Category: Woodworking Tips

I recently wrote a few articles on cleaning dust in your workshop and recommended having a dust collection system in your apartment workshop. Most reader feedback from those posts is about cleaning the dust bags, and more importantly, can you wash dust collector bags? In general, dust collector bags should NOT be washed as washing…

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After being a cabinetmaker for 26 years, one common problem for us was joining 2 pieces of melamine where you couldn’t access one side to screw through. Pocket holes seemed like a good option at the time or were they? I thought I should share my experience from this time and tell you what I…

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Over the last several years I have seen a huge increase in the number of woodworkers using pocket holes to join wood together rather than traditional jointing methods. I even noticed my local woodwork supplies store has a whole shelf just for Kreg and pocket holes. I have seen many traditional woodworkers so bad things…

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Ikea floating shelves are quite popular in offices and houses alike. But if you plan to use them as actual storage options instead of aesthetic decor-holding units, you might want to know how much weight they can carry before giving way. In general, Ikea floating shelves can hold approximately 33 lbs. or 5 kg of…

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A friend asked me a few weeks back what length nail to use when nailing 2 pieces of wood together. To my surprise, he had been using nails that were way too short for the job at hand. So, how far should a nail go into wood? As a general rule, the nail length needs…

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Medium-density fiberboard or MDF is a type of engineered wood that involves defibrating softwood or hardwood into fibers and then adding a resin or wax binder to make panels. The density of MDF is greater than plywood, which has you curious about something. Can you use pocket holes on MDF? Pocket holes can be used…

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