Carpentry Basics

Oct 3
10:25

2016

Brian J White

Brian J White

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Basic carpentry skills are crucial in order to complete home renovation, home building and other construction jobs. Whether it’s required for your own house, or for your job, it’s never a bad idea to bone up on basic building skills.

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Basic Woodwork Skills
Sawing a section of wood is an extremely simple job,Carpentry Basics Articles but without a little training most people screw it up. Going straight through quickly is a great way to wind up with non-square joints, and they are an excellent way to ensure the result looks terrible when you are making furniture. It really pays off to take some lessons, or at least do up a lot of practice with trivial jobs. For beginners, it is also advisable to saw a useless piece of wood, just so that you get a feeling for it, before possibly ruining your expensive plank of wood.

Basic tools
You do not need fancy tools to make great woodwork. It will not matter if you’re a horrible carver and do not understand what you are doing, although you could buy a very expensive set of chisels for woodcarving.

  • Workbench
  • Pump cramps
  • Square
  • Hardpoint tenon saw
  • Pencil
  • Hammer

A hardpoint tenon saw, unlike the right one, must be thrown away because it can not be sharpened once it becomes not sharp. However, if you only infrequently make joints, it is all you will want and really affordable. I think the expense and upkeep of a good tenon saw is only rewarding if you’re going to really use it a lot.

Pump cramps are one of the best tools around: They are affordable, very quick and two of them is usually enough to hold most work pieces set up. Place cardboard between the cramps and your workpiece, because planing or sanding the symbols out after is really annoying

Carpentry Abilities: Measuring
The real secret to carpentry, one friend told me, is to not misplace your tools. That may sound so clear it’s not bright, but it’s not as stupid as you will feel the first day you spend more time hunting tools than using them. So, right off the bat, purchase yourself a tool belt. Stash your tools in those leather pouches, and you won’t have to retrace all your steps every time you want the tape measure.

Let us talk about that tape measure. A locking, retractable tape—that’s the thing you need, ¾ inch or 1 inch broad, so it is stiff enough for long, one-person measurements, and 16 feet to 25 feet long. Discover how the metal tab on the end of that thing’s sorta loose? It is not busted (my first hunch). Never give another idea to that looseness : simply measure away, you will be OK. (Do use the exact same tape for the entire occupation, though, in case one tape’s tablature transfers more than another’s.)

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