Do-it-yourself solid wood furniture

Furniture made from wood-based materials is becoming less popular. Gradually, homemade interior items from the massif, made according to the original projects of the owners of apartments or houses, come into fashion. This is due to the fact that items made of chipboard are harmful to health, in addition, modern living quarters allow you to install large furniture inside. Today we will tell you how to make furniture from solid wood with your own hands, what materials are used for this and what principles the craftsmen follow.

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What materials are used to make modern furniture?

If you decide to make furniture from the array with your own hands, then it is advisable for you to familiarize yourself with the features of this process. The materials below will help you understand in more detail all of this, as a result - you will choose for yourself the most suitable material and technique for making solid wood furniture. Today it is produced from a wide variety of varieties of wood that differ in color, texture and, of course, value.

Breeds

The most popular timber is considered to be from:

• Beech wood.
• Oak.
• Pines.
• Maple tree.
• Ash.
• Walnut.

When choosing a structural material, the financial capabilities of buyers play an important role. But experienced furniture makers nevertheless advise novice craftsmen to train on the cheapest types and varieties of wood in order to avoid damage to expensive materials.

Important! In the manufacture of such furniture, you can use structural parts from particleboard, front elements from laminated boards and internal parts from polished materials. It is better to fix the finished structure with a pine beam, and lining it with a furniture edge.

Density

When choosing material for work, you need to remember about the density of wood. According to this indicator, the tree is divided into:

• Solid. These include walnut, ash, oak, elm, birch.
• Too hard. Such tree species include boxwood, acacia, yew, and hornbeam.
• Soft. This category includes spruce, alder, poplar, pine, juniper.

Important! This information will certainly come in handy if you want, for example, to make pine furniture with your own hands. Hardness indicators must be taken into account in the process of cutting, cutting, drilling and using other methods of wood processing. If you miss this point, then the risk of damage to quite expensive material and poor-quality work is increased.

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Features of wood cutting

Before you begin, you should get a photo of the furniture and its design. That is, you have two options: make your own drawings or order their production from a professional designer.

The main nuances of wood cutting:

• Experienced cabinet makers usually use a circular saw to saw a tree, but unfortunately, installing it in a domestic environment is quite difficult. That is why at home, an electric jigsaw is more often used, the ends of all parts are processed with a manual milling cutter or sandpaper.

Important! When cutting with a jigsaw, maximum attention is paid to the correct selection of the technical characteristics of the cutting blade.

• When working with a jigsaw, the most common problem is the inability to make a perfectly even cut and the occurrence of chips. In order to avoid damage to the material, in the manufacture of a particular structural element, they should be made with a margin of a couple of millimeters, and only then adjusted to the necessary parameters with the jointer.

Important! Chips can also be avoided by first marking the cut line from the back of each part and sticking masking tape on it.

• If you first decided to make furniture from solid pine with your own hands, then prefer a straightforward configuration. If you need to perform radial special forms or curved parts, then entrust them with cutting to an experienced specialist.

If you take into account all of the above points, then you can independently prepare the array with high quality in order to make durable and beautiful furniture out of it. Also, at the preparation stage, it is necessary to make holes for all the necessary accessories:

• Pens.
• Locks.
• Shelf holders.

Important! If you want to complete antique-style interior items, then be sure to study the issue of imitation under antiques and compatibility of accessories. On a small sheet, the holes for antique decorative elements may simply not fit in. We conclude that the issue of the placement of accessories must be addressed at the cutting stage.

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Assembly of interior items from wood

Making furniture from solid wood with your own hands cannot begin without acquaintance with the main varieties of compounds that are today used to assemble all kinds of structural elements.

These include the following options.

Spikes

This is the most common and durable form of connection. The spike itself can be a single unit with the furniture part or it can be inserted, that is, have a rectangular or cylindrical shape.

In industrial production, flat root spikes are cut out on a special machine, but at home they are cut out using a cutter, circular saw or hacksaw. To do this, drill or drill a hollow out the nest.

Important! The spike itself is adjusted to the existing size, because it is important that it enters the hole with great difficulty.

Furniture corner

Parts are connected by means of plastic or metal corners. Install them in place using self-tapping screws. But it is worth noting that this is not the best connection option, because it is very prone to loosening, and it is impossible to achieve the necessary level of rigidity with it.

Confirmation, rafix, minifix:

• These are more modern connection systems that came to us from the West. Confirmate is a special metal screed that is incredibly reliable. But in places of fastening, such a screed can spoil chipboard.
• Minifix is ​​the most preferred method of connecting furniture elements. This type of quick installation consists of two parts - a rod and a cylinder. When installing a minifix, be sure to use dowels, which are quite complicated in terms of installation.
• Rafix is ​​used to mount shelves, because it combines the properties of screeds and shelf holder at the same time, but it is visible only from the inside of the products.

Important! If you have never before assembled furniture yourself, then be sure to read the recommendations of specialists, which are usually given in the instructions supplied by the manufacturers of fasteners. After reading it, everything will become clear to you, and you will complete all the work without difficulty.

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Finishing and polishing solid wood furniture

Making furniture from solid wood with your own hands always ends with its finishing, because it is thanks to it that the surface of the products becomes perfect externally and a protective film is formed on it.

Use the advice of experts to complete the finish efficiently:

• To do this, the tree is covered with paint or patina, bleached, treated with stain, impregnated with oil or wax. But the most popular finishing option is the one that provides for varnishing furniture.
• Sanding of wood occurs only along the fibers, which avoids the appearance of invisible scratches on the surface of the furniture. This is important because they appear only after opening the surface with varnish.
• It is better to cover furniture with paint or varnish in several layers. Since after applying the first layer, the furniture is treated with a sandpaper to eliminate defects in the primary grinding. The number of subsequent layers applied and their drying time may vary, depending on which varnish is used.
• Having chosen exactly the varnish for the final finish, it should be remembered that it forever changes the appearance of the wood. But at the same time, it has a lot of positive aspects. We must not forget that paints and varnishes can form leaks and irregularities on the surface of furniture.

Important! If you have not worked with paints and varnishes before, then in order to avoid damage to the furniture, finish it with oil or wax.

These processing options are considered the simplest in execution, they practically do not emit toxic compounds. So, for example, a completely different look of furniture can give wax, which must be taken into account when choosing a specific finishing method.

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Stock footage

To do all the work at the highest level, it is necessary to properly cut the plates, assemble the structure carefully, apply a high-quality finish. You also need to properly mount the hardware. Only if you fulfill all the above requirements can you get really decent furniture, which is not a shame to put at home.