and whether you prefer a phone call video chat or messaging better help lets you choose the most comfortable format for your therapy sessions and if you don't feel like the therapist is right for you you can easily switch to a new one at no additional cost now taking care of your mental health is just as important as taking care of your physical health and there's no shame in seeking help when you need it it if you're feeling overwhelmed stressed or just need somebody to talk to I encourage you please give betterhelp a try go to betterhelp.com biscuit tree or select biscuit tree Woodworks when you sign up you'll get a special discount off your first month of therapy your mental well-being is well worth investing in now I'm using a lot of dominoes in this build but don't let that stop you and make you feel like you can't build something like this anything that you see me doing with the Domino you can do with Dows biscuits or even pocket holes whenever possible you should always sand Your Parts before gluing them together into assemblies it is so much easier to sand everything when all of the parts are flat and you have full access to all the sides to reduce the stress and frantic running around trying to grab Hammers and clamps during glue UPS try to work with sub assemblies if your design allows for this dresser I can glue up the side panels and the legs as well as the back panel all separately then after the glue dries I can put together the subassemblies greatly reducing the number of glue joints that I have to worry about all right now this is a bit embarrassing to admit but you're about to witness me break my number one rule in woodworking you should always and I mean always do a dry assembly before applying the glue once the glue is on it's a Race Against Time to get everything assembled and the line before the glue starts to set up you don't want to have to try to find more clamps or realize the too late that your joinery is just a little bit off when that glue is starting to seize those parts together now in my rush to get these subassemblies glued up I completely forgot to do a dry assembly and ensure everything fit properly and unfortunately for me a couple of my dominoes were off which caused a misalignment between the solid wood Rail and the plywood back panel and to make things even even worse I panicked and I overtightened the clamps which caused the plywood veneer to chip out this turned a small problem into an even worse issue this is exactly why it's a good idea to keep all of your scraps until the end of the project I was able to find a piece that match the rail and glue that in place once the glue dries I use my hand plane to get it down to the perfect size with a bit of glue and some gentle sanding the cracked veneer almost completely disappears and since this is the back panel it will be against the wall but because I know it's there I wanted to do my best to repair it when you're making Doos for shelves or dividers it's very important to ensure your Doos are in perfect alignment or else your shelves will not be square when installed so here's a trick that I like to use to ensure they are perfect every time clamp the opposing pieces together and then cut your dat into both of them at the same time this ensures that the data are perfectly aligned so your shelves will be nice and square this also gives the router more support if you're trying to balance it on small parts you can get pretty close with the router but then come back and clean up the edges with a nice sharp [Music] chisel after I learned my lesson from the last time this time I'm doing a complete dry assembly before gluing up the subassemblies for the dresser I'm checking to make sure that all the joinery is tight and lines up and that I have all of the clamps ready to go to pull everything together tight this is when I realized that my clamps aren't long enough however I do have a simple trick for this if you take two parallel clamps and you clamp the heads together you can make an extra long monster clamp since this is such a large and complex glue up it's going to take me a while to get everything aligned and clamped up I'm going to be using epoxy instead of wood glue this is going to give me the extra time that I need before the joint starts seizing up even with the extra time this is still a very stressful glue up since this is the most critical part of the entire build if for some reason I can't get a joint seated or the case is out of square the whole build could be ruined I really have to start rushing once I get to the front of the dresser because the cup of epoxy starts heating up in my hand meaning I only have a few minutes left before it sets [Music] up finally I get all the clamps in place and everything comes together as it should without any major problems I can take a breath of relief and relax while the epoxy finishes setting up you should always take your measurements wherever your parts are fully supported this way any bow doesn't throw off your measurements otherwise you could lock in that bow instead of getting everything perfectly straight when cutting dividers this is another time that you want to cut things slightly oversized and sneak up on the perfect fit to fit within your dado once the size is perfect then you can cut the tenin to fit the Doos for this you want to make sure you're using a flat grind blade to get a nice Square shoulder on the [Music] [Applause] [Music] tenant the bottom rail on this dresser is rigid so I'm using that as a starting point and I'm working from the bottom up to the top installing these dividers using a straight edge as you go ensures that you aren't creating any bow in the rails any bow will cause issues with the drawer alignment and uneven gaps later instead of using clamps which could also cause a bow I'm just adding a little bit of weight to the top to keep everything in good contact until the glue dries [Music] [Music] before you can install drawers on a case like this you need to have some internal support for the drawer slides these back rails are really easy these can be just screwed directly into the back panel just make sure that you measure carefully to get the exact same measurements as the front rails for the rest of the internal structure I'm going to use pocket holes now I'm not a big fan of pocket holes in most cases the visual screw Pockets just look terrible if not well hidden but for internal