I Wish I Knew This When I Started Woodworking! | Woodworking Tips for Beginners

"Splash-and-go" water-stones are much more appropriate for woodworking than "soaking" water-stones. But, diamonds are great also! If you're sharpening kitchen knives, then maybe the same thing applies, but the "feel" of the two types of stones is very different. The "Zen" of precision knife sharpening is different that the "get back to work" tool sharpening.

Thank you. A good straight-forward and useful video. (Don't think the music in the background helps),

I know this is an old video but I am old as well. I enjoyed watching how you address a problem. I probably have made all the mistakes one can make working with wood at one time or another. Thanks for the video. You obviously have paid your dues.

I'm limited on money and then I found harbor freight and I have no problem with their tools

Great tips... some great insight on time and tools.

So many points I agree with and most especially with the sharpening. I did a lot of YT reviews of sharpening methods and in the end I chose a simple single diamond stone and made my own strop. I knew that I needed the processes to be quick, effective and simple otherwise I'd not do it. I did buy a guide to correctly set up the angle but very quickly I did away with that too because I developed a feel of how to angle the chisel, plane blade and my kitchen knives. The only thing I would change about my choice of diamond stone is its width. I bought one that is really a bit too narrow for comfortable sharpening. I'll probably upgrade that soon. Otherwise, super sharp tools do not have to be hard to achieve. Go simple, effective and quick. I enjoy sharpening now because after the initial learning time, I now do it really quickly.

When it comes to sanding, I will say that the higher the grit of sandpaper you use the tighter the grain gets and the lighter the stain will be.
Example: 180 grit on oak using honey oak stain will be darker than if you used 220 grit sandpaper.
Also if you take a piece of sandpaper and go with the grain it will change the color of the stain. When you go across the grain, it leaves a mark. Orbital sanders leave swirl marks in your wood, and hand sanding with the grain eliminates a lot of that.

I think a good beginning tip is to keep a shop journal. Something where you keep project notes, measurements, ideas and sketches. I find this makes it easier to set a project to the side and come back to. It also lets me iterate on a design because sometimes I have an idea, don't write it down and then cannot recall what it was later.

I'm late to your video, but you struck a nerve...I'm a fledgling wood worker and watch quite a few videos. The guys that have a shop full of Festool and WoodPecker (while asking for Patreons) don't get my support. I called out one fella on it, after he explained I should buy a Festool miter saw over the Makita that was half the price. I bought the Makita after he stuggled to justify the 4 figure price of the Festool....Some guys are just brand whores, and it shows. Show me the fella making amazing things with Harbor Freight/Ridgid/Kobalt tools. THEY get my respect.

You're giving great tips, so I'm going to give you a couple about glue squeeze-out. You're right. You only want to use as much glue as you need. For the best adhesion, you want to put enough glue but not too much, as you said. To that, if you let both sides sit for a few minutes, it will get tacky ... tacky enough that you can move it a bit, but then it will quickly "lock" where you want it and won't slip during clamping. If it does slip with the clamps, remove the clamps. Realign the pieces, wait another 5 minutes (with Tightbond anyway) and THEN clamp. You will have less slippage.
ALL pieces are subject to glue wandering everywhere. Even if you do your best to remove excess glue, you may leave an invisible fingerprint, or not scrape or sand as well as you believed.

The remedy? White vinegar. Cheapest you can get. Once you have finish sanded and think you're ready for finish, you don't want to be surprised by glue residue because it will be an "I messed up" beacon on your piece. So, wipe your entire piece down with white vinegar on a rag to figure out where the residue is on the joints, or stray fingerprints. Once identified, you can pat on the vinegar and let it sit for a minute, and then, with a rag, wipe (or sometimes scrub depending) the glue residue OUT of the wood. Seriously, OUT. Vinegar pulls the glue out of the wood.
White vinegar will REMOVE the glue from the grain. Finger prints? Just pat some on with a rag, wait a minute or two, and then wipe/scrub it away. Bonus is that it won't raise the grain.

Glue leftover or squeeze-out on the joints? This will take a bit more patience, but it will work. Pat on the vinegar and let it sit. You will see the excess turn opaque white and many times, you can scrape it up with your fingernail and pull the majority of it off. Then let dry and check again. Residue, repeat as for fingerprints.

