As a hardwood flooring installer, I have been using wood moisture meters professionally for over 30 years. To use these meters properly, you need to understand some fundamental properties about wood moisture content and how the various meters actually function. Read the full article…
Ultimate: Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
I have been designing and building homes for a while, and, somehow, I completed all of them without the aid of the Ultimate Work Bench (UWB), but I always knew there had to be a better way. Read the full article…
In my last Excel article, I introduced some basic features to show the power and flexibility of this awesome program. In this article, I will expand on what was previously covered and introduce some new features. This is pretty advanced stuff. But if you stick with it, I really believe that it can make your business life more efficient, which can translate into more dollars earned, and more time saved. Read the full article…
It’s easy to distinguish between a two-hundred-year-old colonial house and a modern imitation—and not just because McMansions are puffed-up and super-sized. There’s a mysterious quality in a well-designed home—grace, proportion, something almost ineffable about the way they look “right.” Many older homes share that mysterious quality; few modern ones do. Read the full article…
I spent the first 15 years of my working life as a cameraman for—and then producer of—television commercials. In that career, your “film reel” was more important than your resume. It was a collection of a dozen or so of your best TV spots. By the same logic, when I finally switched over to woodworking, and started my own cabinet shop, I found that I would land more jobs when I could show a potential client photographs of our work. Over time, I carried an increasingly larger photo album in my attaché. Read the full article…
I spent many years framing custom homes with a big crew of expensive carpenters, and the pressures of keeping things moving and making payroll taught me to be efficient. Now, I’ve downsized, and my wife and I are enjoying framing houses with no outside help. Getting things done with just two of us working—and saving our aging backs—makes good use of the lessons I’ve learned about fast, efficient framing techniques. Read the full article…
Between 1980 and 1994 I moved ten times—one fixer after the other, and a few rentals, too (fixers aren’t always profitable, even for a carpenter). When I moved into my current home, I promised myself I’d stay a while, and one of the first projects I wanted to tackle was replacing the gates. I accomplished the first goal, but it took a while before I got to the gates. Read the full article…
Miter saw gauges confuse a lot of finish carpenters for one simple reason—they aren’t designed for finish carpentry, they’re designed for framing and stairs. Let me show you what I mean. Read the full article…
I was working on a remodel—a high-end home near the Hamptons—when the homeowner came out the front door with a magazine in her hand. “Look!” she said. “This is exactly what I want on top of my front door!” She tilted the picture toward me: a handsome Greek Revival portico decorated with an elliptical sunburst. “It’s going to cost you,” I told her. “How much?” she asked. “About $1,200,” I said. She smiled and said, “Do it.” Read the full article…
Van racking is basically just trim carpentry with loads of scribes, using elements of North American face frame construction and European box systems of cabinet making. But it’s also an exercise in extreme organization. Getting it right can save you time and energy on the jobsite—both of which lead to increased productivity and profits. Read the full article…
When you walk into a custom home, an old Victorian or an old Colonial, one of the first and most impressive sights is the stair. There it is in the great room. Graceful. Elegant. It is often the biggest piece of furniture in a home and one of the most valuable ornamental assets.
Or is it? Read the full article…
A while back, Dan Broadbelt wrote an article about a computer stand he built for his work van. It was simple, but seemed like an ingenious idea. One problem, though: I use an iPad. Nonetheless, the idea was planted, so I decided to try my own version. Read the full article…
“I suspect we’re seeing an early preview of what the future holds for carpentry: laser measures, automatic digital miter saw fences, Bluetooth, iPads . . . .” Gary Katz, THISisCarpentry, July 30, 2010
iPads? Really, Gary? I think that’s going a little too far. iPads are Apple products and Apple computers are for long-haired, tofu-eating, poetry-reading, and otherwise useless people who use them to design wine bottle labels, right? We meat-eating, boot-wearing, beer-drinking, hardworking types need real computers that can crunch numbers, run drafting programs and surf the web for—wait, it will come to me—yes, search the web for discounts on tools. Who needs an iPad, I say. Read the full article…
A recent article in THISisCarpentry—“Craftsman Style Mantel and Bookcases,” by Brian Cinski Jr.—referenced the book “Building Fireplace Mantels,” by Mario Rodriguez. Brian used this book to replicate a stunning Charles Rennie Mackintosh mantel and bookcase. I was intrigued, and ordered a copy of the book. Inside, I found many great tips, as well as a plethora of techniques I had never imagined. One in particular amazed me: the “sliding dovetail cleat.” Read the full article…