Knife Display Case

[Chestnut]

A miter shooting board?

[wtnhighlander]

They call it a "donkey's ear" for that orientation, don't they? But no, I'm trying to avoid the frustration of cutting these with hand tools, because I am just not that good at clean, precision cuts by hand. My planned solution is 100% machine-based.

[Mark J]

I though he meant a "shooting board" for the table saw?

[wtnhighlander]

Hhhhmmm, I didn't consider that. Might be doable, as the pieces are not quite long enough to hit anything while oriented that way.

[wtnhighlander]

This post is picture-heavy, but there are some details that seemed good to share with newcomers.

First, my experimental idea was to use a 45* chamfer bit to make perfect miters. Would have worked on 1/2" stock, but wasn't enough for 3/4". So, back to constructing a sled.

Before cutting across, I decided to rip off the edge that will become the doo frame. To keep the grain match as tight as possible, I checked the kerf of my thinnest blades.

Far right is my 10" Spyder Tarantula, a tight 1/8. Center is an Irwin 40t 7.25" blade, and far left is the exact same make & model that came with my cordless circular saw. With that left blade installed, I used featherboards to keep everything in place as I cut

 

The narrow strips were run through again to make the bevel so they fold against their 'mother' board at 90*.

 

The poto above  shows the downside of using the 7.25" blade with my cobbled-together sled. Not enough cut depth. Once I had the boards separated, I switched to the 10" blade for final trimming. If I do this again, I will just use the thin blade to make a square cross cut. Trying to make the thin bevel cut actually removed a tiny bit more wood.

Using the sled like a shooting board, I shaved away at the end. When the opposing sides of the box, clamped back to back, look like this on both ends, and are square, the miter box has a good chance of success.

Here are the dry-fit corners. I couldn't wait to see how well the grain lined up. 

The only disappointment is photo #3, where it seems the planing after resaw removed just enough to miss the bit of heartwood color. As you may imagine, that one is going on the bottom!

 

 

[treeslayer]

I’d call that a win all the way around, no pun intended, always a pucker factor on those first cuts, looking forward to the next step 

[pkinneb]

Very nice!
 

[Chet]

Thats some nice work as usual Ross.  Ya gotta like it when a plan comes together.

[wtnhighlander]

Another photo-heavy post, sorry. I'm trying some things that are new to me, so documentation helps me stay on track. Hopefully, some other member that is new to these techniques can learn from my mistakes, too.

Hard to see, but this shop-made miter gauge and blade at 45 lets me cut a slot across the face of the beveled ends. Not a through cut, so nothing to bind between blade and fence for kickback.

End result. Now I need some splines.

To make splines exactly the width of my kerf, I ripped two scraps to the same width

Next, place one against the fence, and the second against the first. Cut part way along the length to make a notch for holding the work piece.

Now to cut the splines. I use the notched board as a space, and held the workpiece against my "miter gauge" to slice off several pieces. Important that the fence remains in the same spot as when the notched board was cut!

The pieces fit like this.

I was using up scraps, so these splines will be chopped into several shorter bits to fill the kerf.

Another step was to cut a rabbet one each board to house the back panel and hanging cleats. I made these cuts in the wrong order, which resulted in the offcut falling loose between blade and fence. To avoid being speared, I adjusted the 'heel' on my quickie pushblock to touch the saw top, effectively supporting the offcut and saving my navel from an undesired piercing.

That's all for today. Life intervened, and the oil change that normally takes 40 minutes wasted the rest of my afternoon. The dealership changed it last, and some gorilla working there tighted the drain plug so that even my electric impact wrench won't remove it. Now I need a new drain plug...

 

 

[Coop]

The maniac (mechanic) was probably stuffing tacos at Taco Bell 2 days before changing your oil! 

Project looking good Ross! 

[wtnhighlander]

A little more time on it today. Managed to cut a back panel from some hardboard, and make a rabbeted cleat trim to go around the inside of the back edge. Should let it hang in any orientation. I discovered that these wheel-type marking gauges do a passable job of cleaning out the corner of a saw-cut rabbet.

Last thing was to glue the case together. I tried using the saw fence as a squaring aid, something I see a lot of Asian woodworkers do on YT.

Hopefully, I didn't glue the case too firmly to my saw table! 

 

[wtnhighlander]

Trying to move this along while the weather is warm, I took a few minutes to start cutting the front door frame parts. With very little room to spare, I opted to avoid the kerf waste of the tablesaw, instead using a guide block and my thinnest flush trim saw.

