Walnut Cabinet • Lamp Table • Serving Tray Spray Painted...

Walnut Cabinet • Lamp Table • Serving TraySpray Painted Finish • Molded Stub Tenon & Groove

No. 101 October, 1995

Publisher Donald B. PeschkeEditor Terry J. Strohman

Assistant Editors Jon GarbisonMark Williams

Senior Illustrators David KreylingCinda ShambaughDirkVerSteeg

Illustrator Erich Lage

CREATIVE RESOURCES

Creative DirectorExecutive Editor

Project Design Dir.Sr. Project Designer

Shop ManagerShop Craftsman

PhotographerElectronic Publishing

Electronic GraphicsElec. Comunication

Graphic Designer

Ted KralicekDouglas L. HicksKen MunkelKent WelshSteve CurtisSteve JohnsonCrayola EnglandDouglas M. LidsterChris GlowackiGordon C. GaippeCheryl L. Cynor

CIRCULATIONSubscription Managers: Sandy Baum, Troy J. Dow-ell, Paige Rogers • Assistant Subscription Manager:Julie Greenlee • Newsstand Mgr: Kent A. Buckton

CORPORATE SERVICESPlanning Director: Jon Macarthy • Controller: RobinHutchinson • Account: Laura Thomas • Bookkeeping:Holly Lucas • Production Dir.: George Chmielarz• Production Mgr.: Carol Quijano • Pro. Dev. Dir.: JoyceMoore* Network Administrator: Nick Thielen •Admin. Assistants: Cheryl A. Scott, Julia Fish• Receptionist: Jeanne Johnson • BuildingMaintenance: Ken Griffi th

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Jackson* Materials Mgr.: Mark Mattiussi • Cus-tomer service Mgr.: Jennie Enos • Warehouse Super-visor: Nancy Johnson • Buyer: Linda Jones •SystemOperator: Tammy Aldini • Team Leader: Karla Cronin• Tech. Supp: Dave Stone • Customer Service Reps.:Jennifer Murphy, Joy Krause, Sara Kono, Anna Cox,Adam Best, Kristi Andrews • Warehouse: GloriaSheehan, Chuck Carlson, Sylvia Carey, Larry Prine

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Woodsmith® (ISSN 0164-4114) is published bimonthly(Feb., Apr., June, Aug., Oct., Dec.) by August Home Pub-lishing., 2200 Grand, Des Moines, LA 50312.Woodsmith® is a registered trademark of August Home Pub.Copyright© 1995 August Home Publishing. All rights reserved.Subscriptions: Single copy: $3.95. One year subscription (6issues), $19.95. Two years (12 issues), $35.95. (Canada/For-eign add $5 per year, U.S. funds.)Second Class Postage Paid at Des Moines, LA and at addi-tional offices.Postmaster: Send change of address to Woodsmith, Box10718, Des Moines, IA 50350.Subscription Questions? Call 1-800-333-5075,8:00 amto 5:00 pm, Central Time, weekdays. Fax 515 - 283 - 0447E-MaU. Prodigy: EDJE97A, CompuServe: 75330,2301, Internet75330.2301 ©compuserve.com., America Online: Donpeschke.

Printed in U.SA

E D I T O R ' S C O L U M N

SawdustThe way I look at it, woodworking is aseries of connected steps that leadsto a final goal. Usually, this goal is afunctional, good-looking piece of furniture.But that's not what I find most rewarding. Ienjoy the whole process — from planningto building and finishing the project.

PLANNING. After the design is complete,the first thing I do is figure out where I'mgoing to start and how I hope to end. Soeven before picking up a piece of wood, Isit down with the plans and work out theprocedure. Actually, I build it several timesin my head. The goal is to come up withthe best way to build a project before Imake my first cut.

For instance, I bet there are nearly adozen different ways you could build theserving tray on page 24. Some are saferand more efficient than others. But I knowfrom experience that working with smallpieces can be tricky. And it can be tough toget them to fit together just right. So onthe tray, I planned to use oversized blanksand test pieces. The blanks would keep myhands safe, and the test pieces would en-sure accurate cuts.

BUILDING. But when the building be-gins, there's a subtle change in the proc-ess. Early on, I consult the plans carefully,making sure of each measurement. But itdoesn't take long before I start consultingthe project. Then instead of relying on pre-cise numbers, I begin to get my measure-ments right from the project.

Of course, there's always a little roomfor error when I'm not working with "hard"measurements. And the difference be-tween a good fit and a sloppy fit is probablyonly a few thousandths of an inch. Sooften, I won't try to cut a piece "dead on"the first time. Instead, I'll sneak up on aperfect fit by making several cuts. Andwhen the pieces finally slide together —well, that's what woodworking is all about.

Take the Walnut Cabinet on page 6, forexample. Building the plywood case ispretty straightforward. Just follow the di-mensions in the plans. But as the base, thedoors, and the top are added, it's more im-portant that the pieces fit the case. Not thatthe measurements match the plans.

FINISHING. When the project is built,there's one final step in the process: finish-ing. A finish can make or break a project,

which is probably why I can be a little re-luctant to try something new.

So when Kent, our Senior Project De-signer, suggested we paint the base of thelamp table on page 18,1 was skeptical. Tome, wood and paint mix about as well as oiland water. Maybe it's because I've spent somuch time stripping paint off old furniturethat it seems like a crime to paint a newpiece. But when Kent made a "mock-up" ofwhat the finish would look like, I was sur-prised and impressed. The glass-smoothfinish looked great.

OTHER NEWSTo celebrate our 100th issue last month,we decided to have an open house.Frankly, I didn't know what to expect. ButI certainly didn't expect over 500 people toattend. We had visitors from as far away asAustria. And subscribers from Californiato Alabama planned their vacations aroundthe open house.

I am deeply appreciative of this show ofsupport. And I wanted to extend a specialthanks to all who attended the open house,to those who worked hard to make it a suc-cess, and to all our readers who have made100 issues of Woodsmith possible.

NEW INDEX. At the open house, a few ofyou reminded me that it has been a coupleyears since we've offered an updated indexof back issues. How time flies.

Well, we got busy, and now there's anew and complete index of woodworkingprojects and information from issues 1-100of Woodsmith and issues 1-23 of Shop-Notes. The price of this index is $4.95,which includes shipping and handling. Toorder, you can call us at 1-800-444-7002, faxus at 515-283-0447, or write to us at P.O.Box 842, Des Moines, IA 50304. We'll beglad to send it right out to you.

NEW NAME. Speaking of new, we have anew corporate name—August Home Pub-lishing. As many of you know, we recentlylaunched a new gardening magazinecalled Garden Gate. To reflect this new ad-dition, I thought a name change seemedappropriate. After all, while we plan tokeep producing the best woodworkingmagazines on the market (Woodsmith &ShopNotes), I hope to look to other areasthat will help readers interested in improv-ing their homes and enjoying hobbies.

-''•'' : , " .v . : ; \ . . v : " .

A L O O K I N S I D E

ContentsWalnut Cabinet 6

It's the details that count: ball-tipped hinges, quarter-roundmolding, and decorative feet are just a few of the manyfeatures in this classic walnut cabinet

Molded Stub Tenon 14You don't need an expensive router bit to make this joint.It can be made with the tools in your shop and a simple jig.We'll walk you through the procedure step-by-step.

Lamp Table 18With its Shaker-style lines, this lamp table will fit well ina variety of settings. And it's easy to build. We've evenincluded a quick shop-made jig for tapering the legs.

Spray Painted Finish 22Get a smooth painted finish—without any expensive sprayequipment. We'll recommend which paint to use and showyou how to prepare the surface for professional results.

Serving Tray 24This tray has several design features we find appealing: amaple panel that contrasts with a narrow cherry frame,some sculpted handles, and simple curved feet.

Reader's Jig 30Need an extra hand? This assembly jig, sent in by RogerBalling of Santa Ana, California, uses a simple cam lock-ing system to help you hold case pieces during assembly.

DEPARTMENTS

Tips & Techniques 4Shop Notes 17Talking Shop 28Sources 31

Walnut Cabinet page 6

Molded Stub Tenon page 14

Painted Finish page 22

Serving Tray page 24

No. 101 Woodsmith

F R O M F E L L O W W O O D W O R K E R S

Tips & TechniquesMITER GAUGE WEDGE CLAMP• Trying to hold a long, wideboard tight against the mitergauge when it's standing onedge, is nearly impossible. Itried clamping it, but my clampsdon't have enough clearance. SoI made a simple clamp that fitson the miter gauge bar.

The clamp consists of twopieces. A wedge and a block at-tached to the miter gauge bar,see Fig. 1. The block is a 3/4"-thick piece of stock with two W1

dowels glued in one edge. Thedowels fit into mating holesdrilled in your miter gauge bar.

I trimmed the ends of theblock to hold different sizes ofstock, see Fig. 2. On one end,the block is cut to hold a 3/4M-thick piece. But on the otherend, I cut the block to hold 1W-thick stock. The trick here is toleave just enough room for the

wedge to fit between the work-piece and the block.

To use the jig, position yourworkpiece against the mitergauge and tap down the wedgeto lock it in place, see Fig. 3.

George ClarkEast Windsor, New Jersey

1/4tt-diameter holemates with dowel

in block

Trim block to holddifferent stock thickness

3/4"-thickworkpiece

V/2"-thickrr~i workpiece

Wedge holds workpiecetight against miter gaugeduring cut

TRUNNION ADJUSTMENT QUICK TIPS

• I needed to align my sawblade with the miter gauge slot.But, on my contractor-style saw,that meant moving the trunnion(the casting that holds theblade). The problem was themounting holes in the trunnionweren't large enough.

Then I came up with an easysolution. Instead of making the

holes bigger, I made the boltssmaller. Simply remove a bolt,grind off the threads just belowthe head, and reinstall it in thesaw, see detail below. Aftergrinding all the bolts, youshould have the room neededfor any adjustment.

Keith KingCrooksville, Ohio

Grind away threadsfrom below bolt headfor added clearance

Remove bolts one at atime from trunnionfor grinding

TAPE TIP• In my shop, double-sided car-pet tape gets used a lot. But Icould never find my scissorswhen it came time to cut it tolength. To solve this problem, Ikeep a single-edged razor bladestuck under the end of the roll(sharp edge in) to cut the tape.

