start here, maybe: http://www.finewoodworking.com/the magazine is great and I'll nver get rid of the copies I have since they can really come in handy at times. Taunton Press also has a bunch of different books related to very specific topics that are fantastic resources. One on joinery, one on glues, one on sharpening...you get the idea. I haven't spent any time on that website, but I'm sure you can at least get some good leads there.Another good thing to do would be to hit up your nearest hardwood lumber yard. Great place to look at different species of woods and see what is available, both in kind and also size. Owl Hardwood Lumber in the western suburbs of Chicago (for example) is always worth a trip and you could easily waste 2 hours there on a rainy afternoon.

I really enjoy building furniture but don't do it all that much. Occasionally I get commissioned to build a piece but mostly I do fairly boring carpentry and the furniture I find time to make is for our house or as gifts. My wife has a very small office at work and wanted a custom desk to fit and I made her this one last spring. I was quite happy with how it turned out. Mahogany, Walnut and Cypress.

Thanks, it's a look I really like. Here's a corner of our bed with the same feature.

Draw-Bore tenons with dowels. I've seen the lock dowel pins and they look really cool but I haven't used them. If you use them, let me know what you think.

I'm thinking this should be like the tech questions thread, but aimed at woodworking and not limited just to technical questions per se.I'll start:-How to identify wood? I know it's possible to tell by looking at the grain, but I have no idea what to look for. -How to make different joints. -Joint strengths. I know that a dovetail is stronger than a butt joint, but how much stronger? How much weight can each joint takes before falling apart? I'm not afraid of formulas, so I'll be happy to see some of those.I'd love some reliable sources I could learn about these things from. Could be online, in print, whatever.

Were those lock dowels (pins) or did you draw-bore the tenons and use the dowels to tighten the joints? I'm thinking about using lock dowels on the workbench I'm making now, they look pretty smart.

Good thread. I'll be sure to post some current projects I'm working on.One thing I'd highly recommend is checking out the lumberjocks site. Their forums are a great, amazing source of info, and the culture is super helpful, especially with newbies who ask the same questions over and over again.

*** MOVED HERE FROM THE DIY THREAD ***We inherited a laminated maple countertop from my wife's aunt. After a few months on sawhorses, I started making a frame. I'm using poplar, rather than maple, mainly because I'm cheap, but also because it's a little easier to work. I did all the tenons on a table saw, and cleaned up with a chisel. I was reasonably happy with the accuracy. This was the first time doing tenons on the TS; usually I use a router, but these pieces are bigger than normal. For the mortising, I used this thing called a Beadlock system. If you use the bead-shaped tenons, you can just mortise both pieces, stick the floating tenon in, and glue it up. But the other thing with this jig, is you can rough out the mortise with a drill, then replace the drill bit guide insert with a rectangular insert that helps you chisel the bead-shape mortise into a traditional rectangle shape:So far, this has been a great way to do traditional mortise and tenon joinery. For me, having a jig is a lot faster and more accurate than trying to chisel out a mortise completely by hand.

elisha wiesner wrote:I really enjoy building furniture but don't do it all that much. Occasionally I get commissioned to build a piece but mostly I do fairly boring carpentry and the furniture I find time to make is for our house or as gifts. My wife has a very small office at work and wanted a custom desk to fit and I made her this one last spring. I was quite happy with how it turned out. Mahogany, Walnut and Cypress. I really like the contrasting dowels through the tenons. Thinking about doing that with my workbench frame. There again, I'm also thinking about just getting it done ASAP so I can have a bench to use.