Back to Minis page

Woodworking for miniatures

This page discusses building mini furniture using full-scale patterns and hardwoods.

I don't work with basswood anymore. While it's soft and can be cut with simple tools, the cuts needed for full-scale joinery tend to crumble. It can be done if you have more patience than I do. I sometimes use basswood in place of pine if the joinery is simple.

Tips & Techniques

Important!! Read the instructions and make note of any resawing, surface-planing, or ripping.

Most designs have a materials list. The lumber sizes in this list will be nominal sizes (see the Carpentry page). Some designs also have a cutting list, which will usually use actual sizes.

Sometimes mini lumber comes the right thickness, and of course since mini lumber's scale-2' wide, it's possible to rip to the final width. The panels in the corner cupboard are a good example - the materials list had all lumber the same thickness, but the panels are planed to about 1/2 inch thinner, so I just got a thinner sheet of wood (after I'd cut the panel pieces from the thick wood - oh, well, it was a learning experience)

You can cut wider dadoes and rabbets with the table saw, but *always* run scrap stock through first. Smaller ones, and mortises, can be whittled out with woodcarving tools.

Mark with a knife, not a pencil. It's easier to get the knife edge right against whatever you measure with, and the line's *much* thinner. Score the line a few times to make a channel that helps keep the saw blade in the right place.

And now my take on carpenter's favourite sayings:

"Measure twice, but if you must, cut twice" - cost of materials is nominal, but the annoyance factor of a 1/32 gap is immense!

"If possible, don't measure" - if you have to fit a piece between other pieces, wait till those are assembled so you can get a precise fit.

Joinery

First the good news - at this scale, wood expansion is negligible, so you can use glue almost everywhere.

Now the bad news - at this scale, nails split the wood, so you must use glue almost everywhere.

Butt joints can't be reinforced with nails (I've yet to try biscuits), and the glue's not *that* good. Unless there's some other means of support, a butt joint will easily snap off.

Mortise-and-tenons, dadoes, rabbets scale down unchanged.

Unless you're lucky enough to find a dovetail jig, you can use simple finger joints where the full size has dovetails.

Tools

Absolute essential - get a tilting table saw. Mine's from Micro-Mark, but Dremel makes one too. With the miter gauge, you can do nearly all the complex angle cuts you need.

A Dremel tool with a wide range of attachments is also useful. The half-circle cutouts on the corner cupboard were done by rough-cutting, then sanding to shape with a Dremel sander that was exactly the diameter I wanted.

I also have a Dremel drill press, which I use for mortise-and-tenon joints.

The Anker Mfg Dovetail jig is a very nice tool, but Anker has retired and no one else makes it. If you're lucky you might find a used one. If so, it needs a #37 dentist's drill bit (not the same size as a #37 regular drill)

Supplies

Dollhouse Factory carries oak, poplar, cedar, maple, cherry, walnut, and mahogany. Poplar is a good substitute for pine, and cedar for redwood. One nice thing about this scale is when the pattern says "the original used xxx, but substitute pine because it's cheaper" - you can go ahead and use the original.

Midwest has a few hardwoods, but you rarely find them in hobby shops.

Birch plywood is widely available in hobby shops. "MDO plywood" is paper-covered plywood. I used full-page (no perforations) computer label paper on my plywood. Thin (up to 3/4" scale) plywood can be cut with an exacto knife, an advantage when cutting multiple identical items (see the corner cupboard shelves). If you have a computer drawing program, you can print the template on the paper before putting it on the plywood - make sure to use "hairline" line widths.

Tiny brass nails are available from dollhouse electrical suppliers. I've occasionally used sewing pins, especially where the nails need to go all the way through the wood - sewing pins can be cut with wire cutters.

Even smaller brass nails are available from Stetkewicz and Knowles.

Sheet metal (brass, copper, aluminum), PVC pipes, metal rods and pipes, and tiny nuts & bolts are available from better hobby shops and mail-order. Aluminum cans for edging (where it won't be subject to any stress), floppy disk sliders where long right angles are needed.