Guy MillerCharlottesville, Virginia

GLUE SPREADER• A quick and effective way tospread glue on the edge of aboard is with a plastic bread tie.The kind made out of thin plas-tic with a slot in one end. Itworks like a small squeegee tospread an even layer of glueacross the joint. Then whenyou're done, just throw it away.And best of all, they're free.

Arthur SmithReading, Pennsylvania

Woodsmith No. 101

SAWHORSE INSERTS• I built the sawhorses featuredin Woodsmith issue 97, but wasa little reluctant to use them. Ididn't want to "chew-up" the topwith my saw. So before puttingthem to work, I added a replace-able insert to take the abuse.

This insert is simply a 1V£" x1V&" square piece of scrap stockthat sits on the top of the saw-

horse. It's held in place by a cou-ple of 3/4" x 1V4" cleats. Whenscrewed to the top, the cleatsform a slot for the insert to fitinto. If you're worried about hit-ting the screws when making acut, simply glue or carpet tapethe cleats to the top instead.

David MossStatesville, North Carolina

Insert can bereplaced whenneeded Screw cleatsto top to hold

insert in place

ROUTING HANDLES• I like to make my own han-dles. But routing the edges onsmall pieces is difficult and dan-gerous. So to play it safe, I makehandle blanks first and thenglue them to a larger supportboard made from a piece ofscrap. This way, I can keep agood grip on the workpiece as Irun it past the router bit.

To use a support board, firstcut out your blank and glue it tothe board. Once the glue dries,rout the inside and outsideedges of the handle blank. Fi-nally, make a rip cut on the tablesaw to separate the finished han-dle from the support board.

Ronald WhitselChurchville, Pennsylvania

Glue blank to scrap piece torout workpiece safely

KEYHOLE SAW• A keyhole saw works great tocut holes in tight places. But in-stead of buying one, I made myown. All you need is a sabre sawblade and a wooden or plasticfile handle, see photo above.

For wooden handles, sharpenthe shank end of the blade to a

point before you drive the han-dle onto the blade.

For plastic handles, heat theblade and push it into the handlewith a pair of pliers. Safety note:The hot blade can cause burns.

Brad BurnsWapakoneta, Ohio

JOINTER ADJUSTMENTS• When I got a tapered edge af-ter running a board across myjointer, I knew I had a problem.My owner's manual suggestedchecking the infeed and outfeedtables to make sure they wereparallel with each other. An easyway to check this is with a cou-ple of shop-made "squares".

To make these squares, I userectangular pieces of V^"-thick

plywood — with the corners cutat exactly 90°. (A good set ofmetal framing squares will alsodo the job.)

Just set a square on each ta-ble so their edges touch, seedrawing. Then check for gapsbetween the edges. A gap indi-cates the tables aren't parallel.

Wayne BeedyBuckley, Washington

Gap betweensquares indicatestables are outof alignment

SUBMIT YOUR TIPSIf you would like to share an

original shop-tested tip, sendit to Woodsmith, Tips andTechniques, 2200 Grand Ave-nue, Des Moines, Iowa 50312.

Or if it's easier for you, FAXit to us at: 515-282-6741. Oruse our E-Mail address: 75330,[email protected].

If we publish it, we'll sendyou $30 to $150, depending onthe published length of the tip.Include a brief explanation andsketch or photo. And don'tworry, we'll rewrite the tip andredraw the art, if necessary.Also, please include a daytimephone number.

No. 101 Woodsmith

F E A T U R E P R O J E C T

Walnut CabinetAn ogee base, built-in molding, and doors with two good faces.

It's this attention to details that makes for a classic-looking cabinet,

Attention to details. That's what sets thiscabinet apart from your average project.Some of these details are obvious. Others you'dprobably miss unless they're pointed out to you.

The cabinet base is a good example. Instead of aplain piece of stock for the cabinet to rest on, there'san ogee profile cut into the front and side pieces.And to strengthen the miter joints used to join thesepieces, a spline is added at both front corners.

A closer look at the doors reveals the moldedstub tenon joint used to hold them together. Typi-cally, molding is added after the door is glued to-gether. But making the molding an integral part of

the joint gives you a stronger door. There's moresurface area for the glue to hold the door together.

The plywood panel glued in the door frame is alsounique. It's a fact of life that thin hardwood plywoodonly has one good face. So what do you do whenthe inside face of a door (like the ones on the cabi-net) will be exposed each time it's opened? The an-swer is to cover it with veneer. It doesn't add muchto the overall thickness of the panel, but it certainlyadds to the appearance of the door.

When you combine these details with the beautyof walnut, you end up with a project that looks goodin most any room in your home.

Woodsmith No. 101

Construction DetailsTOP CENTER

PANELOverall Dimensions: 36'/2" x 313A"x 137/a

Hardwood: 13bd. ft. of 4/4 WalnutPlywood: One 4x8 sheet of 3/4* walnut

One 4x4 sheet of %" walnutFinish: Wipe-on oil-urethane

EXPLODED VIEW

SIDE VIEWCROSS SECTION

Brass"ball-tipped

hinges

Both the case top and bottomare identical except for the

mounting holes used to attachthe cabinet top

1" Brass knobcentered on stiles

LOWER CASEPANEL

DOORRAIL

J

Stile with astragaland stop attached

ADJUSTABLE SHELF

Brass spoon-style"shelf pins

Rabbeted hardwood edgingadded to the top and bottompanels provide a shoulder to

align the the side panels

3/s"PROFILEDETAIL

No. 101 Woodsmith

CASETo build this two-door walnut cabinet, Istarted with the case. It's basically a largeplywood box with an adjustable shelf addedin the middle for storage.

TOP/BOTTOM PANEL. Two of the mainparts of this plywood box are the top andbottom panels. These are 3/4"-thick pieces ofwalnut plywood surrounded by four widestrips of solid hardwood molding.

Since both panels are identical (exceptfor some mounting holes drilled in the toppanel later), I made them at the same time.To do this, start by cutting the plywood up-per and lower panels (A, B) to a final sizeof 103/4" x 28W, see Fig. 1.

The next step is to cover the edges ofthese panels with molding. But sometimes,it can be a little difficult to get moldingaligned perfectly with the edges. Especiallywhen you're using wide pieces. (Mine were13/4M wide.) To help me do that, I cut a W-wide tongue on each edge of the plywoodpanels, see Fig. la.

The important thing is to get the tonguescentered on the thickness of the plywood.Otherwise the two surfaces won't be flushwhen the molding is installed. An easy wayto do this is to flip the panel over after eachpass. That way you're cutting from bothsides until the tongue is centered on thepanel's edge.

MOLDING. Once the tongues are cut, youcan add the molding. These are just piecesof 3/4"-thick stock planed to match the ply-wood thickness. Although they're cut to fi-nal width (I3/!11), I left them extra long.Later, this extra stock will come in handywhen mitering the molding to fit around thepanels. Then I cut a centered groove on theedge of each piece to accept the tongue onthe edges of the panel, see Figs. 2 and 2a.

EXPLODED VIEW

MOUNTING HOLELOCATIONS

NOTE: Countersinkall 3/i6"-diametermounting holes

(See detail b)

NOTE: Interiorholes for toppanel only

CROSS SECTION

countersunkshank hole formounting top

Now the back molding (C) can be cutto finished length. It's the same length asthe plywood panels (28V^M). A stub tenon iscut on each end of this piece to fit the

grooves in the side molding pieces (addednext), see Fig. 2b. Then glue the back mold-ing to the plywood panel.

Once the back molding is attached, the

BACK MOLDING

A

FRONT MOLDING

b. BACK MOLDINGO. NOTE:Panels are made

a. Cut all moldingpieces 1 %" wide

from w plywood —^

Cut a centered tongueon all four edges

NOTE: Center groove on all moldingpieces to fit tongue

Mark and cut stubtenon on back molding

Woodsmith No. 101

•

front molding (D) and side molding (E)can be cut next, see Fig. 2. This molding isa little different than the back molding. Youdon't have to cut stub tenons. Instead, thefront and side pieces are mitered to fitaround the center panel.

I mitered the front molding to length firstand dry clamped it in place. Next, the sidemolding pieces are mitered on one end;then trimmed to length flush with the backmolding. Now glue and clamp the front andside molding pieces to the panel.

RABBETED EDGE. With the molding in-stalled, I cut rabbets around the top and bot-tom panels, see Fig. 3. These rabbets are allcut W1 deep. But the rabbet on the backedge of the panel is 3/4" wide and the rabbetson the front and side edges are 1V41' wide,see Figs. 3a and 3b. You need the extrawidth for a decorative profile added next.

EDGE PROFILE. Now to soften the edgesof the top and bottom panels, a decorativeprofile is cut on the front and sides, see Fig.4. (Don't worry about the back edge. Sinceyou don't see it, it's left square.)

This profile is created with a V&" round-over bit in the router table, see Fig. 4a. Butyou'll have to use the fence when makingthe cut Thaf s because there's not enoughstock left on the workpiece for the bearingto ride against.

MOUNTING HOLES. After routing the pro-file, the last step to completing the top andbottom panels is drilling a series of mount-ing holes. Here is where the upper andlower panels differ. To hold the cabinet topadded later, you'll need eight more holes inthe upper panel (A), see exploded view anddetails 'a' and 'b' on previous page.

SIDES. Now you're ready to add the sides.I cut two 34"-thick plywood sides (F) to afinished size of 12" x SOW, see Fig. 5. Butbefore they can be installed, there are a cou-ple of things to do.

First, on the front edge of each side piecea thin strip of hardwood, side edging (G),is attached to cover the plies, see Fig. 5a.This edging is a W-thick piece of solid wal-nut cut to the same length and thickness asthe sides and glued flush with the edge.

Next, there's a %"-wide x V£"-deep rabbetcut on the back edge of the sides, see Fig.5b. This rabbet is used to hold the backpanel added later.

ASSEMBLY. Now the sides pieces can beused to join the top and bottom panels toform the case. These pieces are simplyglued and screwed together.

