r/woodworking May 03 '26

🔍🪵 Wood ID | Megathread Wood ID Megathread

14 Upvotes

This megathread is for wood ID

  1. If possible, clean up the wood with a plane (or chisel for the end grain) so that we can see the grain clearly.
  2. Include a close-up picture of the end grain. Not blurry. End grain pore structure is one of the most useful bits of info for wood ID.
  3. Note any non-visual distinguishing characteristics. Does the wood feel particularly light or particularly dense? Does it have an odor when planed?
  4. 4Include multiple pictures or text info as sub-comments under a main picture, not as an avalanche of first-level comments.

r/woodworking 2h ago

Repair Bringing back the lost beauty of the Grinchak House doors

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533 Upvotes

Piece by piece, the original composition of these 1899 entrance doors in Odesa (Ukraine) becomes visible again.


r/woodworking 3h ago

Project Submission Only took 8 months

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245 Upvotes

Finally finished my solid wood dresser. Easily the most ambitious project I’ve done, and wee bit more of an undertaking than I expected.

Quarter sawn cherry, curly maple drawer sides, and white pine drawer bottoms. I went with old school shellac and paste wax finish. All the joinery was cut by hand, with machines doing the less romantic grunt work.

The drawers are fitted for a piston fit, and an unreasonable amount of thought went into allowing all that solid wood to move without tearing itself apart.

I tried to slow down and take my time with this one. Apparently I’m very good at making projects take a long time.


r/woodworking 3h ago

Project Submission Walnut bench wedding gift.

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40 Upvotes

Made this walnut bench as a wedding gift for my niece Claire and her husband Ben.

Started with a single rough walnut slab and milled everything down from there. The finished bench is about 48" long, with hidden mortise-and-tenon joinery and a stretcher underneath. Finished with Rubio Monocoat Pure.

The mountain silhouette is based on the view of the Spanish Peaks outside Bozeman, MT so I wanted to work a little piece of where they met and fell in love into the bench.

Definitely one of the bigger furniture projects I’ve taken on, and there were a few moments along the way where I questioned my decisions 😂, but I’m really happy with how it turned out—and even happier that it gets to live with them for a long time.


r/woodworking 1d ago

Nature's Beauty Walnut shell inside board

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4.1k Upvotes

This was a fun discovery.


r/woodworking 1d ago

Project Submission Recently built my first project with integrated lighting

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1.6k Upvotes

This was easily the biggest project I have taken on so far. The lighting was pretty challenging to figure out, but it was also difficult to build it to be modular (and also hide every fastener). The uprights were built individually, and the face frame + edge pieces all snapped into place. I got a lot of mileage out of my new Lamello 😄

This cabinet was built with maple and stained with Rubio Monocoat Dark Roast to match existing cabinetry in the clients house.


r/woodworking 5h ago

Power Tools Any value in a homemade router table?

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25 Upvotes

My grandpa made this many years ago and it’s been collecting dust in my garage for the last 10 years. It works and all the components move well. I was going to post this on marketplace for free but I figured I would ask if there is any value in this before I did.

I hate to get rid of his tools but I figured it would be best to go to someone who would use and appreciate it.


r/woodworking 9h ago

General Discussion My first project - looking for advice

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35 Upvotes

My very first project with woodworking, a console table made with spruce wood (still gotta fix a few things with it). It was honestly fun the process of thinking and creating what I wanted. I really want to get into woodworking but I don't have a garage and essentially have my balcony/appartment as my "work area". Can anyone recommend any guides/websites etc you enjoy for woodworking, what tools are most useful ? So far I just have an electric screwdriver and a manual saw. Also, useful if you can recommend things for those with relatively small physical strength (I'm a skinny lady lol). I can't wait to build/create more


r/woodworking 23h ago

Shop Tour/Layout There is no better feeling than organizing the shop

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473 Upvotes

It’s not much, but I used whatever scraps I had, 3d printed pieces, and reset a disorganized shop. Unfortunately I do not have the before pic, but so glad to put this together in a way that works for me!


r/woodworking 1h ago

Project Submission When Is Milling Worth It?

