Paul Sellers
Published Jan 5, 2024It was almost 35 years ago when I was about to teach my first woodworking class, and I struggled because what could be taught in a one-day workshop that would have any value? I agonised for two weeks, and one day it came to me; with three joints and a handful of hand tools, you can make just about any furniture piece you care to name.
Since then, I have used this basic tenet to teach and train hundreds of thousands of woodworkers, just like you. It’s still working!
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April 10, 2024
Three Joints, a Handful of Tools | Paul Sellers
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March 29, 2024
Drawer Joinery Explained | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published Dec 15, 2023We should never take too much for granted, especially when it comes to which joints are used for this or that.
If no one has explained the reasoning behind drawer joint choices, this simple video will help. Drawers take a lot of stresses and strains, and the dovetail joint is the signature joint of drawers and boxes. But did you know that a housing dado can also improve the functionality of a drawer?
This video will walk you through the reasoning for both joints.
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March 4, 2024
Lay out Dovetails with Dividers
Lost Art Press
Published Nov 26, 2023
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December 28, 2023
Making a Dovetail Guide | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 22 Sept 2023Often, we woodworkers make boxes the same size over and over again, especially if or when we sell them. I designed this dovetail guide to replicate the same-sized dovetails to the four corners of the box we make and make dozens of boxes if we have a batch production run of them.
You need to lay out only once, no matter how many dovetails you make and the dovetails will even be interchangeable. Additionally, you can vary the dovetail sizes proportionally by sliding the workpiece up and down the guide for larger or smaller dovetails too.
I hope you enjoy this little nugget!
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November 23, 2023
Quick Skills for Busy Woodworkers: Elevate Your Craft in 10 Minutes
Rex Krueger
Published 22 Nov 2023You can do real woodworking even if you’re short on time. Here are some ideas.
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June 12, 2023
How to make a Wall Shelf | Episode 3
Paul Sellers
Published 27 Jan 2023This is truly an action-packed episode, with so much teaching on various techniques passed down through the years but mostly lost to upcoming generations. From saw stop-cuts to planing and shaping with spokeshaves, planes, rasps, and files, we include many strategies for you to learn from.
From these final fitting and shaping stages, we walk you through the glue-up phase so that every joint seats perfectly, because there is more to clamping a project than just tightening the screw thread and hoping for the best. We want the project to be dead square when the glue is dry, and clamps can indeed clamp a project out of square.
Our way is the proven way used by centuries of crafting artisans.
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June 1, 2023
How to Make a Wall Shelf | Episode 2
Paul Sellers
Published 20 Jan 2023With all the housing dadoes completed and the main body together, we must cut the middle shelf to length and determine the shoulder lines for the stepped part of the stepped housing dado joint.
The practicalities ensure that all of the shoulder lines close up perfectly. The patterns we use are important to a wide range of other projects, so learning them now aids us in establishing patterns of construction.
These joints are used in a wide range of shelving units, ranging from bookshelves to toy storage and many other projects. The unit we build here has three types of commonly used housing dado, and the joints we consider mostly as the bookshelf joints.
That said, it can be used for toy boxes and firewood boxes, but we also use it in drawer making too.
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May 10, 2023
How to Make a Wall Shelf | Episode 1
Paul Sellers
Published 13 Jan 2023This was one of Paul’s first teaching and training projects he developed specifically for his hands-on classes for early woodworkers to start on. That was in the early 1990s, so 30 years ago, and many a thousand students have made it to learn about shelf making.
The goal is the mastery of accuracy using sharp tools to develop two types of housing dadoes, the stopped and the stepped.
This video gives the first woodworking joint most woodworkers start with and shows how to get a snug fit every time.
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April 13, 2023
Build the Moravian Stool with Sliding Dovetail Joinery
Rex Krueger
Published 12 Apr 2023
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April 7, 2023
How to Make a Shaker Candle Box | Episode 2
Paul Sellers
Published 18 Nov 2022With the dovetails all fitting, we are ready to clean up the inside faces of the box, ready for gluing the corners together. It’s a systematic process that minimises the risk of messing up.
Lots of tricks of the trade for gluing up and checking the whole for squareness, etc. Planing out any unevenness ensures a pristine finish, and we definitely follow a process that gives top-notch results.
The lid and bottom of the box are both rounded over, and the simplest thing is that we only need one tool, the #4 plane, to achieve amazing results. The final stage is to glue the bottom onto the box and prepare the lid for hingeing.
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March 31, 2023
How to make a Shaker Candle Box | Episode 1
Paul Sellers
Published 11 Nov 2022Many new to woodworking find the concept of hand-cutting dovetails intimidating, and yet it is one of the most fundamental joints used in woodworking. Dovetails are the joints we use for making all kinds of boxes, large and small. They are designed to take certain pressures throughout their lives as drawers, cabinets, and boxes of every shape and size.
The methods of squaring and preparing stock are the critical preface to laying out the joints, so in this episode we show you the steps we take to that end. Following the stock-prep, we focus on a method of layout and making that makes the process fast, efficient, and accurate, after which we cut all four dovetail corners.
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February 16, 2023
Cut the Sliding Dovetail Joint with common hand tools
Rex Krueger
Published 15 Feb 2023There’s another dovetail that you might not know about. Learn to cut it and use it.
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January 20, 2023
Drawer Making | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 11 Aug 2022This is part of our Paid Membership Drinks Cabinet series! To check out more visit: https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com/…
Paul went into a detailed explanation in this dovetailing of the drawer for the drinks cabinet for everyone to truly master drawer making.
It’s the small details that these explanations demonstrate, and we hope that you truly enjoy the whole process of dovetailing for the rest of your life.
Oh, and the videography throughout the episode is stunning for everyone to learn through too. You don’t see this normally. Superb! The calm serenity captured in a man’s work, the confidence, and the love of the craft.
You’ll enjoy seeing the whole drawer come together by every stroke of the different planes Paul uses and then, too, the dovetails tying the whole together and glued up. Such a beautiful art form!
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September 26, 2022
Dovetailing – The Coping Saw Method | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 25 May 2022The quickest simplest of all dovetailing methods, bar none.
Whether you need a quick fix to replace a kitchen drawer or a fine element to a precious furniture piece you are making, this dovetail is quick to make and needs no special equipment beyond a chisel, a mallet, a sharp knife, and a square.
That’s nine minutes to a twin dovetailed corner and a mere 36 minutes for a box or a drawer.
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August 4, 2022
Markings used in Woodworking | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 14 Apr 2022Woodworking marks we use in the laying out process for joinery are usually made with pencils, knives, and marking gauges of different types, and those new to using hand tool methods might feel confused as to when to use what type during layout.
In this video, we show where and when to use temporary pencil lines in preparation for permanent marks with knives and marking gauges so that after the joinery is completed, all visible markings disappear with the completion of each joint.
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