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Now we’re really getting into the meat of the project. I show how to create a jig for the hinge mortises. I also cover the joinery being used to connect the legs to the case. I finish up by cutting the dados and rabbets in the case sides, and show you just how imperfect our machines can be. The router plane saves the day!
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Links:
Gadget Station (Pt. 1)
Gadget Station (Pt. 2)
Gadget Station (Pt. 3)
Gadget Station (Pt. 4)
Gadget Station (Pt. 5)
Gadget Station (Pt. 6)
Gadget Station (Pt. 7)
Gadget Station (Pt. 8)
Gadget Station (Pt. 9)
Gadget Station (Pt. 10)
Gadget Station (Pt. 11)
Gadget Station (Pt. 12)
32 Responses to “63- Gadget Station (Pt. 6)”
Marc you’ve been busy ! I have to catch up on all the vids! Very cool !
Hello Marc,
Why didn’t you measure the distance between the end of the router and the routerbit. This way you don’t have to make guess holes freehand and then go back to scribe a line.
On my router I measured the distances between the end of the router on all four sides and the hart of the routerbit. And wrote it on the router grondplate so the next time I need to make a hole I can directly measure the distance of the stops and not have to make practice holes al the time for the distance between the stops.
Keep up the good work :)
Sweet video and you sure excel at taking the time to set up right and doing it right the first time. I fall short there and get in too much of a hurry to start milling, cutting, or drilling.
I do have a suggestion from watching your video. To improve upon your jig a little bit, maybe you should cut a little sawdust relief rabit in the area where the jig, workpiece and router all make contact. I notice when routing and sliding the router back and forth you were building up a bit of dust there. With such precision work I would imagine the little bit of saw dust that may prevent your router from making full contact with the jig would make all the difference in the world.
I am so very new at this and it is cool to be able to actually see stuff like this now. My philosophy in learning to understand rather than memorize. These videos are really helping me to do that.
Thanks Marc!!
This was a truly enjoyable TWW episode and you know why…. Lots of action- I counted 4 different power tools and even some hand tool action, nice.
To comment on what Luke said above, if there is good contact between the router and the wood to start, then sawdust should not enter that space and it is really not an issue.
Jeroen- You will find that I am not a very big fan of measuring anything. :) I like getting my marks directly from the work itself, whenever feasible and sensible. In this case, I need to do some test runs for the hinges anyway, so it was convenient for me to do it that way. But there is certainly no reason someone couldn’t measure and build their jig that way. All personal preference really.
Luke- I agree that would certainly be an improvement on the jig. Fortunately, this time it wasn’t necessary. I ran a few test cuts and the dust just never became a problem. And here’s another interesting fact. Not sure if this is the case on all routers, but the baseplate on my Festool OF1400, is slightly smaller than the body of the router base itself. So as you push it up against the jig, there is a small relief area where any wayward dust can go. This essentially accomplishes the same thing (to a slight degree) as a small rabbet places on the bottom of jig stops. But I lucked out on this one because the dust pretty much stayed put. But, it really never hurts to include things like that in your jigs, IF you can remember to do them before the dang thing is glued together. lol
Thanks Runningwood. I was hoping you were going to say the reason it was so enjoyable was because I “look so buff”. lol (sorry everybody, chat room joke).
Marc, Is that buff or Buffy? Claude
Well Claude, if you see me as an attractive young blond, I think you might need new glasses sir. ;)
its amazing what the camera can do to some people !
Oh I forgot I like a lot. Claude
Marc,
Great episode. It was interesting to watch the final product compared to watching you film it from the chat room. I love that Veritas router plane and I use mine a lot. Great tip for beginners and veterans alike about not measuring the case sides but instead marking from the existing marks. I need to remember that myself.
A router plane? “The Schwarz” is strong with this one…
Hi Marc
I like this vedos on your gadget station, i have been watching them from the beginning. That dado tool, where might one fine that little tool.
Thanks
Funny Germain, lol.
William, that particular plane is from Lee Valley. Here is the link:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/.....38;p=52609
Marc, can you explain how you set the depth of the router plane. In other words do you reference off the start of the dado ? I doubt you measure. What is your reference depth ? I guess it is not that crucial as long as you are consistent
Sure thing David. In this particular instance, I set the depth using the deepest part of the rabbet. The dados for the shelves were cut slightly high, intentionally. And most of the rabbet was in good shape as far as consistent depth. I just set blade and run it across the rabbet and look for the lowest point (very obvious with the blade in a fixed position. Then just set the blade down on the surface, tighten the nut, and plane away. The results are exceptional! And you are right, the actual depth is not so important as consistency across all the joints.
Thanks again Marc, really enjoy the way you present your shows, … hmm i bet you own an Atari T-shirt :)
Nice job on the video as always. Now that you’ve seen what a router plane can do for the bottom of a dado, it won’t be long until you won’t be worrying as to whether your table saw blade will give you a glue line joint. You’ll be whipping out a hand plane instead. :@)
Serious question: what kind of Forstner bit was used for cutting the recess for the hinge?
