Sd

Silvan

22/12/2004 7:00 PM

debating how to make shelves...

I'm knocking out a little set of shelves to go under one wing of my TS and
hold my collection of hand planes close to my workbench.

I had one odd piece of plywood salvaged from a library magazine rack, and I
more or less just started cutting on it without a concrete plan. I made
the first crosscut as wide of a piece as I could manage in my little shop;
somewhere in the neighborhood of 30". I cut the next one to the same
length. That left me with a third piece a smidge longer than the first
two. I ripped it into four equal pieces 3" wide. I chose to use narrow
uprights to encourage air circulation, to keep the rust off my planes.

What I want to end up with is a simple shelf with four upright pieces and
two shelves. I might make a third shelf out of another piece of this
magazine rack. So now I'm left with a choice for how to join the shelves
to the uprights.

Plan A. I could cut dadoes in all four upright pieces to admit the shelves.
Then glue and screw them in. Problems with this plan are: no dado stack,
and that's a lot of kerf-and-chiseling to do; a lot of room to screw up.
Advantages are: easy to keep the shelves level, probably strong with
minimal glue/screw if I get the dadoes to fit tightly.

Plan B. I could cut notches out of all the shelves to admit the uprights.
Problems with this plan are: alignment/leveling of the shelves becomes
more problematic. Advantages: less kerf-and-chiseling to do.

Plan C. Just screw the damn thing together. Advantages: it doesn't have to
take much weight, and that would probably be fine. Disadvantages: it
seems like a really wussy thing for a Real Dorker to do.

Plan D. Use this as justification to buy a dado set.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/


This topic has 15 replies

BR

Bernard R

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

22/12/2004 9:28 PM

Silvan wrote:
> Dave Balderstone wrote:
>
>
>>You don't have a router to cut the dados?
>
>
> The short answer is no. The long answer involves a lot of ranting about
> what a completely useless POS my router is. :)
>
> I'd rather have a dado stack anyway, if it comes down to spending money. I
> can wait indefinitely before getting a new router.
>

IMO the cost of a reasonable dado set is a significant part of a good
router,
and whereas a dado set is only good for one job, namely cutting through
dados,
a router is a multi functional tool, which, with a little ingenuity can
do a better
job than a dado.

Last year I had a number of shelves to build into kitchen cabinets and
routed them all. I set up 2 parallel boards onto wooden bearers, one
board was fixed and the other slotted for small adjustment to allow for
differences between the ply thickness.

Unless you are always working ply and add lipping after all machining I
don't see the great attraction of dado sets.

BernardR

DB

Dave Balderstone

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

22/12/2004 6:11 PM

You don't have a router to cut the dados?

DB

Dave Balderstone

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

22/12/2004 8:37 PM

In article <[email protected]>, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

> I'd rather have a dado stack anyway, if it comes down to spending money. I
> can wait indefinitely before getting a new router.

As long as there's a new tool involved, then you're on the right track.
My POS saw won't accept a dado stack, so I invested in the router and
find I can't live without it.

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

22/12/2004 8:31 PM

Dave Balderstone wrote:

> You don't have a router to cut the dados?

The short answer is no. The long answer involves a lot of ranting about
what a completely useless POS my router is. :)

I'd rather have a dado stack anyway, if it comes down to spending money. I
can wait indefinitely before getting a new router.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

24/12/2004 12:45 AM

TWS wrote:

>>Plan D. Use this as justification to buy a dado set.

> A rule in the brotherhood of woodworking states that in any set of two
> or more options you *must* reject any options that do not require new
> tools.

Cool. Can I get that calligraphed on vellum somewhere so's to make it look
all official and stuff? :)

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

24/12/2004 1:12 AM

George wrote:

> Cut, butt, back fully. Planes have happily lived in fully enclosed
> toolchests for literally centuries.

It's an unheated space. Everything rusts like crazy certain times of year
unless I keep the air flowing.

