This is awesome. If someone wants to get me one for Christmas I won't mind a bit! A tad on the expensive side perhaps, but hey, I can always hope.
Every once in a while it’s necessary to bore a hole in the end of longish piece of wood. For that you have a couple of choices; put the wood in the vice and drill into the end eyeballing the hole, or make some sort of jig and do it on the drill press.
I must confess that I often have been in something of a rush and gone with the first option but it’s rarely perfect and depending on the size of the wood and the size of the drill bit can be a tad unsafe. Far better then, especially if you have more than one to do is to make some sort of jig. The drawing shows one option and it’s one that works well, which once made can be stored in the workshop for future use. The one caveat to success is to ensure that the drill press table is perfectly perpendicular to the drill spindle, which is easy enough to check with a decent square.
Here’s a quick tip that you might not know about. The recognized way to countersink a hole for a screw head is to drill the clearance hole for the shank of the screw first and then follow up with a countersink. It works but the countersink is often less than perfect, especially on soft woods where the countersink may chatter in the hole.
There are two ways to overcome this problem. The first is to countersink the hole first. This only works if you use one of the countersinks like the one on the extreme left in the picture. It may seem counter intuitive but it does work I can assure you, as evidenced by the picture above using the same bit but both techniques.
The other way to get perfect countersinks is to not use the multi point style countersink at all. These bits were initially designed for use on metals, for which they work well – on wood not so much. The two rather odd looking bits in the center of the second picture have a single cutting edge and actually burnish the hole as they cut. These bits are meant for wood and only for wood but they produce perfect countersinks. It should be noted that if using these bits they should be run at a slow speed for best results.
Storing tools on the boat is always a compromise. On one hand they should be easily accessible, and on the other they tend to just get chucked in a box or plastic tray, and dumped in the bottom of a locker because space on a boat is always at a premium. Then when you do need some tool or other,o you finally pull the tool box out only to find out that all your tools are covered in rust. I have mitigated these problems to a large extent by only buying good quality tools, spraying them with WD40, and then storing them in an airtight box. I thought I was pretty particular, till I saw this Hylas 54 with super-dooper tool storage in the main salon. Impressive yes, but I think this is a bit of a waste of space. Also given the size of boat there were not that many tools in there - a basic tool kit at best.
The bottom picture shows another storage solution and one that I use myself. Although this is in my workshop at home it's an idea that works equally well on a larger boat. Lengths of PVC pipe are cut on the chop saw and screwed to a convenient wall or bulkhead, both fast and cheap. Some tools, such as bolt cutters do not require caps on the bottom of the tube but others, such as those used to hold screwdrivers and suchlike, do. There are two ways to go with the caps, either buy the plastic end caps where you buy the pipe and glue them on; easy and quick. Or do as I do and use the correct size hole saw to make a plywood disc on the drill press which is then epoxied into the end of the tube; easy and cheap. You'll need to get the right size hole saw, the local Home Depot or other tool store should have a selection just make sure that the inside diameter of the saw and pipe are the same size.
Unless you have access to high end tools – I don't – you'll know what a bear it can be to manhandle large sheets of plywood across the table saw. Here's a cheap and cheerful way to support wide boards while sawing them down into smaller pieces. I've found, apart from making the whole operation safer, it also allows me to make much more accurate cuts.
The drawing shows how it all works. You might have to adjust or adapt you sizes to suit you particular application. I used 2 inch PVC pipe, but I don't see why larger or smaller pipes wouldn't work equally well. Just measure carefully to ensure that the finished height to the top of the pipe is exactly the same as the height to the top of your table saw. If it's too low it won't support the board adequately, and if it's too high it will jam the cut as the board is pushed through the saw and could cause kickback.
For the longest time I have struggled with sheets of ply. Once I have wrestled them out of the back of the truck, and into the workshop (garage), I then have to cut them down to the required sizes. For bulkheads and such, or those times when I require ply to be cut into curved shapes, I lay the ply on a few saw horses and cut them with my jigsaw. But there are times when ply has to be cut accurately into other sizes, such as when making cabinets. For this right angle cuts are required, often with several parts to exactly the same dimensions. Although I have a small bench top table saw the top was too small and the fence not accurate enough to make the required cuts. Frankly, it was dangerous, and very frustrating. Some time back I built a guide rail for the Skill saw and this works well but it does take a little time to set up and repetitive cuts mean that the rail has to be moved for each piece.