That was a Freud bit Wilbur. From a small set of 5 or 6.
Excellent episode Marc, I think the most informative so far on this project.
I think these video’s are your strong point. So, please keep up the good work.
Well there goes that exotic dancing career I was banking on. ;) Thanks Kip!
One question on the router plane, how would you sharpen the blade?
Very very carefully. lol. The blade actually is held in place with a little screw and you remove the head for sharpening. I’ll let you know how it goes after I actually sharpen it for the first time. :)
Marc,
That’s a pretty cool plane! Never knew something like that was out there. I also never thought of that type of inconsistency in dados as you always here of a “true flat bottom cut.” Makes me think twice before I glue up now. But for $150 for that particular plane, what other type of alternatives would there be to achieving the same results??
Once again, this was a great episode. Personally, I have had really good success in mortising when using the combination of a centering alignment pin, brass set up blocks, and a spiral router bit.
The centering alignment pin looks like a cone shaped router bit without a blade. Instead of using the actual router bit to set up my router, I use the centering pin. That allows me to concentrate on the center of the cut by aligning the point right on layout line. This can be done extremely accurately. The edge of the cut will take care of itself since it is determined by the size of the router bit.
I don’t trust any of the gauges on the router. Instead, I use the brass set up blocks to set my routing depth. The blocks are machined to very precise tolerances and I can set my routing depth within a thousands of an inch.
Finally, I use the spiral bits. True, they tend to be a more expensive, but they leave a cleaner cut with less vibration, are better suited for plunge cuts, and are more efficient in clearing out waste material.
New question of the week: how come you have a Star Wars t-shirt that still looks like its in reasonable shape? anything of mine from that era has pretty much either composted in the back of a drawer or turned to cheesecloth in the washer.
haha. Good observation sir. That is simply a reprint of the original. Fortunately, t-shirt companies have caught on to the fact that geeks like me haven’t changed. We just got older and have no problem going into public wearing that same shirts we wore 20-30 years ago. lol.
Hey, Mark,
Good info, as always.
One thing, though : we use Soss hinges pretty frequently in our
cabinet shop and Soss ™ does make dedicated jigs for both
the mortise and relief. Might be worth looking into if you start using
these hinges with any regularity.
For occasional use, though, I like the jig you made. Thanks for showing the setup for it….it’ll certainly help the wallet.
This was fantastic instruction, but then again what should we expect?
Neat Router plane procedure etc.
This episode is more like it. Great episode Marc, looking forward to the next one.
Marc,
‘hate to do it, but I have to take issue with your use of the rip fence as an indexing surface when you were doing those dados. Using the miter gauge and the rip fence simultaneously is very risky, especially when using a dado head. An experienced operator with careful technique (e.g., you) can avoid a nasty kickback, but showing it in an instructional video, without a “kids, don’t try this at home”, is not the wisest thing to do, IMHO.
No problem Barry. You are always entitled to your opinions on safe practices. And no one should ever do ANYTHING they feel is risky or unsafe. But I definitely disagree with you on this point. Using the rip fence simultaneously with the miter gauge is indeed very risky when doing a through cut. The off-cut can, and most likely will, get wedged between the fence and the blade. But not so much with a non-through cut such as a dado. The work piece is completely supported through the entire cut, holding the board securely perpendicular to the rip fence. As far as I’m concerned, this cut is no more dangerous than any normal cross-cut that you might make with your miter gauge. In order for a kickback to occur while making this dado, the workpiece would have to twist out of position or move horizontally on the table. Fortunately, we have the miter gauge and the rip fence helping us prevent that from happening.
Another thing to consider. Most after-market miter gauges come with very handy built-in stops. How is making a cut using the built-in stop on the left of the blade any safer than the cut I did using the fence as a stop on the right?
As an experienced operator who generally does pay close attention to safety practices, I stand behind the fact that this is a perfectly legitimate and safe procedure. Well, let’s just say its no more dangerous than any other tool in our shops. A certain degree of risk is inevitable. But I think many folks have it burned into their consciousness that miter gauge + rip fence = DANGER. And you know what, in many cases that is true so its not a bad thing for that to be the case. But in reality, there are exceptions to that rule, and I honestly feel that dado cuts are one of them.
Well Marc, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
The case of the miter gauge with the built in stop is *not* the same as using the fence with the miter gauge. With in the first case, the stop moves with the miter gauge, so the workpiece is not sliding against it. And that is the risk with the second case; namely, that the workpiece wil “catch” as it is sliding on the fence, get a little cock-eyed, and then contact the back of the blade. It is tricky to maintain the right amount and direction of pressure on both the miter gauge and the fence in order to avoid this.
If the piece is long enough front-to-back so that the fence would serve as a reference edge, just use the fence. No need for the miter gauge. If it isn’t, then use the miter gauge itself to guide the work. I’ve seen David Marks use both at the same time on his show, and I wince when he does it. Others have commented on it on Woodnet, also.