DIY Wood Joinery

This page offers definitions of the most common wood joinery techniques. These wood joints will be found, in one form or another, in virtually every carpentry project. For more information about woodworking and carpentry projects like installing crown molding, framing and installing doors and windows and choosing molding, lumber and sheet goods, see the links at the left of this page.

Butt Joint: The simplest of wood joints. Two pieces of wood are cut square and glued or nailed face to face. This is the weakest wood joint. Reinforce with screws or nails when using this joint. Best suited for rough construction projects such as wall framing.

Compound Miter: Two pieces of wood to be joined are each cut with a matching bevel and miter angle. With this technique the wood is cut in two directions at once to join moldings such as crown molding or for making picture frames and shadow boxes. See the Compound Miter Saw Guide for more.

Cross Cut: A cut across the wood grain. Used for cutting framing lumber, finish lumber and sheet materials. Side by side, shallow cross cuts can be used to make dados, rabbets and lap cuts in lumber.

Dado: A groove cut in a board usually half way thru to accept another board that fits snuggly into the groove.

Dovetail Joint: Two pieces of wood to be joined are each cut with a matching mortise and tenon. One side of the joint is cut with dovetail shaped tenons and the other is cut with dovetail shaped mortises into which the tenons fit. Router jigs are available for making these cuts or they can be cut by hand.

Framing: The basic construction of walls and ceiling. 2x3's, 2x4's and larger sizes of dimension lumber are joined using butt and mitered joints. Used to build houses and other small structures.

Glued Block Butt Joint: This is the same as a butt joint with the addition of a triangle block glued to the inside to reinforce the joint. This joint is used frequently for table tops and chair seats when building furniture.

Lap Joint: A simple form of this joint is a face to face union of two pieces of lumber. Alternately both pieces to be joined are cut to form a notched lap joint. The end of each piece of wood to be joined is notched, creating essentially two matching rabbets. The two pieces are joined by overlapping the two rabbets.

Miter Joint: Two pieces of wood to be joined are each cut at a matching angle, for example, two 45° angles are joined to create a 90° union to build a frame or box.

Mortise and Tenon Joint: Used in furniture making for joining rails and stiles. A mortise and tenon joint is used to build raised panel doors and frames for tables and chairs. A biscuit joiner makes a quick mortise and tenon joint.

Rabbet Joint: This wood joint is a modified butt joint which makes use of a notch cut in the end of one board to accept another board. This technique increases surface contact between the two pieces for a stronger joint.

Rip Cut: A cut with the grain of a piece of wood. Ripping a 2x4, for example, would produce two 2x2's. This cut is frequently used to cut plywood for cabinetry.

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