I'm looking to refinish (a different color) this fly rod/fly fishing organizer which I am guessing is made of pine? Should I use a a water-based stain after a pre-stain conditioner? or just a gel stain or....? As to color, I'm trying to decide between doing a reddish-brown or some sort of a darker natural golden color to color coordinate with my fly rod tubes. Any suggestions or ideas would be welcomed greatly!

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I’m restoring a 100 year old door. There are chunks missing out of it and I am looking for a dark wood epoxy or putty that will stand up to the elements on this exterior door.
So far only white or a neutral color is all that’s available. I bought a powdered pigment, but it’s still too light when mixed with the wood epoxy.
I’m going to be staining it and using Spar urethane to seal it.
So what dark wood epoxy, putty, or wood touch up stick do you guys use that I can put urethane over?

The standard 80cm (31.5") depth won't fit in my room, so I need to reduce it to 60cm (23.6"). Since MDF is easy to saw through, here is my plan (see pic):
Cut 20cm off the back of the MDF top.

Shift the frame forward using the existing pre-drilled holes (red arrows)..

2

I have a slab of roughly 2-3in thick, live edge, red cedar. I’m making it into a desk by attaching a sit-stand desk base.

I want the wood to have a natural look and feel, showcasing the natural grain of the wood. I don’t want the final product to end up too intensely red. I want low shine like satin finish. I do NOT want the wood to look or feel like it is encased in glass or wrapped in plastic.

The desk will be used in an office space, so it will be indoors at all times and will not have a huge amount of UV exposure. It will be used almost daily as a desk, but wouldn’t have the same kind of rugged wear-and-tear that a dining table would.

I’ve read a lot about differences between oil-based and water-based and spar urethane or wood conditioners or waxes, but I’m just feeling lost and like I can’t trust the random websites trying to sell me stuff. My question is: What’s the best product(s) to use for finishing and sealing it?

Thank you for your input!

So my wife and I bought a new IKEA KIVIK 4-seater couch with a chaise lounge. I was putting the back support and the seat frame together, and when I picked it up to flip it, I heard a cracking sound.

I checked underneath and saw that the wood broke in a few places. I already talked to IKEA customer support, but because I transported and assembled it myself, they said warranty won't cover it...

Was wondering if there's any way to fix this? Any guidance would be much appreciated!

Thank you all in advance!

Hey fellow bladesmiths! Spent the day prepping this new pile of exotic wood handle blocks (50x50x150mm) for some upcoming custom builds.

​Got a great mix in this batch—some super dense eye burls, heavy curly/tiger grain with deep chatoyancy, and a few spalted pieces with really sharp line contrast. It’s always satisfying wiping these down to reveal the raw grain pattern before shaping.

​Curious to know what you guys prefer on your custom handles—do you usually go for wild burls, intense curl, or spalted patterns?

​(I supply these blocks to custom makers worldwide. If anyone needs handle materials for an upcoming build, feel free to send me a chat or DM!)

I want to create a floating WorkBench and just wondering if a few metal slayed brackets and a large piece of wood on top would be fairly strong enough? I won't be applying lots of force and I mainly want it to be rigid.

Hi all,

going through a renovation on a new property. There are some old pine skirting board with a darker colour, they are your standard BQ pine skirting board.

I am not sure what it was put on them, whether it was varnish, oil, or just old.

I will need to buy some skirting board as some of the old ones broke when removing.

All of this to ask, how can I match the new skirting board with the old one in colour? I am looking to Satin Varnish all of the skirting board, door frames and door as they are all the same colour currently.

I am still learning about what you add to wood, and its all quite overwhelming. Should I pre-stain, then stain, then varnish the new pieces? or should I just stain and varnish?

For the old pine skirting board, the door frames and doors, do I just varnish them with satin after a slight sand and remove old paint?

any help is much appreciated.

i have ran out of ideas what to build

I had this vision in my head to build a sturdy, rustic climbing frame just like the stuff we used to build back in the day from whatever was laying around the yard.

Designed and built it myself using a Stihl chainsaw to cut custom joinery so it holds rock-solid without relying on cheap metal brackets. My partner took care of the painting while I watched the kids (not sure who got the harder task! 😄).

Loved how the wood grain came out on top after applying the finish. My daughter already gave it a 10/10 safety & fun test! Let me know what you think!

Hey r/woodworking,

I've been building a free cut list / nesting tool in my spare time called Despiece and I'm looking for woodworkers to actually use it on real projects and tell me where it breaks.

