Comments on:

By: josner

josner — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:38:06 +0000

Cool — I didn’t have the patience to get the router to work properly I guess. That was the first (and to date, one of the few) woodworking tools I abandoned.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:00:44 +0000

Still can’t get it to go a bit shallower than 3/8″, which leaves a pretty thin strip of plywood in the shelf sides. But the jig helps a lot. The damn thing still coughs and struggles and wants to jump out of the groove but I’m able to keep it going ok.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 16:33:09 +0000

I just did pretty well with a router dado, but I found it went a bit deeper than I expected it to–either I don’t understand the depth gauge on this model (a Bosch) or it can’t do anything shallower than 3/8″. But the primitive test jig I built did ok at keeping it to a straight groove. You’re right that it takes a lot of control, though–the damn thing wants to go somewhere else, all the time.

By: josner

josner — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 14:05:13 +0000

(I’m assuming you’re just using one blade — when you change the blade you should redo that measurement.)

By: josner

josner — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 14:03:00 +0000

Oh and here is the best way to measure the offset of your circular saw: clamp a straight piece of scrap wood onto a scrap piece of plywood, on your saw horses. With a sharp pencil, draw a line on the plywood where the fence meets it. Then cut with the edge of the saw’s base riding against the fence, and take the fence off. The distance between the the pencil line and the cut line, is how far you need to offset your fence from your desired cut.

By: josner

josner — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 13:58:04 +0000

The thing about a scrapwood jig is in my experience, it’s very difficult to keep the router in the groove no matter how you have it jigged, because a 3/4″ dado bit exerts a tremendous amount of pressure (or force or whatever it is.)

Here is how to do it with a circular saw and chisel: clamp a straight piece of scrapwood against the workpiece parallel to the dado, and as far away from the (near) edge of the dado as dictated by the size of your circular saw’s base. (You have probably already measured this but if not, do so cutting a piece of scrap.) Make the cut, then move the fence over 1/8″, cut and repeat until you are on the far edge of the dado. It will be easy to clean out afterwards because the saw will have cut most of the waste out already. Takes a little while — yes, a table saw would be much faster — but the result is good. You cannot of course make stopped dadoes this way but I am assuming that is not what you need.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 12:48:28 +0000

It looks so easy in the book! But yeah, I’m trying to do dadoes and then also a rabbet to fit the bookcase back into.

It seems to me that it would be tough to do a 3/4″ wide dado with a circular saw and chisel. I can see doing that with a table saw and dado blades but that’s a level of expense I’m trying to avoid for the moment.

I think what I might do today is try to make a scrapwood jig for the router for the shelf grooves, because you’re right, there’s no way I’m going to pull it off freehand or even with a scrapwood straightedge guide.

One thing I’m finding makes measurements tough is the offset on the circular saw when I use my aluminum straightedge: I think that’s another jig I ought to build.

By: josner

josner — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 12:00:51 +0000

It’s true. The nice thing is though, that they’re almost completely dispensible to the hobbyist woodworker — I assume you’re using a router to make dadoes? You’d be better off using your circular saw, set to cut only to the depth of the dado, and then clean it out with a chisel. Cutting dadoes with a router freehand is a fool’s errand — I am given to believe it is easier with a table-mounted router but I dislike routers enough that I have not tried.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 11:36:06 +0000

Neat.

More updates on my own progress soon. Let’s just say I’ve hit a new snag: routers are hard to use!

By: josner

josner — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 00:50:57 +0000

Sorry, here is a better link to pictures of my first bookcase project. After reading a few posts back I see you are coming to it from the same approach as I did -- a desire for solid, sturdy bookcases that are neither Ikean nor exhorbitantly expensive.