Woodworking tricks I wish I was taught years ago
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
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Decades ago, my Uncle Bill always said “All carpenters make mistakes, the good ones can fix it.” Good job with another interesting video.
Very true! Thanks 🙌
Not just carpenters 😉
The others leave it for the painters to fix
Or in the words of Laura Kampf.. every defect gets respect!
My mother, a non-woodworker, showed me how to steam out dents in wood with an iron and a wet cloth many years ago. Its how she dealt with all the dents my brother and I caused in the family funiture. Thanks for the tips and bringing me back to a fond memory of my mom!
I learned that if you have a super deep dent use a razor blade and make little slits in the direction of the grain and then steam it out. You can get some super deep dents out. I used to work at a woodworking manufacturer.
Great video! Wax sticks and walnuts are a staple in my touchup kit. On sharpie though: the purple-y sheen only gets worse over time as the darker pigment breaks down. Better options are dry erase markers for matte to satin finishes, and water based paint markers (I use POSCA pens) for higher gloss finishes. Hope this helps someone!
Another tip for mis drilled or holes in the wrong place is to use a wooden golf tee. I’ve used this trick when replacing doors I’m able to drill into the tee for new hinge holes it makes a very secure fixing.
Good one!
My grandfather made furniture in Philadelphia, and my dad sold retail furniture and restored museum furniture pieces. He had those lacquer sticks and a bomb-shaped alcohol burner with a string wick for melting them. This video brought back the smell of the burner and the melted sticks. 😍
This is so great! Love the real world examples and demos of actually doing these fixes as opposed to just talking about us - a great sign of practical, in-depth experience. Thank you Michael!
Dutchman here, most of us are actually made in the sack and not in a vise, it’s just that bit more comfy.
To the moniker: being tight, reducing expense and always looking for that extra buck, has been a national pastime for ages here.
The insert is a way to add value to what would otherwise be scrap. So yeah, that is a typical thing for a Dutchman to do. We also like to insert and align ourselves into larger situations.
Fixing mistakes is something professional carpenters do ALL the time. I install kitchens and built ins one of my favorite repair items is hard wax. This is melted with a small iron and then scraped down. I have a kit from Koenig that has MANY colors. This is more durable than the soft wax sticks and can actually be used to fix wood floors in traffic areas. Also it is great for fixing cracks and chips. It is designed to be used when the finish is already on. Great video, thanks for sharing!
This is an incredibly useful video. As a beginner, and very much a perfectionist, this is the kind of stuff that has tripped me up a lot - making even pretty small mistakes but not having the mental toolkit to know how to correct them easily, making every little trip-up into a whole ordeal as I suddenly have to figure out how to deal with it. This is so comprehensive yet easy to grasp, and most of the techniques are pretty simple too!
My grandpa was a woodworker and furniture restorer. I remember him taking out warps and cups in wide boards using a combination of water, sunlight (hot sun on a sidewalk) and I’m pretty sure cat litter to absorb moisture. I’ve never had the need to try it but I remember being impressed by his method. Great video!
Great video, I have a background in quality control and construction. I have taught many classes on those subjects. I always taught the class there is a reason 99% of pencils have erasers, we all make mistakes, don’t hide it, identify it, correct it and learn from it.
6:35 As a Dutchman I'm not so proud of this, but I think it originates in the fact the Dutch are known to be cheap skates and rather than using a new board (which would cost money) they'd prefer to just patch the board with the hole in it. "Dutch" as a prefix often has a bit of a penny pincher vibe to it. Dutch treat, Dutch oven 😉
Thanks for the tips Michael!
Not cheap, just frugal!
Version I heard comes from the Dutch vs English rivalry period. The term meant something cheeky/ twisted or shortcut. Multiple straight vertical joints in masonry, a loose piece of pipe to 3/4 fill a cast iron socket etc
@@eastlothian98 Presumably the expression "Double Dutch" comes from the same era. (If someone says "It's Double Dutch to me" they mean they can't understand a word of it).
@@eastlothian98 could very well be, they are all more examples of what I said. Again, as a Dutchman: not something to be proud of all the same 😄
instead of using wood glue and saw dust I would highly suggest using 2K Polyurethane Lacquer with saw dust at least that's what we use in our company, when using wood glue you will experience blemishes when applying finish like stein , our method works 10/10
When you need to screw a fabrick to smth. you need to punch a hole in it, because it starts wrapping when you try to screw just straight through fabric.
So, here is the tip or trick (I don't know):
Plase the fabric into position, attach the screw, switch your screwdriver to revers and gently press the button.
So that is the way to drill a fabric, and after that you can turn switch screwdriver to forward and just do what you need, without headake about fabrics wrapping and twisting..
I hope you understand this instruction, dear reader.
