When it comes to ripping thin strips of wood on the table saw, safety should always come first. Having a thin piece of wood too close between the fence and blade can be dangerious. Not to mention, it probably won't be every actuate. So i made a simple jig to rip thin strips on the opposite side. It was made from a few scraps and took no time to make. Watch this video and see how it works. If you would like a drawing of my jig, you can contact me at stantonfinefurniture@gmail.com

I’m going to do a half lap with a cross cut, chisel paring, and followed through with a shoulder plane. Now if you didn’t know better, you might be thinking I’m an Olympic diver getting ready to execute a stunning high dive. But alas, I am not. I’m a woodworker, and this is a structural joint and the tools I will use to make a simple, yet strong woodworking joint. The Half Lap is a joint used to connect two intersecting pieces of wood. Each piece of wood is sawn to half its thickness. When the two are then overlapped, the two are now again the thickness of one. In times of old, this might have been considered as an inadequate means of joining two boards together. In early time glue was not available. I imagine to secure this joint, the boards would have had to be drilled through and fastened by dowel rods. Or maybe they nailed it? Either way, it would not have been a good joint to hold up against any rugged usage. However, with today's modern glue, it has the ability to adhere to the wood with incredible strength. If you would try to break it, the wood would snap before the glued joint would fail. Wood has three edges in which glue can be applied. Face grain, the large, flat surface area of a board. Edge grain, the smaller side of the board running length wise. And end grain, the ends of the board, running width wise. Yet, end grain gluing is an inadequate means of bonding two pieces together. I’m going to begin with making my boards. I’ll have one horizontal on my bench and the other standing vertical. With a sharp pencil I’ll mark the vertical piece on the face and sides using the horizontal piece as a gauge. Then i’ll reverse the two pieces and mark the same on the other board. Using a marking gauge, I’ll set it for half the thickness and run it down the sides of the boards. With a square and a sharp knife, I’ll scribe a line across the face of the board following my pencil line. I continue to make a few passes with my knife. Then I angle the knife, removing a small amount of wood, creating a shoulder or trench on the waste side for my saw to rest in. I’m going to do this for both pieces. I’ve picked up my crosscut saw and using that trench as a guide, I’ll saw down to my marking gauge line. I’ll move my saw over 3/16” and make a series of saw cuts repeating this until I come to the edge of the boards. Now comes the fun part. I use a ⅞” chisel and place it in between the saw kerfs. Pry the chisel and most of the wood will snap out. I love doing this. It’s fast, easy and there is something fun about it. Maybe it’s the sound of the wood breaking like the sound of knuckles cracking on fingers. I’m not sure, I just know I enjoy doing it. The mating surfaces are still rough at this point. So I’ll smooth them out with a shinto rasp. I’ll do a test fit to see how the joint fits. If the half lap isn’t quite wide enough, I’ll use a shoulder plane to carefully shave the joint so the fitting is exact. From there it’s just applying the glue. I’m going to spread the glue evenly on both mating surfaces. I want to make sure that I’m using all the surface available to me to get the maximum holding power. Then I apply the clamps and let it set overnight. If you would like to see an example of this joint being made check out my videos at www.youtube.com/bigchopperoo and watch “Craftsman Frame- part 1” Chad Stanton- Stanton Fine Furniture

Almost every cabinet door manufactured today is made by a cope and stick method. And there is a good reason for it. It's been a method that has proven to be fast, accurate, and reasonable strong for decades now. If you are thinking of making your own cabinet doors, Cope & Stick is a good choice for you. Cope and Stick is a set of router bits, typically sold together. One makes the proflie and groove to accept the inner panle. (the stick) The other makes a reversed profile and a small tenon to go into the groove. (the cope) Put the two together and they fit like a match made in heaven. There are a few steps that should be followed when making cope and stick doors. This video will show the order in which those steps are done as well as a few tips to go along with it. chad stanton- stanton fine furniture

When it comes to doing cabinet doors most people opt for full over lay doors. A full over lay is when the door sits over the faceframe of the cabinet. However, an inset door is where the door mounts flush to the faceframe, which can be tricky for some because for the door's gaps need to be even and consistent all the way around. Well this video will show you how to accomplish this in a very easy way. This is a great video to take your woodworking to the next level if this is something you've struggled with. Hope you enjoy it. Chad Stanton- Stanton Fine Furniture