> What concerns me is that you've got something more suited at 3" to mount
> on
> a wall rather than stand up. My under wing shelf (8") gets bumped once
> in a while, which makes me glad that it holds only unbreakable.

That didn't come through very well in my rant. The uprights are 3" but the
shelves are, well, bigger. I'm not sure how bigger. Call it 18" x 30"
with a total of four uprights.

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--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

24/12/2004 1:34 AM

Bernard R wrote:

> IMO the cost of a reasonable dado set is a significant part of a good
> router,
> and whereas a dado set is only good for one job, namely cutting through
> dados,

Hah. I'd love to have a dado set. There are lots of uses for a wide kerf
in one pass. A lot of these uses are an alternative to using a banshee to
do the same job.

I'm not a router virgin, I just don't like them much. There are other ways
to do almost everything, and I prefer those other ways. I can coax my
piece of crap router into doing everything I *have* to use it for (namely,
picture frame type stuff), and beyond that, I really have little use for
it. Replacing it has been at the bottom of my list for years.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

24/12/2004 1:40 AM

jo4hn wrote:

>> Plan D. Use this as justification to buy a dado set.
>>
>
> Sounds to me like what YOU want to do is Plan A and Plan D, not
> necessarily in that order. You have my blessing.

The Mibro one at Lowe's is not recommended, is it?

I guess I should STFW already. I'm sure that question has been beaten to
death.

I'm thinking in that direction, although maybe not quite yet. I should just
slap it together and get it over with really, and save my dado set money to
put toward zither pins and stuff. I've got a hankering to build a hammered
dulcimer. Got some, well, I hate to admit it, but, yes, plans (ugh) to see
how these things work, and I think I can pull it off. I've wanted one for
yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs. This is sounding like a plan.

First I have to secure supplies of species not locally available. It seems
to be 100% universal that these things always use rock maple where it
counts, and all I can get is soft. I need to get some real plywood too.
This stuff I've got has pine plys. Yuck.

Ugh. Maybe I should buy the dado set anyway. :)

(Or maybe I should wait until SWMBO's surgery bills come in, and see if I
can afford any of this. Damn, there I go being practical again. :( )

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Sd

Silvan

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

24/12/2004 9:57 PM

George wrote:

> OK, so it is standing stable. Use cleats if it's not going to be shown as
> an example of your woodworking prowess.

Yeah, I could definitely do cleats, but they're so so lame. Might just do
that anyway because who wants to futz with any kind of fancy joinery in
plywood anyway?

> Still more dubious about the planes. They'll develop rust where they're
> supported, so use something like that green plastic fencing material that
> looks like expanded metal to set them on, or get them into a closed box
> with
> camphor. Whatever you do, don't set them on bare wood, which actively
> grabs water on its own.

Should be OK. They've been on my waxed workbench all summer/fall. Only a
couple of teensy rusty spots, up in the guts, like at the iron to frog
junction on just one plane. This wood is pre-finished with something. It
used to be a piece of furniture that I got for $2.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Gg

"George"

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

23/12/2004 9:42 AM

Cut, butt, back fully. Planes have happily lived in fully enclosed
toolchests for literally centuries.

What concerns me is that you've got something more suited at 3" to mount on
a wall rather than stand up. My under wing shelf (8") gets bumped once in
a while, which makes me glad that it holds only unbreakable.

"Silvan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm knocking out a little set of shelves to go under one wing of my TS and
> hold my collection of hand planes close to my workbench.
>
> I had one odd piece of plywood salvaged from a library magazine rack, and
I
> more or less just started cutting on it without a concrete plan. I made
> the first crosscut as wide of a piece as I could manage in my little shop;
> somewhere in the neighborhood of 30". I cut the next one to the same
> length. That left me with a third piece a smidge longer than the first
> two. I ripped it into four equal pieces 3" wide. I chose to use narrow
> uprights to encourage air circulation, to keep the rust off my planes.
>

Gg

"George"

