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Writer's pictureMatt Reed

Wood joinery concepts for the insane

A friend told me that I hadn't updated the blog in a while. Which was the kind of feedback I needed. Someone is reading all this stuff!



These ends were stapled together through the aluminum siding skin originally. That isn't how I roll though (also I don't have a massive air gun stapler for 1 inch staples). So some purdy-ish finger joints it is.


Yes that is a strip of plywood glued to the bottom of that piece. I cut an entire board of 4' X 8' into 7 in strips because that is how wide the one piece was... surprise surprise! That isn't the same width as the boards on the sides. I'm calling it a happy accident because that bottom strip will probably get rotten before the whole board does. So I can just pop-off that glued part and glue a new one in rather than replace the whole thing next time. That glue should act like a Moisture barrier...?


The "passenger side" of the front of the camper I decided to just patch rather than replace the whole board. Fun thing about a patch though, you have to have enough wooden real estate attached to it so it isn't flimsier than before. There's a board inside that wiggles around that pole to the rest of the inside, there's a wedge on the back to get the angle just right, and a plethora of chips stitching that joint together.




And on the right it is all cleaned up. I did scratch off some of those stitching boards so the aluminum would lay flat. Also some of those fingers had to be glued back on. I think that wood for the corner is kinda nice, it's from a pallet, I don't know what kind of wood it is. I may build something shiny with what's left over as it takes to polishing really well.


I got these bad boys super sharp, but that sharp edge is delicate to getting dropped or bumped or chipped - and they are a safety hazard exposed to I used a heat gun and scraps

of a milk carton to make a sheath. I made one for my knife and I wanted to add a belt loop to the one for the knife but my Harbor Freight Heat gun was done after all this. You get what you pay for. I may just use a hairdryer to do some more of this kind of work.

HDPE (High Density Polyethylene - is that right. yes that's right) or milk carton plastic will turn clear and become gummy like at 200 degrees F. Which is a pretty low temperature, I've tried to craft some things using my oven with very little success.

This actually worked pretty good. Yes it was gooey and hard to control, yes it has a tendency to warp as it heats or shrinks, but with a little tongue out of the mouth concentration I got it to hold onto the ends of these chisels good enough.


Ok I said "good enough" but truth be told they were suctioned onto the chisels at first. I had to blast down inside the sheath with some WD-40 and use some elbow grease to get them to let go. That was kind of what I wanted, I guess.


So sharp chisels and one of these:

really makes doing finger joints an almost pleasant experience. I don't know exactly what it's called but it's a Japanese pull saw. Great for joinery because it has a super thin blade and you can get pretty dang accurate cuts with it.


That is the back all glued back down, it's a shame those finger joints won't see the light of day but what can you do. They were for practical purposes anyway. At least it was good practice for making joints. We still have some more board joining to do for this camper though.

Now completely unrelated to anything

This is a jar of Traffic Jam. Drawing with kids is a blast. I was trying to get all serious with my drawing, trying to focus on shapes, shading, proportions, I drew some seashells when it occurred to me: "I can draw whatever the heck I want!" This is a fun concept to introduce to kids. I was drawing with my friend's kids with this premise, they were drawing stuff and I would ask what crazy thing I should draw. Yeah. Drawing should be fun. I drew a piano eating pizza, a toad reading a newspaper etc. Good times.


I finished this onshape course.




But what has taken up most of my time has been taking personal inventory. Why do I believe what I believe? How do I react to different situations? Which has been kind of exhausting.

The big takeaway is that I am learning how to not be resentful. That stuff will kill you and it will hurt the whole time it's killing you.

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