I have neither the space nor the budget for a full size cabinet saw. Much as I would like one They do take up a lot of space, plus once they are set up you can't move them. I already had the Craftsman table saw so I thought that the bench you see here would do the trick. I can't claim credit for the idea, there are a ton of similar saw cabinets on the internet, but it extends the functionality of the saw by a factor of a hundred. After sketching out the idea on a couple of pieces of paper I set to work. There is a platform at the bottom to which 6 soft rubber-tired locking castors are attached. Screwed to the base is a storage cabinet to the right of the saw and a lower storage unit, below the saw catches the dust and lifts the actual saw to a convenient height. An after market fence is the icing on the cake, and allows for simple, fast, and accurate set up. The extra top work surface is made from two layers of MDF covered in plastic laminate, trimmed at the edges with some bits of maple.
The saw is super mobile and allows me to easily move it in the workshop, or even outside on sunny days, so I can drag the ply out of the truck and almost instantly cut it to size. The next upgrade will be to add a fold up outside table onto the rear, saving me having to set up a roller stand to support the back edge of an 8 foot sheet when working alone - which is most of the time.
When I have time I like to get down to the workshop as often as possible. I use the term advisedly as my wife would prefer that her car was in the garage, er workshop. That said although it is under the house and not as cold as it could hardly be called toasty in the winter. I do have a selection of heaters and these help a little but do little more than take the chill off when I am actually in there and although I tend to stay warm enough by a combination of heaters and work this is not good for epoxy resins which is a material that I tend to use a fair amount. If the part is small that I am working on then I tend to move it into the basement which is warmer to allow the adhesive to set up, larger sections and projects that cannot be easily moved to tend to be put off until the warmer weather if at all possible. Although the workshop never gets down to freezing which is bad for epoxy the adhesive if very cold is very thixotropic and hard to pump out of the containers. For consistent mixing and to make it easier to handle it pays to keep the unmixed epoxy at consistent warm temperature. I have seen all sorts ideas from using an old fridge or a wooden insulated box with a low wattage light bulb inside which provides sufficient heat to keep the epoxy at a good consistent workable temperature. But I have found a better way, now I just keep the containers of resin and hardener sitting on top of a heating pad. No complicated boxes to build or old fridges to find room for. Turned down to the minim temperature it works a treat. To stop the pad from getting covered in epoxy drips and other crap I keep the pad in a thick plastic bag. The other thing that you can do with the pad that I never thought of is that you can actually move it and assuming that the part I am gluing up is not too large I can actually set down the glued component down on it where the heat will make the epoxy cure nicely with no amine blush. The heating pad that I use cost $15 at Walgreens.
I spend a fair bit of time in the wood shop making projects for the boat and the house. Often times that involves some cabinet work of one sort or another and although it may be acceptable to simply glue and screw cabinets together if they are to be painted it is not the best way if they are to be finished bright or the showing any sort of fixings is unacceptable. One of the best ways is dado or as we say in British English cut some housings. These are simply a groove across one board into which another board slots. Useful for all sorts of things but the trick is making sure that one board fits neatly into the other. Sometimes the component parts will be solid wood but most often they will be some type of panel material; MDF, plywood etc. To a novice one would think that if you bought three quarter inch plywood you would only have to cut a three quarter inch dado and all would be well but plywood can often be slightly thinner or even slightly thicker than it's stated width so a more accurate method needs to be found to ensure that no matter the thickness of the material the fit will be snug and attractive.
Whilst it is true that you could simply measure the thickness of the boards and cut to that you are still faced with the problem of accurately machining the dado. This simple jig which is shown below is but one way of overcoming these problems. Simple to make it will work with almost any router and can be knocked up from offcuts in about 30 to 45 minutes.
The actual length of the jig is dependent upon the actual width of the material that you wish to dado but for most purposes I have found that 24 inches will suffice for all but the largest cabinet jobs.
First up is to prepare two lengths of 2 by 1 inch material. These have to be dead straight and true, any inaccuracy here will be transferred to any dadoes that you cut. I used poplar which is a stable timber and trued them up on the jointer but planing them by hand works equally well but carefully check them with a T square for true.
These are then screwed to a couple of pieces of plywood the same length as the timber that you just cut. I found that prefinished birch is ideal but use what you have. Make sure that the plywood is at least half the width of your router's base plate.