SHELF HOLES. Before moving on to theback panel, I wanted to drill V4"-dia. mount-ing holes in the sides for shelf pins that areinstalled later, see Fig. 6. To help me do that,I used a Masonite template, see Fig. 6a. Sim-ply set the template in the case to drill theholes. It helps keep the holes aligned so theshelf doesn't rock.

Set router tablefence flush

with bearing

Rout aroundover

on front andsides only

a.

Gluemolding

flushwith side

A

b.Rabbet back

edge tohold back

panel

SIDE EDGING

To drill holesset templateon bottompanel flushwith edge

of case

VS-dia.hole

Maketemplatefrom ahardboardstrip

Templatebottom

No. 101 Woodsmith

CASE CONTINUEDAfter gluing-up the case, the next step is toadd the back. It's simply a plywood panelsurrounded by a pair of stiles and rails, sizedto fit the opening in the back of the case.(My opening was 30" wide x SOW1 high.)

FRAME. I started by cutting the framepieces, the stiles (H) and rails (I), to fin-ished width (2^"), see Fig. 7. Then to fin-ished length (30V4" and 25W).

Next, a shallow groove, centered on theedge, can be cut on the frame pieces. It's cutto match the thickness of the plywood panelthat will be added later, see Figs. 8 and 8a.

Then stub tenons can be cut on the endsof the rails to fit in these grooves. Sneak upon the thickness of the tenon by making sev-eral passes and flipping the workpiece be-tween each one, see Fig. 9.

BACK PANEL. With the frame pieces com-plete, the back panel (J) is cut next. ThisV4M-thick piece of plywood is cut to fit in theframe. (My panel was 25V^" x 253/4".) Aftergluing the frame pieces and back panel to-gether, the assembled back can be installedin the case. Just glue and screw it in place,refer to exploded view, detail 'a.'

CABINET TOP. The cabinet top is addednext, once the back is in place. It's made alittle larger than the top of the case to over-hang the front and side edges, refer to ex-ploded view, detail 'b.' The top consists of a3/4"-thick plywood center panel (K) (13V6"x SO3/!11) surrounded by pieces of moldingto cover the plies, see Fig. 10.

MOLDING. What's a little unusual is themolding isn't all the same size. The moldingon the front and sides of the cabinet is V^"wide and the piece on the back is a V411 wide.The extra width is for routing a decorative

EXPLODED VIEW

CROSS SECTIONFRONT VIEW

CROSS SECTIONFRONT VIEW

edge on the front and side pieces.Since you don't rout the back, I cut the

back molding (L) to finished length first(303/4M) and then glued it to the center panel,see Figs. 10 and lOa.

Now the rest of the molding pieces can be

added. First, I mitered the front molding(M) to fit the length of the center panel andglued it in place. Next, miter one end of eachside molding (N) with the opposite endtrimmed flush with the back edge. Thenglue and clamp the side pieces to the panel.

7

1

iI

NOTE: All tenons %" long STILJ

- ^

NOTE: Cut V4" deepgroove on all frame pieces

PANEL(%" plywood)

(I)

F(H

i

25

1

)

k

*•

!

^-

\

\

?'/-,"

I t

30'/4"

U

Cut centered groove tomatch panel thickness

a.

— s

^

-1

-.

. -

... •

-__.

1"

F//p framepiece end-for-endto make acenteredgroove

1 V-t-Ji"ii i

Flip railafter each

pass tocentertenon

Use dado bladeto cut tenon on

— ends of rails

10 Woodsmith No. 101

To complete the cabinet top, I used a Wround-over bit in the router table to rout thefront and side edges, see Figs. 11 and lla.Since the cabinet top is a large piece, Iclamped a featherboard to my router tableto help stabilize the panel.

INSTALLATION. Now you're ready to glueand screw the top to the case, see ExplodedView. To do this, center the top from side-to-side, and keep the back edge of the topflush with the back edge of the case.

BASE. Once the top is glued and screwedin place, the case is almost complete. Allthat's left is adding the base. It's made fromthree pieces of solid stock mitered at thecorners. And cut into the face of each pieceis a decorative profile.

CLEATS. But before you can build thebase pieces, three hardwood cleats, a frontcleat (O), and two side cleats (P) have tobe attached to the bottom panel, see Fig. 12.They hold the base to the cabinet. Thesecleats are 3/4M x 3/4" pieces of stock glued andscrewed to the bottom, see Fig. 12a and ex-ploded view, detail 'c.'

The interesting thing is where you posi-tion the cleats. They're set back 5/8M from theoutside edge. This gives you a Vs" revealwhen the base pieces are installed.

BASE FRONT & SIDES. With the cleats inplace, the base front and sides can be addednext. They're made from 3/4!'-thick pieces ofwalnut mitered to fit around the bottom ofthe case, see Fig. 12.

Like the front molding (M), the basefront (Q) is mitered at both ends. And thebase sides (R) are mitered at one end and

NOTE: Rout roundover onfront and sides only i

cut to length flush with the back edge.To strengthen the mitered joint, I added

a Vs"-thick hardboard (Masonite) spline,see Fig. 13. But the 3/s"-deep kerf isn't cen-tered on the miter, see Fig. 13a. This way,the spline is hidden with the base installed.

With the base mitered to fit, you can cuta decorative pattern on the front and sidepieces, see Fig. 14. (Refer to page 7 for the

pattern.) For a tip on cutting the base, referto page 17. Now assemble the base piecesand glue them to the cleats, refer to ex-ploded view, detail 'c.'

BRACES. Finally, to strengthen the backof the base, I added a pair of triangle-shapedbraces (S), see Figs. 12 and 15. These are3/4"-thick pieces of stock, glued and screwedto the bottom panel and base sides.

a.

*K^

WL

r I ^\ ^-— i

»>

e

T7

s 4 8 i eS T 71 ; ' - 1 i / •

^ 1 1Glue and screw

• i — W x 3/4tt cleatsto case bottom

w

Backedge

I

^t

13

1 *"

NOTE: Kerf notcentered on miter

NOTE: Ogee profiledetails on page 7

#8x2" Fhwoodscrew

NOTE:Glue and screwbrace to baseand case bottom

Miter endsbeforemarkingprofile

No. 101 Woodsmith 11

DOORS & SHELF

To match the paneled construction used tobuild the back of the cabinet, a pair of pan-eled doors are added to the front. But what'sa little unusual here is the joinery. It's amolded stub tenon joint that has a decora-tive roundover on the inside edge.

STILES & RAILS. To build the doors, Istarted with the frames (stiles and rails).The width of all these pieces is the same(2^4"), but their lengths vary.

Determining the length of the stiles (T)

is simple. Just measure between the top andbottom panels on the cabinet and then sub-

tract W for clearance, see Fig. 16.(My stiles were 30V&".)

But figuring out the length of therails (U) is a bit more complicated.Here you'll need to take into ac-count the width of the stiles, thestub tenons on the rails, the astra-gal in the middle, and Vfe" clearancebetween the doors, see Figs. 16and 17. (My rails were 10W long.)

Once the stiles and rails are cutto finished length, the molded stubtenon joint is cut next. This joint isa little more involved than yourtypical stub tenon. But I liked theidea of making the roundover an in-

tegral part of the frame rather than addingthe molding later. For more on cutting thisjoint, refer to the article on page 14.

PLYWOOD PANEL. After completing theframe pieces, the next step is to add a doorpanel (V). This oversized piece of V4M-thickplywood will be cut to fit in the opening be-tween the frame pieces, see Fig. 16.

The panel is oversized because before ac-tually doing any cutting, I covered the backside of the plywood with a piece of flexible-back veneer. That way, the panel will lookgood from either side with the doors open.With an oversized panel, I could trim both

the veneer and the plywood to final size(lOV^1 x 25%") at the same time.

ASSEMBLY. Now you can assemble thedoors. For additional strength, the plywoodpanel is glued in the frame. Simply apply aneven film of glue to the tenons on the railsand also in the grooves.

ASTRAGAL & STOP. At this point, the astra-gal and stop can be added. The astragal is adecorative molding attached to the stile onthe left-hand door, see Fig. 17. It hides thegap normally found between two doors on acabinet. And the stop, attached to the astra-gal, holds the left-hand door closed afteryou've closed the right-hand one.

Since the astragal (W) is a fairly smallpiece of molding to work with, I found it eas-ier (and safer) to cut it out of an extra widepiece of W-thick stock. All it takes are threeeasy steps once your workpiece is cut tomatch the length of the door stile. (My as-tragal was 30 W.)

First, there's a V8M-wide rabbet cut Vfe"deep on one edge, see Fig. 17a. Next, a Vfc"roundover is routed to create a beadededge, see Fig. 17b. Then it can be rippedfrom the workpiece to its final width (W),see Fig. 17c. Finally, glue and clamp the as-tragal to the stile on your left-hand door.

Compared to the astragal, making thestop (X) is simple. It's just a W-wide stripripped from the edge of a W-thick board.

16 JH&W

DOOffSTILE(T)

-̂*.

•

>^_^L

© DOOR RAIL[ .

— -70*" •>

A/Off; See page 74for joinery details

DOOR PANEL( 1A" plywood)

®

/VOTE:Apply veneerto backsideof plywood

} UI?*"

Ii

25

i

i

%"

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r '

2%"

i i

30%"

Ji

FIRST. Cut 3/s*-widerabbet on one edge

Offsetstop onoppositeend also

SECOND: Routroundover on edgesto form bead

THIRD: Rip astragalto finished width

3/4"


The stop is cut a little shorter than the astra-gal (29%"). This is for clearance betweenthe top and bottom panels when the door isclosed. Then it's simply glued to the back ofthe astragal with a V4." overhang, see Fig. 17.

SHELF. Before hanging the doors, I madea shelf (Y). It's a piece of %"-thick plywoodthat's cut to fit inside the case, see Fig. 18.Added to the front is a strip of shelf mold-ing (Z) that covers the edge of the plywood,see Fig. 18a. To hold the shelf in the cabinet,shelf pins are installed in the holes pre-viously drilled in the case sides.

HINGES. After installing the shelf, thedoors can be hung on the cabinet. There'snothing tricky here, but you do want a Vie"gap at the top and bottom of the doors. ShopTip: One way to do this is to set the doors inthe cabinet and use a couple of pennies forspacers when marking the hinge location.