One part down three to go...

[wtnhighlander]

Another quick session in the shop this morning gave me time to finish cutting the door frame parts.

The miters need a bit of trimming. Have to take care, because the wood is moving a little from the huge swings in humidity we've had. The disadvantage of air dried wood.

[wtnhighlander]

The next step is to mill a profile on the frame parts. But first, I needed a jig....

These cuts are a little sketchy, so every hold-down method is brought to bear. I made the L-bracket to hold the featherboard from above. By the way, does anyone else sping their bradpoints in reverse to start the hole clean before drilling?

After some nerve-wracking moments at the saw, this is the profile. Would have been much safe to cut befor the bevels & miters.

And then began the monkey rodeo of glue-up. Much frustration and many clamps later, here we are.

Shop is a wreck, but a major hurdle has been overcome.

[Mark J]

The bit about bradpoints is a clever bit!

[Coop]

On 2/27/2022 at 7:23 PM, Mark J said:

The bit about bradpoints is a clever bit!

+1

Also the jig for the upper feather board is neat. How did you attach it to your fence? 

[wtnhighlander]

Ken, my say fence is extruded aluminum, with channels that work like T track. I use a couple of 1/4"x20 bolts and wing nuts to attach it. 

And before anyone mentions the non-no of using a featherboard behind the blade, that one is not applying any pressure. It really doesn't even touch the work, unless the piece starts to wander at the end of the cut.

[JohnG]

On 2/27/2022 at 10:03 PM, wtnhighlander said:

And before anyone mentions the non-no of using a featherboard behind the blade, that one is not applying any pressure. It really doesn't even touch the work, unless the piece starts to wander at the end of the cut.

Maybe I’m too tired to think it through, but why is that a no-no? 

[wtnhighlander]

6 hours ago, JohnG said:

Maybe I’m too tired to think it through, but why is that a no-no? 

A featherboard's intented purpose is to press the stock tightly to the fence or table. Used that way behind the blade, it would squeeze the kerf closed on the rising teeth and cause kick-back. Especially with a older saw like mine, which has no riving knife.

[JohnG]

Ah, of course. Makes total sense now. 

I had thought you were only taking a kerf width cut or less, meaning there would be no offcut to pinch the blade with, and the featherboard would only be contacting the actual work piece.

[wtnhighlander]

I had a little time free this morning, and removed the clamps & tape.

There is a lot of cleanup to do, but I'll get to that after all the parts are made.

I also started sawing up stock to make the slat wall to go inside the case. Red oak, because A. it stains well, and B. I have a lot of it.

One board had not previously been edge-jointed, so I used another, longer straight piece as a fence extension that allowed me to rip one edge straight.

[treeslayer]

coming along nicely sir ! with no jointer i use a piece of aluminum to do the same thing as you did with that straight piece, works good, did you mention what system you're going to use to hang it on the wall ?

[wtnhighlander]

Thanks, Dave. On the back, I have a rim of cleat that runs all the war around, so it can hang in any orientation. Not a mitered cleat, but a rabbet. Haven't decided if a simple pan-head screw in the wall will do, or if a mating cleat needs to go with it.

[wtnhighlander]

Worked on slats this morning. After ripping the stock to 2" wide, I cut them to length with a sled and stop

 

Some of the material was thicker, having come from different original projects. Rather than fire up the scream machine, I thicknessed these narrow boards at the tablesaw.

In this case, the rear featherboard does press tightly against the stock, as the offcut is only dust.

I continue to be impressed with the quality of cut I'm getting from this $50 home center blade. One of these is a planed surface, the other is saw cut. I can't tell them apart. Maybe a finer material like maple would show some evidence of saw marks. I'm certain cherry whould have scorch marks, unless I could manage to make a smooth continuous feed through the entire cut. But I'm happy with this, for sure.

[wtnhighlander]

awith a sacrificial fence, and a dovetail bit in my table router, I cut the edges of each slat to form a dovetail slot when assembled.

It took 5 passes to get the depth I wanted. Putting a clamp on the fence rail, and using various slim objects as 'feeler' gauges, I could skeak up on the right spot.

When a 1/2" bit shank just fit, I was done.

The same arrangement served to cut tails on the 'peg' blanks.

Note the grain orientation. These blanks ar 6" long, to eventually form pegs of 3".

Slicing off the pegs to width

After chopping the peg blanks in half to form 2 pegs, I mocked up how the assembly will go into the cabinet.

That's it for today. Next up is to shape the pegs for a less bulky & more organic appearance.