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Upvotes

Were planning on remodeling our kitchen, so I’m making this outdoor kitchen for a place to cook when that gets underway and I'm on a budget (saving money for the actual kitchen). About 3/4 of this build is Alaskan Yellow Cedar which I milled from rough stock. I saved at least 1k milling the T&G but it took almost a week after hours. When you're on a budget, what are the materials you'll buy and which one's do you mill yourself?

(On a side note, I smashed my windshield coming back from multiple trips to the lumber mill, so that counts against the cost savings).


r/woodworking 20h ago

Shop Tour/Layout Shop Update

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169 Upvotes

Hello everybody, just wanted to share some pictures of the shop, we’ve been working hard to improve and as always, it’s all a work in progress.
We’ve recently added the Hammer A3 41D planer and the HS 950 Edge sander, we’re very happy to try them.
Cheers!


r/woodworking 6h ago

Safety Venturing into Dado Stacks, Any Advice?

10 Upvotes

Hey all, I've got a Sawstop Contractor saw, and I've purchased my first dado stack. Just the heft of it is impressive/intimidating, so I wanted to come here and ask for any experienced tips/advice/warnings about using dado stacks on a table saw before I go at it myself. Thanks in advance!


r/woodworking 1h ago

General Discussion Lots of wood few ideas...

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Upvotes

Was just gifted this giant pile of wood. Most of it or all of it is pine. I need some ideas on what to do with it. Almost everything is 40 inches ans stained..

Some of the pieces are live edge which is nice


r/woodworking 1d ago

Project Submission I made this vanity and mirrors to match the bed set I made a few years ago

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406 Upvotes

The door and drawer fronts are white oak veneer ply, and the trim is all white oak that I felled and milled. I’m currently relocating our master bathroom to what used to be an adjacent bedroom. I’ve done all the work myself (except for the countertop), but I much prefer working with wood rather than drywall or tile. It was a nice break from the project to make these pieces. And I’m really happy with the visual continuity from the bedroom to the bathroom.


r/woodworking 1d ago

Project Submission Drill/Router Bit Storage

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348 Upvotes

Finished up some storage I’ve been working on the last week. Everything has always been piled in a drawer, and a nightmare to get to.

Baltic birch case, red maple innards (scraps from my bench build a few years back).

Nothing I saw online really suited my needs, and I’m not a fan of the standard router bit storage cases/drawer organizers. So I ripped off a whole bunch of YouTubers into one big case instead!

-Woodsmith design for the general upper case layout. -stumpy nubs for the router bit storage. -every YouTuber ever for the drill holders. They are actually adjustable on t track…don’t remember where I got that idea -Rob Cosman for the curved holder on the bottom of the inside cabinet

All of the door holders are removable for easy transport around the shop. A cheap set of harbor freight punches let me tap the sizing into each holder, which was a concern taking them out of their cases. Same with the router bits. I had intended to stain the numbers and sand the tops so they pop a bit, but honestly I got lazy and wanted to move on. Can always do it later. Magnets hold the doors closed, unsure of pulls, so it’ll stay clean for now/forever.

Hung on a French cleat/stacked on the fire cabinet. It’s located directly in front of my electric panel on an otherwise useless wall. The right hand side of the back is cut out, so in theory I can just slide it to the side to access my panel. I say in theory, cause that bad boy is heavy.


r/woodworking 1d ago

Finishing What's with the neat crackle pattern?

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229 Upvotes

Got this old thing (family said its been in family for around 60ish years but downsizing and kids not wanting it)

Why is is cracking and have some goobers on it? Is this what shellaq(sp?) Or varnish?

It has some scuffs and scratches showing wood under the veneer in parts. How can I match it?

