Archive for April, 2009

New Miter Gauge and Table Saw Tune-up

Apr 25

Posted by TheInquisitiveWoodworker in General, Tools | No Comments

Today was spent tuning up my table saw and setting up my new miter gauge.

My current miter gauge is an Osborne miter gauge, like the one Norm uses on his show. When I researched miter gauges, about 4 years ago, I settled on the Osborne. I knew little about what I wanted and needed, and if it was good enough for Norm it should be good enough for me. After using it for these past 4 years, honestly I can say I really don’t like it. It’s very difficult to get an accurate setting, outside of the few preset stops. Also, recently I started to have problems getting a perfect 90° cut!

So I started to recalibrate the miter gauge, and found it would not stay square. I discovered the problem was in the locking screw/bolt at the rear of the gauge. The way you adjust this gauge, you loosen a top nut with an Allen Wrench then turn a offset hex nut. This allows you change the “squareness”, by a small amount in either direction. You then tighten up the top nut to lock it down. The problem I found, I couldn’t tighten that top nut enough to hold it square. Even a small amount of pressure on the outer arm would knock it out of square. If I tried to really tighten down top nut, I would move it out of square while tightening. Something was wrong, so I tried to contact the manufacture. After a couple unanswered emails to the Osborne Company, I felt it was time to look for a new miter gauge.

I did quite a bit of research this time. A few things I was looking for were: it needed to accurate, finer setting for the desired angle, and a reasonably long fence with a stop. There were a few that met these requirements. Although, I kept coming back to the Incra miter gauges.

A fellow woodworker I know has the Incra 1000SE, and he is happy with his. I was able to see the 100SE up close and give it a try. I was pretty happy with its quality and features. The 1000SE has stops at every 5°, plus a few other common angles. This would have been fine for my needs, but Incra has come out with their new 1000HD (High Definition). It has stops at every 1° (or 180 stops). It really wasn’t that much more than the 1000SE, so I splurged.

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I won’t bore you with the steps it took to set it up. If you plan to buy one yourself, the instructions that come with it were very good. I will say it was pretty easy to set up, and dial it to 90°. Along with setting up the miter gauge, I took the time to check my table saw alignment. I did this quite awhile ago when I first got my table saw, but have learned some new things about table saw alignment. It was a good thing I checked, because it needed some work.

Awhile ago, I talked about Hendrik Varju’s DVD “Revelations on Table Saw Set-up & Safety”, and I still think this is the best instructional DVD out there on table saw set up and safety. Hendrik’s approach is a little different than most, but in his DVD he shows and explains why he does things the way he does. I was convinced by his arguments and have started to implement his style of table saw operation. In the photos you might noticed the miter gauge is set up on the right side of the blade. This is one of Hendrik’s deviation from “mainstream” table saw conventions. The other is how the blade is aligned.

Normal wisdom says to get the blade perfectly parallel with the miter slot. Hendrik argues this is nearly impossible to achieve, and because of blade runout this is not desirable. Hendrik advocates canting the blade .003” to .005” from front to back. The back of the blade is canted to the left. This is one of the reasons he sets his miter gauge to the right of the blade. When making a cut this way, you can stop your cut without having to go past the full length of the blade. Then when you turn your saw off, you have eliminated the possibility of the runout causing the blade to wobble and nick your work piece. This used to happen to me a lot, but not anymore.

I’ve only scratch the surface of what Hendrik covers in his 5 DVD set. I highly recommend the DVDs to anyone who is new to table saws or wants to learn Hendrik’s approach to setting up and using a table saw.

Bathroom Cabinet – Started

Apr 4

Posted by The Inquisitive Woodworker in Projects | No Comments

Today I got started on a built-in bathroom cabinet for my brother. He’s remodeling one of his bathrooms, and asked if I could build him a custom cabinet. This cabinet needs to go into an odd shaped area in the bathroom. So the cabinet isn’t something you can pickup at one of the big box stores.

The cabinet will be about 62” high, 20” wide and 22” deep. The cabinet will be divided in half. The top half will have a couple shelves and bottom half will have a pullout for a clothes hamper.

Because of the size of the cabinet I will be using plywood for this project. I have to say, I really don’t like using plywood. Not that I dislike plywood, it’s I’m really not setup to work with large sheet goods. My strategy, for my shop, is to break the sheet goods down with a circular saw. Then cut the rough sized pieces to their final dimension on the table saw. Even this is difficult in my shop. I have to move everything out of the way, and then work on the floor breaking the plywood down. I’ll stop whining, someday I’ll have more room ☺.

