Alabama Millwork and Finish Carpentry

Key Concepts

Wood milling and dimensioning (The Complete Illustrated Guide To Furniture And Ca, Chapter 3 – Working Wood) - Use rough lumber for furniture so you control dimensioning; save dimensioned lumberyard stock for small projects. - Target moisture content is 6 percent to 8 percent; store stock at about 40 percent relative humidity for a couple of weeks before use. - Plan on losing about 4 in. on each end of a board to checking or planer snipe. - Four types of warp: cup, bow, crook, twist. - Face-jointing: sight the board for cup or bow, then place the cupped or bowed face down on the jointer bed; set a light cut of about 1/32 in. and use push blocks. - Thickness plane with the jointed face down, planing with the grain; flip the board over and end for end after every pass to remove an even amount from both faces. - Edge jointing: keep the board snug to the fence; depth of cut about 1/16 in. maximum. - Cutting parts: rip about…

Key Concepts

Sequencing (top-down) - Ceiling treatments and cornice trim go on first, then standing moldings (door casings), then running moldings such as base molding. Ladders and scaffolding used for cornice work damage standing moldings (Page 8-1, Door Trim, Preparation for Trimwork). - Floor-to-ceiling wall paneling around doors is generally installed before the trim; check whether extension jambs are needed for the added wall thickness (Page 8-2). The same rule applies to windows — install floor-to-ceiling paneling before window trim (Window Trim, Preparing for Trimwork).

Doors - The Four Rules of Door Swing: swing away from traffic areas such as hallways and into enclosed rooms; closet doors open into rooms; swing away from the light-switch side; doors at a room corner swing against the wall, not into open space (Page 7-1). - Hand of door = "butt-to-butt rule": stand in the frame with your butt to the hinge side; the hand is the side the door swings away from. Some manufacturers instead hand by the lock side — verify with the supplier (Installing Doors).…

Alabama Millwork and Finish Carpentry

Key Concepts

Panel products (Working Wood chapter — Panel Characteristics section, Page 33–34) - MDF — best choice for flat work "because it's flat and stays that way"; exceptionally smooth surface makes it a favorite for veneering or high-end paint work. Cons: heavy, won't hold fasteners well, bends under heavy loads, rough/porous edges need filling or edgebanding, and it swells irreversibly when exposed to moisture. Rated Excellent flatness, Fair screw holding, Fair rigidity. - Lumbercore plywood — core of laminated solid wood, making it "exceptionally stiff and rigid." Rated Excellent for both screw holding and rigidity. Compare: solid-core plywood is Fair/Fair; MDF is Fair/Fair; particleboard is Poor screw holding, Fair rigidity. - Baltic birch plywood, ApplePly, and Europly — made from multiple layers of veneers, void free; edges can be polished for a finished look, and their higher density and stability make them great for jig making. By contrast, typical hardwood plywood has random voids between inner plies that show as holes along panel edges, so raw edges…

Key Concepts

Wood floor finishes (Ch. 17, Flooring) - Shellac is the most color-stable finish described: it does not darken appreciably with age, and it repairs easily because new shellac melts and feathers into the old finish. - Polyurethanes are hard to repair because new coats do not self-feather into the old coat. - Penetrating oils are not color stable — they darken noticeably in areas that receive less light — and they resist stains poorly, because foods and household chemicals pass through them easily. They are, however, the easiest finish to apply and do not raise the grain very much.

Floor sanding sequence and machines (Ch. 17, Flooring) - Drum sanders cut faster and deeper when pulled backward than when rolling forward; do not pause at the end of a sweep unless the drum is lifted. - Never hold the drum in one place more than a few seconds while it sands — doing so creates a hollow in the floor. Keep the machine moving whenever the drum contacts the floor. - After…

Topic: Finish Carpentry Hand Tools

Key Concepts

Sharpening with waterstones (Finish Carpenter's Manual, Ch. 2 — Sharpening with Waterstones) - Use three grits of stones in progression: 800 to 1200 to 6000. - Keep the stones immersed in water until use; allow a slurry of water and grit to build up while running the metal over the stone, adding only enough water to keep the slurry from drying out. - Use sharpening guides with rollers to hold the tool at a consistent angle. In general, 25 degrees for chisels and 30 degrees for plane irons. - Optional micro bevels speed honing: lift the blade an additional 5 degrees, creating a second bevel about 1/32 inch wide. - Hone only the beveled side first; remove the blade from the guide only after the bevel reaches a mirror polish on the 6000 grit stone, then turn it over and remove any burr on the back (flat) side with several passes over the 6000 stone. - Waterstones are preferred over oilstones: oilstones are messy, lose flatness quickly,…

Key Concepts

Fall protection — general walking/working surfaces. Each employee on a walking/working surface with an unprotected side or edge 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above a lower level must be protected by guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems (§1926.501(b)(1)). Guardrail systems must withstand, without failure, a force of at least 200 pounds (890 N) applied within 2 inches of the top edge, in any outward or downward direction, at any point along the top edge (§1926.502(b)(3)).

Which subpart governs. §1926.501 sets out where fall protection is required, except that fall protection for employees on scaffolds is in subpart L, and for employees on stairways and ladders is in subpart X (§1926.500(a)(2)(i), (vii)). Subpart M does not apply to inspections, investigations or assessments of workplace conditions before construction starts or after all construction work is completed (§1926.500(a)(1)).

Key Concepts

Chop saws and miter saws. The 8½-inch blade-sliding compound miter saw sits at the heart of most finish carpenters' power tool collections; it quickly cuts an accurate compound angle across boards up to 12 inches wide, which makes it the tool of choice for joints on wide cornice moldings (Finish Carpenter's Manual, Page 14). Its only disadvantage is that the cutting action is slower than a standard chop saw, so some carpenters still prefer the chop saw for quick, repetitive cuts in small molding stock (Page 14). Use a carbide blade designed for chop saws; don't remove the guard, and wait for the blade to stop before extracting cutoffs (Page 14).

Other cutting tools. A direct-drive 7¼-inch circular saw is adequate for most cutting; add a trim saw for lots of paneling work, and check the base for flatness and squareness to the blade at the "zero" setting before use (Page 13). The reciprocating saw ("Sawzall") is more a rough construction tool than a finish tool, useful for prep work such as…

Key Concepts

• Bid price is derived from the contract price, not marked up from cost. Subtract the combined overhead and profit percentages from 100%, then divide direct cost by that remainder. This makes overhead and profit true percentages of the contract price rather than percentages of direct cost. (Modern Finish Carpentry, Chapter 20 — Determining the Bid Price section)
• Direct costs include labor, materials, transportation expenses to and from the job site, rental equipment, and job-specific supplies such as fasteners, glue, and sandpaper. (Chapter 20 — Bids and Contracts section)
• Overhead expenses include shop/office rental, vehicle expenses, license renewal fees, bookkeeping charges, and legal expenses. (Chapter 20 — Bids and Contracts section)
• Labor estimates must include non-installation time. Add the estimated time to set up, take down, and secure materials and equipment each day. On a job with poor site access or poor power access, getting ready to start work can take an hour or more. (Chapter 20 — Determining the Bid Price section, Step 1)
• **Cost-plus / time-and-materials…