Square Cuts are Key: The key to a quality butt joint is to make certain that the ends of the two boards are cut as square as possible. This is easiest using a miter saw, although quality results can be obtained by using a circular saw and a Layout Square, provided that angle of the blade of the circular saw is set to zero-degrees. Glue Provides the Strength: The strength of a butt joint comes from the glue in the joint. However, there are two problems with using glue as the only means of holding the connection. First, when glue is applied to the end grain of a board, it tends to soak into the stock far more than glue applied to the side of the grain. The end grain is the most porous part of the wood, so you may need to apply a bit more glue than normal. Second, the glue will not provide much in the way of lateral strength. As such, it is advisable to use some screws or nails to strengthen the joint. If using hardwood for your project, be certain to pre-drill the pilot holes before inserting screws into the joint, or you'll split the stock and have a bigger problem on your hand than a weak butt joint.
Angles Must be Precise: As in a basic butt joint, the most important aspect of creating a mitered butt joint is to cut the angles precisely. For this, you'll need a compound miter saw. The first step is to determine the final angle of the joint and divide that number by two. For a square connection (90-degrees), you'll need to make a 45-degree angle cut on each of the two boards to be joined. If the two pieces of stock are exactly the same width, the two cut ends should match up perfectly. You can also use mitered butt joints when creating other joints of other angles. For example, if you were making an octagonally-shaped picture frame, each of the eight angles would be 45-degrees (rather than 90-degrees in the previous example). As such, you would cut 22 1/2-degree angles on each end to create the butt joints. Glue Holds the Joint: As in a basic butt joint, the glue is the means for holding the joint. However, because both sides of the glue joint will be on porous end grain, you will likely need to use more woodworking glue than when gluing on side grain. TIP: Be sure to dry-fit your pieces before applying glue, to ensure a proper fit. For instance, if you're making a picture frame, cut all lengths and angles and cross-check the frame for squareness and make sure that the joints have no gaps before applying glue. Use Mechanical Fasteners for Strength: As with a basic butt joint, there isn't a lot of strength in a mitered butt joint. As such, you may wish to strengthen the joint by using nails, brads or screws to give lateral strength to the joint. If using hardwood, remember to pre-drill before installing screws to avoid splitting. 3. Half-Lap Joint Half lap joints are among the most basic of woodworking joints, but there are times where they are the perfect choice for connecting two pieces of stock.
Both boards have material removed so that they fit together seamlessly.
When to Use Half Lap Joints: I find half lap joints work well when using one to two inch thick stock, such as in carcases for furniture pieces such as dressers & desks, especially where drawers will be installed. The half lap adds sturdiness to the internal structure without adding additional height. The half-lap joint can be quite strong when properly used. However, be advised that thin pieces of stock may be weakened by removing half of the material to accommodate the joint, so use this connection only when the stock is thick enough to maintain the structural integrity of the board after half of the material is removed. How to Cut Half Lap Joints: There are a number of tools that can be used to cut half laps, but my favorite is to use a stacked dado set on a radial arm saw. You'll need to use a couple of pieces of scrap wood (the same thickness as the stock you're going to be cutting) to get the depth set just right, but once you have the proper height setting on the radial arm, you'll be able to cut a lot of half lap joints in a hurry. If you don't have a radial arm saw, you can do the same thing with a stacked dado set on a table saw, but its a bit more difficult to see your cut lines with the cut side facing down. Be sure to use your miter gauge to guide the stock through the blade. You should never use the fence on the table saw for crosscuts, as the fence can cause the stock to bind. Another option, albeit somewhat primitive, is to use a circular saw to cut the half laps. After setting the depth, make the shoulder cuts at the cut lines to denote the edges of the joint, and then make a cut about every quarter of an inch. Once you have a cut every quarter inch between the edges of the joint, use a hammer to knock out the thin pieces of stock that remain. After cleaning up the joint with a chisel, you should have a perfectly formed half lap joint. Assembling the Joint: When you're ready to assemble the joint, place some woodworker's glue on one of the two mating surfaces. Place the other piece of stock in place, and adjust the two pieces to their final positions. Then, hold the joint with a few wood screws, being certain to avoid protruding the screws through the back side of the joint. The glue will be the strength of the joint, but the screws are necessary to hold it until the glue dries.
