Replies

1. 
   Lataxe | Mar 19, 2006 02:02pm | #1

   Claude,

   You don't say what other tools you'll have besides your drill.  Also, are you willing to buy some new tools?

   What kind of pine will you work with?  Is it pre-dimensioned and planed all round?  If not, you'll need more tools than you otherwise might, to shape the wood as well as to saw and dowel it.

   What are your design ambitions?  Will everything be more or less straight and square edged; or would you like to have edges profiled, curved parts and so forth?

   As you'll have gathered, you really need to give more info about what you want to achieve with your furniture and what resources (tools and timber) you have or are willing to buy.

   On the other hand, if you're using pre-dimensioned, planed timber and your designs are going to be extremely plain, you may well be able to make all the things you list with a measure, a saw, a square, a drill & drill bits, some dowels and a clamp or four......But then you might also need a drill or dowel guide (to ensure squarely-drilled dowel holes); some dowel-markers (to align the dowel holes in the joined pieces); oil/wax/varnish/brushes (to finish the furniture); and perhaps other things.

   If you want to go really minimalist.....I have a friend who insists he can make anything with just an axe.  He does have some startingly good looking pieces, albeit they're rather rustic.

    

   Best to start with your required design parameters and determine tool needs from there.  If the resultant tool list is too expensive, you can then amend your design parameters.

   Tell us more.

   Lataxe

1. 
   moleculaire | Mar 19, 2006 06:58pm | #2

   Hi Lataxe,Tools to buy:
   Veritas low angle block plane
   Chisel set of 4 (Narex)
   scrapper
   burnisher
   honing guide plus stone ( verutas mkII + 1000/4000 stone)
   dozuki
   rip/crosscut japanese saw + miter guide
   engineer square
   glue
   tincture
   varnish
   drill guide with adjustable angle, and depth(i'll also need some clamps)
   2 wooden clamps with two handles...
   4 small 1 foot clamps
   4 30'' clampsVise for a workbenchTools I have
   coping saw
   combination square
   cordless drill + set of drill bit
   old rusted I think jack plane (it says 5 made in the US on it. the only marking I can see. I'll have to refurbish it one day)
   marking gauge.
   level
   ...The pieces of furniture I want to must be easy to make with low chances of error ( if not my wife won't be happy with me making furniture for the house). Also, since the furniture I want to do first is more urgent, it must be simple. After this first step then I'll be able to take more time per pieces, and do something more complex.I'll be doing pretty square work to start. Function over beauty for starter. The wood will be pine from the local store which seems to be planed, and squared. One main question is what is the easiest way to make joints?I had never considered pocket hole until yesterday. Which is more versatile pocket hole or dowel. I would prefer to equip at first either with dowelling guide and so forth or pocket hole guide.Thanks Claude

1. 
   Lataxe | Mar 19, 2006 11:04pm | #4

   Claude,

   It sound like you're going the hand tool route, primarily.  If so, you could consider both pocket hole and dowels as the "easy" options with traditional mortise and tennon as the "hard" alternatives.  You could do both with the tools you list.

   You can use screws or small diameter bolts instead of dowels.  You need to make sure they have a grab through long grain, though, as they don't hold up well in end grain.  Screw/bolt heads can be countersunk and over-plugged with small wood plugs you make yourself with a plug maker, although you need some form of drill press to use a plug maker safely. 

   Lee Valley did some test to demonstrate that bolts with their parallel threads actually hold better than screws in wood.  You drill a hole 1 mm smaller in diameter than the bolt then use the bolt as its own tap to cut a thread in the wood.  This also makes a better grab than screws in end grain.

   If you use dowels, I'd make sure you buy quality ones.  There are some nasty dowels about that are cheap but mis-shapen, made of weak stuff and sized badly.  Veritas boast that their dowels are supeior in all these respects.  Personally I make my own dowels with a Lie Nielson dowel-making plate or the Woodrat (but the rat is hundreds of $ too).  You can make them of any wood you like then.

