wtnhighlander Posted February 5, 2016 Report Share Posted February 5, 2016 That grain looks pretty awesome already! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Terry, great job on the toy box! Sawdust, looking good. There was mention of paint, not really, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Terry, great job on the toy box! Sawdust, looking good. There was mention of paint, not really, huh? Coop, don't even joke. My wife has deemed that the last couple things I made be painted (hence why I used pine). I made a little more progress. All boards are cleaned up and ripped to exact width. I also edge banded the small pieces of plywood so there would be no exposed edges. You can see my lovely setup for clamping it (hence why I asked about clamps in another thread - this is all I've got over 30 inches). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Your clamps are fine. Whatever gets the job done. Enjoy this phase. It's when you get your first taste of Jets or Bessey or Jorgensen and hard woods in lieu of pine. That's when your budget goes to hell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 So a bit of a diversion today... I hadn't made much progress the last week or so, other than trimming the plywood edge banding. I got a bit of shop time this afternoon so I decided it was finally time to make a sled for my table saw. I've had a piece of plywood cut for it for about 5 months now, just never got around to making it. I started by watching Marc's video. I'm probably doing something similar, although I'll probably add a T track for stop blocks.I have no outfeed table, so I kept it to about 2/3 of my table depth. Here are the runners. I made them from quarter sawn birch. I realize that may not be ideal, but I didn't have much else around. I got a pretty snug fit, so I might need to scrape a bit off to free up the sled. I had to glue up 3/4 inch plywood for the fences. No fancy HDO plywood here. Finally, i decided to glue the runners on. I was worried I'd split the runners trying to go in from the top, since I made them 5/16. I used the 100% glue stuff from lepage (wanted faster than titebond without moisture on the table saw top). I put washers in the miter slots to raise the runners, then applied glue and used my fence to square the plywood. My planer and sander got used for clamping ballast, since I realized my sandbags are in the shed behind 2 feet of snow. Tomorrow I should be able to attach the fences and finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted February 15, 2016 Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 That toy box is going to be amazing looking, I'm glad it's not being painted. I'm excited to see this finished. I'm also glad to hear that I'm not the only one that will start something and then let it sit for 5 months to be finished at a completely random time. I probably have a couple projects sitting like that right now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 I had some time over the weekend to finish the cross cut sled. I went with the design of Marc's sled, more or less. I added a dado for a T track which I'll add later. The motion of the sled is a little tight, but waxing it loosened it up enough to try using it. I used the 5 cut method to calibrate the sled. I have no feeler gauges, so I used a dial indicator to adjust the fence. After calibrating, I got an error of 3 thou over a 72 inch cut. That means my fence was adjusted to within 1-2 thou. Good enough for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I had some time last night, so I used the cross cut sled to cut all the pieces to length (at least the ones that don't depend on other measurements). The sled worked great, especially for squaring up the plywood. I only made the cut capacity around 20 inches, so I had to improvise for a stop block on the longer pieces. Next up is cutting the mortise and tenon joints to join the solid wood pieces together. I've never tried using the table saw for this before. I was thinking of making all the shoulder cuts with the cross cut sled first, with the combo blade that's in there since it cuts cleanly. Following that, I'll set up my new dado stack to hog out the cheeks. Sound reasonable? I'm thinking to use the router table for the mortises. Alternatively, I can make a jig for the plunge router. Any thoughts on the easier method? I don't have an edge guide, so I'll have to just make something from scrap ply. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 What router do you have? You could try making an edge guide but I'll tell you that a good edge guide is going to be really helpful. I asked a while ago about using a router table to cut mortises and some people thought it was a terrible idea but there were a couple of have done it. Hard part about mortise on a table is the plunge the nice part is you could set up stop blocks and a fence. Your tenon method sounds very sound. Someone may correct me but i don't even think you need to precut the shoulder you could have your dado blade do that, but better safe and clean than sorry. Does anyone else have the irrational fear that their table saw is going to grab their cross-cut sled and throw it back in their face? