Category: Frog Blog

“Mortise & Tenon Joiner” German Engineering for Woodworkers. About a month ago, I purchased the Festool Domino, mortise and tenon joiner. I have been watching video woodworkers use the tool over a few years now. I desperately wanted to purchase the machine, but the cost kept holding me back. I finally made the purchase after […]

“Southwest Style Cabinet Doors cont.” Anasazi pyramid cut with a dado blade. At the end of the summer I got a call from a customer who wanted to put new Southwestern style doors on her solid oak kitchen cabinets. I took on the project and built 17 doors and 8 drawer to put a face […]

There are too many projects to be built to be limited by even a small injury. It is so easy to lose focus and come close to an accident. I have read so many wood magazines and looked at so many woodworking blogs, I sometimes get sick of seeing all the stuff about safety. I’ve […]

A problem that can’t be denied—wood moves! No matter what you do, the wood in your projects is going to move as the seasons change. I learned the hard way like most woodworkers when I watched one of my beautifully constructed pieces of furniture split. The joint was almost seamless right up until the humidity […]

Find good dust protection. I don’t have a dust collection system. I know I need one, but it is not quite in the budget just yet. I use my shop vacuum and that helps, but my shop is always very dusty. Until I can make arrangements to be able to collect the dust at the […]

Great storage for a small space. One of the smartest space saving projects I ever created for my small workshop was a mobile lumber and sheet good storage rack. I built mine based on a modified design from a pattern in Woodcraft Magazine. The pattern can be downloaded at Woodcraft. Even if you are a […]

Fast & Easy & Profitable. For the past three months all I’ve done is build outdoor furniture – redwood from the home store, screw joinery, straight cuts, and Spar varnish. About 8 years ago I wanted to get back into woodworking. I was in my last Air Force assignment, and I thought I would be […]

“A Good Reference for the Basics” Start with Peter Korn and go from there. If you’re like me you have taught yourself most of the essential woodworking techniques; I’m still learning, and more often than not I learn the hard way. Most of us learned from our dad or uncle–in some cases our mom or […]

Even though there are hundreds of resources available on woodworking, it seems I learn most of my lesson the hard way. Ironically, over the past few years of reading and watching everything I can get my hands on about woodworking, I’ve read about most of my mistakes. I thought I knew much more than I […]

Arts & Crafts Straight lines and simple designs. When I first got brave enough to start building furniture without a pattern I began to realize how many different styles there were. I actually struggled when creating designs; I was sometimes inconsistent with different styles in the same project – not necessarily wrong but unusual. There […]