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Ipe – Wood or Metal? By Tom Caspar Ipe (pronounced E-pay) is a South American wood as exotic as its name. When you hold a piece, you know it’s something special. Ipe sinks in water [...]

            I’m always on the lookout for orphaned boards. I’ve reclaimed lots of useful material from old pallets, downed trees, remodeling job sites [...]

Get the best yield from the least-expensive wood. Cut Big Boards into Small Pieces You might think the best strategy for milling rough lumber is to flatten as large a piece as possible, then cut [...]

        Nothing makes a cabinet look worse than door panels with unattractive grain that runs at weird angles. It pays to be picky about grain direction, even if it means [...]

Working with Melamine It’s dirt cheap, it’s practical, and best of all, there’s no sanding and finishing! by Dave Munkittrick Melamine is the professional cabinetmaker’s [...]

Q. I’m building outdoor furniture from rough cedar. When I cut the wood, it’s soaking wet on the inside. Should I use polyurethane glue since it’s a moisture-cure glue? A. Not [...]

  Q. A recent storm left a large tree limb in our yard. I'd like to slice cross sections for plaques and trivets. How do I keep the slices from splitting as they dry? A. Pentacryl wood [...]

Melamine is the professional cabinetmaker’s best friend. Build a cabinet with it and you have a complete, durable interior that requires no sanding (yes!) and no finishing (oh, yeah!). Pros [...]

How two versatile woods can be both a blessing and a curse. by Karen Nakamura Cheap, plain and definitely not wood. That’s how many woodworkers describe particleboard and MDF (medium-density [...]

            I came across some wonderful oak boards for a small table I wanted to build. The problem was the boards were too wide for my jointer and I didn’t want to [...]

The Virtues of No. 1 Common Save money by using boards that aren’t perfect. By Tim Johnson and Ed Krause Want to make your head spin? Just try to figure out how hardwood lumber is [...]

Popular Woodworking Senior Editor Robert W. Lang visits Frank Miller Lumber to select the stock for his Craftsman Bookcase, the August 2008 cover project.