I started by cutting a mortise in the door

18 NOTE: Shelf is W'plywoodSHELF

to fit the hinges and screwed them in place.Then set the doors in the opening and trans-fer the hinge location onto the case sides.Now, mortise an opening in the sides andscrew the hinges to the case, see Fig. 19.

KNOB & CATCHES. Finally to complete thecabinet, I added the rest of the hardware: a

pair of ball catches and a pair of brass knobs,see Figs. 20 and 21.

The knobs are simply centered on thestiles, and the ball catches are positioned be-hind the right-hand door. You don't needany catches for the left-hand door. The stopon the astragal holds it closed. Q

SECONDMortisehingeintocabinetsides

20 Install ball catchesat top and bottomon right door only

21Center

knob ondoor stile

MATERIALS

CASEUpper Panel (1)Lower Panel (1)Back Molding (2)Front Molding (2)Side Molding (4)Case Sides (2)Side Edging (2)Back Stiles (2)Back Rails (2)Back Panel (1)

TOP & BASEK Center Panel (1)L Back Molding (1)

3A ply.-103/4 x28V23/4 ply. -10.3/4 x281/23/4 X 13/4-28V2

3/4Xl3 / 4 -31V2

3/4 X 13/4- 133/4

3/4 ply. -12 x 301/41/2 X 3/4 -30

1/4

3/4X21/2-301/4

3/4X21/2-251/2

1/4 ply.-25V2x253 /4

3/4 ply. - 131/8X3Q3/41/4 X 3/4 - 303/4

Front Molding (1)Side Molding (2)Front Cleat (1)Side Cleats (2)Base Front (1)Base Sides (2)Braces(2)

DOORST Door Stiles (4)U Door Rails (4)V Door Panels (2)W Astragal (1)X Stop(1)Y Shelf (1)

1/2X3/4-313/4

1/2X3/4-137/8

3/4 X 3/4 - 301/4

3/4X3/4- 123/8

3/4X4V2-313 /4

3 /4X4V2- 137/8

3/4 X 4V4 - 4V4

3/4 X 23/4 - 30V8

3/4X23/4-1Q1/2

V4ply. - 10V2x255/83/8 X 3/4 - 3Q1/8

1/4 X 3/4 -295/8

3/4 ply. -101/2 x 287/s

SUPPLIES

(2) Ball Catches(2 pair) 21/2" Ball Tip Hinges(2) 1" Brass Knobs(4) Shelf Supports(20) # 8 x 2 " Fh Woodscrews(18) #8 x 11/4" Fh Woodscrews(13) # 8 x 1 " Fh Woodscrews

PLYWOOD%"x48" x 96" plywood

CUTTING DIAGRAM3/4" x ff/2' x 96" (4.3 Bd. Ft.)

I Shelf Molding (1) 1/2 x 3/4 - 287/8

1 1\ : Y/Tyy/

" x 6%" x 96" (4.3 Bd. Ft.)HH

t -Hx

T

rT

r J^3/4" x 6%" x 96" (4.3 Bd. Ft.)

R R 0

£ f

U

U

UU W////,

NOTE: Additionalshelves can be cutfrom %" plywood.

" x 48" x 48" Plywood

-M&N O&P-


W O O D W O R K I N G T E C H N I Q U E

MoldedStub Tenon

The "built-in* molded edge replacesthe decorative molding you typically

add to a door frame

There are several ways to join framepieces (stiles and rails) together on apaneled door. But one of my favorites is amolded stub tenon joint (like the doors usedon the walnut cabinet on page 6). It's an easyway to add a decorative profile (a quarterround) to the inside edge on a frame andpanel door.

Now I know they make special router bitsyou can use to cut similar joints. But addinga profile to the stiles and rails isn't too diffi-cult. All that's required are a few more stepsand some careful planning. Then you canget the same results without spending a lotof money. To do this, I simply use my tablesaw, a router, a chisel, and a shop-made jig(see the box below).

SIZING. The first step to making a "perfectjoint" is to make sure your stiles and rails arecut to finished size. This not only means

length and width,but also thickness. Ifthe thickness variesbetween your framepieces, they won't fittogether flush dur-ing assembly.

GROOVES. Once Icut the stiles andrails to finished size,the next step is tocut a groove on oneedge of all the framepieces. The width ofthe groove should match the thickness ofthe plywood panel, see Fig. 1.

But to allow for the built-in molding on theedges of the door frame, I cut these groovesa little deeper (V£") than the grooves for atypical stub tenon joint. This added depth

strengthens the door frame once the ply-wood panel is glued in place.

Shop Tip: When cutting the groove on theframe pieces, I like to use a rip blade. Theteeth are ground flat on top, so it cuts a flat-bottomed groove.

SHOP-MADE MITER JIG

The secret to fitting a molded stub tenonjoint is to use a simple, shop-made jig. It fitsover the frame pieces and can be used twoways. First, it guides your chisel when cut-ting the miters on the molded edge, seephoto below right. And by flipping the jigover, it can also help when removing thewaste from the molded edge on the stiles.

The jig is easy to make and consists ofthree parts. Just glue a spacer between twoguide rails and cut a miter on one end, seedrawing. This forms a pocket for the framepieces to fit into. The depth of this pocket(2 V£") is equal to the distance from the edgeof your stile or rail to the shoulder of themolded edge.

To use the jig to miter the molded edge,simply set it over your frame piece andclamp it in place. The angle helps guide yourchisel to cut 45° miters.

By turning the jig over, it can be used toclean up the molded edge on your stiles, seeFigs. 6 and 7 on page 16. The jig guides yourchisel and keeps it square to the workpiece.

Waste

SPACER

NOTE:Spacer matchesstock thickness

GUIDERAIL

a.

STILE

SIDE VIEW


The only thing a little unusual is thegroove location. It's not centered on thethickness like a typical stub tenon andgroove joint. Instead, it's offset to provideroom for the roundover, see Figs, la and Ib.

MOLDED EDGE. With the groove cut in allof the frame pieces, the molded edge can berouted next, see Fig. 2. To do this, all I usedwas a V4M round-over bit in the router table.

The only problem using a round-over bitis the bearing on the end. If it falls into thegroove cut on the edge of the frame pieces,it can gouge your workpiece. So instead ofrelying on the bearing to guide my work-piece, I use the router table fence.

I start by setting the router bit height.Simply adjust the fence to make a light cutThen check the size of the shoulder, see Fig.2a. Once it's set to rout a V8n-deep shoulder,I move the router fence until the bearing onthe bit is flush with the edge of the fence,see Fig. 2b. Now rout the molded edge onall the frame pieces.

TENONS. After you have completed theroundovers, stub tenons can be cut on theends of the rails. I like to use a dado bladeto cut the tenons. This way, each face can be

cut to finished size (length and depth) witha single pass, see Fig. 3.

But there are a couple of things that aredifferent about cutting the tenons for thistype of joint. First, the tenons aren't cen-tered on the thickness of the rails. Instead,they're offset to match the location of thegroove already cut in the frame pieces.

Something else a little different is thelength of the tenon. The front cheek isshorter (V^'-long) than the back (V^'-long),see photo at right. Here's the reason why.

The back cheek is cut V£"-long to matchthe full depth of the groove that's alreadybeen cut in the stiles, see Fig. 3a. This way,once the frame pieces are assembled, theend of the tenon will fit flush with the bottomof the groove. The V&" length also lets theback shoulder of the tenon fit flush with theinside edge of the stile.

Once you have the tenon length set, ad-justing the depth is easy. Simply raise theblade until the cut is flush with the backshoulder of the groove, see Fig. 3a.

The front cheek is shorter for a differentreason. It has to match the height of themolded edge, see Fig. 3b. This way, just like

Molded edge. After cutting a groove onthe inside edge of the doorframe, a moldededge is routed on all the frame pieces. Thenoffset tenons can be cut on the rails.

the back shoulder, the front shoulder will fitflush with the inside edge of the stile.

Here again, the depth is set like the backcheek. But this time, it's cut flush with thefront shoulder of the groove, see Fig. 3b.

FIRST:Cut groove in

all frame piecesa.

Keepfaceside —

againstfence

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CROSSSECTION

(END VIEW)

First passestablishes

offset— . groove

1 location

V2"

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b.

Movefencetowidengroove

7

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7

ij

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CROSSSECTION

(END VIEW)

— Secondpass cuts

I — grooveto match

thickness of1/4H plywood

' ilI J

Rout prof Heon all -

frame piecesCROSS SECTION

Take light pass

Bury—dado blade •in auxiliary; Cut back cheekfence to cut of tenon so lengthtenons on rails matches groove 3epth RAIL

a. . . , CROSS SECTION 1Kip

fence ,Aux.fence

^i Ni!hr. *3[I i

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Cutlwithshouofgr

'lushbackIderjove

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if r ~---- • , ~_

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'b. , — CROSS SECTION 1

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1 1

Cut flushV with frontj shoulder

of groove

i "Z,Ei";

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No. 101 Woodsmith

ASSEMBLYAfter the tenons and grooves are cut and theprofile's been routed, you might think thisjoint is ready to fit together. But before youcan do that, there's still a little work to do tothe molded edge.

MITER RAILS. The first step is to miter themolded edge at the ends of the rails. To dothis, set the miter jig over the rail so the45°angle on the jig is aligned with the cor-ner of the molded edge, see Figs. 4 and 4aand the box on page 14. Then use a sharpchisel to remove most of the waste. But onthe final pass, I made a light cut and let thejig guide the chisel to cut the angle.

MARK STILES. Once you have the miterscut on the rails, the next step is to work onthe molded edge on the stiles. Here, beforethe frame pieces will fit together, part of themolded edge has to be removed, and a mat-ing miter has to be cut

The most accurate way to mark the loca-tion for the miters is to use the rails as aguide. Simply insert the rail in the stile andalign a try square with the shoulder on therail, see Fig. 5. Then make a mark on the

shoulder of the stile to indicate where theangle starts, see Fig. 5a.

REMOVE WASTE. Now you can remove thewaste from the molded edge. Here again, Iused the miter jig. Only this time, I set thejig on its back and used the opposite end,see Figs. 6 and 6a.

