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About: This page is made for beginning woodworkers and people who love to watch videos about woodworking! I share with you my advice on starting a woodworking business from home and how to grow your woodworking busi… More About Fennah Woodworking »

For this build I used an oak slab! I made sure it was oversized to the dimensions I needed.

Check the video above for the complete build on YouTube, or take the steps below!

Step 1: Milling the Slab

Use a tracksaw to mill the slab to it’s rough size. Make sure to have some wiggle room in terms of it’s size because we are going to plane the milled beams later on.

Step 2: Saw the Rest by Hand

Because my tracksaw didn’t go deep enough I had to finish sawing the slab with a hand saw! It’s a nice workout so be prepared!

Step 3: Over to the Jointer

We are going to joint one face and one edge square on the jointer! This step is also a real workout because the beam is really heavy!

Step 4: Planing

At the thickness planer we plane the other edge square! Check for squareness every pass and plane until the beam is at the desired thickness.

Step 5: Squaring at the Table Saw

With three sides square we square the last side on the table saw. Make sure to saw it to the desired width.

Step 6: Make an Outline for the Overhang and Remove Material

When you have marked the outline for the overhang we head over to the tablesaw to remove as much material as we can. We set the blade to the height you want to remove your material.

Step 7: Bashing With the Hammer

After sawing we hit the strips with a hammer. It breaks them off the main beam so they can be removed as well.

Step 8: Cleaning Up

After this we start with the chisel to remove big chunks left behind. We clean the surface up with a handplane intill the smooth.

Step 9: Cleaning Up the Top Side of the Sill

With the handplane we clean up the surface of the top side of the sill. My planer had left some marks we need to get rid of.

Step 10: Sanding, Sanding, Sanding

After we are done planing we start the gruesome task of sanding, a lot of sanding.

With the belt sander we clean up the ends of the sill. With the belt sander you can square the ends up if the aren’t already square. Remove any burn marks by the tablesaw on the visible sides and finish up with your orbital sander.