Pro Handyman Blog

If you are working on a carpentry project, you might consider adding a piece of glass to the top. A glass table top not only will protect the piece, but can also hide imperfections. This works especially well for tabletops.

A glass shop will have plenty of suggestions for you. The larger the piece of glass the thicker it needs to be. A glass shop will have thicknesses and different styles for you to choose from. Thicker glass is better, but it is also heavier, so make sure the piece will support the extra weight. They will cut the glass to your needs, so measure the surface carefully and bring in your measurements. If you have a decorative edge on your piece, use the measurements from the very top of the surface. You don’t want any glass to be hanging over the surface.

Have the glass shop treat the edges of the glass. This will make it so the edges won’t cut anyone and be attractive as well.

Lastly, before you set the glass on your project, clean it and let the glass thoroughly dry. You don’t want to set damp glass on top of wood since it may smudge, and trap moisture on top of the wood.

Depending upon what kind of carpentry project you are doing, you may not want the heads of the screws to be visible. If you are installing garage shelving, it probably doesn’t matter if the screw heads are visible. If you are installing shelving inside the house, it’s probably a good idea to hide the screw heads. It is much more attractive.

The way to do this is to use a countersinking drill bit. When you pre-drill the hole for the screw, this bit has a small burr that cuts a larger hole for the head of the screw to enter. You can cut it shallow or deep to hide the screw head. Once you use the counter sinking bit, you install the screw and then you can add a plug to cover the hole. If you are painting the shelving, you can use a plug made from any wood scrap laying around. If you are going to stain and varnish the finish, try to use a plug from the same species of wood with a similar grain pattern. I know this sounds picky, but the goal here is to make the fastener and the plug disappear.

You can cut your own plugs with a plug cutting bit. That means you get to choose the material from where you will cut the plug. This is a huge benefit when you are trying to match the grain. Once you have the plug cut, you can use a small amount of glue to secure it.

Repairing a wooden picture frame is a simple carpentry job. Usually, when a picture frame has been damaged, you get a split between the mitered corners and they start to come apart.

You can reinforce the corners of the frame very simply. You can pick up the necessary items at any home center. You will need a mending plate and some wood screws. I typically use a 2” mending plate and #6 screws that are ½” long. Just make sure the length of the screw isn’t long enough that it penetrates the front of the frame.

Turn the frame face-down on a non-scratching surface. You will need to pull the two corner pieces together tightly so that you can secure them with the mending strip. They make special picture frame clamps, but you don’t need to go through the expense of these. You can use a series of bar clamps to squeeze the frame together, or even try taping the corners after you pull it together. Place the mending plate on the back so that it spans the corner. Drill pilot holes in the locations and screw in the screws that will hold the mending plate to the back of the frame. Once the mending plate is tightened you can remove whatever method you used to temporarily hold the corner together, as the frame will be very solid.

If you are looking for an easy carpentry project and a way to organize your garage, pegboard just may be the ticket. Pegboard is simply hardboard with holes in it so you can place hangers and hooks to hold things off of the floor. If you were to mount the pegboard directly to the garage wall, you wouldn’t be able to place any hooks into it, so you have to create a small gap in between the pegboard and the wall. Furring strips are perfect for this.

You can use 1”x2” strips of wood and build a frame around the perimeter of the pegboard. You will also need to add some furring strips inside the frame to stiffen up the pegboard.

Once you have the pegboard attached to the frame and supports, you can locate the studs on the wall. It is imperative that you anchor the pegboard through the furring strips and into the wall studs. Once you locate the studs, drive screws through both the pegboard and furring strips, and into the studs. This assembly will support the weight of itself and everything you hang on the pegboard, so it has to be secure.

Once the pegboard is secure, you can add whatever hooks and pegs you choose. For heavier objects, locate them on the pegboard near where the pegboard is attached to the studs. The support in these locations will be better than in a location where there are no studs.

A wobbly bed frame is a straightforward carpentry repair, but you have to do a little checking before you repair it.

A bed frame typically has four parts, the head board, the foot board, and two side rails. The side rails will have two hooks coming out of each end that mate with matching rods in both the head board and foot board. The hooks fit over the rods that are recessed in the head and foot boards. If there is some play in between the parts, you will get movement.

You can minimize any movement with some brackets. Unfortunately, you don’t find out there is a problem until it is too late. Usually you will hear a “crack” and discover a problem. Installing some brackets will stiffen up the frame.