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 1 hour ago, Chestnut said: What router do you have? You could try making an edge guide but I'll tell you that a good edge guide is going to be really helpful. I asked a while ago about using a router table to cut mortises and some people thought it was a terrible idea but there were a couple of have done it. Hard part about mortise on a table is the plunge the nice part is you could set up stop blocks and a fence. I've got a Porter Cable 690, with both the fixed and plunge base. I'd like to pick up an edge guide for it at some point, but that kind of thing usually has to be ordered online around here. It seems like opinion is split on using the router table from what I can gather, but I thought that might be better than trying to balance the router on 4/4 stock. Maybe I'm over thinking it. The router table also appealed because I have to do a number of identical mortises and it would be nice to have one setup. 1 hour ago, Chestnut said: Your tenon method sounds very sound. Someone may correct me but i don't even think you need to precut the shoulder you could have your dado blade do that, but better safe and clean than sorry. I know I could just cut the shoulder with the dado stack, but I was thinking that I can probably get a cleaner cross grain cut using my sled and a combination blade as opposed to the dado stack. That's the way my saw's set up right now anyway, so it's not going to be any more work. I don't have a sled for the dado, so I was just going to use the mitre gauge. 1 hour ago, Chestnut said: Does anyone else have the irrational fear that their table saw is going to grab their cross-cut sled and throw it back in their face? Not just you... I stand off to the side when starting the saw with the sled on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 2 minutes ago, SawDustB said: I've got a Porter Cable 690, with both the fixed and plunge base. I'd like to pick up an edge guide for it at some point, but that kind of thing usually has to be ordered online around here. It seems like opinion is split on using the router table from what I can gather, but I thought that might be better than trying to balance the router on 4/4 stock. Maybe I'm over thinking it. The router table also appealed because I have to do a number of identical mortises and it would be nice to have one setup. I have 2 PC 890 kits (i got sick of switching accessories around) and honestly i really like the PC edge guide. It seems the guys on this form are pretty crazy about the Mikita routers so i haven't read much about PC accessories. I don't' use my edge guide a lot but when i need it things always seem to work nicely. I use the edge guide a lot to cut circles. I recently made a dust separator thein baffle where i needed to cut rabbeted circles that edge guide was key there. Oh if you haven't figured it out edge guides can be used for more than just guiding along edges at least the PC one can. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 I'm trying to figure out if I've sized the tenons appropriately. My plan was to have them 3 inches wide (or 2 1/2?). They would be 1/4-5/16 thick, and 1 1/4 long. This is to join a 3 1/2 inch wide rail to a stile of the same size, with 4/4 stock. Is this reasonable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 Yes, sounds quite reasonable to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 Yes, sounds quite reasonable to me. Thanks Steve, I appreciate the feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 On February 25, 2016 at 5:24 AM, Chestnut said: I asked a while ago about using a router table to cut mortises and some people thought it was a terrible idea but there were a couple of have done it. Hard part about mortise on a table is the plunge the nice part is you could set up stop blocks and a fence. I do most of my mortises on the router table. I use the method that Marc shows in his video on the subject. The other thing that I remember in the video, I think it was the same one, if you are using the router and edge guide on thiner stock, you clamp a second piece of stock to it to make it wider and give more support for the router. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 We have mortises! I had a bit of time while the girls napped today. I cut the mortises for all of the long rails using the router table. I eventually decided that would be the most accurate based on the tools I've got (and feedback that others do it that way). I did the 1 1/4 inches of depth in 3 passes, and it was fine. I still haven't squared them up. You can also see in the background I cut the tenon shoulders on the cross cut sled. That worked well, but my stop block slipped on the short rails so the toy box is now going to be 3/32 narrower. Oh well. I opted to also cut off the narrow cheeks on the sled, since it was easy with it clamped to the fence. I'll use the dado stack to hog off the rest, once I have an accurate measurement of my mortises (seem to be about 1/64th over the 1/4 inch the bit was supposed to be. Next up is cutting the mortises for the short rails, then setting up the dado stack for the first time. This project is fun so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted February 27, 2016 Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 That is another thing that I do the same as Marc, I round over the tenons with a rasp because it is a lot faster and easier than squaring up the mortises. I use the chisel to do the round over right at the base of the tenon so I don't have to get to close to the shoulder with the rasp. