9 Strongest Woodworking Joints (With Image Instructions)

Published Categorized as Woodworking Business

This post talks about some of the very popular woodworking joints that you are apt to use in your projects. But everyone knows that gluing is just as important part of joinery. So before we begin with the joints, here is a very useful tip regarding gluing two pieces of wood. 

You know how the glue can spill and squeeze out of the joints with you press the wood pieces together, right? It can be difficult to remove and a potential hazard to your finish. Using this tip you can avoid this problem all together.

Put the two pieces of wood together than you want to glue. Press them together using clamps, not glue. Now over the line of the join with tape. Take a sharp pen knife and cut along the line of the joint where the two pieces of the wood are pressed together. When you pull the pieces apart, each of the piece of wood will have the tape running along the edge.

You can see where this is going, can’t you.. Not put the glue on the surface as usual and join the wood pieces. Whatever extra glue has to spill out will spill over the tape and not the wood surface. Pull of the tape when you are done and the extra glue comes right off along with it without messing up the wood surface.

Bevel Lap Splice

Very much like the half-lap splice, the bevel lap splice joint is stronger and still needs glue and fasteners.

Bevel lap splice

 

Tongue And Dado

The tongue-and-dado joint, is a simple wood joint. It is not a very strong joint because of its inherent design and alignment with the wood grain, but it looks neat and more is than adequately strong for small boxes, small cupboard shelves and  read of drawers.  

 

Dado tongue rabbet

 

Half Lap Dovetail

The half lap dovetail is a variation of the classic dovetail wood joint. It is made by making the pin shorter so that it does extend completely through the thickness of the mating piece. 

 

Half lap dovetail

Half Lap Joint

The half-lap joint is a very simple and quick joint. An appealing aesthetic point of this joint is that it hides the end grain of each adjoining end. It is a useful and good looking joint to use for frames of all kinds because it gives a flush and even look and is quiet strong.

 

Half lap joint

Dovetail Joint

A dovetail joint is a classic joint, but largely for its looks. It is used expensively for furniture and showpieces that require to look good. It is also used for functional part of a wood project that is exposed to naked eye but does not need to go through stressful use.

 

 

Mortise tenon joint

 

Rabbet Joint

Rabbet joints can be made in different ways, using different tools. That are simple to make and especially useful when trying to remove the warp from a cupboard or a bookshelf.Rabbet joint

Splice Joints

There are four main types of splice joints: Half lap, Bevel lap, Tabled, and Tapered finger. 

 

Splice joint

Squared Splice Joint

 

Squared splice

Dado Joint

 

Stopped dado

Mortise and Tenon

A mortise and tenon joint is perhaps the most used joint in the history of woodworking, and for good reason. It is easy to make and results in super strong joints for super sturdy furniture. The slight trade off is that it doesn’t look all that fancy. 

 

Tenon joint

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