   I've made pocket hole type joints but didn't use a jig.  If you're careful you can chisel out a little triangle pocket and drill freehand.  (I did say "careful").  :-)

   Biscuits are out if you don't want to spend circa $200 on the biscuit joiner.

   Lataxe

1. 
   moleculaire | Mar 20, 2006 05:40am | #5

   Thank you very much Lataxe,The information you gave me was very usefull. I think I'll get a pocket hole guide. I'll try the fail safer way for starter. After i'll try tenon and mortise.I have been reading for the last 3 week on tools and furniture and so on. There is so much information on woodworking.Your help is apreciated a lotClaude

2. 
   JMadson | Mar 19, 2006 07:43pm | #3

   Here's a recent discussion on types of joints

   http://forums.taunton.com/fw-skills/messages?msg=9635.1

3. 
   pzgren | Mar 20, 2006 07:54am | #6

   Claude,

   Might I suggest to you, before you start cutting, planing and drilling, that you read a few books on woodworking, joinery, and furniture design. The knowledge you gain will likely end up showing in your work, and the information in those books will answer many of your questions before you know you need to ask them (That's NOT intended to imply that you are unknowledgeable, but only to say that you don't know what you don't know.).
   A couple of recommendations:

   Andy Rae's "Complete Illustrated Guide to Furniture & Cabinet Construction" (Taunton);
   Jim Tolpin's "Measure Twice, Cut Once;"
   FWW's "Joinery - Essentials of Woodworking;"
   FWW's "On Joinery;"
   FWW's "On Boxes, Carcasses, and Drawers;"
   David Charlesworth's "Furniture Making Techniques Vols 1 & 2"

   There are also a number of good books on tools.
   As they say in the coin collecting world: "Read the book before you buy the coin...."
   Hope this will be of some use to you.

   James

1. 
   moleculaire | Mar 20, 2006 04:38pm | #7

   Hi PZgren,I have started reading some booksLa menuiserie,
   la menuiserie illustré
   Modern cabinet making
   complete idiots guide to woodworkingI am trying to get all the information I can assimilate. I'll put those book on my list of books to read.ThanksClaude

1. 
   tarsalas | Mar 20, 2006 09:56pm | #8

   Try the Beadlock tool from woodcraft.  Excellent, and simple way to make floating tenon joints.  Requires nothing more than a drill.

4. 
   AdamCherubini | Mar 21, 2006 05:16am | #9

   I think its great that you are thinking in terms of joinery and working on developing skills. This is the way you will achieve your goals.

   Best type of joinery for a beginner? A beginner using hand tools?

   Hundreds of years ago, people who lacked sophisticated skills and tools nailed boards together. The joinery style was called "boarded" joinery. The resulting products are fun to make and can be pretty. So boarded furniture would be the easiest for a beginner. I enjoy using square cut nails from Tremont Nail Company, but screws can substitute.

   Ranking difficulty of joints is tricky. But a quick guess would be that history can rank it for us. Boarded furniture was followed by frame and panel joinery. Frame and panel joinery used architectural style mortise and tenon joints for household furniture. Dovetailed carcass joinery followed that. So I think that's the rank of difficulty.

   In my opinion, the common denominator for all hand tool joinery is sawing. So my advice is to start there. With a little practice and a good technique, you should be able to saw off a 2x4 accurately to a pencil line marked all around.

   I'm not a big fan of dowelled joints.

   Good luck, Claude!

   Adam

5. 
   Farmsome | Mar 24, 2006 07:27pm | #10

   My advice is to use pocket hole joinery. It is fast and accurate, you can make lots of joints, and only need a square cut and a drill. Even if your skills and tools advance, you will use it for utilitarian projects and jigs and things in the shop. My doweling jig served me well for a while, then got infrequent use, now I don't use it at all. Pocket holes are faster and stronger, as long as you dont view both sides. Good Luck.

   farmsome