Love the video. I do this for a living and I think doing a video on different ways to clamp weird objects of clamp objects in peculiar positions. Idk just an idea. Peace
I offer this because you are a woodworker. Word for wood in French is bois [ bwah ]. So the area in Idaho, being treed or wooded, you get French Boise [ bwah zay ].
Whenever I use a Dutchman as you put it,I make the patch very slightly oversized and taper the sides slightly so it compresses the fibres slightly leaving a perfect fit with no gaps.It is easy to do repeated test fits if necessary,treaking the size with a block plane until it is slightly too snug. Then (with clean hands) glue the edges and tap it home using a block and mallet and leave to cure before flushing back.As with round plugs,I usually put an arrow on the patch to show which direction to pare/plane.
I only glue the edges as the 'plug' usually does not need to contact the bottom of the 'hole'.
The woodfiller idea, so simple and so effective!
the tooth pick trick also work for changing, knobs , handles and hinges.
I had a 1930s Oak filing cabinet that was falling apart due to cupping. The external sides had been coated in Shellac, but the inside was bare and had soaked up moisture out of the air for years. I did the opposite, as adding water to the sealed side would do nothing and I didn't want to lose the patina of the original finish. I disassembled it and clamped each side panel (3/4" solid English Oak) using 2 x 4s either side to put pressure on it (3 or 4 pairs down the length of each panel) and gradually heated the unsealed side with a heat gun. After it was very hot, I would tweek the pressure and leave it. Then repeat the process every 2nd night until it seemed flat, then I could slip shims under the centre of the 2 x 4s to give it a bit of reverse pressure, a 16th past dead flat. Did a final heat and left it in the clamps for days and it came out perfectly flat. Sealed the inside and reassembled it. It's still straight today.
Started with a bang!!! That first tip is something I need to remember. thank you.
I tinker around with woodworking and watch a lot of CZcams videos. This is the first time I’ve come across one of yours. Very informative with a lot of useful tips and tricks. Thank you.
Awesome, thank you!
Great job Michael Alm! I'm always learning from you. Thank You
Liked saved and shared. This felt mindblowing and I expect it to step up my beginning woodworking by a whole level
Very helpful tips. Thanks for sharing.
I’m not a woodworker but I’m using block of flat stone like 2x2x4 with a packaging tape on 2 sides. No glue sticks to the tape and stone help to apply pressure. Always leaves flat finish and thank you for the all the tips you’ve shared.
Great video. Please do more like it. CA glue is a whole topic on itself and you said it in 2 sentences. Wonderful.
Well said. Always excited to see your stuff pop up in my feed.
Wow, crazy about the walnut trick! Please just make sure the owner or their family aren't allergic to tree nuts. My kids had allergies to foods and it's safer to just know. 👍🏽 I love your channel and the tricks, please keep up the great work!
I learned so much from this video! Thank you.
Great video!! We all make mistakes so knowing several ways to fix them/hide them can really save a project!! Lots of great tips! WELL worth the time to watch, so thank YOU again for sharing with us!
Chris Hug. The Swiss cabinetmaker I had the pleasure of working with, would always say " A mistake is something that can't be fixed."
Great tips. I recently built a toy storage unit and discovered how construction lumber requires much creativity to make it look nice. Curvy, splitty, nasty wood. My biggest mistake was using that stuff. But it taught me a lot. Amazing how resawing veneers comes in handy. Thanks for this good video
Thanks Michael Ive learnt so much from you and it’s much appreciated
Loved the part about your website and the pride you have in your partners!
Great Video Michael and thank you for supporting small businesses like mine and others. Ok Medium sized ;-)
This was super useful, thank you!
I also have a box of crayons that are good for filling holes in cabinets with painted finishes.
Awesome video thanks Mike!
Great tips. I’ve used most of them & can attest that they really work. Shims to the rescue! Thanks for sharing.
Great idea Ben!
Good video. Always good to be reminded of these techniques as we all seem to forget them when we need them most.
The toothpick trick works well for a stripped out screw hole. I've used it on doors a lot for the hinges or the latch plate.
I do like these videos, nice to see what others do, mostly same but couple are new to me. Thanks! Keep it coming
Thank you so much!
Great video Michael! I didn't know I could steam out dents in wood, that tip will certainly make future restoration projects a lot easier! Speaking of restoration, oxalic acid can be used to remove dark stains in wood. It is though a great idea to thin it out a lot, as even a 10% solution will bleach the wood too, although I believe that could be limited by using packaging tape on the surfaces that doesn't need the bleach.