When the wood has been screwed to the plywood it should look like this.
The next stage is to chuck a router cutter into your router which can thinner than the width of the dado you wish to cut but not wider. I have found that a half inch cutter is ideal as I mostly work on three quarter thick boards, just remember that the cutter that you choose can be smaller than the material than that you will be cutting but not larger. This will become apparent as you become familiar with the process. With the jig clamped firmly down to some scrap make several passes and cut through the jig. Do not try to cut through the thickness of the ply in one go, you will have a cleaner cut with less tear out if you take it steady. Also make sure that the base of the router is held firmly against the timber screwed on fence. The width of the jig is now very accurately machined from the fence to the edge of the plywood. Do this by cutting through the plywood along both fences so you end up with two identical but separate pieces.
To cut a dado line up the edge of the ply with the marks on the board where you want your shelf or whatever to go and clamp the jig in place. Set the cutting depth of the router so that it removes between a quarter and three eighths of an inch for three quarter thick material (LESS if the material you are cutting into is thinner) Then keeping the base plate of the router hard against the jig cut the dado.
Without moving the first part of the jig squeeze a sample section of the material that is to fit into the dado between the section of the jig that you just used and the new section and clamp the second section in place. Remove the sample material and the first half of the jig and without altering the depth of cut on the router make a second pass.
TA DA. A perfect dado every time all ready for glue up.
When routing against a jig always move the router from right to left to avoid it snatching and running away from you.
Mark the jig with a sharpie to show which cutter you used as the jig will only work with that particular cutter and router combination. Using a different cutter will lead to inaccurate dadoes.
I have always thought that money spent on tools is never money wasted. However money spent on cheap tools is definitely money wasted so I like to buy the best that I can afford. Although I have amassed a vast array of hand tools during my career I do like power and machine tools for the speed and accuracy that they offer making the mundane into, dare I say it, fun. I well remember using an electric router for the first time when still in high school. I was building a boat, what else, and needed to round off the edges of the gunwales. Mr Penfound the wood work teacher produced what I later found out to be a router and after showing me how to use the new fangled machine I rounded over the corners of the gunwales in just a few moments. It was some years later before I had a enough cash with which to buy my own router but since that time I have had several and presently have four machines of differing sizes.
Bosch router from Mark Corke on Vimeo.
Small routers are often called trim routers and have small less powerful motors. Frankly although I have used these smaller machines in the past I have never actually owned one of my own thinking them something of a toy but I was wrong. Recently I purchased the Bosch PR10E Colt. This machine features a1 hp motor and accepts cutters with a quarter inch shank so almost any cutter with a diameter of up to about three quarters in diameter will be fine. Features include a spindle lock, step-less variable speed control from 16000 to 35000 rpm, depth micro adjuster and a fence for straight cuts. That last feature will most likely stay in the box and is something that I shall probably never use for if I have a job that requires the use of a router with a fence for cutting dadoes for instance then I shall most likely reach for one of my other routers. No, where small routers like the PR10E shine is for light weight cutting, chamfering and molding and if is for this very task that I purchased this machine. I am currently working on a new boat building project and many of the wooden components require a small round over. Although a larger machine would work they are big, heavy and cumbersome for this work and a small body grip trim router such as this one shown are ideal and actually safer. With so many parts to round over the machine can almost be permanently set up and quickly grasped and the cut made without a second thought. Big machines make a lot more noise and the heavy weight require two hand for safe work. As you can see from the pictures and the short video I shot this is s very handy little machine. Bought for $60 from an online retailer this is my new go to tool.
Although there you can set the speed anywhere from 16000 to 35000 most of the time I run it at the top end.
The on off switch is a little small but conveniently placed on the side of the ruberized motor housing.
There is a fine micrometer adjustment for precise depth settings. Large changes or to remove the lower section of the machine entirely is accomplished with a small cam lever.
The PR10E is ideally suited for bearing guided cutters such as this round over bit.
I wish I could claim to have shot this video but I did not but it is very instructional in getting a nice steady shot. This is shot on a calm lake and working on a tossing boat would be a little more trying and require different techniques. However what is also worth noting is that the video is shot on a full frame DSLR camera. I have just taken delivery of a Nikon D800 which has this capability and have yet to try shooting any movies with it but I will try to get something up on the blog soon just as soon as I have waded through the two hundred or so pages of the user manual!