A nice sheet of virgin baltic birch plywood 3/4"
A nice sheet of virgin baltic birch plywood 3/4"
Edge view of birch ply- note the fine veneers i think 13.
Second pic is of 1" hardwood ply that I use when available. It is very dense.
Third pic is of the 1" that I got for this project. Similar to birch but with a better face on one side and a crummy one on the reverse. This is not important as I am going to veneer when complete
The Gods of plywood are kind enough to supply their product with a very straight edge as standard , so we can use the edge of one sheet to guide the saw. The width of this is not important as long as it is not too skinny in which case it will tend to bow as you run along.
Say hello to our friend for today Mr RIPSNORTER.
Take care to mark up your cut evenly at both ends so that the remainder of the sheet is not skewed. 5-6" is plenty. Note the very essential SOLO Clamps
Cheap and effective the best ten bucks you will ever spend.
Set the saw depth to be just a little more than the material you are cutting say 1" for 3/4" material
Last pic , now we have a guide.
With our brand new straight edge we can now start to cut the material for the cabinets.
We have to allow for the offset of the saw blade INCLUDING the kerf or saw cut itself. As you can see in the second pic that offset is 42mm or 1 5/8" so this amount will need to be added to every size.
In this case we need 15 3/4" so add the 1 5/8" and that is your figure.
I'm actually doing this in metric and the numbers are 400mm plus 42mm.
BUT !!
we also add an extra 1/16" or 2mm because we are going to clean these panels up to a dead size at a later stage hence I am adding 44mm or in imperial 1 11/16". Remember that that figure is for MY saw with that particular blade so you will need to establish a figure for your own tool.
BUT !!
you must add on that extra little bit but no more than 3mm or 1/8"
So we now clamp up the guide and check your measurements TWICE
It is worth taking a small test cut to check your size. Ther is nothing worse than slicing up a sheet to the wrong size especially if it is on the small side.
Your timber merchant will love you and lots of new shelves for the garage.
As you can see from the tape I am getting 402mm which is ideal.
Make sure you are the same at both ends !!
If you want, a drywall screw in the middle of the guide will ensure that it will not bow,
Now cut the panel
If you recall my comments about planning your layout I figured these long cuts to be the most economical.
Now we have two lengths at 402mm and one that is 408mm.wide.
The wider plank is not a concern to me since I know that the grading process will allow me to reduce that to the correct size. Not really worth the extra saw cut to whip off 5mm ( 3/16 " )
My cutting plan gives me two sides and one top or bottom from each plank
so I will double up the two equal planks and mark up for the cross cuts.
Same proceedure as before. Add on for the saw PLUS 2mm (1/16" )
The saw depth has to be increased but only enough to just get all the way through.
You must take care to even up the two panels with respect to each other. If you are uncomfortable doing this just do one at a time and follow the same method as before.
Take a wee test cut just to be sure.
You can see that I am getting 34 7/16" ie 1/16" more than the dead size but we are going to grade the size later so that is perfect.
The completed cross cuts.
So far we have 4 sides and 2 tops and are left with that slightly oversize plank
so two more cuts are needed to get the 2 bottoms. The oversize will be reduced later.
Same as before always check your sizes and add on as before.
Pic 2 A little taste of what is to come.
Pic 3 The completed bundle. The two odd bottoms are marked
This is inevitable but our next steps will remove this. Not a problem.
Now we can say goodbye to Mr RIPSNORTER.
Now we move on to our old pal the Router. This will be used in the first instance to grade or size the panels. By using a fixed fence or guide and by passing every panel through the cutter without changing the set of the fence then all the panels will come out exactly the same.
The edges will be cleaned up in the process.
Most routers can be mounted in this fashion some have large base plates to allow this and there are also router tables.
Remember I am doing this down and dirty. An ideal candidate for this is an old cafeteria table, the type with laminate on the top. You may have to sort out the mounting arrangements for the router but at the end you want to have plenty of space or surface around the cutter particularly if the panels are large.
We are using a 2" straight fluted cutter here 12.7 mm diameter. Best to get a nice new one for this. The one in the pic is a beater and should go in the bin
This shows the cutter and its direction of rotation. It is VITAL that all the passes of material are in the direction shown. If you try to go the other way the action of the cutter will pull the workpiece away from you and probably chew it up. Try a couple of test pieces from your offcuts so that you get a feel for the process. We should be in good shape coz all our panels are 2mm over so a couple of fine cuts on opposing sides will get us dead to size.
BUT!!! Remember this is a fast spinning sharp thing. NO KIDS ANYWHERE NEAR THIS. NO LOOSE CLOTHING TIE HAIR BACK IF IT IS LONG. SWITCH ON CUT YOUR PIECE AND SWITCH OFF!! you will want to have a dust brush available to keep the table clean as dust between the fence and the workpiece will alter the size
I will elaborate on this as we get into the next phase
This is my last for today time for a few brewskis
forgot the picture
Any questions or comments can you fire them into ' Backyard Box Building' and not his thread. Ta I will field them as they appear
I have been trying to be true to spec here and build these in the yard but we have been having the wettest summer especially at the weekends. So I have taken shelter in my small garage.
Anyway to summarise we have made a plan and established sizes, worked out a cutting plan and cut our panels.
Remember though that the sizes of the panels are about 1/16" over what we want.The main reason for this is that we are going to use the router table to regularise the dimensions. The other reason is that the rip saw does not really cut a true straight edge - the blade will waver slightly as it cuts plus you get swirls if you pause during cutting.
The next step then is on to the router table-------
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