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 That is another thing that I do the same as Marc, I round over the tenons with a rasp because it is a lot faster and easier than squaring up the mortises. I use the chisel to do the round over right at the base of the tenon so I don't have to get to close to the shoulder with the rasp. I'll be perfectly honest: the only reason I'm thinking I'll square the mortises is because I want to try out the mortise chisels I got for Christmas. I also don't have much in the way of rasps, except for a couple of really cheap machine stitched ones. I'm sure I could make them work, or use one of the other rounding methods if I go that route. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted February 28, 2016 Report Share Posted February 28, 2016 Good progress Brian ! Way to get a few hours in while the kids nap lol. I do the same IF you round the tenons, you dont really need a rasp, its quite quick and easy with nothing but a sharp chisel. Just saying. I get that you want to use the new mortise chisels though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2016 More mortises! I finished the other 4 shallow mortises on the stiles while I had the router set up. I don't like to leave it in there for long periods of time, since that's a fair bit of additional weight pulling on the split fence rail of the saw, so I wanted to finish with that this weekend. For the plywood panels, how far does it need to go into the frame to be secure? I planned for 3/4", but I'm wondering if that excessive and I could get away with 1/2". It'd simplify things a bit with how the tenons are laid out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Looking good, seems like things are going smoothly. I hope that things continue to go that way. I've done 3/8" for plywood panels. If i remember right my raised panel bit set only insets the panel into the rail and stiles 3/8" on each side as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Looking good, seems like things are going smoothly. I hope that things continue to go that way. I've done 3/8" for plywood panels. If i remember right my raised panel bit set only insets the panel into the rail and stiles 3/8" on each side as well. So far so good. That's good to know on the grooves... I thought that'd be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted March 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 I cut the grooves for the 1/4" plywood panels. The setup I used for the mortises ended up being perfect, so I cut them on the router table. The only thing is I used the spiral up cut bit, so the edges were a little rougher than I'd like. I'll need to sand them. I loaded up the dado stack for the first time today so I could finish the tenons. I set the width to match the 3/4" plywood I'm using, so that later I can cut the grooves for it with the same setup. I was impressed at how cleanly it cut. This is the inexpensive oshlun set off Amazon. So I now have a big stack of boards with tenons. I can see the appeal of the dado stack with how fast I was able to cut them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted March 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 So my plan had been to cut the grooves for the plywood using the table saw, but I realized I would either need to move the fence for the two sides or lower the piece onto the spinning dado blade to make my stopped groove. Not a good idea. So instead, I set up the router table with a half inch bit and made the cut in two passes. I only made the grooves about 3/16 deep, since otherwise I would be too close to breaking through into the mortises. Here's my test fit after I squared up the corners with a chisel. Next, I went through and used my mortise chisel to square up all the mortises. This is pure stubbornness on my part, since I'm pretty sure it would be easier to round the tenons. Didn't take too long, though, although my test fit was pretty tight so I may be trying out the router plane tomorrow. Looking good, though, even if I didn't get all the joints closed up. After I finesse the fit of the joints a bit, I need to trim the plywood dividers to size and then cut the curves in the rails. I have no band saw, so I usually do that on the scroll saw. It works, it's just really slow. I don't know where I'd put a band saw, so a decent jig saw might be in my future. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 Awesome ! Its starting to come alive ! Always gets exciting at the point where you can actually start fitting some parts together and see it start to take shape. Looks good ! Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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