support structure and things like face frames it's really hard to beat the simple pocket hole joint since this is all on the inside of the case you'll never see it just make sure that when you're screwing these together you really clamp these pieces well boards have a tendency see to move a little bit as you drive in the screws so I use several clamps to hold the boards exactly where I want them until the screws are fully seated for the drawer boxes themselves I'm doing something just a little bit different I'm using ambrosia maple to add just a little bit of extra Jazz to the interior of the case you could use pine or popular for drawer boxes and that would be just fine but if you really want to kick things up a bit use something with a little bit more figure and visual interest [Music] [Music] and once all of the drawer parts are melt to the correct size it's time to build the drawer boxes this is another place that you could use pocket holes or rabbits to build the boxes but if you're going all out on the wood that you're using for the drawers then consider stepping up your joinery as well with dovetails to give the piece a much higher quality and finished look now you could spend days doing hand cut doveet Tails if you wanted however I want to get this done quickly so I'm using my dovetail jig so I can cut all of the joints for these boxes in just over an hour and by the way if you're interested in the Dov tail jig that I'm using this is the lead d4r Pro I'll have a full video review and demo on this jig I'll leave a link in the description so you can go check it out once all of the dove tails are cut it's a good idea to double check to ensure all the boxes fit together properly now take a moment to admire those great looking boxes well enough of that time to take them back apart so we can make draw bottoms you could make the grooves for the bottom panels at the router table but I prefer to do this at the table saw where I have a lot more control over the exact size of the groove now it is extremely important here that you label your parts you really don't want to make a groove on the outside of your drawers [Music] [Music] I get a lot of questions about why I cut my plywood on the floor and this is why I can barely manage to get this quarter sheet up onto the saw turn on the saw and then safely make the cut there's no way I'm doing this with a full 3/4 in sheet of plywood but once I get this down to a manageable size it's really no problem and I can and knock out all of my drawer bottoms I give the drawer Parts a quick sanding before assembly but I'll save you from having to watch that I'm hoping not to put everyone to sleep here the drawer boxes go together very quickly just a dab of glue in the duft Tails is really all you need and you don't need any glue on the bottom panel I just let that float thanks to the dovetail jig all of the joints go together very easily with just hand pressure now I do add a few clamps and just use light TI pressure just to ensure that all the joints get closed up good and tight with so much effort going into making a really nice piece of furniture this is not the time that you want to cheap out on a hardware using really good Hardware can make a huge difference in the final project I'm using Bloom undermount soft closed drawer slides for this dresser these slides will be hidden out of sight beneath the drawers now you do have to remove a small notch on the bottom of the drawer boxes to provide clearance for these [Music] slides this little jig is sold separately from the drawer slides but it is absolutely worth it it's used to get the perfect placement and the depth for the guide pin hole in the back of the drawers it's also used to get the perfect mounting location for the clips on the front of the [Music] drawers now you could do all of this without the jig but this just makes it so fast and easy it's well worth spending the extra money and just get the jig so I did have one of these pins break off on one of my drawers probably just didn't have enough glue on this one but it's going to be a quick and easy fix just a little bit of thick cier glue and a little bit of Quick Set activator and good as new now because I added the internal supports earlier the drawer slide installation is incredibly easy all I have to do is set the slide back enough for the drawer front and screw them in place now the drawers will snap in place with a very satisfying [Music] click you want to be careful for when you're selecting material for your drawer fronts the drawers are going to be front and center making them the most visible part of the entire project so you want to make a good first impression and whatever possible you want to get your drawer fronts from a single board now I like to Mark mine with chalk so that I know where each drawer front belongs when done correctly this creates a wood grain that flows from one drawer into the next once again it's this kind of detail that's really going to set your projects apart for all the right reasons once I have the drawer fronts cut to rough size I use my favorite trick to get the perfect reveal around the drawer for this trick you just need a deck of plain cards now a stack of three or four cards on all sides is what I prefer if you can fit the same number of cards on all sides around the drawer front it's going to be centered and have a perfectly even reveal and once it's really close you can use a hand plane to make very minor adjustments until you get it perfect when it comes to installing the drawer fronts we need to make sure we don't undo all of the hard work we did trying to get everything perfectly centered to do this I Mark the exact position for the drawer pools and drill a small pilot [Music] hole then using the card trick again I'll get the drawer fronts perfectly positioned now I can drill a screw through the pilot hole and into the drawer box this screw is going to hold the drawer front on while I counter syn and drill some screws from the back side that are going to permanently Mount the drawer front now I can remove the screws from the front and then redrill the hole all the way through the drawer box for the hardware now during the build I decided I didn't like how these side panels looked it was just too plain and needed a bit more detail to Jazz it up a bit so I trimmed down some scraps from the legs and softened the edges a bit I really don't have the room to