A Brief Post-Election Post

This will be a short post because I have had a pretty busy week, setting up my Etsy store and working on the Shaker Hanging Shelf. I spent about two hours making the banner you see above for my store. I figured Photoshop would be the best way to go since the banner has to have a certain number of pixels, but I forgot to take into account how unfamiliar I am with the program. The end result wasn't bad considering that I was working by trial and error.

I will do a more complete post on the Hanging Shelf in a couple of days, but progress has been encouraging so far. I dry fitted my first attempt tonight and I am very pleased with the result. All my jigs worked as planned and all the parts fit as they should. The proportions are perfect. Whew! Stay tuned for the full story...

OutOfWoods is Open for Business on Etsy!

It took me about two hours to get my store up and running on Etsy this afternoon. The site pretty well leads  you through the process step-by-step, so the frustrations were limited to the usual user errors. I listed the Shaker sconces I described making here, along with some small boxes I had made previously. I still need to refine my Etsy page to make it more attractive, more easily found etc., but at least I finally got it started up!

Shaker Hanging Shelf - Dado Jig

Given the poor quality of the dado set I have for my saw, I will be using a router to cut the dadoes that support the shelves. The router is safer, in any case, and will cut cleanly and accurately with the proper jig. I will be using a 1/2" outside diameter guide collar in the router with a 5/16" straight bit to make the cuts.

Jig Layout

I decided to use 1/2" MDF here again, as I did with the other jig for this project. The photo at right shows my layout. After marking the desired placement of the dadoes, I drilled a 1/2" hole at the end of each one to aid in setting up the router to cut the three slots. The remaining layout lines are for the placement of the 1/4" masonite strips that will position the work piece under the jig and for the placement of the horizontal batten that will be used to hang the shelf unit.

Setting the Guide

I used a clamp-on straightedge to guide the router, which was equipped with a 1/2" straight bit. I positioned the guide by dropping the router bit into the hole I had previously drilled in the MDF and moving the straightedge until it contacted the router base. After double checking the position of the guide with a try square, I locked it into position.

I made the cut in three passes of gradually increasing depth. The guide is positioned to the left of the router because routers move to the left as you push them away from you. Thus, I started the cut on the edge of the MDF nearest to me and continued cutting until I reached the hole I had drilled at the far end of the cut. Highland Woodworking has an excellent article on this subject at:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/routersgoleft.aspx.

The two jigs I made for the Hanging Shelf project represent my only experience so far with MDF. The material is quite dense, stable, and consistent, making it suitable for jigs, but it is unpleasant to work with. The high resin content means that it scorches easily when machined and smells bad when it does scorch. Working MDF with the router produces large volumes of fine dust and is probably harder on bits than is real wood. Still, it seems the most convenient and inexpensive material I can think of for this application.

Underside of Jig, w/Slots

The last photo shows the jig with the masonite strips ready for glue up. The guide slots came out clean, crisp, and square. I am anxious to try both jigs out on some actual wood! I haven't yet made up my mind about how I will make the notches in the side pieces for the hanging batten. I may add that feature to this jig or perhaps nibble them out with the table saw.

To be continued...

Shaker Hanging Shelf - Stock Preparation and Jig Construction

Beautiful Grain!

I decided to prepare the stock for this project first in order to give the wood time to settle down before I cut it to final size. Stock preparation is covered in my September 22 and 26 entries so I won't repeat the steps here. I had two lengths of 4/4 cherry approximately 5" wide. Resawing with the band saw gave me the 1/4" and 3/8" thick stock I need for this project. The grain this revealed is quite beautiful.

I felt it would be worthwhile to construct a jig for shaping the sides of the shelf unit rather than using templates as I did with the Shaker Sconce. These were useful but not especially convenient, so I also plan to create jigs for those pieces sometime soon. 

Layout

I chose 1/2" MDF for the base of the jig because it is inexpensive, durable and reasonably easy to work with. I began by transferring dimensions from my measured drawings (see 10/12 blog post) to a 7"X24" piece of MDF, allowing an extra 2" on three sides of the jig for the hold-downs. Not having french curve handy, I used a flat washer and my gooseneck cabinet scraper to lay out the curves.

