# Tips & Tricks: Different Joinery Techniques



## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

What are your "tips and tricks" (and challenges) re: *JOINERY techniques*
What are the different ways to join wood?



*Gateway to all Tips & Tricks Topics*


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## donbee (Feb 7, 2009)

M&T, miters, dowels, nails, pocket screws, glue.

ddwwb


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## cloakie1 (May 29, 2011)

hofman keys


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## donbee (Feb 7, 2009)

Hmmmmmmm?

I confess ignorance of hofman keys.

d


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## cloakie1 (May 29, 2011)

they are like a double ended dovetail made of a hard plastic. we use them on mitre joints for our post caps.we just route a dovetail in each mitre and when they go together we bang in the key.as the key goes in it clamps the mitre together forming a very tight joint and strong.i think they are a europeon thing


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Read Gary Rogowski's book" Joinery "the best I've seen on the subject.

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_complete_illustrated_guide_to_joiner.html?id=HzfBNQUlclEC


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## CanadianWoodChuck (Sep 8, 2007)

Ranked by the amount used
1) M & T (includes floating tenons as well)
2) Dove Tails (Full, Blind & Sliding)
3) Butt Joint (everyone has to glue up tops )
4) Box Joints
5) Locking Rabbets
6) Cope & Stick
7) Stub Tenon
8) Any Joint pinned
9) Pocket Screws


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## BertFlores58 (May 26, 2010)

Tips and Tricks…
Any joinery can be done provided we develop the skill but even so the best tip of them all….. It needs 3 hands or probably more…. I use an elevated vise from my bench plus some of the clamps. The elevated vise allows me to cut vertically downward and sometimes upward… this provide good straight or square sawing. Handjoint trick…. ALWAYS CUT A TENON ON THE END GRAIN. Simple but other than that will be a useless job.

Miss Debbie, Thanks this will help a lot of beginners and enhance all those expert, I just learnt from above about hoffmans. Maybe more to come.


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## Grumpy (Nov 9, 2007)

Varies with the job. I do like the loose tenon system though,


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## tom427cid (Aug 21, 2011)

Dutchmen; inset double dovetail to stabilize and hold/repair cracks. A decorative/structural element of George Nakashima tables-and many others.
tom


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## S4S (Jan 22, 2011)

*Trick* : I use* BUTT JOINTS*


Tip* : I try to make them butt up tightly , so that no butt cracks will be seen .
*
*


TRICK
*
 : simple * PEDESTAL JOINT*

Tip *: Make sure whatever tools you are using are sharp .


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## JoeLyddon (Apr 22, 2007)

*moment:*

*COOL BUTT Joints…*

*But,* what are those little cutouts for on the Pedestal "Vertical" fingers?
I don't see anything that will fill those voids.

That's also a cool way to just make a stick Longer! LOL

Where did you see that joint? ... or did you dream it up? LOL


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

I like pocket holes if, and only if, the pocket will not be visible. Otherwise, I usually prefer loose tenons.

I'm a big fan of the Mortise Pal system. I think I would like Festools Domino even more, but I think I get something almost as good for a lot less money with the Mortise Pal and my plunge router.

Curiously, I use the Mortise Pal with the dowel template the most often and my "loose tenon" is often 2 - 4 dowels. The Mortise Pal is great for getting the holes precisely spaced. A plunge router with a straight up-spiral bit is a great and quick way to "drill" holes.


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## S4S (Jan 22, 2011)

Don't remember *,Joe.*..somewhere on a Japanese site…....cool huh ?


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## JoeLyddon (Apr 22, 2007)

*moment:*

When I first saw your post, it reminded me of Japanese joinery… (awesome stuff)


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## cloakie1 (May 29, 2011)

the middle short tenon locks into those notches joe ,which in turn holds the leg in position (i think)....very clever piece of joinery and well thought out….would be a pretty tricky and time consuming process i would imagine


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## Belg1960 (Jan 3, 2010)

Guys, forgive my ignorance here but so far this looks like a list of joints, plus one tip from Bert. How does this help a newbie, I would love to see the best to lay out joints like these, being an electrician that learned everything on the job I'm a visual learner, I can get more out of a short video, pics than a 1000 written words. Am I missing where this kind of information is??? Thanks from a relative newbie.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

here are some blogs tagged as joinery

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I like using the Dowelmax


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## cloakie1 (May 29, 2011)

the hoffman keys i mentioned earlier.. here is a link that may be helpful

http://www.hoffmann-usa.com/perfect_joints.php


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## woodzy (Jan 24, 2011)

That link to the Hoffman site is cool. 
It's a very interesting joint.

I try me hand at as many joinery techniques as i can (with varing success).
I really like the look of half blind and through dovetails, finger joint look good as well.
These joinery techniques are very old (thousands of years) so i think i can trust there strength and longevity.
A while ago i saw a dovetail that someone had cut into the shape of an actual tail. It was on LJ, really beautiul stuff.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

check out GaryK's joinery samples in this project


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## Jhopewell (Feb 4, 2013)

An interesting link to so many joints. While looking for finger joint descriptions I found this:
Maybe a bit superficial, but a wide variety.
http://www.jointswood.com/


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