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If you want your woodworking business to succeed, you need to identify your target market. Your target market will be the ideal people that will buy your products without much trouble. Here are some tips to help you get the right target market. 1. Talk to people- You need to talk to your friends and colleagues and make sure you get a review from them. Let them freely tell you what they think of the project and if possible let them give you other suggestions that may work. This is one of the best ways of getting free reviews on the products. 2. Know your competitors- You need to know that the particular field that you want to engage in will have the probability of other businesses that exist on the same. You need to make sure you study what your competitor has to offer. With this in mind, you need to make sure that you make your woodwork to be much better than that of your competitors. 3. Use the internet- The internet is home to many things and among them is the social networks. You need to make sure that you join the social networking sites that give you the opportunity to get the reviews. To make sure you get the attention of the right audience, you need to set up a page on the networks. Allow people to post suggestions and even questions on it. With this in mind, you will be in a good position to tell what will work and what will not. 4. Use the focus groups- You need to carry out face to face research. Get a group of people together and with a set of pre-planned questions you need to ask them if they like your product or what they would want you to produce that you are not already producing.
Knowing your target market will definitely help you get the right audience for your products. It is also the main thing that will determine if your business will be successful or not. Please do your research beforehand. Knowing what you are going to produce will determine the kind of tools that you will need. It will also determine if you will need to rent a bigger working space or if using your garage will be adequate. Getting the right target market is not all; you need to thoroughly market your products. Woodworking is a broad subject that will need you to be specific if you want to get the good profits. Woodworking can cover anything from making toys all the way to furniture and more. With such a broad subject, you need to be very clear on the kind of business that you need to do. You need to have a niche. A niche in this case will mean that you need to identify the parts that are not adequately covered in the business and maximizing your efforts in the same. Your niche will need you to first identify the areas that are not covered. For instance, if it is the garden benches, you must take into account if people within your locality have gardens. If they do, check the kind of gardens that they keep. In most cases you may realize that even when they have the garden benches, they do not have good benches. With this in mind, you can then get to provide them with good benches. Another case in mind is the toys for children. You need to carefully determine if you have children in your area. If you do then you will definitely not go wrong by making toys for sale. Having a niche is very important for then you will be able to know the right kind of SEO techniques to use. Know that in order to have good recognition in the internet, using the optimization methods is a must. The SEO knowledge will help you attract the right kind of traffic to your website. Without a niche to guide you, somewhere along the way you will lose focus. You need to have your eyes set on the ball. The ball in this case will mean the right kind of woodwork projects. You should take extra caution when looking for a niche for your woodwork. Make sure that the project you decide to indulge in is the best for you. Some projects will need you to have power machines and others are easy to do with simple hand tools.
In business, having a sense of direction is always positive. It is also easier to have a plan to follow that will always tell you the stage that you are in, in your business. Niche marketing is very important for your business. Make sure that you identify the right kind of niche before you even begin buying your tools. Any form of business needs one to know how to calculate the costs if you want to get the profits. You need to have a proper way of calculating the costs. At times, one may put a final price on the product with the mind that they are making money only to find out that they are making losses. You have to have a defined way of calculating the costs so as to get the best out of the business. Here are some of the things that you should put into consideration if you want to earn good income. 1. Cost of materials The cost of material will be inclusive of all the materials that you use on the project. You need to always jot down all cost incurred when you purchase material. Start with the obvious costs like cost of lumber, hardware and plywood among others. Please take your time and include the costs of the materials that you may otherwise consider as miscellaneous. Such costs can be the cost of varnish, sandpaper and more. 2. Labor Costs Are you supposed to include the cost of your own personal labor? Yes, you should include it. To get a good cost of your labor, you need to put into focus the amount that you would pay an employee to do the work and put that onto your labor. Make sure that the quality of work done reflects on the labor costs. The easiest way of getting the labor costs is to calculate it as a percentage of the material costs. 3. Overhead Costs The overhead costs include all the other costs that you incur even when you do not work. Such costs are things like rent, office expenses, advertising, insurance, among other things. Make sure you also include the costs of shop supplies that are too minor to track separately. 4. Profit Margin
You need to make sure that you make a profit. It is important to make sure that the profit margin is different from other costs. In fact, your profit is quite different from the labor costs. Your profit margin ought to be the amount that you deserve for taking the entrepreneurial risk. Finally, if you are going to cater for shipping costs, make sure that you include the costs for the same on the product. If your products are of high quality then you will get good customers that will not complain of the price of the product. Woodworking is a great art and hobby that you can quickly turn into business. You need to know that different woodwork projects will have different markets. For instance, if you are making toys, then your target market should be the parents who have young children. You would be greatly misplaced if you make the toys in an area where the larger population that exists is the middle aged and the old aged people. You would also not make much money by making garden benches in an area where people hardly have gardens in their compound. With this in mind, it is very important that you find the right projects to build that will see you make good money. Here are some of the great projects that you can get to do so as to earn a good amount of profit.
2. Fence Many people have their fences in wood. It makes the home get the more natural look and it is easy to set up. You will always find people who want their fence to be repaired while others will need new fence. Because the fence acts as a form of security, you will obviously get order to put up the same.
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