A WORD OF CAUTION: Be very careful when using on joints. You absolutely DON'T want to flood the joints because if it will dissolve the glue on the surface, it will do so in the joints. So, just PAT it on. Yes, it may take a few times, but better that than destroying the glue in a joint that will eventually fall apart.

Easy application, cheap, non-toxic, reliable, won't raise the grain, removes residue entirely from the grain with patience. Use it, and never find an "oops" when you're applying finish.

I also use my table saw to resaw wood. However, you didn't mention one VERY important point. To resaw on the table saw. You will need to be very careful to flip it end-over-end. You can't just cut the other side willy-nilly and expect it to line up. So, cut all the way through, keep the piece in the same orientation, and then flip end over end. NOT just flip it over. It makes a difference. The good thing about this method, even if you do need to take it to the bandsaw to cut that cross-bar (the cut will look like an H after cutting on the table saw), is that the bandsaw will track against one side of the cut. Yes, that will leave you with a piece sticking up in the center of the other side, but that's easily fixed on the planer or jointer.

"Relative dimensioning" is also called "scribing" and it's the most accurate way of measuring to be honest. I teach folks that all the time. Just cut about a half blade-width longer or wider than you think you need and you can detail the cut from there for a perfect fit, either by sanding, hand planing, or cutting an "eyebrow" ... which is when you align to the blade instead of the teeth. May take a bit longer to get a precise fit, but you won't get the cuts totally wrong and waste stock.

A tip on saving a great deal of money on sandpaper: use sandpaper made for drywall. It's a mesh. My favorite is Abranet, but I've used others and they work the same and come in different grits. Why this? I've had the same Abranet 3x6 inch multipack for nearly 5 years and it's still good. Bought on Amazon. Grits from 80 to 600. I also have the 5 inch discs for the random orbital and it's also still good, though I've only had that for 3 years. Same multipack. Why is it so good? It doesn't clog. You can fold it, roll it, bend it, and it still works. It's mesh, so the dust goes through into the collection without holes. And if it gets "full"? Just peel it off of the sander and whack it a couple of times against the counter and it's clear. You can also blow it out with compressed air, or wash it if you need to, and it's still good. Now, 3M makes a very thin paper that can be rolled up very tiny, or wadded up and come back to it's original, but it can't be unclogged simply by whacking it on something. That's best for coves and grooves and detail work. But it does last a long time. For me, only two papers. Abranet (or similar) and the 3M foldy paper. It's all you'll ever need.

Good sanding advice all around. You're correct. you only need 2 grits (or perhaps 3, an 80 grit, if you need to hog off more than a finish sand because something didn't line up exactly correctly). 120 and 180 are fine, depending on the finish. A penetrating finish? Stop at 180. Higher and the stain/penetrating whatever won't sink in very far. A wax finish? You can take it all the way to 320 if you like. Working with a very dense, oily exotics like Ebony or Pink Ivory (that almost finishes itself with a sharp blade)? 80 grit to level (this stuff is HARD), then skip to 220 and see where that gets you. Not glass smooth (Ebony, African Blackwood, Pink Ivory, Brazilian Rosewood, etc)? Then take it to 320 or 400 (because all you're going to coat with is a UV clear coat). Just know that this stuff is, again, very hard. You'll get a glass finish, but you have to be patient.

This was great especially since I am starting out with basic wood projects

Great video. Very useful tips. The one about affiliation confused me though. I thought woodworkers hate kickback. (I'll see myself out.)

Some tips I have learned: Make cheap but precise jigs for repeat jobs. I have one for finger joints, spline cuts, miter cuts, cross cuts
Don’t cut anything on a router until you have tried it on scrap wood and see if it works well
Get a 12” and 36” steel rule that starts at zero on the edge otherwise too many opportunities for mistakes
Enjoyed your video!

