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A Plain-Language Guide to Wood Joinery
An overview of the main wood joint families, what each is good at, and how the joint you pick decides which saws, chisels, routers and drills you need.
Saws and Sanding
Wood Joinery
How common wood joints work and which tools cut them.
Choosing Clamps and Glue for Joinery
How clamping pressure, glue open time and a dry fit work together so a joint glue-up goes smoothly, plus what to look for in clamps and wood glue.
Dovetail Joints Explained for Beginners
Learn why dovetail joints resist pulling apart, what tails and pins are, how the slope is laid out, and the general ways they are cut by hand or machine.
Fixing Loose or Gappy Joints
General ways to tighten or repair wood joints that fit poorly, from finding the cause to shims, fillers, reglue, and when to recut the part.
Half-Lap and Cross-Lap Joints
See how half lap joints remove half the thickness from overlapping parts to make flat frames and crossings, and which saws, chisels and routers cut them.
How a Mortise and Tenon Joint Is Made
A walk-through of the parts of a mortise and tenon joint, the usual proportions, and the general hand and machine methods used to cut and fit it.
How Butt Joints and Pocket Holes Work
Learn how a simple butt joint is reinforced with angled pocket screws, what a pocket hole jig does, where the method works well, and where its limits are.
Miter Joints and Why They Gap
Understand how angled miter joints join corners, the common causes of open gaps such as saw angle, wood movement and cut error, and basic ways to fix them.
Understanding Dado and Rabbet Joints
Learn how dado joints, grooves and rabbets are cut across or along the grain, what each is used for, and which saws, routers and planes make them.
Using Dowels and Biscuits to Align Panels
Compare round dowels with biscuit slots for lining up boards when edge joining a panel, including how each is laid out, drilled or cut, and glued.
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