The goal here is to remove most of thewaste with light cuts. Just stop short of thelayout line that marks the start of the miter,see Fig. 6a. Then, once you have most of thewaste removed, rest the chisel on the edgeof the jig to make your final cut, see Figs. 7and 7a. But be careful here. You don't wantto damage the Vs" shoulder previously cutby the round-over bit.

MITER STILE. Once the waste has been re-moved, the final step to completing this jointis mitering the molded edge of the stile, seeFig. 8. Just like the rails, I used the angledend of the jig to cut the miter. Simply alignthe jig with the layout mark on the stile be-fore you start to cut, see Fig. 8a.

It's a good idea to test the fit of the jointas you trim away the waste. To do that, I

Remove waste. The secret to making atight-fitting molded stub tenon joint iscarefully paring away the waste from boththe shoulder and the molded edge.

made a cut and slid the rail up to the miterto check the fit, see Fig. 9. The part of therail that sticks out past the end of the stile isa good indicator of how much stock still hasto be removed, see Fig. 9a. Then once all thecorners are complete, you're ready to gluethe door together. Q

Miter onlymolded edge

of rails

'Align jigwith corner

•Gf molded edgeand remove stock

NOTE:Miter bothends ofmoldededgeon rail

Front faceof rail

STILE

SECOND:Remove wasteto stop cut

MITERJIG

a. SIDE VIEW stopWaste -^ cutcut

I /

Removewaste infront of"»teron _, edgemolded edge ofm/ter

Front

Jig guideschisel toclean upshoulderon stile

Skew chiseland cut with

grain direction

MITERJIG

a.

St/7e

E

Chiseto squ,

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1 sits f lajre up .

1 PV

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•Wton jig'houlder

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O. Waste to be removedfrom moldededge onstile-

Use a try square totransfer the miter

location to the stile

Mark beginningof miter on

stile shoulder

8Use miteredend of jigto cut miterson moldededges

Make lightpasses tocut miter

Edge ofrail andend ofstile tobe flush

Remove stockfrom moldededge for ,rail tofit flush


S O M E T I P S F R O M O U R S H O P

Shop NotesAVOIDING STEPPED MORTISES• A good way to cut mortises ison a router table. But if you usea non-plunge router there maybe a problem. You could end upwith small steps in the mortise,see photo. These steps can giveyou a poor glue surface and aloose fitting joint.

With non-plunge routers, youwill usually have some play inthe height adjustment mecha-nism. This means that each timethe height is changed, the bit

isn't in the exact same positionit was before. And when routingdeeper mortises, where it takesa couple of passes to reach thefull depth, you end up with oneor more steps.

The good news is, you won'tneed to buy a plunge router. In-stead of changing the height ofthe bit, change the height of theworkpiece. Simply lay a spacer,made of Vi" hardboard (Ma-sonite), under the workpiece to

raise it so the bit cuts less stock.To cut mortises with a spacer,

first set the height of the bit tocut the full mortise depth, seeFig. 1. Then, install the spacerand make your first pass, seeFig. 2. Now before you make thesecond pass, remove the spacer,see Fig. 3. Since you aren't ad-justing the router height, the bitstays in the same location, andyou don't end up with a smallstep in the mortise.

Make the firstpass with thespacer in position Clamp stop block

to fence to setlength of mortise

A After changing the height ofthe bit, some routers may leavea small step in the mortise.

3

/

Remove spacer andmake the secondpass at full depth

\\^\ \> \s \

W E E K E N D P R O J E C T

Lamp TableThere's nothing complicated about this table.

You can build it in a weekend. And its classic, cleanlines will fit a variety of settings.

Some projects are appealingbecause of the details oftheir design: hand-cut joinery,applied molding, or gracefulcurves. This lamp table, on theother hand, stands out becauseof its simplicity.

But simplicity of design isn'tsomething that originated withus by any means. This table wasinspired by an earlier group ofwoodworkers: the Shakers.

The Shakers were masters ofgood proportions and clean, un-adorned lines. And we tried toinclude both these qualities inthe design of this table.

DESIGN DETAILS. There isn'tanything complicated or showyabout this table. It doesn't haveany drawers or applied molding.And to give the legs a light,graceful appearance, their in-side faces are slightly tapered.

The design isn't the onlything simple about this table. It'salso easy to build. The legs andaprons are joined with openmortise and tenon joints. Themortises are cut on the routertable; the tenons on the tablesaw. And the legs are taperedwith a shop-built jig, so they'reno trick at all.

PAINTED FINISH. We used an-other design trick inspired bythe Shakers. They sometimesused different types of wood toadd contrast to a piece of furni-ture. Or they painted part of theproject and left the rest natural.This natural contrast added in-terest to the design.

So instead of giving the wholetable a clear finish, I dressed upthe base by painting it black, seethe article on page 22. The blackreally highlights the rich colorof the cherry top.


16" 14" Grain orientation

TOP VIEW

Both inside facesof each legare tapered

SIDE VIEW

CUTTING DIAGRAM

8/4 x 33/4" - 60" Hard Maple (3.1 Bd. Ft.)

Construction DetailsVK" chamfer

(upper andlower edges)

LEGS

_fastener

The aprons and legs areassembled with mortise

'oints.

MATERIALS & SUPPLIESA Legs (4) 1V2 x 1V2 - 25V4B Aprons (4) 3 / 4 X 3 V S - 1 2C Top(1) 3 / 4 X i 6 . i6• (4) Figure-8 Fasteners• (8) #8 x 1/2" Flathead Woodscrews

• x 4"- 60" Hard Maple (1.7Bd. Ft.)

B B

3/4" x 4V2" - 72" Cherry (2.25 Bd. Ft.)//


LEGSThere's nothing complicated about buildingthis table. You start by making the legs.Then connect them with aprons, and finallyadd a top.

CUT TO SIZE. To begin work on the legs(A), I started with % stock and ripped fourblanks 1VS" square and 25 W long, see Fig.1. If you can't get a hold of % stock, you canlaminate two pieces of W-thick stock. Butof course, this is a bit more work. And ifyou're not going to paint the base, you'llhave a visible joint line.

Note: Because I was planning to paint thebase, I didn't need to use the same wood asthe top (cherry). Instead, I used hard ma-ple, but you could also use soft maple, pop-lar, or alder — anything that has a smooth,closed grain surface.

To complete the legs, there are two moresteps. First, cut mortises that the tenons onthe aprons will fit into. Then taper the legs.

MORTISES. To begin, I laid out the mor-tise locations on the inside faces oieach jega,

-^--:=_>;IC-,----v,:~-—- : ; — ; -thing to keep in mind here is the mortiseson these legs aren't centered; they're VS"from the outside edge. I did this because Iwanted the aprons closer to the front edgeof the legs.

All the mortises are open-ended. This al-lowed me to rout them on the router table,using a V41' straight bit and a stop block, seeFig. 2. (For more on this, see page 17.) Butbecause the two mortises on each leg areoffset, they don't use the same setup. Therouter table fence needs to be changed afterthe first set of mortises.

For the first mortise on each leg, thefence should be set V&" from the inside edgeof the bit, see Fig. 2a. For the other set ofmortises, you'll need to move the fence.Again, the magic number is V£", but thistime, the W is the distance from the outsideof the bit to the outside edge of the work-piece, see Fig. 2b.

Now to complete the mortises, all that'sleft for you to do is square up the ends witha chisel, see Fig. 3.

TAPERS. Once the mortises are cleanedup, you can taper the legs. You won't needto buy a special jig to do this. A simple shop-

_mad£Jig does the iob well.~inside faces of the legs, see Fig. 1. (Theseare the same faces that you cut the mortiseson.) Then to cut the tapers, I used a jig thatcuts the tapers quickly on the table saw, seethe box below.

Clamp block31/t" from far

side of bitRaise stop blockfor sa waust relief

NOTE: Legs willbe tapered on

inside edges

FIXED-ANGLE TAPER JIG

Body

5/8

Building the Jig. This plywood jig letsyou taper two faces of a leg. The body of thejig matches the length and angle of the ta-per. The cleat supports the workpiece.

FIRST PASS Taperjig

Faces to betapered are

out and down

SECOND PASS

Faces to be#<tapered areout and up

Using the Jig. First, lay out the taper onthe legs. Then set the angled face of the jigagainst the rip fence with the cleat towardthe blade, and set a leg in the jig so the in-

side faces of the leg are out and down. Nextset the fence so the blade aligns with thelay-out marks. Cutthefirsttaper. Then ro-tate the leg 90° and cut the second taper.


APRONSWith the legs complete, I turned my atten-tion to the four aprons (B). I began by cut-ting them to size (3^M x 12"), see Fig. 4.

TENONS. The next step is to cut tenonsthat are centered on the ends of the aprons,see Fig. 4. To do this, I used a dado bladeburied in an auxiliary fence. And a mitergauge with a backing board supports theworkpieces and prevents chipout.

Though the mortises are offset, the ten-ons should be centered. So gradually raisethe dado blade, flipping the piece betweenpasses, until the tenons fit the mortises.

Next, you want the length of the tenon tomatch the mortise. To do this, I cut a shoul-der at the bottom of the tenon by standingthe apron on edge, see Fig. 5. The height ofthe blade (W) should be right, but checkyour pieces just to make sure.

ASSEMBLY. Once the tenons have beencut, the base can be assembled. To do this,first glue up two sub-assemblies: two legsand an apron. Then join the sub-assemblieswith the two remaining aprons, see Fig. 6.

FASTENERS. The last step is to prepare thebase for attaching the top. I used four figure-8 fasteners, see Fig. 7. They're more thanjust an easy way to connect the top to the

SECOND:Cut shoulderon bottomof tenon

Match tenon rlength of mortise

base. They allow the panel to expand andcontract with changes in humidity.

To install the figure-8 fasteners, drill two9/L6l! holes, W deep in two of the aprons, see

Fig. 7a. This hole is offset V41' toward the in-side of the apron and acts as a shallow mor-tise for the fastener. With the holes drilled,the fasteners are simply screwed in place.

NOTE:Assemblebase intwo stages

TOPTo complete the table, all that's left is tobuild the top (C). The top of this table is aglued-up panel that's cut 16" square, seeFig. 8. Once it was cut to size, I relieved theedges by routing a Vie" chamfer around thetop and bottom, see Fig. 8a.

