Aligning the pieces perfectly so that they remain strong and secured during service life is one of the most crucial and vital aspect of woodworking. Various questions like how can you attach pallet boards, why do you join wood pieces in a particular fashion only etc. are some of the questions which need to be understood.
A good carpenter knows dozens of various joinery techniques, but, the best ones know what to use and when.
You may have learned a few joinery techniques in our first video of this series. In this second video of the series we briefly introduce a few more, commonly used joints and their applications.
Finger Joint: A finger joint also known as box joint is one of the most popular woodworking joints used in woodworking. It is used when we need to join two pieces of wood perpendicular to each other. The joint relies on the glue used, to hold them together as a piece. The Finger joint is comparatively easy to make than other complex joints.
Applications -
Butt Joint: It is inarguably one of the most basic joint used in woodworking. A butt made when one piece of the wood butt is glued to another piece and is joined with the help of metal clips or fasteners. This type of joint is mostly used in wall framing on construction sites.
Applications -
Miter Joint: The miter joint is another basic joint commonly used in woodworking. Easy to make, it resembles a butt joint, except that this joint is a little bit stronger. The reason behind its strength is that the ends to be joined are cut specifically at a 45° angle and then glued. The angle increases the surface area for the gluing material to be applied thus improving the strength. It also conceals the end grain and gives it a nice plush look.
Applications -
Cross Lap Joint: This type of woodworking joint is made by joining two pieces of wood attached at right angles. One part is fitted in the middle of the other piece. Cutouts of precise measurement end up in a cross-lap joint with the two parts neatly interlocked and their faces flush. The cross-lap joint is strong enough by itself and doesn’t needs nails, screws, or glue to glue them together and has several applications like -
Mortise and Tenon Joint – It is one of the strongest and popular joints which is used to attach two pieces of wood specifically at a 90-degree angle. The mortise part of the joint acts like a hole or cavity in which tenon is inserted. It's more like a ball and socket joint which can be found in the human body. The tenon is usually around one third the thickness of the piece of the other wood.
Applications -
Dowel Joint: Dowels are more of round wooden pins of very thin diameter acting as fastener pins which toughen the hold of a joint. They are available ready-made and can be used in place of nails or screws. Firstly dowels are dipped in glue and then secured tightly into holes. This joint might look easy to construct but it is not. It demands utmost accuracy and precision for making perfect fit holes, marking the centers of the holes and then inserting dowels in the sockets formed.
This video shows some of the most used joints used in woodworking projects. In our other video you may get to know a few more techniques of joinery which can be applied in woodworking. We wish you Good luck with your future furniture projects.