Tapering

The tapering jig I described in my last three posts worked perfectly for cutting the diagonal line visible along the top of the MDF. I simply aligned the ends of the cut with the left side of the tapering jig, tightened the hold-downs, and ran the whole thing through the saw using the miter gauge slot to guide the jig. The resulting cut was smooth and accurate.

Sawing One of the Curves

With the taper cut, I moved to the band saw to cut the two curves in the jig, a small one at the bottom and and a more graceful, longer curve at the top. Using a 1/8" wide blade in the saw, I cut just outside the lines I had drawn being careful to stay on the waste side of the cut at all times.

Cleaning up a Curve

The band-sawn cut was too rough to use as it was to guide a pattern bit on the router table, so I smoothed out the irregularities using a sanding drum in my drill press. Experience has taught me that the slight ripples left by the saw are transmitted by the router to the piece being shaped with the jig, so they must be cleaned up.

Gluing Down the Guide Strips

My final task for the day was to glue down guide strips along three sides of the jig to provide positive positioning for the work piece. I make the strips from 1/4" masonite and glued them to the base taking care to align them with the layout lines I had made. Although I would eventually like to add toggle clamps to the jig for convenience, for the present I plan to drill the base for hold-downs like the ones on my tapering jig.

The next step will be to cut the side pieces of the hanging shelf to length. I will need to dado these to hold the shelves before using my new jig to trim them to shape. I may have to take some time off from this project to work on my Etsy store front as I hope to be open for business by November 1 and still have much to do...

Tapering Jig Part III - Complete

Tapering Jig Complete

Since my last entry, I spray painted the base of the jig flat black to improve the overall appearance, installed the aluminum t-tracks, and fabricated a pair of wooden hold-downs from some scrap maple I had in the shop. The only difficulty I encountered resulted from the fact that my newly purchased length of t-track was 1/8" thinner than the scraps I had on hand. I had cut the dadoes to fit the old track and needed to shim up the new track with strips of 1/8" masonite. It was a pretty minor setback, all things considered.

The photo at right shows how simple the jig is to use. The only layout required involves drawing the desired line of cut on the work piece. This is aligned with the left hand side of the jig, which rides along the saw blade. The work is then secured with the wooden hold-downs and the cut is made. I equipped the jig with multiple t-tracks to accommodate a wide range of work pieces.

Laying Out

Making the hold-downs began with sketching a suitable profile on small scraps of 1" hard maple. I used the band saw with a 1/8" blade to rough out the pieces, then refined the shapes a bit with a rasp. I left the surfaces mostly rough on the theory that they would grip better that way, and because I didn't have any desire to deal with sanding them at that point. With the shapes cut out, I used a marking gauge to strike a line down the center of each one, darkened the line with pencil, and marked the boundaries of the slot I planned to cut out.

Coping

Drilling

I used a 3/8" Forstner bit in my drill press to drill a hole at each end of the slot. The Forstner bit not only cuts an exceptionally clean hole, but starts without wandering on an angled surface. I used my drill press vise to safely secure the piece while drilling. With the holes drilled, I used a coping saw to remove the waste from the slot. The final image is a closeup of the hold-down in use.

Finished Hold-Down

The first application I have for the jig will be cutting out the template for the side pieces of the Shaker hanging shelf unit I plan to make next. I will be making the templates from 1/2" MDF, so I will not be risking damage to particularly valuable materials on the trial run. I'm anxious to give it a try...

Table Saw Tapering Jig - Part II

Stack Dado

Now that the guide strip has been fitted and the base trimmed to size, I can proceed to cut the dadoes that will house the aluminum T-tracks. Although I could use the router here, I elect to use my stack dado set. The resulting cut tends to be rougher but the setup is much faster.

In order to accommodate the dado set, I have installed a different throat plate (shown in red) on the saw. The wider opening offers more than enough clearance for the 1/2" dado set. In fact, it would have been better to make a zero-clearance throat plate here to avoid splintering the wood, but I was in too much of a hurry at this point to be done. As we will see, this created extra work later on.

