[.ca] 2X4 Furniture: Simple, Inexpensive & Great-Looking ... (ISBN 0806902949)

These projects may self-destruct:
Anyone who has ever had to mess with a stuck door has confronted a troublesome fact of life: Wood moves. Write that down on a 3x5 card: "Wood moves." Hold this card in your hand and look at it from time to time as you thumb through Stevie Henderson's enormously successful 2x4 Furniture. Because Stevie seems to forget occasionally. Take the first project in the book, for example. It is a coffee table with an edge-glued wood top almost four feet wide, screwed and glued to a frame running cross-grain to the top. Actually, the top is glued to some trim pieces which are in turn screwed and glued to the supporting frame, but it's pretty much the same deal. You can't do this, folks. A four foot width of pine is going to swell and shrink as much as 1/4" with the changing of the seasons, and it does so across the grain. Gluing it to a piece of long grain (which doesn't move) is like sticking it in a vice and repeatedly closing and opening the vice by 1/4". That's the theory, anyway, and if it's right, then something has to give. I would guess the miter joints in the trim would open up, or the table top would warp and split, or both. Indeed, something bad is definitely happening: In the photograph, you can see a big gap opening up between the tabletop trim and the supporting framework to which it is glued and screwed. Since this is a big full-color photo of a project for a woodworking book, you'd think they'd turn the piece's best face to the camera. The scary thing is, this may be the piece's best face. Have a look at some table plans from respectable woodworking magazines. Have a look at a table that's been around a long time. You won't see broad pieces of solid wood effectively welded to anything running cross-grain. You'll see things like slotted screw holes or tabletop clips that permit the top to move. Otherwise, the piece will explode like a bomb. Just kidding. But it will become a horrible crippled thing that you will want to blow up with a bomb. There are simple ways around this problem. For example, why not use plywood for the top? You're already trimming the edges all around. Or if you just have a thing for solid wood, trim the ends with "breadboards." Or just round them over and consider them trimmed. But don't glue them into a frame! This book is full of stuff like this. Solid wood panels with battens or cleats glued and screwed across the width. Why do you suppose your cabinet doors aren't made this way? Or your house doors for that matter? Because wood moves. Thus the genius of frame-and-panel doors. And the outdoor furniture. Have a look at the chairs on page 122. See the gap? You like your joints open to the weather? That's what happens when you build outdoor furniture with these huge face miters. How about the bench on the back cover? There's an easy and sturdy way to build a thing like this, but Stevie's piece relies mainly on screws going into endgrain, which is about the weakest thing there is. That bench is going to rack over like a beer carton the first time a fat guy jumps up on it and dances. People say this book's strength is the simplicity of the projects, but I find some of the stuff to be overbuilt for what it is. Look at the "rustic chest." That's a heck of a lot of wood and measuring and cutting and fastening to do what a 6-board chest does in, well, 6 boards. This is a good book for sharpening your critical eye, but it's not for a weekend warrior who just wants some plans to knock together. Perversely, you have to know what you're doing to get ideas from this book, and I think the opposite was intended.

Use it as a starting point:
This book gives a great basic introduction to tools, woods, and fasteners-- the kind of information other books might skip over. The projects are for the most part very simple, however the book (and others of hers I've seen) centers around 3-4 larger projects, with a bunch of easier "filler" projects thrown in. The major projects are nice pieces of furniture I could feel comfortable having in my home. Some of the others leave much to be desired aesthetically-- at best, a simple piece of furniture, at worst, someone's shop class leftovers. (Although, I must say the projects in this book are much better than her others!!) Tricks include using moldings to dress up simple pieces of furniture. I found this book to be more helpful in conceiving and designing my own furniture than following her projects step-by-step. A little graph paper and some imagination go a long way! Use this book to get a basic understanding of how to build furniture, and use the projects as a starting point.

Interesting projects:
This book has some nice projects, but don't let the name fool you. There isn't one 2x4 used on any of the furniture pieces.

A good book for short projects and for beginners .:
I have never done any woodworking outside of 8th grade shop class where we made a napkin holder. I wanted to do some woodworking and I thought this book would be a good start. It was. I am very happy with this book. They lead you through step by step, which if you do not know how to read a woodworking "plan", makes it comprehendible. This book uses very few actual 2x4's, but rather 1x2's, 2x2's and other easy to get lumber. You need very few tools and they don't cost much. Be sure to use clamps! First project I didn't and results are unimpressive. I love this book and highly recommend it.

2x4 Furniture: Simple, Inexpensive and great looking project:
I must take exception to Johnthebarkeep's characterization that making raised panel doors on a table saw is dangerous. Any time you use a table saw, there is the possibility of injury, but making raised panel doors can and has been performed safely by many amateur woodworkers. I find his statement uninformed and needlessly alarming.