Made plans but new to woodworking and need help with joints

Grit12Gauge

New User
JP
I’m new to woodworking and have a novice skill set. I had an awesome idea pop in my head, so I watched YouTube and learned how to use sketch up. I made the piece but not sure if the base of this “dresser” type piece will work. HELP!!! Do these joints make sense and how should I attack this?
 

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Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Here is an easy way to do this. fF you are pretty new to wood, then I would only recommend dado'ing out the joints shown as the red arrow. The rest can be butt joints the little box is a side view of a piece of wood. The blue line represents the (pocket hole jig) pilot hole and screw that would be used along with glue to assemble the rest. This was you really on notching 4 joints the rest I would just use the pocket hole jig to pilot the holes and use the screws that are meant for that type of joint. You can make a very nice cabinet as long as your cuts are accurate and straight & perpendicular.
 

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Grit12Gauge

New User
JP
Here is an easy way to do this. IF you are pretty new to wood, then I would only recommend dado'ing our the joints shown as the red arrow. The rest can be butt joints the little box is a side view of a piece of wood. The blue line represents the (pocket hole jig) pilot hole and screw that would be used along with glue to assemble the rest. This was you really on notching 4 joints the rest I would just use the pocket hole jig to pilot the holes and use the screws that are meant for that type of joint. You can make a very nice cabinet as long as your cuts are accurate and straight & perpendicular.
Thank you tons! I got worried thinking that I may need mortise and tenons but your way seems much more practical. My plan was to make this out of dimensional pine as a practice piece and tune the skills. Once I felt comfortable I was going to use hardwood.
 
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tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
Mortise and tenon is not really that hard, though modern glues make half laps and other simple joints just as strong. I have used biscuits but don't like them. Had a lot of trouble with my Kreg pocket hole jig without something moving.

A lot of production furniture routed a dado on all the inner frame pieces and then cut a simple tenon on the cross pieces. Production furniture is made "easy" might look as some of yours and see how they did it. Of course new furniture might have been just stabled in place with no joinery.

Look at different joints on the WEB. THere are dozens of ways to do each one. Try some.
 

creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
Look at different joints on the WEB. THere are dozens of ways to do each one. Try some.
Couldn't agree more. If you're new to woodworking now is the best time to invest in building essential skills through practice. For traditional joinery consider learning how to cut the following:
  • Dados, grooves and rabbets,
  • Mortise and tennon joints, and
  • Dovetail joints (through and half-blind)
If you master these then you're well on your way to making most any piece of furniture. So much of woodworking is building up muscle memory. You do something to the point it becomes second-nature. Watch a few YouTube videos, get some scrap lumber and then get your hands in it. Have fun!
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
You should put your SketchUp model document in the Resources "Project Plans Folder" instead of a screen shot. We can then look at your plan in SketchUp and be more help.

You did not give us the dimensions of your dresser design for starters.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
I use pocket screws sometimes but I hate looking at the holes they require so I mostly use them on utility projects or when I can hide the holes. On the subject project, if you put the holes facing the floor they wouldn't be readily visible. The joint tends to shift as you tighten the screw but a clamp across the joint helps a lot. It is a reasonable way to make things quickly and the resulting joints are surprisingly strong.

I also use through screws and just plug the hole. I have bits that drill the countersink hole and plug cutters so I can cut plugs of the same wood so they are not so noticable.

It looks like you might want to do a frame and panel for the ends, the upright pieces. You can do that on the table saw. Even little short stub tenons are pretty strong and you can glue a plywood panel in place too. A solid wood panel should not be glued to prevent it's expansion and contraction from humidity changes from cracking it.
 

Grit12Gauge

New User
JP
You should put your SketchUp model document in the Resources "Project Plans Folder" instead of a screen shot. We can then look at your plan in SketchUp and be more help.

You did not give us the dimensions of your dresser design for starters.
Gotcha! Didn’t know I could do that. Thank you!
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
I think you can accomplish the necessary joinery with floating tenons (Dominos); but give the fact that you are new to woodworking you probably don't have the required tool, which is very expensive. That said, there are several ways to do what you are trying to accomplish, it is simply a question of how you want to approach the problem. Good luck!
 

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