Paul Sellers
Published 19 May 2023We all need longer clamps from time to time, especially when it comes to long tables, beds, and the like. I love my lightweight aluminium clamps and they lend themselves to a simple option for creating longer clamps from shorter ones.
This video will take out the mystery and deliver a totally practical option for you at almost zero cost. Keeping life simple is always difficult but this option is doable in a matter of minutes.
——————–
(more…)
September 23, 2023
Sash Clamp Extension | Paul Sellers
September 14, 2023
Chip Carving with a Gouge | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 5 May 2023Starting carving usually begins with a simple project, and this flower will get you started. Once you have done this, you can create a wide range of other decorative carvings and add them to your woodworking projects, pieces like box lids and picture frames. Enjoy!
——————–
(more…)
September 10, 2023
How to Make a Poor Man’s Toothing Plane | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 23 May 2014In this video Paul Sellers shows you a cheap alternative to buying a toothing plane, using very common and readily available materials.
To find out more about Paul Sellers and the projects he is involved with visit http://paulsellers.com
August 30, 2023
Making A Quick Rebate | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 21 Apr 2023Life can be simple with a few hand skills and a handful of very ordinary woodworking hand tools. Watch me and see if you couldn’t do this yourself. We try to make everything as simple as we can, and I don’t think this could be simpler.
Enjoy, and start making for a better life!
(more…)
August 4, 2023
What Does A Smoothing Plane Do? | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 7 Apr 2023We live in an age when fewer and fewer people will ever use a hand plane and may never even see one in use. This super-short video shows how and why we woodworkers still use and rely on hand planes today. They are fast and effective and they reduce the need for sandpaper too because the wood comes out super-smooth and level.
(more…)
July 26, 2023
Making & Using Drill Bit Guides | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 24 Mar 2023Drilling perpendicular holes on a drill press or pillar drill are as easy as a wink, but when the project is too big or fixed in place, we sometimes need the same accuracy — otherwise, whatever we fit into the hole will not be aligned well at all.
Making a couple of drill guides could not be simpler. I designed two, which I use all the time for twist drills and auger bits. Try them yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
——————– (more…)
July 13, 2023
Praise for the #151 Flat-Bottomed Spokeshave | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 10 Feb 2023It’s easy to underestimate the value of the #151 spokeshave, no matter the maker. But these simple tools work amazingly for a wide range of woodworking tasks, and you only need the flat-bottomed version as it will work equally well for both convex and concave surfaces.
With this video, see just how versatile the flat-bottomed spokeshave is and why you should own one for your woodworking tasks that need shaping.
(more…)
June 22, 2023
How & When to Hammer Tap a Plane | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 10 Mar 2023We tend to think that modern makers of metal and wooden planes have given us planes that are better adjusted with fine adjusters and therefore dismiss hammer-tapping for setting the plane.
In reality, hammer tapping is non-detrimental and, at the same time, simplifies the setting on many planes.
I use this even on planes that have adjusters. Just because hammer tapping is so effective and immediate. Watch me and you will see what I mean.
——————–
(more…)
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.
——————–
(more…)
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.
——————–
(more…)
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.
(more…)
April 25, 2023
Planing & Scraping Awkward Grain | Paul Sellers
Paul Sellers
Published 9 Dec 2022I try not to be purposely controversial, but often, the wood demands a completely different tactic when it comes to truing and prepping for further steps like panel making and joinery.
Whereas some will say use this bevel-up or that bevel-down plane, use a York pitch, or whatever, the combination of methods and the addition of a #80 cabinet scraper will get you where you need to be, in very short order, but it might just defy convention.
I show you how to tame some very awkward sycamore in this video.
——————–
(more…)
April 14, 2023
How to Make a Shaker Candle Box | Episode 3
Paul Sellers
Published 25 Nov 2022Two things Paul has always noticed to be intimidating to woodworkers are recessed or mortised hinge setting and applying finish. The smaller the hinge and the project, the more flaws show.
Following these steps will give you the confidence and success you want, and the hinges will align the box lid perfectly every time. We cover distances and the layout patterns, hinge sizing, and so on throughout this episode, along with how to apply shellac using a 1″ hake brush.
The result is a perfect box. Enjoy yourself!
——————– (more…)
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.
——————–
(more…)
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.
(more…)