Blood, Sweat, and Sawdust

Going against the grain

Month: June, 2016

June 25, 2016

The Mortise Jig

The Idea

Above everything, I want to create beautiful and unique furniture.  The furniture which draws my attention has a common theme: mortise and tenon joinery.  Ideally, I would create mortises with a dedicated hollow-chisel mortiser.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the space or funds available for such a wonderful tool.  As a result, I have determined that my best course of action is to use the plunge router for mortising.

To improve speed and accuracy, I followed Jeff Miller’s advice and built mortise jig.  I followed Jeff’s design fairly closely, but made some minor improvements to the original plan.  For example, I added a t-track and adjustable stop blocks for better repeat-ability.

The Design

The jig is simple in design and easy to make.  It consists of a platform, a track, and a pair of hold-down clamps.  I milled an auxiliary fence for my router at the same time I milled the parts for the track.  This ensures a perfect fit to guide the router.

A 8/4 white oak board with too many knots for furniture sat on my lumber rack.  It had just enough straight grain to mill up the parts for the jig.  I laminated two pieces to make the platform.  Then, I cut a dado for the t-track.  I built the guide by resawing another strip of oak.  The resawed pieces produced three 3/4-inch strips: two for the guide and one for the auxiliary fence.

I glued the guide pieces together.  However, I did not permanently attach the guide to the base.  It attaches using 3/8-inch bolts that are also used to secure the hold-down clamps.  This allows me to replace the track if it wears out over time.

The Results

I eased the sharp edges with a block plane, and applied paste wax to the fence.  So far, the jig works extremely well.  I plan to use it on a few projects that I have coming up.  Stay tuned.

 

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June 21, 2016

The Miter Saw Station

I consider the miter saw to be a rough tool and don’t need a dedicated station for it.  What I need is more storage.  Housing my miter saw and supporting large boards is icing on the cake.

The Design

I scoured the Internet for ideas.  I need good dust collection, therefore a dust shroud is a must.  I need more work surface, so a miter fence is out of the question.  It would only get in the way.  Most importantly, storage is at the top of my priority list, so drawers are better than shelves.  I didn’t find what I was looking for on the Internet, so only a custom design would do.

Miter Station 2

This is the design that I came up with: two separate cabinets, with a miter saw support in the middle.  Each cabinet has four drawers and an open space for larger tools.  A dust hood goes behind the miter saw and between the two cabinets (not shown).

The Build

I built the cabinet bases from 3/4-inch birch plywood.  For the tops, I used 3/4-inch melamine with oak trim.  I made the base runners from 4×4 material, and installed lag bolts for quick leveling of each cabinet.  I constructed the drawer boxes from 1/2-inch Sandeply plywood.  I used cheap drawer pulls and Blum style drawer slides.

With the cabinet’s complete, I began working on the dust hood.  I wasn’t happy with my first design at all.  The saw interfered with the hood, and it missed a lot of dust.  As a result, I moved the dust port lower, and built a larger hood.  I am much happier with my second design.

I hope that this is the last batch of shop cabinets I’ll be making for a while.  With the miter saw station complete, it’s time to start building some furniture!  Stay tuned.

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