Furniture Making Archives | WoodWorkers Guild of America

Mitered Edge Banding Made Easy

April 4, 2017 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Furniture Making, Joinery, Skill Building.

Applying hardwood edge banding is a great way to finish the edges on a veneered piece. However, it can be difficult to get nice miter joints because the length of the edge banding pieces must be perfect and every angle must also be perfect. Here is… Read More

A Super Simple Table

February 23, 2015 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Furniture, Furniture Making, Plans and Projects, Woodworking Projects.

If you’re looking for a cool last minute gift, or just a great project, this table is for you. Incredibly, it can be made it about one hour! Read More

Upholster a Wrapped Seat Cushion

September 25, 2014 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Furniture Making, Skill Building.

A customer came into my shop the other day and asked me to replace their uncomfortable and broken fiberglass kitchen stool seats. They wanted to reuse the adjustable chrome bases, but change the seats so they were cushioned and upholstered. I said sure, no problem, and I suggested a simple… Read More

How to Downsize a Drawer

March 21, 2012 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Cabinet Making, Furniture Making, Skill Building.

While building a media cabinet, I broke the wise rule of “Measure twice,cut once.” I made a quick measurement for depth on a drawer that would extend to be flush with the face frame, and I forgot to account for the additional thickness of the false front… Read More

Creative Steam Bending

August 23, 2011 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Furniture Making, Skill Building.

I see everything in curves and undulations. Most of my life has been spent in landscaping, tree farming and Bonsai. Everything is a reflection of the creative beauty of nature. A landscape design should tell a story. A dry creek bed in the plant bed disappears under… Read More

Routed Half-Blind Dovetail Drawers: Part 2

December 27, 2010 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Cabinet Making, Furniture Making, Skill Building.

In part one of this article I showed you how a half-blind router dovetail jig works, and how to size your drawer parts for routing in the jig. In this final installment, I will explain using the jig to rout the joints, and then how to assemble the drawers. Read More

Routed Half-Blind Dovetail Drawers: Part 1

November 30, 2010 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Furniture Making, Skill Building.

This is a two-part story. The focus is on drawers with mechanical slides. In this installment I will explain how a half-blind dovetail router jig works, calculating drawer parts sizes, and where to locate drawer bottoms for drawers with side-mount slides or undermount slides. Part two… Read More

Drawer Joinery Using a Slot Cutter

August 24, 2010 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Cabinet Making, Furniture Making, Joinery, Skill Building.

Here’s an easy way to create a rabbetted drawer lock joint, using only a 1/4″ slot cutter. One set up will do all the joinery and allow you to cut the grooves for the drawer bottom. It’s easy and it’s fast. Here we go!… Read More

Replacing a Bent Lamination

July 26, 2010 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Furniture Making, Skill Building.

CLASSIC THONET CHAIR NEEDS A REPAIR. A client contacted me with an interesting request. He had owned a classic Thonet brand laminated wood chair for a number of years, which he bought at a garage sale for a song. Everything seemed to be in good condition… Read More

9 Steps to Sizing Rough Lumber

July 26, 2010 By Charlie Kocourek & filed under Furniture Making, Skill Building, Understanding Wood.

Hardwood lumber yards offer you wood either rough or surfaced. Rough is how it’s cut from the log at the sawmill. There they use giant band saws and circular saws with very coarse saw blades, so the work happens fast. Rough lumber looks like it was… Read More