I recently started a woodworking class at El Camino College and am learning SO. MUCH. Students are allowed to make what they choose and my inspiration is this TV stand that is back-ordered till June from bludot.
Yesterday I bought some lumber from House of Hardwood in Culver City. The guy Greg was very helpful directing me what wood to buy and how much I needed. I wanted to do the stand in ash because it has a really pretty grain that would show through painting, but it was pretty pricey and I ended up with poplar for about half the price.
The first step when I got to class was to use the jointer to get the edges of the wood perfectly square and smooth. A jointer is a machine that has a spinning blade that you run the edges of your lumber over to smooth them out and make them straight. The jointer at El Camino was from a shipyard and dates back before WWII. Pretty cool, huh? That’s craftsmanship!
After I made the boards straight using the table saw, I was ready to glue them together to make the sides of the stand. To make the joints strong, my instructor Jack Selph suggested using biscuits. BISCUITS? This is what I think of when I hear biscuits:
