the_richard•10d agoTop Commenter

I had a talk with an old carpenter that made me rethink my joinery

Ran into a retired guy at the lumber yard last week who saw me grabbing some poplar for a face frame. He asked what joinery I was planning, and when I said pocket screws he just laughed and said 'you're building furniture, not a birdhouse.' We ended up talking for 20 minutes about drawbore pins and why they actually hold up better over time. Made me wonder how many shortcuts I've taken that will come back to bite me in 10 years. Has anyone else had a random stranger change how you work mid project?

2 comments

2 Comments

bailey.xena10d ago

Old carpenters are basically the woodland creatures of the lumber yard, they pop out of nowhere with one nugget of wisdom and then vanish into the mist. I had a guy at the hardware store tell me my biscuit joiner was "just making expensive sawdust" and that I should learn to cut real mortise and tenon joints instead. Swapped out my whole approach on a kitchen table build because of that one conversation. Now I'm two years into that table and I swear every time I sit down to eat I feel like that random dude is watching me from somewhere. Might be a ghost at this point, but at least my joinery is solid.

danieljenkins10d ago

@bailey.xena that bit about "making expensive sawdust" got me, but I'm not totally sold on ditching pocket screws for everything. My nephew's nightstand is still holding up fine after six years with pocket screws, so maybe old-timers oversell how fast stuff falls apart if you don't use drawbore pins.