Miniature furniture tools are specialized hand tools that are required to make miniature dollhouses and dollhouse furniture. For miniatures enthusiasts who wish to develop or expand their miniature woodworking skills, owning a set or kit of mini tools is a necessary investment because standard woodworking hand tools are too large to create intricate objects and details required for carving mini furniture and furnishings.
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Miniature dollhouse furniture with Country house-style furniture and furnishings.
For miniature furniture makers, the crafting of tiny pieces of home décor items is the core of the beautiful craft of miniatures but without the appropriate tools, it can become a challenging and testing task which may rob the enthusiast of the satisfying accomplishment of building miniatures collectables.
To create a beautiful dollhouse as a stand-alone collectable displayed on a table shelf may be an end in itself, but for those who love to build miniature houses, building the house is not enough. A dollhouse will never look complete without furniture.
A miniature house is a mini version of a real home and must be complete with tables, chairs, sofas, stools, coffee tables, desks, tallboys, armoires, chests, cabinets, bed sets, dining sets, and the lot.
Aside from furniture, the house requires furnishings and fixtures like table lamps, chandeliers, sconces, appliances, and window blinds and drapery, throw pillows, bedcovers, linen, and decorations. To a maker and collector, an unfurnished dollhouse is an unfinished project.
From elegant traditional miniature dollhouses to mid-century and modern tiny dollhouses, some miniature furniture tools and a few guiding steps are all that are required to start to build your own home miniatures. The following 8 steps explain simply the process involved if you plan to DIY.
- Draw out patterns for the miniature furniture. You can also purchase patterns for miniature furniture online, or at some local craft shops.
- Purchase softwood that is easy to cut and manipulate.
- Lightly glue all pattern parts to the softwood.
- With a mini hand saw, cut around the pattern borders to get the individual parts.
- With a furniture adhesive, glue all the tiny parts together to form the furniture piece.
- File all sawed edges lightly and sand the assembled piece of furniture.
- Use a wood filler then re-sand with smooth grade sandpaper.
- Paint, stain, or lacquer the finished object.
Must-Have Miniature Furniture-Making Tools
You will need an assortment of basic mini-hand tools and a couple of essential power tools. For instance, if you need to fasten or solder wires together, you need a small soldering set, and if you wish to create an intricately carved headboard, you will need a pair of needle-nosed pliers (or wire-bending pliers) to get the job done easier and faster.
A mini-size basic tool kit is essential to carry out the task of miniature furniture making, but if you would rather buy each tool individually, to do any serious work, you must have these basic essentials listed in order of importance, as follows:
- Jigsaw
- Power hand drill
- Lathe
- Circular saw
- Pin vice
- Mitre box
Mini Jigsaw
The mini jigsaw is the most important miniature furniture tool that is required, and without one, it is virtually impossible to make intricate cuts. A handsaw will not do the job to your satisfaction and trying to mitre the ends will become a stressful task. Moreover, as you progress with the work, other more difficult and detailed operations would surface and only a mini jigsaw can cut the tiniest pieces. Choose a jigsaw with a rotating electric motor. This will reduce unnecessary vibrations that will occur if you use a vibrating electric motored jigsaw.
Miniature Power Drill
The miniature power drill is the second most important tool required for miniature furniture making. It helps speed up the work while ensuring accuracy. Choose a power drill that has a variable speed because it broadens the drill's usefulness. A must-have attachment is a drill stand which allows the hand drill to be used as a drill press. This enables holding the drill down at any angle, giving the craftsman free hands to work with. Other attachments may seem tempting to buy, but the drill stand and a router attachment will suffice, especially if you are a beginner crafter.
Mini Lathe
The lathe is the third most essential tool required for miniature furniture making. If you intend to make period-style furniture with turned legs, posts, etc., this tool must be part of your collection of tools. However, if you plan to make only simple basic furniture - square shapes and simple parts, then you probably don’t necessarily have to buy it.
Some skilful miniature furniture makers can carve curvilinear and other intricate pieces by hand, but if you are not yet skilled in the craft, doing it will waste a considerable amount of your time. You definitely need a lathe.
One with moderately fast speed will do for all the required wood works while a slower speed lathe is great for any form of metal works that may be needed for the task of miniature furniture making.
Mini Circular Saw
Today, you will find miniature circular saws that enable a miniature furniture craftsman to cut perfectly straight wood, even up to about a quarter of an inch in thickness (8mm). Some mini circular saws come as attachments to a lathe. It is best to choose a circular saw that works with an adjustable blade angle of 45 degrees. With this type, you can make perfect mitre cuts which allow for the beveling of wood edges.
Pin Vice
This is an inexpensive hole-drilling tool and another must-have mini furniture tool. It is handy when you have intricate works that require precision and accuracy. For example, if two holes at the ends of very narrow dowels must meet accurately, a pin vice will help you do this effortlessly. This tool is good for fitting into hard-to-reach places that the electric hand drill may not reach, and so, is a valuable addition to the larger hand drill.
Mitre Box
Just as a pin vice can drill tiny holes more easily and accurately than a hand drill, so will a mitre box mitre a wood end more easily than the jigsaw. This mini tool can cut wood pieces at a variety of angles, though it is only useful for very small pieces that the jigsaw is too large to handle. The jigsaw only handles larger pieces of furniture parts.
For instance, when you build miniature picture frames, the mitre box will cut mitres for the frame (imagine how tiny these can be), as well as small items like door and window frames, picture mouldings, cornices, trims, and baseboards.
Though owning this tool is not a requirement for making miniature furniture, a craftsman will find that working without this tool will make the task slow, and will likely cause inaccuracies.
Other Tools You May Require
Some other tools you may like to have included in your collection are:
- Miniature files
- Piercing saw
- Miniature chisels
- Squares
- Precision tip glue bottles
- Craft and carving knives
- Glueing jigs and clamps
Dollhouse furniture and furnishings, made using basic mini furniture tools.
As you become more skilled, your tool collection will grow just as your enthusiasm will. Granted, there is a vast range of tempting miniature hand tools and equipment that you may wish to buy but it’s good to know that while some will turn out very useful, some will not.
(Article originally published by the author at hubpages.com on 02/26/10)
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