The first order of business was to go pick up the plywood. I don’t buy my plywood at the big box stores, anymore. Instead I go to where they sell real lumber. I have a couple choices in my area, today I chose to go to Crosscut Hardwoods.

I decided to go with some “shop grade” maple plywood. Because the cabinet will be a built-in, you will only see the inside of the cabinet. The doors and face frame will be ebonized (black), so I didn’t think a ”higher end” plywood was needed. We’ll see if I’m right on this aspect.

After getting back from the lumber store, I started to break the sheets down and get things to rough size.

To attach the sides to the top, bottom and middle shelf I’m going to use Locked Rabbet joint. As most people will learn, when you buy ¾” plywood, it’s not really ¾” it’s a little less. The last time I built a cabinet like this, I bought a special router bit that was suppose to match the smaller thickness of plywood. In reality, plywood varies, and at times this special router bit cut a dado that was too tight. You just can’t win when it comes to plywood. To get around this, I chose the Locked Rabbet instead. I can cut the dado portion of this joint to a known width (3/8”), then cut the mating rabbet to match the dado.

I’m using a router to make this joint. I decided to knock together a jig to help guide the router while making the dado cuts.

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I just used some leftover plywood pieces, to make the jig. I chose to put runners down both sides on this jig. In the past I have had a few mishaps when I’ve only used a single straightedge. The router can pull away from a single straightedge so easily.

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You have to be pretty precise when using 2 runners. You don’t want the router to bind up in the jig, if the 2 runners aren’t absolutely parallel.

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I took a few passes for each dado. The jig worked out pretty well.

Tomorrow I’ll start to cut the rabbets in fixed shelves and maybe play around with some finish samples.

Baby Bench – Finished!

Apr 3

Posted by TheInquisitiveWoodworker in Benches, Projects | 1 Comment

Today I had time to put the finishing touches on the Small Benchtop Bench. The replacement hand wheels came in early this week, and it was hard not having time earlier this week to work on the bench. I’ve had a couple stalled projects lately and I really wanted to complete something.
The first order of business was to enlarge the bore through the hand wheels. I have a machinist vise for my drill press, it’s not used that much but came in handy today.

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The vise allowed me to align the wheel somewhat precisely, to enlarge the center bore. It was quick work to drill out both hand wheels.

Next I needed to drill the through hole, for the pin that will run through the hand wheel and screw shaft.

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This is where things went wrong on the first set of wheels. This time I drilled through the hand wheels, then marked and drilled through the shaft of the screw. No chance of snapping off the drill bit this time!

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After attaching the hand wheels, it was time to test the smoothness of my new design. It was exactly what I was hoping for! The wheels spun freely and smooth. I was so excited I let out a whoop. My wife opened the door and asked what that noise was! She saw the smile on my face, then she laughed, closed the door and allowed my to savor my victory.

Now that I finished that last major step, it was time to drill some dog holes. I wanted a way to keep the dogs in the face vise out of the way, but still be able to retrieve them when they were needed.

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I drilled the dog holes in the face vise, about an inch deeper than the length of the dogs. I then cut a window in the vise that intersected with the dog hole. I cut the window on the inside of the vise, so would be hidden. I thought about having the window on the outside, but decided the inside would work just as well.

I drilled a few dogs on the top and did a light sanding to remove pencil marks and to ease the edges. I’m quite please how it came out.

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The clamping force I get with the vise is quite strong. I lightly pinch the bench in my wagon vise, and add a clamp to the bench. It’s quite secure and doesn’t move.

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I designed the bench, so that if I line up the front of the feet of the small bench with the edge of main bench, the inside face of the small bench is inline with the main bench. If I’m working on a large piece, I can take advantage of the clamping surfaces of my main bench.

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The bench dogs allow me to secure larger pieces to the top of the bench.

The primary reason for making this bench was to raise the work piece to a more comfortable height, when doing tasks like cutting dovetails. It will also be useful when I use power tools. I can see when cutting mortise with a router, the added height will make this task easier too. Over all, I think this will be a nice addition to the shop.

This weekend I will start a new project. My brother has asked me to build him a cabinet for his bathroom, which he is remodeling. It will be a somewhat large cabinet, so I plan to use plywood on this project and a lot of power tools. It will also need to blend in with a vanity he has purchased. The vanity is “modern” in style and black. So, I will give ebonizing a try.