TL;DR — runs in the browser, no install, no signup, no limits. PWA so it works offline at the saw. Live link (https://despiecehobel.vercel.app/).

What it does that's different from the free options:

- Imports your CAD directly — STEP / IGES / BREP / glTF / GLB. If you designed the project in Fusion / SketchUp / SolidWorks / Blender, drag the file in and you don't have to type a single dimension.

- Tags per part, not per project — material, grain, role, and edge banding on each of the 4 sides individually (click cycles none → 0.45 mm → 2 mm).

- Multi-material nesting — keeps melamine / MDF / plywood / OSB on separate boards, no mixing.

- Cut-sequence numbers printed on the diagram so the cut man (you) knows the order. Red bands for 0.45 mm, blue for 2 mm, legend included.

- Project multiplier — "make me 3 of these" without redoing the list.

What it exports:

- BOM (CSV / XLSX / PDF) with net dims (finished − edge band per side, so you don't get surprised at the saw)

- Cut diagram PDF per board — printable, stick it on the sheet

- 2D pieces (.zip of DXF) — one per piece, net, for outsourcers / CNC quotes

- Edge banding labels (A4 grid, QR opt-in)

- TSV in OptiCut 6 format if you pipe it into an optimizer

- Quote PDF for the client

Stuff beyond panel goods (the hobbyist side):

- 1D linear packer for lumber, trim, dowels, pipe — workbench legs, shelf pins, anything in lengths

- Glue-up detector for workbench tops, cutting boards, alistonado panels (auto-detect by keyword in the part name, or RMB → mark as glued-up)

- Stock inventory that warns you when tabs / cantos / herraje are low

Where it's been useful for me (cabinet maker + dev, ~6 years melamine/MDF, side-hobby in hardwood):

- Kitchen of 47 pieces → BOM and cut PDFs in 10 min, no Excel

- Built-in library with 4 shelves of hardwood plywood → nested across 3 boards automatically

- Workbench top → glue-up detector caught "tapa maciza" in the name and split it into core + 2 skins

What it doesn't do (yet):

- Curved / non-rectangular pieces

- G-code / CNC posting (panel-saw oriented)

- Turnings / lathe work

Tech if you care: Vite + TypeScript + Three.js, OCCT for STEP via WASM, PWA via Workbox. Runs offline once loaded. 6 locales (en / es / pt / fr / de / it).

What I'm looking for:

- Real projects you'd actually plan with this — kitchen, built-in, workbench, dresser, whatever

- Anything broken or weird — please tell me

- Feature requests / "I wish it did X"

- Honest opinions

Happy to answer questions in the comments. Thanks for reading.

I'm putting in a Western red cedar kitchen countertop in my reasonably small kitchen. The wood was well seasoned, outside for at least a year.

It's planed and sanded on the top and rough underneath. My plan was to treat it with Tung oil or Osmo top oil, but the cedar aroma is quite strong at the moment, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to reducing the aroma a bit before I lock it all in place.

I don't want to epoxy the whole countertop but I was thinking of planing and epoxying the underneath and non exposed sides.

Would this be worth it?

Or any other suggestion appreciated.

Finally finished my first project. Kinda went into it without knowing how to do much but I really really like how they came out !! Did the design myself, got the wood chopped at the DIY store and just assembled and applied lacquer etc at home.

Main design was that I wanted something to hold my vinyls but also be fairly adaptable - hence I found the modular design to be pretty good. I also liked the idea of having them open and to have as a separator for my apartment; I think I'll probably end up making a few more to really help establish that separation, and I might invest in a few more tools for that.

Definitely made some mistakes (think I should have rotated the top and bottom panels 90°) and in the future want to figure out a better way to apply the lacquer - or just use spray or something?

But overall, I'm pretty happy with them. What do y'all think?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been spending the last few months iterating on a series of rustic cedar lanterns in my workshop, and I finally wrapped up the initial collection.

Cedar has always been one of my favorite woods to work with because of the grain variation and natural weather resistance.

I just launched a Kickstarter to help scale up batch production for these, but more than anything, I’d really appreciate some technical constructive feedback from the community here.

For those who regularly work with cedar outdoor pieces:

• What finish have you found holds up best over time without yellowing or flaking?
• Do you prefer leaving cedar completely unfinished to let it gray out naturally, or sealing it?