The top should be centered on the base.An easy way to do this is to first mark cen-terlines on the outside of the aprons (B) andthe bottom face of the top (C), see Fig. 9.Next, lay the top face down and set the baseon it so the grain on the top runs perpen-

FIRST: Glue upoversize panel

a.

THIRD:Chamfer upperand lower edges

dicular with the aprons that have the figure-8 fasteners. Then line up the centerlines andscrew the two together.

Note: If you're planning to paint the baseof this lamp table, like I did, remove the topfrom the base before you begin. if)


F I N I S H I N G T E C H N I Q U E

Spray Painted FinishTo create a smooth finish, you need to choose

the right aerosol paint and prepare the surface carefully.

T o get a smooth painted finish, youmight think you'd need expensiveequipment. Not so. To paint the base of thelamp table on page 18, all I used was spraypaint — the kind that comes in a can. Justshake, point, and paint.

Well, it's not quite that easy. But twothings will make your job much easier andgive you the best results: choosing the rightpaint and preparing the surface carefully.

Painting supplies.To paint a project likethe lamp table, you'llneed: automotive spotputty and a plasticspreader, wet/dry sand-paper and a spray bot-tle, sandable primer,gloss paint, and someacrylic clear coat. Ialso found that a trig-ger handle and a lazysusan came in handy,see Sources, page 31.

PAINT SELECTION. There are two types ofspray paint you'll find at your local hardwarestore: enamel and lacquer. Both are sprayedon the same way. The big difference is howsoon you can apply the second coat.

ENAMEL. Enamel paints dry slowly. Sowhen you're applying the second coat, thefirst coat has to be either slightly tacky orcompletely dry. Usually, the directions rec-ommend that you recoat within an hour or

after a couple of days. This makes the painta little inconvenient to work with.

Besides the slow drying quality of enam-els, I've also run into problems with the sec-ond coat adhering to the first. The secondcoat often wrinkled and cracked like theskin of an alligator — even when I waswithin the "window" of time that was recom-mended on the can.

LACQUER. On the other hand, I've foundlacquer-based spray paint quite easy to use.Lacquer paint dries quickly. It dries to thetouch in 12 minutes and can be handled af-ter an hour. But the directions say you canrecoat it at any time. And the solvent in thepaint softens the coat below it, so the twocoats "melt" together. I haven't run into anywrinkling problems with lacquer.

To be fair, I should mention that enamelis probably tougher than lacquer. If you'replanning to paint a project that will have toput up with plenty of abuse, like outdoor fur-niture, you'll probably want to use enamelpaint instead of lacquer. But for a furnitureproject, like the lamp table on page 18, lac-quer provides plenty of protection. And it'smuch easier to work with.

Safety Note: A word of caution when us-ing spray paints. Whether you use enamelor lacquer-based paint, make sure there'splenty of good ventilation. To minimize theoverspray, you can create a temporary back-drop by hanging a sheet of plastic from theceiling. But most of all, protect your lungsby wearing a respirator.

SURFACE PREPARATION. Choosing thepaint is only the first step of the process. Youalso have to prepare the surface carefully.

Paint only looks as good as the surfacethat it covers. It doesn't hidescratches or dents. Instead, it ac-centuates them. Unlike the texture

and color of wood (which help tohide scratches), the single color

of paint on aflat, smooth sur-face causes any blemishes toreally stand out.

So don't get fooled into thinkingpaint will hide sloppy workmanship.You can't bypass careful sandingand rely on the paint to make every-thing disappear. In fact, you'll prob-ably need to prepare the surfacebetter than you normally would.

22 Woodsmlth No.

STEP-BY-STEPThe secret to getting a smooth finish is hav-ing a smooth surface to apply the paint to.So before you shake up that can of paint, youhave to spend some time preparing the sur-face. This means you need to sand, fill, andprime the wood thoroughly.

SAND & FILL. Start by sanding out thescratches and filling in dents and chipout,see Step 1.1 use an automotive glazing &spot putty (made by Bondo). This putty willadhere to wood and won't shrink.

PRIME. When the wood has been filled,sanded smooth, and wiped clean, it's readyfor primer, see Step 2. The primer providesa base for the paint. Note: I used a sandableprimer, and to make sure the primer andpaint were compatible, I used the samebrand for both.

FILL. With the primer on, you'll be able tosee any scratches you might have missed.And you may find the areas you filled earlierare a little rough. So fill these areas again be-fore going on, see Step 3.

SAND. The next step is to sand again, seeStep 4. But the primer "loads up" regularsandpaper quickly. So from now on whensanding, mist the project with a water bottleand sand everything with wet/dry paper.

PRIME. With the base sanded smooth, Iprimed it again, see Step 5.1 had cut throughthe primer to the wood in some places, andI also wanted to make sure the dents andscratches had been filled completely.

Repeat this process of filling, sanding,and priming until the surface is smooth.Then lightly sand one more time with 400-grit wet/dry paper to get it really smooth.

PAINT. To paint the base of the lamp table,I sprayed on four coats of gloss lacquerpaint, see Step 6. There's nothing magicabout this number; I just wanted to be surethe surface was covered well.

Next, I "rubbed out" the base one lasttime with 400-grit sandpaper, see Step 7.Again you want to use a light touch. Whensanding the paint, the sandpaper can easilycut through to the primer—or to the wood.Note: The paint will dull as you sand it.That's okay. The gloss will return when theclear coat is applied next.

CLEAR COAT. The last step is to spray onseveral coats of an acrylic clear coat, seeStep 8. This adds extra protection to the fin-ish and gives it more depth. Also, the clearcoat determines the final gloss of the finish.So if you want a high-gloss finish, use a glossclear coat. But if you'd like to tone down thegloss, like I did on the lamp table, choose asatin clear coat.

I decided not to sand or rub out the clearcoat at all. The reason for this is simple.When sanding it's too easy to sand throughthe paint (and even the primer) at the cor-ners. So what you could end up with is a lotof extra work. Q

1 A painted finish requires a smoothsurface. Begin by sanding to 180-gritand filling any dents and deep scratcheswith automotive glazing & spot putty.

2 Next, spray on a coat of sandableprimer in short, sweeping passes. Thegoal is an even, wet coat. But to avoid runsand sags, keep the first coat light.

3 The primer will cause any missedscratches to stand out. And the dentsfilled earlier may not be perfectly smooth.So apply putty to these areas.

4 When the putty is completely dry, theprimer and putty need to be sanded.To do this, mist water on the project andsand it with 220-grit wet/dry sandpaper.

5 After sanding, apply another coat ofprimer. And if necessary, repeat Steps3-5. When all the blemishes are gone, sandvery lightly with 400-grit wet/dry paper.

6 Now that the surface is smooth, theproject is ready for paint. I appliedfour coats of a gloss paint, spraying it onwith the same technique as the primer.

7 When the last coat of paint is dry, anydust particles and paint "sputters"need to be removed. So very lightly rub outthe paint with 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper.

To add depth and protection to the fin-ish, the last step is to apply an acrylic

clear coat. Again, I sprayed on four coats.But this time, I used satin instead of gloss.


W E E K E N D P R O J E C T

Serving TrayThis tray served up a couple interesting challenges:

shaping the sculpted handles on the ends, and creating asmooth lip around the inside edge of the tray.

Small projects, like this serving tray, can bejust as rewarding as larger ones. The scalemay not be quite the same, but there are stillplenty of challenges to work out — especiallywhen you're trying to come up with a procedurethat works well and makes the building processas simple as possible.

HANDLES. One challenge on this tray was shap-ing the handles. I didn't want to just glue them tothe end pieces; the joint line would have been toodistracting. So these handles had to be sculptedfrom the same block of wood that the ends are cutfrom. But looking at the block and "seeing" thehandles (like a sculptor would), I realized that alot of cutting and routing had to be done on somefairly narrow pieces.

The solution? Instead of working with two sepa-rate blanks (one for each end piece), I started outwith only one wide blank. This way, both handlescould be shaped safely. Then later, they could becut to finished size from the blank.

ROUTED COVE. This tray provided another littlechallenge: the routed cove along the inside edge.I wanted the cove to end up perfectly flush withthe plywood panel. This not only looks better; it'salso easier to keep clean. But which do you estab-lish first — the position of the cove or the panel?

I began by routing the cove. Then I could sneakup on the location of the panel by using my tablesaw and a few test pieces. I did it this way becausethe fence on my table saw lets me "fine tune" acut better than the fence on my router table.


TRAY ENDS

Rout cove in aseries of passes

I started work on the serving tray by cut-ting out and shaping the end pieces,which also serve as the handles.

Actually, these two end pieces start out asone wide blank, see drawing above. Thismakes these pieces much easier and saferto hold when you're routing them.

The first thing that needs to be done withthe blank is to create a cove along the bot-tom edge of each side, see Fig. 1. This willform the bottom edge of the handles.

To rout the cove, I used a router table witha 3/4" core box bit raised 3/8M above the table.Set the router fence so the cut is 3/8M wide.

Then make a pass along both edges, seeFig. la. Then to increase the width of thecove, move the router fence slightly awayfrom the bit and make a couple more passes.Repeat this procedure until the cove is a full3/4M wide. Then sand it smooth, see the firsttip in the box below.

Handle doesn'ttouch bearingso use fence

FIRST: Cut shapeon band saw

The next step is to cut the end pieces towidth and complete the handles.

With the cove routed, now you can cut theend pieces to final width from the blank. Todo this, set the fence 13/8M from the blade andrip one end piece from the blank. Then flipthe blank around and rip the other piece.

Now lay out the shape of the handle onboth pieces, see drawing above and the sec-ond tip in the box below. Then this shapecan be cut out with a band saw, see Fig. 2

The only problem here is the piece canrock when making the cut. So I used a dowelto add stability, see the third tip in the box

below. Don't try to cut right to the line withthe band saw; it works better to sand up toit instead. (I used a drum sander.)

Now to complete the handle, rout a 3/8M

roundover along the top edge, see Fig. 3.But the handle is too thin to ride against thebearing, so you'll need to use the fence.