As for packaging tape, I've found that its great for avoiding dyed stains being applied on surfaces they shouldn't be applied onto. I've been building a stepladder for my brother by cutting up an old dining table, but the steps are mounted with through mortise and tenon joints and I wanted the ends of the tenons to be black like the steps, but the ladder sides needed to stay as warm, natural oak. So after gluing I applied some packaging tape and then some painters tape on top to soak up excess and then I stained the tenon ends using Rubio Monocoat Charcoal. The result was only a tiny bit of leak onto the ladder sides, which were easily sanded off. I'm working on a video on the project, but I don't have a timeline for a release, so I hope my explanation makes sense.
Another trick for woodworkers who don't have a proper workbench, but needs to cut dovetails, is to use what an old classmate of mine thought about. Simply screw two pieces of wood together like a "T", flip the T 90° and clamp it to a table. Now every part that needs dovetails can be clamped and cut. A vise can also go for smaller parts, but for the boxes I built for my sister, I had to use this other method. It's not perfect, but it works. Even for dovetail taps that are less than 2 mm in width (0.0787402 inches).
I can also recommend getting a sewing measuring band. They're flexible, so they're great for measuring or drawing lines on curved surfaces with great precision. I've used them in the past to place marked lines around wood that indicated how far I had to plane something down to, but they're really versatile on any curved surface!
This one will be harder to obtain (I think), but I've got some steel wire with one end curled up. They're from an old piano, but they're great for cleaning out dried wood glue from the tips of glue bottles (once you've gotten the damn thing open that is). I haven't checked, but I imagine they're hard to come by, so if one is ready for a quick DIY, the size I use is 1 mm (I think it's 18 gauge AWS, but I could easily be wrong as I'm completely unfamiliar with the gauge system. All I know is Metric, Celsius and Kelvin).
A painters spatula is also great for filling out holes with grain filler, instead of using the fingers. It's less mess on the feelers and more use of a tool that's specifically made for applying small amounts of viscous fluid onto a surface.
Idk if this is the same in the US, but I've found that the width of the tip of a standard sharpie, is roughly equal to the width of a sawblade plus the excess that's turned to dust when cutting. When I say standard sharpie, I really mean a sharpie which tip has the width of 4.5 mm (or 0.177165 inches, I guess a 0,2 inch would be easier to get).
I probably know more, given I don't have access to a workshop and have only worked in my kitchen and in the near future from my tiny shed, so I've had to find creative solutions to problems most woodworkers with a shop don't regularly face. Some of these are great for people without a shop (like the dovetail T jig) while others are versatile enough to be used regardless of whether you have a shop or not. But not having a shop is no excuse to not do what you love. That's at least my take. I'm sure my neighbors have a different opinion 😅
Whoa that walnut trick was pretty neat. I didn't know about that yet.
Excellent advice ❤
Love these tips. Some I knew and use, but didn't know about walnuts, so that's one to file away for future use. My tip is for fixing defects in softwood. It's like the dutchman solution but the plug has slightly tapered edges so when it is clamped or tapped into place it makes a very tight joint all round. I recently used this to refurbish a gate that had a redundant hole through it. I didn't want the edge joints to fail and let water in over time so the tapered plug was an ideal solution that will remain tight in all weather.
Ooo! That's a good one! I'm going to have to try that
Thanks for those tips; some I knew, some I didn't.
Love it dude great solutions.
This is awesome. I would love to see more of this.
Something I've used, in the past, to cover up small scratches on certain woods - in the field. Take a rag, or tissue, and pull the dipstick from your truck. It works great to cover up a scratch and isn't necessarily color specific. Light, or dark, wood will blend in just perfectly.
My grand dad was a cabinet maker, he taught me the use of the iron when I was a kid.
Always good,
Wood golf tees are good to have as well for filling stripped holes.
Nice collection of tips and tricks. Saved it to my woodworking playlist 👍
As did I. Very useful for a newish woodworker like me.
Walnuts! Never heard that one before. Thanks for the tips, Michael!
Careful using this method as some people are allergic to nuts.
This is an awesome video. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks!!
Just got a hat. High quality and super fast shipping.
Rad! Thank you 🙌
I have had the wax color sticks in a toolbox for probably 40 years. They last a long time since I don't make mistakes anymore. OK, I lie often. 😂 Thanks for the great tips.
Thanks for all the tips, Michael! 😊
What happened to me was that we bought a new door, it was installed and started to become a potato chip. 😬
What we did was to wet it with hot water and clamped it in place. We left it there for about 2 days and problem solved. 😊
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Careful with walnut, especially on client projects as some people are allergic to nuts
I'm curious, would just touching a piece of furniture that had walnut rubbed on it actually cause a problem? I thought you had to ingest it.
@@ericathefae Not everyone and it depend how severe person is. It can get allergic reaction by touching it or get in contact with skin.
I would have never thought of that. Thanks for sharing!
Great tips!
The toothpick trick is especially especially handy for loose hinge screw holes.
