Woodworking is an ancient skill that is still very much in practice and a part of almost all modern homes as well. The hard to master skill finds it’s applications in not just home-building, but also everything found inside the home. It includes furniture, decorations, doors, windows, and all wooden frameworks.
The most significant trick to empower in woodwork is wood joinery. As the term suggests, it is the joining of wooden pieces, like timber or lumber, to create a seamless structure. To successfully create wooden joints, you need essential woodworking tools. These include:
- A jig: This tool guides cutting tools to ensure precision cuts
- Fence: It is an edge used to brace the material being cut
To help the people trying to master their woodworking skills, we have compiled a list of most critical wooden joints that are still in use by Joinery companies in Dubai, USA, UK, and worldwide.
Miter Joint
The most common and widely used joinery, this is the easiest to master. The miter joint is used at the corners of some designs of doorframes and picture-frames.
To create a miter joint, two wooden pieces are cut at opposite 45° angles and joined together by glue and nails or screws for additional strength. The 90° mitered-angle is seamlessly glued together and then nailed to the framing material or to each other.
To get best results, it is better to use a miter saw that has been designed to firmly fit together with no seams visible.
butt Joint
This is the joint you’re most likely to encounter when you first start looking in woodwork. The butt joint is used for installing baseboards and trims.
To create a butt joint, two pieces of wood are cut at opposite ends to butt together and make a single seamless whole. The two joints are fastened together through nails or screws to the framing wood in the wall.
For better results, it is suggested to use a chop saw as it is designed to make precision square cuts. The angles achieved with a chop saw are more precise as compared to those with circular saw.
Lap joints
Lap joints are created by simply overlapping two pieces of wood together. They are best used for structural framing of the house or to reinforce wooden joints that’ll otherwise sag.
The lap joint can either be full, where one wooden board overlaps another and is then fasten together by a nail or screw. Or it can either be notched, where both the wooden boards are first notched, and then fitted together by a nail. Notched lap joints add more strength to the frame as these are double reinforced.
For optimal results, it is suggested to lay both the wooden boards together and mark the notches at the same time before sawing. This prevents confusion later.
Mortise & Tenon Joints
These are the most ancient wooden joints that have been discovered in thousands of years old structures. Mortise & tenon joints are best used for joining perpendicular pieces.
The mortise and tenon joint is created by sawing the end of a wooden board to form a tapered head, and scooping out a cavity at the end of another board. The tenon is then inserted into the mortise and glued together. This type of joint is most commonly used in furniture today.
For maximum strength of the joint, it is suggested to hollow out the mortise slightly deeper then the length of the tenon. This gives the glue enough room to diffuse and disseminate.
Dowel Joint
Similar to mortise and lenon joint in projection, the dowel joint is widely found in wood-crafted projects where other types of fasteners are not that appropriate such as bookshelves.
The dowel joints are created by drilling out sockets at the opposite ends of both wooden boards, and using a separate cylindrical shaped to hammer the two boards together. A dowel joint can be incorporated into any type of joints we’ve discussed until now to further strengthen the joint.
For best results, it’s best to glue and clamp the two boards you wish to join together and let them dry overnight, before drilling the socket. This will keep the joint in place when you hammer the dowel.
It’s A Wrap!
Although handyman-ship is now almost extinct and most of the woodworking today is handled by joinery companies in Dubai and worldwide, it is still a skill worth learning. The time and effort that goes into creating a wooden structure from scratch, is nothing compared to the feeling of satisfaction you get at the sight of end-result!