Building Your First Cabinet
Like Duolingo, but for Building Your First Cabinet. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Quick Win: Your First Box and Building for Strength and Square. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Building Your First Cabinet
- A butt joint is formed when two boards meet without any interlocking notches or grooves
- Wood glue creates a bond stronger than the wood itself once cured
- The boards meet at a 90-degree angle
- Screws provide the necessary pressure to hold the boards together while the glue sets
- It is the most basic method for connecting two pieces of lumber
- Mechanical fasteners act as 'internal clamps' during the drying process
- Recognizing the structure and application of a butt joint
- Understanding the roles of glue and screws in a joint
- Screws displace wood fibers, creating outward pressure that can split the board
- Pre-drilling a hole slightly smaller than the screw removes material to make room for the threads
- Splitting is most common when fastening near the end of a board
- Pocket holes are drilled at an angle to hide the screw head on the underside or inside of a project
- They eliminate the need for visible screw heads or wood filler on the 'show' side of the piece
- They allow for strong face-frame construction without specialized clamps
- Identifying the benefits and use cases for pocket hole joinery
- The cut end of a board (end grain) is highly porous
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Building Your First Cabinet the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
If you try to break a properly glued joint after it dries, what is most likely to happen?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where Building Your First Cabinet takes you
Learn the essential joinery and assembly skills needed to turn raw lumber into functional, sturdy furniture.
- 1
The Quick Win: Your First Box
- Fastening with Butt Joints
- Measuring for the Real World
- 2
Building for Strength and Square
- Grooves for Shelves and Backs
- Squaring and Finishing the Box
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Building Your First Cabinet is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Building Your First Cabinet today.
Download Tomo, search Building Your First Cabinet, and play your first lesson in under a minute.