I am in complete agreement with your advice regarding glue squeeze out. Most people use way too much glue and then have to deal with cleaning off all the excess glue. I have found the perfect tool to put on the correct amount of glue and minimize squeeze out, a $0.50, 3 inch, plastic putty knife with 1/16" notches sold at Menards and other box stores. I cut off the plastic handle so that I am only left with the notched blade. I put on a bead of glue to the surface to be glued then use the notched putty knife to form uniform glue beads along the glued surface. If I am gluing porous surfaces, I glue both surfaces, If I am gluing very smooth surfaces, I only apply glue to one surface. I usually get just a tiny amount of squeeze out that is easy to remove and have never had a glue joint failure in 40 years. This technique is so good that I often don't need clamps since the Titebond glue will catalyze quickly and the pieces don't float around like they do when you use excessive amounts of glue.

I really like the information and presentation in your videos . Keep up the great work!

Beginner tip: make your first real project something decently hard and fairly complicated and make lots of mistakes. You’ll tear your hair out but it will make everything f after seem childishly simple

Sorry if I'm argumentative, but it is important for a really smooth project if you're finishing with an oil that you sand in steps. I use 80, 150, 220, 320, apply 2 or more coats of oil, wet sand with 1500 grit and wipe it off. Smooth as a baby's bottom.

Genesis sanders are great. Even tho the price is low.

Ten things I wish I knew as a beginner is…

How to get rid of nots before you paint wood
To NOT make a bunch of products and expect them to sell
To buy lots of wood and store it
What causes bubbles in polyurethane. (It’s polishing before stain is completely dry)
To contact old customers
Having business cards early in the business
To get a branding iron (still don’t have that yet)
Fixing imperfections (such as dents/learned it soon enough tho)
Shipping with care (bubble rap !!! Recently learned that after an expensive order was fuck’d.
Selling products across the country (instead of just in my home town)

Like your channel we have a lot of the same woodworking habits!😁👍

Thanks for all the great tips! I finally bought a good sander and the Cubitron sandpaper and the difference is huge.

A few people tested a few different brands of parallel clamps and found the harbor freight ones are just about as good as bessy. Only down side is harbor freight only has 2 sizes and the longer one is 48" compared to 50".

The more and more i see these commercial woodworking channels the more i like channels like this.

Just watched my first video from your channel… Really good stuff. Thanks for your time and I look forward to watching more!

I'm learning right now how often I have to align my blade to my mitre slots.

All sharpening stones are "whet" stones. Water stones may be "wet", but they are only one kind of "whet" stones. "Whet" and "wet" may sound similar, but they are different words.

Thanks for making this video. Love the practical and efficient way of thinking about things. It applies well for not just wordworking but almost anything else.

Great stuff

My biggest mistake was having too many projects going at once. Ended up taking twice as long to complete each item.

Very good Chanel this, really enjoy your content

All great tips. The bandsaw and sharpening ones as well as the glue, clamps and double sided tape are great. Going to get a few rolls today! Thank you : )

Always treat mistakes as design opportunities. Many times my project has turned out better after rethinking a mistake.

You got some Jim Cramer energy in your videos. Just need a big soundboard wall. :D

Great stuff - thank you very much from all us beginners out there... only thing I'm not sure about is clamps. I love my Bessey clamps - I find cheap clamps a pain in the arse (ass) unless they're doing 'extra hands' jobs. I've recently been templating... omg it's satisfying!!

Sorry. But this is not advices for beginners.. this video is about making your sponsors happy. Simple as that

“every project you do you’ll use a sander” 😂 You don’t know me, rough surface mcgee.

Good Lord! I wish I knew what some of those tools were called, how much they cost and how to use them.
I seriously need to take a woodworking course.😑

Ninja stars LOL

My names sake! Thank you!

Build sometbing you like if you dont like it itll set on your bench and set and set and set and be in yoyr way

Hey! If you are going to test an angled piece like you did here, push the shorter side against the angle gauge then the longer piece will show any discrepancy easier.

Sound advice here!
I would just add about keeping chisels and planes very sharp, it makes working so much easier.
I also second the comment about hardwood being easier to work - if you are learning it is tempting to use heap softwood but it really is harder to get good results. I used to buy or scrounge old hardwood furniture to practice making things, your local tip facility can be your friend here.

I SERTIOUSLY don't understand why people go through a ton of grits. you rarely ever notice anything over 180 grit, or at least for larger projects, and don't need anything below 120 unless their blades are disgustingly dull

Great tips! Thanks for the video