LEARN
Learn it on real work.
Choose a focused exercise or follow a complete project. Each guide connects an action in GrainDraft to a decision in the shop.
Exercise · 2 boards Two boards. One joint. Choose faces, set up a mortise and tenon, preview both cuts and inspect the result in section. Walkthrough · 12 steps A drawer side table Follow a formula-driven frame and drawer through dimensions, joinery, material estimates and fabrication files. Shaper Origin From setup to cut file Inspect the exact face, download anchored SVGs and keep matching setup pages in your shop packet. Design Dimensions and size presets Named inputs, dependent formulas, and the preview you read before a size change is applied. Make Prepare for the shop Cut lists, material prices, sheet layouts, shop packets and the supported export formats.
For tool-specific instructions, open the app's Help Center with F1. Save a named copy and download a project backup before starting a separate practice project.
ARTICLES
Shop notes
Woodworking fundamentals that apply whatever you design with: how wood moves, what stock really measures, and how to size the joints that hold a piece together.
- Technique · Glue-ups: open time, clamping pressure and squeeze-out Open time, clamp pressure, dry runs and squeeze-out: how to plan a glue-up that closes in time.
- Materials · Plywood grades and cores: choosing sheet goods Veneer, MDF and combination cores, Baltic birch, and how to read the grade stamp.
- Joinery · Brad nails: length, glue and where they belong Picking an 18-gauge brad length, why glue does the holding, and how to avoid blowout and splits.
- Materials · Choosing a wood species for furniture Hardness, stability, workability and cost for eight common furniture woods, and where each belongs.
- Joinery · Attaching a solid-wood top so it can move Buttons, clips, figure-8s and slotted holes, and where to fix a top so movement goes where you want it.
- Materials · Board feet: how to calculate them, and what the lumberyard charges for The board-foot formula, rough thickness quarters, and how to turn a cut list into a lumber order.
- Joinery · Box joints: finger width, fit and layout Choosing finger width, laying out whole fingers, and tuning a jig until the joint slides together.
- Joinery · Dadoes and rabbets that fit real plywood Sizing housings for undersized plywood, depths that hold, and cutting without tearing the veneer.
- Joinery · Half-lap joints: layout, depth and good uses End, tee, cross and edge laps, setting the depth so faces finish flush, and where laps belong.
- Technique · Milling rough lumber flat and square The order of operations that turns a rough board into flat, square stock, and why the order matters.
- Joinery · Mitre joints: accurate angles, equal lengths and reinforcement Mitre angles for any frame, why half a degree matters, and how to reinforce an end-grain joint.
- Materials · Nominal and actual sizes: lumber and plywood What 2x4s, 4/4 hardwood and 3/4" plywood really measure, and where the difference bites.
- Planning · Planning a cut list: kerf, allowances and grain direction Finished sizes, grain direction, milling allowances and kerf: what a workable cut list needs.
- Joinery · Pocket holes: screw length, thread type and limits Jig settings, screw length for 1/2", 3/4" and 1-1/2" stock, thread type, and where not to use pocket holes.
- Drawings · Reading a dimensioned shop drawing Views, hidden lines, sections, datums and fractions: how to read a furniture drawing before you cut.
- Planning · Sizing a drawer box for side-mount slides Drawer box width, height and length from the opening, with the clearance side-mount slides need.
- Joinery · Sizing a mortise and tenon: thickness, width, length and fit Starting proportions for tenon thickness, shoulders, length and fit in apron-to-leg joints.
- Materials · Wood movement: how much a board changes, and how to design for it Estimate how much a solid panel will move across the seasons, and the construction details that allow for it.