Note that the riving knife has been removed for this operation as it cannot be used for dadoing. The small oval hole in the upper left corner of the throat plate provides finger access to the catch that holds the knife in place, so it is easily removed. Use of the stack dado set is inherently dangerous, susceptible to kickback because the blade is buried in the work, and it essential to keep track of where your hands are in relation to the blade at all times. It is especially important to keep in mind the exact spot where the blade will emerge from under the work as the cut is completed.

Making the Cut

The next image shows how the dado will be cut using the miter gauge for guidance. While it is possible to use the rip fence to guide dadoes that run the length of a piece, either the miter gauge or a specially made dado sled should be used for crosswise dadoes. I am planning such a sled for a future blog entry. Since I used both hands to shoot the photo, it does not show my hand position while making the cut. My left hand grasped the handle of the miter gauge and my right hand held the far side of the work, keeping it snug against the gauge as I cut. I made two passes with the 1/2" wide dado set to produce each of the four 3/4" wide cuts I need.

A Nasty Cut Indeed

As I mentioned earlier, this setup is prone to splintering or tearout along the edges of the cut. The lack of a zero-clearance throat plate, the fact that I am using an inexpensive 6" dado set purchased when I had a smaller and less powerful saw, and the fact that I am working in plywood all contributed to the spectacularly splintery cut I got. I will be adding a top quality stack dado set to my workshop wish list.

Although the poor quality of the cut offends my aesthetic sensibilities, it in no way affects the functionality of what is, after all, a jig. I will repair the damage with filler to prevent further splintering and to protect myself from splinters. I will then seal the base with a couple of coats of thinned shellac for protection and to make it slide smoothly across the saw table. In my next entry, I plan to show how to fabricate wooden hold-downs for the jig and install the T-track, hopefully concluding this project.

More to come...

A Tapering Jig for the Table Saw - Part I

The Shaker Hanging Shelf project will involve two tapered pieces, so I need to construct a tapering jig for my table saw before proceeding. The design I will be using is quite basic, employing the saw's miter gauge slot for guidance and simple hold-downs running in aluminum T-track to secure the work to the jig at the desired angle. The dimensions of the jig are 12" X 36", though it could easily be scaled up or down as needed.

Ripping With the Guard

I begin by ripping a piece of 3/4" plywood to width to form the base of the jig. Note that I am using the blade guard/splitter on the saw here rather than the usual riving knife. Because this is a rip cut, I can rely on the fence for guidance and so have no need to see the line of cut clearly. The anti-kickback pawls also add a degree of protection to the process. The guard turns out to be very convenient and makes a noticeable improvement in dust collection.

Planing the Strip

I am using a scrap of maple to make the strip that will ride in the miter gauge slot. I use the planer to trim the strip to the precise width and thickness required.

Measuring

Next, I need to make a dado in the underside of the jig to accommodate the strip that will ride in the miter gauge slot. I will be using the router table for this, but first I need to establish the exact distance between the slot and the saw blade. I do this using a steel rule and the maple strip I just prepared. The distance is exactly 4". The photo at right also shows the close fit between the maple strip and the miter slot in the saw table.

More Measuring

The Dado

I have installed a 3/4" diameter straight bit in the router table. I set the distance between the bit and the router table fence at 4 1/8" to allow me to trim the base of the jig to fit flush with the saw blade, as I will show later. Note that it makes no difference that the fence is not square to the router table, as the dado will still be parallel to the edge. I use a small machinist's square for the measurement, taking care to rotate the router but so its high point is directly opposite the fence. I use a brass gauge bar to set the depth of cut to 3/16". I also make a test cut on a piece of scrap before dadoing the actual base of the tapering jig. The dado turns out to be a perfect fit for the maple guide strip.

Trimming the Guide Strip

Trimming to Final Width

With the guide strip temporarily installed in the dado, I can do some final trimming. I first trim the maple strip to length using the crosscut sled, then rip the jig to its final width. Note that the maple strip runs in the saw's miter gauge slot to guide the cut, so the rip fence is not needed. The next step will be to cut three dados in the top of the jig to accommodate the aluminum T-tracks. I will show how that is done in my next posting.

More to come soon...