get clamps in place to hold this decorative strip while the glue dries so instead I'm going to use this CA glue trick first I add the wood glue and then a few drops of CA glue when I spray some quick set activator on the panel the CA glue is going to get a instant bond and this will hold the piece in place while the wood glue dries and with this piece in place the main case is done and we can start building the top now I'm sure you've heard by now that you should alternate the grain Direction when building solid wood panels to prevent them from warping well I'm here to tell you it doesn't matter focus on getting the best looking panel and don't worry about alternating Smiley and frowny ingrain patterns however this In-N-Out method on the jointer really can help ensure you get tight glue joints on your panels just keep the boards in order and Alternate the pattern as shown this eliminates any error in your Joiner or the boards if anything isn't exactly 90° there are a lot of methods you can use to keep panels flat while you glue them up but I like using these panel clamps they pull the boards together while at the same time applying pressure across the panel to keep the boards flat and in line now my buddy Lee over at busted knuckle Woodworks likes to use super strut to make a DIY version of of these clamps be sure to go check out his video down in the description now another method I like to use is with wooden calls a little box tape prevents the wood from binding them to the panel the only problem here with this method is it takes a lot more clamps than the specialty panel clamps after the glue is dried we need to square up the end of our top panel now if you did use any dowels or dominoes in the panel be very careful not to cut into them when you're trimming the top to size and since the top is too wide for my table saw sled I'm going to use my track saw to trim the ends you could also do this with a circular saw and a guide rail to prevent the top from being too blocky I'll add a shamer to the Bottom now you could also use a roundover if you prefer but unless you're trying to recreate some antique piece avoid the Roman ogi and that's OG not the other o word that the Romans are known for as I start sanding the dresser and getting it ready to apply the finish I want to thank the people who regularly watch like and comment on my videos I really enjoy making this content for you and sharing my passion for Woodworking and teaching now if you're interested in further supporting this channel I invite you to become a patron there you'll unlock access to some really cool perks such as Early Access to videos before they hit YouTube there's also priority communication with me so you can get answers to your working questions special behind the scenes and Shop updates that you won't find anywhere else and much more your donations will allow me to continue making high quality content right here on YouTube purchase tools and materials for more build projects and invest in things like the cameras lights and editing tools needed to make these videos if you enjoy my videos and want to be a part of this growing Community then click on the link in the description below and check out my patreon page now there's certainly no obligation and if that's not something you can do right now no problem you can still continue to support by watching the videos liking and commenting so thank you and let's get back to the build for the finish I'm using Rubio monoco which is a two-part hard wax oil the ratio isn't critical but the best way I found to do this without making a huge mess is to use these large syringes Rubio does seem expensive but it goes a long ways this little cup is enough to do the entire dresser these white floor buffing pads make the perfect applicators for this finish you can cut out a section and attach it to your ramdom orbital sander or to a buffer and quickly cover large areas they're a lot cheaper than purchasing the actual buffer pads that go on a lot of these tools now I used to hate applying finished projects but I later realized it wasn't because I hate applying the finish it was because I was confused over so many different options and methods of finishing and I just never knew if I was doing it right but since I switched to hard wax oils I actually really enjoy the finishing process I mean just look at the Cherry come to life when the oil is applied and this finish couldn't be any easier you just wipe it on and rub it into the wood after a couple of minutes you wipe away any excess on the surface until it feels completely dry now we're in the home stretch but we're not finished yet now I need to attach the top to the case and a major mistake people make here is not allowing for wood movement see wood expands and contracts as the seasons change and if you don't allow for this movement the top can split and crack now I like to use these Izzy skirt washers these allow for the seasonal movement while still holding the top securely to the case now this next piece of advice is the most important thing that I have to share with you it's something that has really helped me to learn new skills and techniques and has encouraged me to take on more and more difficult projects and that's no matter how complex or difficult something seems if you analyze it carefully any complex problem can be broken down into a series of simple steps instead of looking at a problem as a whole just try to figure out what is the first step then what is the second step and then the third if you get to a step that seems too difficult break it down into smaller simpler steps now this is a technique that is used often in science and engineering and it can certainly be applied to woodworking or any other difficult task to make them easier to accomplish [Music] [Music] n [Music]

Channel: Biscuit Tree Woodworks

Views: 172,562

Keywords: woodworking, woodworking project, woodworking build, furniture build, woodworking for beginners, woodworking tools, diy furniture, furniture projects, woodworking tips, woodworking tips and tricks, how to build, power tools, how to, beginner woodworking, hand tools, woodworking projects furniture, woodworking projects ideas, woodworking projects, woodworking tricks, woodworking hacks, woodworking basics, woodworking videos, furniture building for beginners

Id: VSy22g9ca08

Length: 29min 9sec (1749 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024