BUILDING TIPS

3/4H-dia. dowelwith sandpaper

Tray ends clampedhandle to handle

3/s"-dia. doweltaped into coveofworkpiece

Sanding. To sand a routed cove quicklyand consistently, I wrap adhesive-backedsandpaper around a dowel.

Laying out arcs. When laying out thearcs, I found it easiest to clamp the oppos-ing sides together and use a compass.

Adding support. To add support to asmall workpiece with a routed cove, I usedtape to hold a dowel in the cove.


SIDES & FEET

Witii the handles complete, it's time tomake the sides and add some feet.

Creating the two 20"-long side pieces issimply a matter of ripping them to match thefinal width of the end pieces, see Fig. 4 andthe drawing above.

The next step is to make feet for both the

side and end pieces, see Fig. 5. Cuttingthem to size is as easy as cutting the sidepieces. In fact, the fence setting is the same.Just start with extra long blanks, and whenthey've been ripped to width, you can cutthe blanks to make eight 4"-long feet.

With the feet cut to size, they're ready to

be glued and clamped to the sides and ends.When gluing the feet, they should be flushwith the ends and with the outside face ofeach piece. And pay attention to the woodgrain too. It's best if the feet "blend" into theside and end pieces as much as possible sothe joint line isn't noticeable.

TRAY SIDE

Strike a 3/4"radius witha compass

I didn't really want square feet for thetray, so I cut a small curve on the insideedge of each.

The first step for creating a curve is strik-ing an arc. The arcs have a 3/4M radius and

are centered 33/4M away from the ends of thepieces. But setting a compass exactly on theedge is a bit of a balancing act. To make thiseasier, I clamped the opposing pieces to-gether to draw the arcs, see Fig. 6.

When the arcs are all laid out, cut thecurve for each foot, see Fig. 7. (Again, to dothis, I used a band saw to remove the waste.And then I sanded the curves smooth witha drum sander.)

TRAY SIDE

FIRST: Rout 3/a" coveon all tray pieces

SECOND: Rout identicalcove on the test pieces

Next, I created a lip around the tray byrouting a 3/s" cove along the inside edgeof the tray pieces.

To do this, I used the router table with a3/4M core box bit, see Fig. 8. Simply raise thebit 3/8" above the table and then set the fenceto make a 3/fc"-wide cut, see Fig. 8a. Now, you

can rout the cove on each tray piece.After the cove has been routed, there's

still one more thing to do. And that's to routa few test pieces with the same cove, seedrawing above left. These test pieces willhelp later when you need to position agroove that will be cut in the tray pieces.

To make the test pieces, first cut a fewblanks from scraps. The blanks don't needto match the size or shape of the end pieces,but you do want them big enough to workwith safely. (Later, you'll be ripping agroove on the table saw.) Then simply routthe cove along one edge of each blank.


PANEL & ASSEMBLY

Use rabbet bitto cut W-wide

rabbet

Scrap block

Rout %"-widerabbet around panel

The next step is to make the plywoodpanel for the tray.

To make this panel, first cut a piece of W-thick plywood to finished size, see the draw-ing above. (I used maple plywood and cut it12" wide and 18" long.)

Raise bit until tonguefits kerf in scrap block

The panel fits into a groove that will be cutlater in the side and end pieces, see the nextseries of steps below. But since saw bladescan vary in thickness, it's a good idea to cuta test kerf in a scrap block, see drawing.Then you can cut the tongue on the plywood

panel to fit your saw blade's kerf exactly.To create the V4M-wide tongue on the ply-

wood panel, I used a rabbet bit in the routertable, see Fig. 9.1 snuck up on the final thick-ness of the tongue until it fit the kerf in thescrap block, see Fig. 9a.

TRAY SIDE TRAY END

NOTE: Adjust fence sogroove aligns topof panel with coveNOTE:

Use test piecesto set rip fence

Now if s time to cut a groove in the sideand end pieces to accept the panel.

The idea is to locate the groove so the topof the panel is flush with the bottom of thecove, see Fig. lOa. And to set up the cut,you'll use the test pieces you made earlier.

Start by raising the saw blade to matchthe length of the tongue on the panel. (Ac-tually, I cut the groove V$2M deeper so thetongue wouldn't bottom out.) Then set therip fence ̂ " from the blade and cut a groovein one of the test pieces. Now test the fit with

the panel, see Fig. lOa. If the panel sticksabove the cove, move the fence away fromthe blade. Otherwise, move it closer.

Now when you have the rip fence posi-tioned correctly, cut the grooves on all thetray pieces, see Fig. 10.

TRAY PANEL

NOTE:Glue andclamp piecesaround panel

To determinelength of tray pieces,center them on paneland mark the ends

NOTE:Draw centerlines on the bottomof each piece to help with alignment

The last step is to miter the ends of thetray pieces before assembling the tray.

Normally, when I'm mitering pieces witha table saw, I use the miter gauge set to theproper angle. But for this tray, I tilted theblade 45° instead, see Fig. 11. This way, allthe pieces can be laid face down, and the

handles on the ends don't get in the way.There's another thing that's different. To

cut the tray pieces to length, you need tomark them off the panel so they're perfectlycentered. To do this, I drew centerlines onthe bottom of the plywood panel and thetray pieces. Then dry assemble each piece

around the panel, centerline to centerline,and mark where each piece should be cut.

After the tray pieces are mitered, you canglue them around the plywood panel, seeFig. 12. Finally, to protect the serving trayin case of spills, I applied a couple of coatsof a satin polyurethane. G

'


C O M M E N T S & Q U E S T I O N S

Talking ShopFRICTION REDUCERS & RUST INHIBITORS• Most woodworkers know thathigh humidity causes wood toexpand. But here in Iowa, thehigh humidity during the sum-mer creates other problems too:friction and rust. This frictionmakes a workpiece stick to ametal table instead of slidingsmoothly — the same way yourshirt sticks to your back.

I've used a lot of products toreduce friction. Car wax, talcumpowder, corn starch, and furni-ture wax to name a few. But theproblem is, they leave a residueon the wood, and they don't lastall that long. Plus they do verylittle, if anything, to protect thesurface of the metal from rust.So we use three different prod-ucts in our shop: Kity Speed,TopCote, and Boeshield T-9.(See page 31 for sources.)

KETY SPEED. I like to use KitySpeed for a long-lasting frictionreducer. It gets a lot of use on thetable saw, band saw, and drillpress tables.

Part of the reason why itwears so well is what it's madefrom. Kity Speed is a specialgraphite wax with the consis-tency of tooth paste.

Mixed in with the wax aresmall silver flecks. These flecks

ABRASIVE PADS

are a molybdenum compoundused for reducing friction. (Atleast that's what Farris Machin-ery Inc., the supplier, told me.)

The other thing I like aboutKity Speed is how it's applied. Itreminds me of waxing my car.You wipe it on. Let it haze over.Then buff it off.

This process takes a littletime and effort. But it's satisfy-ing to look back and see the sil-ver flecks where I've put down acoat of protection.

TOPCOTE. Another product Iuse in the shop to help eliminatefriction is TopCote. This is aproduct with a Teflon based for-mula that you spray on yourtools. It reminds me of a vegeta-ble shortening you spray in apan to keep food from sticking.

Since TopCote is an aerosol,it's a convenient way of gettinginto a dif ficult-to-reach area. Forinstance, I use it on the planerbed because the spray easilycovers the whole surface, and Idon't have to worry about miss-ing a spot. I also use it on someof my hand tools (like my com-bination square) to prevent rust.It easily gets into all those nooksand crannies.

To use TopCote, simply spray

it on and let it dry fora few seconds. Thenfor the best results,just rub it out lightlywith a clean cloth.Although a secondcoat is recommended,I've found a singleapplication is usu-ally enough.

TopCote is easy toapply, and I'd use itexclusively — ex-cept for a couple ofthings. First, it's a lit-tle more expensivethan a paste prod-uct. And second, itdoesn't seem to lastas long once it'sbeen applied.

Shop Caution: When spray-ing aerosols like TopCote, thething to be careful with is theoverspray. If it gets on the shopfloor it can become slippery.

BOESHIELD T-9. While KitySpeed or TopCote does providesome rust protection, there's an-other product better suited forthe job: Boeshield T-9. It's de-signed to protect metal partsfrom moisture. So it's ideal forthose shop tools that don't getused all that often.

Boeshield is an aerosal prod-uct product that's composed ofa solvent and paraffin wax. Byspraying on a light film and thenwiping it off, it can be used toprotect and lubricate the toolsyou use everyday.

But to protect your tools for along stretch (like over the sum-mer) , simply spray a coat on andlet it set—don't buff it out. Thisdoes leave a sticky film. So whenyou're ready to use the tool, sim-ply wipe it down with a solvent.

• You've mentioned abrasivepads in previous issues, andI've seen them in local hard-ware stores. Can you tell me alittle about them?

Abrasive pads (likeScotch Brite, Bear-Tex, and Scuff-Rite)work well when youare smoothing out afinish between coats.If you typically usesteel wool or 320-grit(or finer) sandpaperbetween coats, youmight want to givethese pads a try.Abrasive pads have

some distinct advantages.Unlike sandpaper, these pads

don't clog up with dried finish.That's because the small abra-sive particles are bonded into an

open web of interlocking fibers,instead of being glued to a heavypaper backing.

And there's another benefit.Abrasive pads are flexible. Sothey can conform to the shape ofthe surface, which makes mold-ings and curved parts of pro-jects much easier to work on,see photo at left.

Abrasive pads also have an ad-vantage over traditional steelwool. Steel wool leaves tiny sliv-ers behind, which is a problemespecially when you're workingwith water-based finishes. Theslivers can rust when the nextcoat of finish is applied.

On the other hand, the fibersthat make up the abrasive padsare synthetic. As you rub thepad across the workpiece, the fi-bers wear away and exposefresh abrasive particles. Thesurface still needs to be wipedoff, but any missed particlesaren't going to rust and discolor.

Abrasive pads come in a vari-ety of "grits" and are usuallycolor coded. But since differentcompanies produce differentabrasive pads, they're not stand-ardized, like sandpaper andsteel wool. However, there'soften a steel wool equivalent inthe product information.


POO HOLES• In the last issue, we featured aworkbench complete with holesfor round bench dogs. But whatif you want to add dog holes toan existing bench?