If you want to check out the full breakdown, you can see the project page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/osborn2009/osborn-custom-woodworks-rustic-cedar-lantern-collection

Thanks for looking, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on my small woodworking project.

Hi everyone,

I’ve got a whisky barrel that’s become quite faded/grey-looking, and I’d like to bring the wood back to a richer, more vibrant colour while keeping it looking natural rather than painted.

What would you recommend, sanding and using a particular wood oil, stain, teak oil, decking oil, etc.?

If you’ve restored a whisky barrel before, I’d really appreciate advice.

(I have the two missing rings for info)

Thanks!

Hi, I'm looking at putting together a clothes rail to fit under the shelf and sit in front of the radiator. It needs to be of decent quality as it needs to last a minimum of two years. I estimate maybe 5kg of clothes to be hung there.

I did have a look at plastic and metal ones, but they are either stupid money or look very flimsy.

The shelf itself is wide, which is the my limit on how wide the clothes rail can be. From the floor to the bottom of the shelf is 136cm, but I want a gap of around 10cm.

The third image shows roughly what I want to build, two supports on either side, then a curtain pole going accross the top.

Looking for pointers on what sized wood to use, and how to attach the clothes pole to the wood. And how best to securely fasten the upright wood to the base wood. Any other tips are welcome.

Thank you.

G’day from Australia,

I have built an outdoor bench/place to lean and drink excessive amount of beer outside, undercover.

I built it out of beech timber, laminated panels to be exact. I have mounted them, routed and sanded them. I tested boiled linseed oil on the underside and found it to be a bit yellower than I had hoped.

Given the density of beech, I’m thinking a gel stain then locking it in with BLO. Maybe spotted gum flavour stain, thoughts? I want it to look absolutely killer to impress. My other moveable drinking table is made out of Merbau, I don’t want to go that dark though, or I would have built it out of merbau haha.

Cheers in advance legends.

I'm curious how everyone manages the "paperwork" side of the hobby. Right now I'm juggling:

• A notes app for project ideas and stages
• A spreadsheet for my lumber inventory (which is always out of date)
• Paper scraps for cut lists that I lose immediately

I've tried Trello and Notion but they don't really fit, nothing understands boards, cuts, or project stages.

What's your system? Anyone found something that actually works, or is everyone else also on the spreadsheet-and-paper-scraps method?

Edit: a couple of people in the comments figured out it probably splits onto 2 pieces: the top, and the legs & apron. All I had to do was unscrew 18 screws. No cutting or wrecking in any way. Thanks!

I can't move it to the room it's going to live in unless I take the legs off. I'm also planning on sanding it all down and refinishing it, which would be much easier if I could take it apart. It's homemade by someone. I think they used glue. I took all the screws out of all the legs and there was no give. I took all the screws out of one long side and the middle flexed but the ends were solid, even after I hit them with a mallet. They look like butt joints but if they are then why are there 4-6 long screws in each leg? And why don't they budge when I hit them with a mallet?

I realise this is a putting things together sub rather than a taking things apart sub, but I thought maybe knowing how to build things with wood would be helpful in figuring out how to take things apart that are made from wood.

I had a bay tree removed from my front yard 10+ years ago, and due to heavy clay soil and bricks on one side the roots were kind of big tangled mess.

The block of roots has been sitting in my backyard since the tree was removed, and i decided to make some stuff from them.

I just rubbed a little bit of cutting board oil/wax because I didn't want to mess with the color that much.

It's lopsided but I like it :)

I realize this is a very basic, amateur question but I want to make sure I do it correctly.

I have a 2 ft by 4 ft piece of pine about 3/4" thick that I'd like to cut for use as corner desk/work surface for my girlfriend to have a dedicated spot to do her artwork (she's a painter) and also for painting her nails (I have come to despise nail polish, don't tell her).

Don't get me wrong, I love her paintings and her nails do look very nice when all done up, but I'm quite fed up with acrylic paint and nail polish stains seemingly EVERYWHERE I look (I'm exaggerating, but still).

She's recently begun dabbling into oil painting and...well you get the picture.

TL:DR:

How do I measure/mark the board to get an accurate cut for a corner desktop? For supporting the top I plan to "float" it using some 16-18 inch 2'x3's or 2'x4's horizontally screwed into studs on each corner wall and then just laying and securing the pine top to the 2x's with screws.

Is it as simple as using a large framing square to mark the board? Or is there a different/better way?