“Sandoutable” Wow all these good tips and new words too! Lol. I recently learned that when cutting frame miters you can salvage a “gappy” (see, I can do it to) joint by cutting the longest pieces first if possible. Then if something moves or jumps you can re-cut it for the shorter ones and at least get something out of it. Simple I know but it took me a while to figure out. PS: I also use a pencil sharpener on too large dowels when I cant find a toothpick or a small enough dowel to plug my many drill mishaps, makes ‘em fit perfec too. 4 yesterday on chest handles, lol.
Ooo! Those are great tips! Thanks 🙌
Thanks for the hacks, so helpful! Do you have any good ones for light water stains on dark wood? Would the walnut method work here as well?
I am a big fan of the Timbermate wood filler, it seems to stain much better than any other brand of wood filler that I have used before. It can be challenging to get these days, not sure if it is a distribution issue, or if the manufacturer is having issues producing enough. Some stores have dropped it because they couldn't get it.
Great vid dude!
do a set of playing cards with that design on it might be cool
Solid content pal,
New sub earned
Nice tips
Toothpicks! I’ve been using those for years. Also a great solution for screws that have stripped out holes in particle board. The glue and “real wood” toothpicks let you put screw back in the same place.
I drilled table legs into the wrong side of my table top. So had 4 screw holes in the top of my table. I had offcuts of the same wood so with a chisel, I made cone pieces of the wood, added a load of glue into the screw holes and then hit the wood into the holes with a hammer repeatedly, crushing the wood cones into the holes. Once dry, sanded back, it created uneven edges to the hole and just looked like knots.
Winston! ❤
He's the best 🐶
Hi Michael, great video. Can you use the steam method on hard wood floors? Or once it is finished does it not work anymore?
Thanks! I have heard of people doing this, but it may harm the finish. It's worth testing in an inconspicuous area first.
I also fix dents with just a little bit of medium warm water.
Not showing the close up of the dutchman was a sacrilege.
Straight up criminal
I’ve got a great fix: Let’s say you’re doing mortise and tenon joinery and you’re matching the tenon to the mortise, only you took one pass too many and now the tenon is way too loose in the mortise. The east fix is to glue some veneer on one/both faces of the tenon to thicken it just a touch, then use a shoulder plane or whatever method you prefer to get a nice fit.
Also, I guess it depends on the industry because at my job we use those wax crayons literally every day. Mohawk and Fastcap make great multicolored kits.
I learned that highlighters works well. They rub away better on a finished piece than a sharpie and at the time, much cheaper with many more colors plus cheaper. Not saying they will last as long but short term fixes. At least until you can find the right way to truly fix it if needed.
I didn’t read through all of these, so it may have already been mentioned… another way to fill in those holes is a wooden matchstick. I’ve also used those to make it so the screws catch on door hinges & strike plates.
“No point making a mistake if you can’t get out of it” 😉
Well I dont make mistakes... Cus i organize and reorganize my shop and never actually make saw dust lol
Ok so I have a question for everyone on the wood cupping. I glued up some 1 1/2" pieces of fir to make shelves. I put two glued up slabs one on top of the other. They cupped on me, the top one curling up, the bottom one curling down on the edges. Cupping is about 1/8". Can this be fixed with the same water trick?
Great tips, thank you! I was wondering, where does your name come from? I am originally from switzerland, so i thought you are german, or swiss 😅
5:09 using a regular clothing Iron, Jeez when was that thing made the 50's? You should offer that to a museum as its in nearly flawless condition! My shop has a 3.99$ 20 something year old black and decker obtained from the local thrift store lol
LOL! I thought it was some ancient sunbeam iron too. But there is a link in the description. It’s new! B&D has just gone retro with their irons!
Getting a hoodie rn is there any discount codes lol
👍 für den Algorithmus
Video molto interessante, ma perché parlate così tanto?
Have you got any techniques for being crap? Some filler to hide my carpentry skills? ❤
Hansje Brinker and the dike
Promo SM 🎉
i am Not made like that LOL, i am made the old fashioned way a mother and a father LOL but a true Dutchman nevertheless
🤣😂🤣
So much facial hair at that conference!
😂🤣😂
What are you talking about? I never ever make any mistakes ! lol
That makes one of us 😂
That's Ink&Emblem, not Incan Emblem, right?
Correct
😂😂??? can I steam out dents on my very old stained oak table. ?????
Possibly!!
Aren’t zombies a good portion of their voters 😅
Looking at the camera and talking is what seems natural. But you keep switching to video from a different camera where you are suddenly looking not at us but still talking away. Rather strange. Makes us wonder who else is in the room that has your attention or makes us feel like we need to suddenly slide over a few feet.
Who cares...
@@JHRefinedCustomFurniture Yeah...