I've found that whether youadd holes during the buildingprocess or after the top is com-plete, there are two steps: layingout the holes and drilling them.

LAYOUT. To lay out the dogholes, start by determining thedistance between them.

At most, this distance shouldbe slightly less than the openingcapacity of your vise, see Fig. 1.However, when laying out theholes on my bench top, I wantedto avoid turning the vise handlea number of times when adjust-ing it to hold a piece. So I usuallyspace the holes 3"- 4" apart.

Of course, you don't need avise to use bench dogs. With thebench top I built in the last issue,

I used Wonder Dogs in additionto a vise, see Fig. 1. On a WonderDog, the screw is much shorterthan on a vise, so the dog holescan't be much any apart than 4".(The length the screw on theWonder Dog travels.)

LOCATION. Spacing isn't theonly thing you need to consider.You also have to determine thespecific location of the holes. Inother words, there are some ob-jects you need to avoid.

The most obvious obstruc-tions are the parts of the vise.Avoid drilling holes in the visescrew, guide rods, and carriage.

But there are other thingsthat can get in the way. The basethat the bench top sits on, anydrawers, or even a cabinet un-derneath the bench are all ob-structions that can prevent youfrom getting a bench dog seatedfully in its hole — or back out if

Distance betweendog holes should be

less than openingcapacity of vise

WonderDog

NOTE: Spacing allowsfull reach of Wonder Dog

the dog is pushed intoo far.

DRILLING. Whenthe holes are laidout, the next step isto drill them. If youare building the top,this isn't a problem;you can drill theholes before the topis assembled.

But when the topis already built, it'stoo big to use the drill press, soyou have to drill it by hand. Thetrick here is keeping the holesperpendicular and finding a drillbit long enough to drill all theway through the top. But there'san easy solution. You can use ahand drill guide and a spade bitto drill the holes, see photo.Note: For more on the spade bitand drill guide I've used in thepast, see page 32.

When drilling the holes, youwant to prevent the bit from"blowing out" the bottom side.To do this, I set the depth of theguide so just the tip of the bitbreaks through the bottom, seeFig. 2. Then flip the bench topover and complete the holes bydrilling from the opposite side.

To complete the dog holes, Ialso rout an Vg" chamfer aroundthe top and bottom edges.

Spadebit

FIRST:Drill till pointof bit breaks

throughbottom face

CROSS SECTIONTop

SECOND:Flip top overand completedrilling hole

-Top

HORSEPOWER RATINGS• Recently, I've been looking tobuy a table saw, and I've runacross advertisements that saya saw "develops three horse-power." What does this meanand how can I find out howpowerful a motor actually is?When a motor is pushed to itslimit, say by cutting through ahard knot, the motor drawsmore amperage than under nor-mal conditions. Just before itstalls, the motor will be drawing

the most amperage and produc-ing its maximum horsepower.The most it can develop. Ofcourse, it will only be able tomaintain this for a short periodof time before the motor stalls orthe circuit breaker kicks off.

This is what manufacturersmean when they say a motor"develops 3hp." (It can also bereferred to as a motor's "peakhorsepower.") Technically, themanufacturers are right. But in

my opinion, it's misleading.They're trying to get you tocompare apples to oranges.

Most table saw motors use acontinuous-duty horsepowerrating. This is the amount ofpower a saw produces undernormal use — it's the power youwill work with most of the time.

To compare motors, checktheir identification plates. Youcan look at the horsepower rat-ing, but often it's left off of saws

that advertise their developedhorsepower. But you can stillcompare them by checking theamperage ratings.

Generally speaking, the higherthe amperage the more powerthe motor produces. So if onemotor develops 3hp and anotheris a continuous-duty Ihp motorand both draw about the sameamperage, you can be prettysure that both motors produceabout the same power.


R E A D E R ' S J I G

Assembly JigA simple locking system holds large pieces of

stock without any clamps. Now you canassemble a project all by yourself.

\^ ost woodworkers could use a littleJLVJLhelp from time to time, especiallywhen assembling big projects. For example,trying to join two pieces of plywoodtogether can be nearly impossible unlesssomeone is around to give you a hand.

Since I probably won't grow a "thirdhand," the assembly jig sent in by RogerBalling of Santa Ana, California, is a wel-come addition to the shop. It can be used tokeep your 34"-thick workpieces aligned un-til your bar clamps are in position. Or if youmake four of them, they will hold all of yourlarge case pieces (one at each corner) soyou can nail or screw them together.

This jig is so simple to make, you can al-most build a set of four as easily as buildingone. That's because it consists of just a fewparts. There's an I^shaped base. A thick,square block glued to one corner. Andbolted to the base is a pair of circular disks.

These disks have an offset mounting holethat gives them a "cam action." So it's quickand simple to wedge the workpiece tightagainst the block. Just turn the disk.

BASE. Since all of the pieces of the jig are

All pieces are 3A"-thickstock (except spacer)

Cornerblock

Wingnut

Center hole on width of baseand 23k" from corner blocks

attached to the base,I started with it first.

The base consistsof two 6"-wide piecesthat are 12" long.Each piece has a 45°angle cut at one end, so when these basepieces are glued together, you end up withan L-shaped base, see Fig. 1.

CORNER BLOCK. Sitting on top of the baseis a corner block. This is just two more 6"-square pieces glued together to form a 1V^"-thick block. When glued in place, the cornerblock covers the mitered joint on the baseto strengthen the jig.

The extra thickness of the block is likesmall fence that supports your workpiecewhen the clamping disks are tightened. Theonly thing critical about making the cornerblock is getting the corners square (90°). Ifthey're not, the corners on your projectwon't be either. Once it's glued up, simplyglue and clamp it to the base.

DISKS & SPACERS. Also attached to thebase are two 4" disks. They are the heart ofthe jig. They wedge your workpieces tight

%"-diameter hole /offset from centerpointto give cam action

against the corner block to hold them tightfor assembly. For this to work, the mount-ing hole in each disk isn't drilled in the cen-ter. It's offset by W, see Fig. 2. That way,the harder you twist a disk, the tighter itwedges the workpiece.

Mounted under each disk is a W hard-board (Masonite) spacer, see Figs, la and 2.It raises the disk up off the base to make iteasier to grip. Unlike the disk, the mountinghole for the spacer is centered. Both thespacer and disk are attached to the basewith a carriage bolt and a wing nut. Don'tovertighten the wing nut. It should be snugyet allow the disk to turn freely.

USING THE JIG. Once the spacers anddisks are attached, the jig is ready to use.

Simply set your pieces in the jig againstthe corner block and twist the disks to holdthem in place, see Fig. 3. Q

Twist disk to wedge workpiecetight against corner block

Corner block

FEATURE YOUR JIG

If you've built an original jig and wouldlike to see it featured on this page, sendyour idea to Woodsmith, Reader's Jig,2200 Grand Ave., Des Moines, IA 50312.

If we publish it, we'll send you $100 anda full set of Woodsmith back issues, withbinders. (This set retails for over $300.)Include a sketch (or photo) of your jig andexplain how it's used. And please includea daytime phone number.

'


P R O J E C T S U P P L I E S

SourcesWoodsmith Project Suppliesoffers hardware kits and sup-plies for some of the projectsshown in this issue. Supplies forthese projects are also availableat your local hardware store orthrough one of the mail ordercatalogs listed below.

WALNUT CABINETA complete hardware kit for thewalnut cabinet, shown on page6, is currently available. This kitincludes all the woodscrews youwill need, plus the following:• (2 pair) 2V2"-long Brass

Ball-tipped Hinges• (2) Brass Ball Catches• (2) 1" Brass Knobs• (4) Brass Spoon-style

Shelf SupportsW101-7101-100 WalnutCabinet Hardware Kit $39.95

This or similar hardware isalso available from the wood-working catalogs listed in themail order sources below.

FINISH. To finish the cabinet,I wiped on two coats of GeneralFinishes' Royal Finish, (awipe-on oil/urethane finish).Woodsmith Project Supplies iscurrently offering this finish.W101-4003-602 Royal Fin-ish (Satin) $11.95 quart

General Finishes and other oilfinishes are also available at lo-

HOW TO ORDERTo order a project kit fromWoodsmith Project Supplies,use our Toll-Free order line.It's open Monday throughFriday, from 7 AM to 7 PMCentral Time.

Before calling, please haveyour VISA, MasterCard, orDiscover Card ready.

If you would like to mail anorder in, call the number be-low for more information onshipping charges and any ap-plicable sales tax.

1-800-444-7527

Note: Prices subject tochange after December, 1995

cal hardware stores or throughthe mail order sources below.

LAMP TABLETo build the lamp table on page18, the only hardware you'llneed are four figure-8 fastenersand eight #8 x V2M flathead wood-screws. This hardware may beavailable at your local hardwarestore. Or you can order it fromthe catalogs listed below.

PAINTED FINISHTo finish the top of the lamp ta-ble, I applied a couple coats ofGeneral Finishes' Royal Fin-ish, see above. But the base ofthe table was spray painted.

SANDING SUPPLIES. To applya painted finish, you need someautomotive glazing, spot putty(I used Bondo), and a plasticapplicator (which can simply bean old credit card). Also, you'llneed some wet/dry sandpaper(220-grit and 400-grit) and aspray bottle.

PAINTING SUPPLIES. For theprimer and paint, I used Kry-lon's lacquer-based paint, avail-able at local hardware stores.(Note: If the can doesn't say ifit's lacquer-based, check the di-rections. You can recoat lac-quer-based paint immediately.)The only other thing you'llneed is an acrylic clear coat. Iused a satin clear coat, that'salso made by Krylon.

Besides the supplies listed,there are a few additional itemsyou'll find helpful.

SAFETY ITEMS. When spraypainting, you'll want to use arespirator, see the catalogs be-low for sources. And to providea backdrop to catch the over-spray, hang a sheet of plasticbehind the project.

SPRAY HANDLE. Another itemI found at the hardware storewas a handle with a trigger thatattaches to the spray can, seethe photo on page 22. This at-tachment costs about $2, and itallows you to spray the paintwithout getting finger cramps.

LAZY SUSAN. And finally, youmight want to invest in a lazysusan turntable, see page 2

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