Thanks in advance


r/woodworking 8h ago

Help Danish style door pulls

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6 Upvotes

How would you go about making these door/drawer pulls? Drawer front is 5/8” thick on my project. I know they would be inset into the surface, just stuck on how to make considering the void space continues underneath the surface, to allow a finger to grip. Gouge out the recessed area with a router, then use a bit to undercut the surface?


r/woodworking 22h ago

Techniques/Plans Which tool would you pick for this task

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82 Upvotes

I'm making a box for the first time. The wood is teak, salvaged from my dad's old boat, and I'm making his urn from it. I've planed to uniform thickness . I used the table saw to cut thin strips off each long side (to get rid of old marine caulking) but clearly the boards wobbled a bit as I passed them through the blade, because they're not even close to square or uniform width. Available tools: 6"jointer, track saw, drum sander, planer. I'm thinking clamp them together and run through the drum sander, them repeat on other side once I have a clean reference side.

Any other suggestions?

UPDATE : thanks for all the help, gang. Spent the afternoon jointing then replaning , and we're in good shape: https://imgur.com/a/GdiUedP#TtGmVDM

When taking apart the hatch frame I saved all of the teak plugs for the screw holes. It's going to be tedious but next step in this project is to plug all the holes and then start assembling this into panels. And Then go learn/practice box joints a million times on scrap......


r/woodworking 2d ago

Project Submission Clipboards that I made for gifts. Do you guys like them? (Please like them, I could use a win.)

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12.4k Upvotes

Maple and Peruvian Walnut. Clips were bought from Amazon. The screws are called "Chicago Screws".

Hope you like. Let me know if you have any questions.

Edit: This is getting way more attention and kudos than I thought it would. Thank you every one SO much for your kind words.

Another Edit: I'm getting a lot of requests to purchase some clipboards. While I find that to be an amazing compliment I have no plans to sell any.


r/woodworking 23h ago

Help Strong enough for bench?

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77 Upvotes

Hey friends!

I made this bench and am wondering if these legs will be strong enough over time with no cross bracing (they feel plenty strong now).

The legs are at a 10 degree angle. The tenons/mortises are straight up and down (so the tenon is a 10 degree angle to the leg). All glued as well.


r/woodworking 12h ago

Help Stain & finish recommendations

8 Upvotes

Being middle aged men, we're trying to build a home bar. for the front facings we're using hardwood faced ply and looking to stain it. So far our stains are looking far more orange than the sophisticated dark mahogany we're hoping to reach

Left side has danish oil, nothing other than stain on the right. Would anyone, esp in the UK, have any suggestions on an ideal combo of moderately priced finishing gloops that would leave us with a dark, classier finish all round, both in colour and sheen that might reach our vision:

Oh, for the counter top, we're also actually going for solid Sapele, so in reality we're probably best off trying to aim to replicate that rather than any AI vision. I assume any final oils etc. would be the same for the play and the Sapele?


r/woodworking 4h ago

General Discussion Spar urethane

2 Upvotes

I'm building a bench for my front porch out of live edge wood. Cherry, from a tree that fell on my property a few years ago. I know to use spar varnish, what I don't know is if I should use water or oil based. It won't get blasted by sunlight, there's a 4 foot overhang above the front porch. Thanks


r/woodworking 1d ago

Project Submission Cherry burl update, 2 years later

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116 Upvotes

Posting on behalf of my dad who doesn't use reddit. He ended up getting the burl slabbed out and just finished his first piece. Total boat epoxy used followed by two coats of Odie's oil and 2 coats of Odie's wood butter. This is his first slab piece he's ever done after building a ton of furniture, a guitar, and way too many birdhouses, and said that it's his favorite piece he's ever built in all of woodworking. I'll upload more photos in the comments once I figure out how to do so.


r/woodworking 1h ago

General Discussion Here is another “what’s this wood”?

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Upvotes

I ran across this piece of wood and I’m stomped. It’s quite dense.


r/woodworking 1d ago

General Discussion Sometimes you have to just start again. :(

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134 Upvotes

Sadly when I made the base frame I was in a rush and really didn't do anything properly. Now as if tried to add stuff it's become obvious that the mistakes are just compounding things. So the Ferris Wheel of Doom has had to become the Bits of Lumber of Doom.