I like rigid brackets, such as Simpson strong ties. These are probably overkill, but if they are good enough for building houses, they are good enough for repairing wooden bed frames. You will have many choices here, but I generally install the largest size I can that will fit in the space. You will need to remove the mattress and box spring and install the brackets on the inside corners. They will be hidden by the box spring when installed. Pre-drill the holes and screw them into each piece. When the brackets have been installed, you can reinstall the mattress and box spring.

When the time comes that you need to disassemble the bed, you can unscrew just one side of the brackets and the bed will come apart as if the brackets had not been installed.

A nice carpentry project is adding a corner display shelf. It is decorative and functional. So how do you install it?

Depending on what you intend to use the shelf for, there are a couple ways to secure it. It is all about weight. If you intend to place substantial weight on the shelf, like a lot of books, you will need to beef up the bracing. If you just want to set a small picture on, then you won’t need as much.

Generally, I don’t like to see supports under the shelf unless they are decorative. If you don’t plan on placing much weight on the shelf, you can probably get away with some “L” brackets. I would use at least four of them and place 2 on each wall. One bracket at the corner (where there are wall studs) and another set further out near the front of the shelf, ideally into a wall stud. If the shelf is small enough where it won’t reach a stud, you can use E-Z anchors into the drywall….just watch the weight.

If you plan on loading up the weight, I would install wood ledger boards along the wall first. You can use ¾” x 3” and run them along the wall. Make sure they are level and screw them into the wall studs. Then you can set the corner shelf on top of the ledgers and secure it with finish nails or screws. If you need additional support, you can add an additional ledger across the front, that will join the 2 ledgers on the wall.

Many of us have door thresholds that have seen better days. In my neck of the woods, a metal threshold with an adjustable wood strip is the norm. When people come into the house that small wood strip must have a big target on it because that is where everyone steps. Dirty shoes, wet shoes, you name it and it grinds away at what was an attractive piece of wood. Over time it gets to looking like a wicked stepsister.

It’s really an easy fix to make the wood strip look nice again, but you will need to do a little prep work first. Give the strip a light sanding. Start with a medium grit sandpaper and then move to a fine grit. You don’t want to totally strip the piece down to bare wood, rather just knock off the damaged areas and get everything level again. You might see stained areas from water, so just hit it with a light sanding.

After the sanding, use a cloth and some stain. Dab the cloth into the stain and rub it onto the wood. You can go heavy or light on the stain, just be consistent with it so that the color is uniform. The wood will absorb the stain and you will get a nice rich color from the wood. This will be a normal maintenance item, but fortunately it doesn’t take long to do.

If you are working on a nice carpentry project and you are attaching pieces with screws (and probably glue), you should consider countersinking the screws.

When you countersink a screw, the screw actually continues beneath the surface of the wood. This allows the unsightly screw head to be hidden from view. You can use molding to hide fasteners, but to hide a screw head, countersink it and then fill in the hole.

You can use a countersinking bit to the correct size of the screw. This bit will pre-drill a hole for the shank and then bore out a hole for the screw head to reside once it has been installed. Once the screw is installed, you can cover the hole with a wood plug.

You can buy or make you own wood plugs. Some plugs that you buy can either be flush with the surface or have a button type finish that stands proud of the surface.

You can cut your own plugs with a plug cutting bit chucked into a drill press or even a hand-held drill.

Once the plug is in the hole, you can stain it or paint over it. If you plan on staining it, the grain will stand out, orient the grain in the same direction as the surface. If you want to get really fancy, cut the plug from the same piece of wood that your project is made from and try to line up the grain so that the plug disappears when finished.

Every so often when working on a carpentry project, a nail will either break off or bend. I prefer to use a nail gun over a hammer, but strange things can happen with those too. If you find yourself with a nail situation, here are a few ideas.

If the nail is bent over, you can pull it out with the claw end of the hammer, or you can use a pry bar. Place something underneath the hammer or pry bar to protect the surface you are working on; a scrap piece of wood works well for this. Get some leverage on the bar and pull. The nail should come out, but sometimes the head will break off.

If the head breaks off, you can still try to get leverage with the hammer or pry bar, but instead of pulling back, push the handle to the side. This will sometimes bend the nail shank and sometimes pull it out.

If you have just a stub sticking out of the wood, you can try a cat’s claw. This actually digs into the wood and will damage the surface, so only use it as a last resort.

Sometimes you don’t need to remove the broken nail at all. Instead, try hitting it below the surface of the wood you are working on. Use a nail set and hammer it just below the surface. Then you can fill the divot flush with the surrounding surface.