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

24/12/2004 9:02 AM


"Silvan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> George wrote:
>
> > Cut, butt, back fully. Planes have happily lived in fully enclosed
> > toolchests for literally centuries.
>
> It's an unheated space. Everything rusts like crazy certain times of year
> unless I keep the air flowing.
>
> > What concerns me is that you've got something more suited at 3" to mount
> > on
> > a wall rather than stand up. My under wing shelf (8") gets bumped once
> > in a while, which makes me glad that it holds only unbreakable.
>
> That didn't come through very well in my rant. The uprights are 3" but
the
> shelves are, well, bigger. I'm not sure how bigger. Call it 18" x 30"
> with a total of four uprights.
>
OK, so it is standing stable. Use cleats if it's not going to be shown as
an example of your woodworking prowess.

Still more dubious about the planes. They'll develop rust where they're
supported, so use something like that green plastic fencing material that
looks like expanded metal to set them on, or get them into a closed box with
camphor. Whatever you do, don't set them on bare wood, which actively grabs
water on its own.

TT

TWS

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

25/12/2004 3:31 AM

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 00:45:08 -0500, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

>TWS wrote:
>
>>>Plan D. Use this as justification to buy a dado set.
>
>> A rule in the brotherhood of woodworking states that in any set of two
>> or more options you *must* reject any options that do not require new
>> tools.
>
>Cool. Can I get that calligraphed on vellum somewhere so's to make it look
>all official and stuff? :)
Might have to carve it into a nice hunk of lumber. Hmmm, might mean I
need to get some new carving knives or chisels...

TWS

jj

jo4hn

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

23/12/2004 2:21 AM

Silvan wrote:
> I'm knocking out a little set of shelves to go under one wing of my TS and
> hold my collection of hand planes close to my workbench.
>
[snip]>
> Plan A. I could cut dadoes in all four upright pieces to admit the shelves.
> Then glue and screw them in. Problems with this plan are: no dado stack,
> and that's a lot of kerf-and-chiseling to do; a lot of room to screw up.
> Advantages are: easy to keep the shelves level, probably strong with
> minimal glue/screw if I get the dadoes to fit tightly.
>
> Plan B. I could cut notches out of all the shelves to admit the uprights.
> Problems with this plan are: alignment/leveling of the shelves becomes
> more problematic. Advantages: less kerf-and-chiseling to do.
>
> Plan C. Just screw the damn thing together. Advantages: it doesn't have to
> take much weight, and that would probably be fine. Disadvantages: it
> seems like a really wussy thing for a Real Dorker to do.
>
> Plan D. Use this as justification to buy a dado set.
>

Sounds to me like what YOU want to do is Plan A and Plan D, not
necessarily in that order. You have my blessing.
mahalo,
jo4hn

b

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

22/12/2004 8:13 PM

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 19:00:56 -0500, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I'm knocking out a little set of shelves to go under one wing of my TS and
>hold my collection of hand planes close to my workbench.
>
>I had one odd piece of plywood salvaged from a library magazine rack, and I
>more or less just started cutting on it without a concrete plan. I made
>the first crosscut as wide of a piece as I could manage in my little shop;
>somewhere in the neighborhood of 30". I cut the next one to the same
>length. That left me with a third piece a smidge longer than the first
>two. I ripped it into four equal pieces 3" wide. I chose to use narrow
>uprights to encourage air circulation, to keep the rust off my planes.
>
>What I want to end up with is a simple shelf with four upright pieces and
>two shelves. I might make a third shelf out of another piece of this
>magazine rack. So now I'm left with a choice for how to join the shelves
>to the uprights.
>
>Plan A. I could....

snip a bunch of terrible half assed ideas.....


>
>Plan D. Use this as justification to buy a dado set.

Uh Huh......

TT

TWS

in reply to Silvan on 22/12/2004 7:00 PM

23/12/2004 1:36 AM

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 19:00:56 -0500, Silvan
<[email protected]> wrote:


>Plan D. Use this as justification to buy a dado set.
A rule in the brotherhood of woodworking states that in any set of two
or more options you *must* reject any options that do not require new
tools.

TWS


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