Basic carpentry

Woodworking is a blast, but it can be intimidating for beginners. Luckily, our readers and editors love passing along their go-to tips.

We talked to a pro to learn the most common mistakes made by carpentry beginners to help you bend the learning curve in your favor.

Today's project is a basic box. Knowing how to make a box is a very useful and even necessary carpentry skill. Honestly, most designs, including all types of furniture, are just a variation on the basic box. So let's get started ...rnrnLearning the skills to build a simple box will allow you to do just about anything.

My Basic Carpentry Tools Actual Lumber Dimensions Standard Furniture Dimensions (Inches) TABLES H...

A comprehensive guide to 17 of the most essential sturdy wood joints, including information on when to use each one.

"The thing that I'm most thankful about with my experience with Women’s Basic Carpentry at Wild Abundance is that it has opened up a whole new world to me through learning a new language, a language of tools, of wood, of carpentry, and of building. Equipped with this new language... I can learn how to build, I can read plans, I can go to the hardware store. I'm really looking forward to taking advantage of this new way of looking at the world."⁠

I’ve built 2 of these, both using dimensional pine lumber from Lowes, and basic pocket-hole joinery. You can finish however you like. I recommend staining the pine to a shade you want, then finishing with a wipe on polyurethane. >How to Stain Wood>How to Apply Wipe-on Poly Be sure to sign up at the bottom of the page to get PDF plans for projects like ... Read More

The basic tool box!