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Andy Duframe - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
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- Angle Gauge - Choosing the Right Angle Finder
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] Never mind the accuracy of the angle gauge that came with your power tools. It's not likely that this gauge will come even close to the precise angles you need for woodworking. Fortunately most woodworking stores have a good supply of angle gauge accessories for your wood shop tools - table saws, router tables, and circular saws. The big question is whether or not you really need the level of accuracy found in today's digital angle gauges.
- Sawhorse Plans - A Wood Sawhorse is Better Than Plastic
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] My friends don't think much about sawhorse plans. They probably think that the cheap plastic sawhorses you can buy now have made building a wood project like this obsolete. I say that a wood sawhorse may be one of the most valuable (and forgotten) shop accessories I will own.
- Wood Project Plans - Watch Out For Difficult Joinery
[Home-Improvement:DIY] Building a project from wood can be a fun. But like many hobbies, learning how to get started in the craft can be frustrating. Not that woodworking itself should be blamed; it's a fairly easy skill to learn. The problem is often the teacher, and in many cases, the wood working plans that people get online.
- Workbench Plans - Build a Workbench Or Buy?
[Home-Improvement:DIY] A very smart thing to do before attempting your first DIY project is to build a workbench. Believe me, you'll need the workspace for all the stuff you'll be working on, plus, it's a good way to try your hand at using power tools to cut up wood. My suggestion is to find some workbench plans on the Web to get things rolling.
- Bookcase Plans - How to Build a Bookcase With 3 Tools
[Home-Improvement:Furniture] I've done a fair amount of researching bookcase plans on the web, and I've come up with some pretty simple guidelines for approaching this kind of a project. Overall, the good news is that you don't have to be a hard-core woodworker to build a decent-looking bookcase.
- Playhouse Plans - The Easy Way to Build a Playhouse
[Home-Improvement:DIY] This summer it's going to happen. I've got plans to build a real playhouse in the backyard. Although my kids seem happy enough with the houses they make from cardboard boxes, I want something that will last through the summer, and hopefully next summer too.
- Pergola Plans - How to Build a Pergola Attached to House
[Home-Improvement:DIY] Sure it would be nice to have a replica of the Taj Mahal in your backyard, but who can really build pergola plans like that? I think what most people are looking for are smaller, more modest pergolas they can build themselves without a contractor.
- Drill Chart - Choose the Right Drill Bit For the Right Job
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] I'm always amazed at how many different types of drill bits I can buy for my drill. To try and make sense of all the choices, I've put together the following drill chart of the top must-have bits that woodworkers and DIY builders use in their shops.
- Lumber Dimensions - What You See is Not What You Get (Exactly)
[Home-Improvement:DIY] It seems like buying lumber should be one of the easier steps in building a project. But if you're not familiar with lumber dimensions, you'll soon discover that what you see is not exactly what you get.
- Picnic Table Plans - Build a Trestle Style Picnic Table
[Home-Improvement:DIY] Most of the patio furniture I own now seems like a poor substitution for that wonderful old redwood picnic table from my grandparent's back yard. I've got a few tools in my shop, so last week I went looking for some picnic table plans - hoping to build the same kind of picnic table I so fondly remember from my childhood.
- Wood Joints - Choosing the Right Joinery For Your Next Project
[Home-Improvement:DIY] 2x4s nailed together are probably not the best examples of wood joints, but they are woodworking joints none the less. In fact, any two pieces of wood attached to each other in some fashion can be called woodworking joinery.
- Loft Bed Plans - Can I Really Build a Bed Like This?
[Home-Improvement:Furniture] Building a bed can be an intimidating project for most DIY builders. Loft beds are a little different story, though. Many loft bed plans call for little more than 2x4s and some heavy-duty hardware.
- Screw Sizes - How Many Do You Really Need For Woodworking?
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] You can always find large, expansive charts of screw sizes, but do you really need that many choices? My list for woodworking is now down to four, and I rarely have a project that needs anything more than that.
- How to Get Started With Adirondack Chair Plans
[Home-Improvement:Patio-Deck] The original Adirondack chair was built from only one piece of wood, which meant the design had to be simple and efficient in its use of materials. This hasn't changed much today. The basic pattern still calls for a series of wide board planks to create the seat, the back, and the armrests.
- Avoid Platform Bed Plans Designed by Woodworkers
[Home-Improvement:Furniture] You'll find plenty of variations in platform bed plans, especially if you want something a little more stylish - like a headboard, footboard, canopy, storage drawers, etc. However, these extras quickly transform the once easy DIY project into a full-scale woodworking production. In some ways this defeats the original purpose of the bed.
- DIY Playhouse Plans - Build it Yourself and Save Money
[Home-Improvement:DIY] The last time I did a quick look for playhouse kits, I was shocked to find out how much I could pay for an item like this, not to mention the added shipping costs for all the lumber. It didn't take me long to figure out that the money spent on delivery charges alone would pay for much of the lumber if I build the playhouse myself. Now the challenge is finding playhouse plans that I'm capable of building.
- Printable Ruler - How Accurate Can it Be?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] Anyone who has worked with PDF files might question the accuracy of a printable ruler, considering how flexible the print settings are in Acrobat Reader. Certainly older versions of Reader were a little off in reproducing exact dimensions, even with the print settings left alone.
- Online Ruler - How to Copy Website Layouts
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] Finding the dimensions of an online image or graphic is easy enough. Just right click and check properties. But finding the dimensions of website layouts - like tables, panels, and menu bars is not quite as easy. Here are few tricks I use.
- How Hex Color Codes Work
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] Most Web graphics software programs convert RGB to Hex without a blink. And for most projects, you'll certainly want to use a tool for making those kinds of calculations. However, if you'd like to understand what's happening behind the scenes, and maybe do your own math to create hex color codes, here's how it works.
- The HTML Color Chart - Do We Really Need This Anymore?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] I'm surprised how many people today still rely on an html color chart to pick colors. Unfortunately, anyone who does a search online for a type of color chart like this is probably looking for web safe colors, not realizing that the term itself is obsolete.
- HTML Background Color - How it Works
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] Adding an html background color to a webpage can be one of easiest ways to jazz up the look of a site. But be careful, it can also create a disaster for the overall design of a page. The trick is to be subtle, and choose html colors that compliment, rather than take away from content.
- How to Make a Kite
[Recreation-and-Sports] The best methods and materials for making kites haven't really changed much over the last 2500 years. Ancient kite makers knew their craft well, and few people today can rival the magnificent kites that were made back then.
- How to Make a Graph
[Business:Presentation] Most people know that a graph makes complex information easier to understand, especially easier than sorting through long columns of numbers in a spreadsheet. The tricky part, however, is deciding which type of graph is best suited for the type of information you want to show.
- Top Three Mistakes in Birdhouse Plans
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Until recently, I've never given much thought to what I should include in my birdhouse plans. I figured any old wood box with a hole would probably do the trick. However, after doing a little reading, I quickly realized that birds are much more particular about where they build nests.
- Using Printable Graph Paper - How to Make Drawing Easy
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Using printable graph paper is an easy way to draw perfect, geometric shapes and diagrams, even if you're a lousy artist. The reason it works so well is that the small, evenly-spaced squares keep your doodles (and your brain) in good alignment.
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