I hope to get some good safety advice here…I like counting to ten…lol.
I’m building a mission-style dresser out of White Oak. The legs are to be 2 1/2 x 2 1/2. Since the thickest Qtrd White Oak that I can buy in the area is 8/4, I have to make a decision to either laminate or spline together four mitred pieces. The advantage of the latter is that I get ray flecks on all four sides…impossible in nature!
What I’d like to do is cut 2″ x 2 1/2″ pieces, do the 45 degree mitres, cut splines with the router…to join the four mitred sides…glue and assemble, and then cut my mortises, etc.
How do I safely bevel/mitre both edges? I’m told that kickback most often happens when you are ripping and a piece of wood gets wedged between the table saw blade and the fence. If I’m ripping longitudinally, how can I possible avoid either having the triangular cutoff or the soon-to-be-mitred leg between the blade and the fence?
My only question is about safety…Should I position the square edge against the fence, mitre the first side at 45 degrees and then turn it around and cut the second mitre…with some kind of stop so that my now-mitred edge doesn’t get wedged under the fence? Could I clamp some kind of sacrificial fence to my ‘real” fence, tilt the blade toward the fence and keep the cutoff against the fence?
Thanks in advance.
lp
Replies
Larry , I'm not sure i understand everything your trying to do, but two thoughts to ponder that might help: clamp wood to table and raise blade from under ? Do you have a slide to clamp the work to and then push through ?
Hi BG.
Thanks. The "raise the saw blade through" is good for short mitre cuts...these are 35-inch long posts that are being mitred along both sides...lengthwise?
A sliding-table arrangment would be hard to get accurate...any floppiness in any one of 8 cuts (times four legs) would result in a less-than-perfect 45-degree cut.
I'll keep asking for answers.
Thanks again!
lp
Okay, now I understand...I get three chances for a quarter right?
A lock mitre bit in the router table or shaper would do a nice job for that application with the bonus of making the glue up easier. If you do use the table saw method you could put the fence on the other side of the blade and have the waste peice under the blade but not trapped by the fence and the workpeice will not be under the blade.
Thanks Tom.
It'll have to be a hellova tall mitre-lock bit...but that's the direction I'm going....from safety and from integrity...wouldn't need to cut separate splines, etc...one operation, in several router passes (and after roughly mitering with the TS first) and I'm done!
lp
Do the legs have to be solid or or could the have a hollow center. You could use 3/4" stock and acheive the same result. The wood cost will be less, you will have ray figure on all four sides, abd machining will be simpler. If you need the center solid for joinery you could glue a peice in the center. Of course this all assumes that the top of the post does not protrude above the top.
Just a thought.
Hi Tom,
The post must have some space in it...Even if I use 8/4 stock, planed down minimally, I'll have at least a 1/2" square space. All of my tenons are 1" long...the space shouldn't be a problem, particularly since the dresser will have solid White Oak sides, a 3/4" plywood bottom that is glued and scewed into the back bottom stretcher and, in a couple of places, to the front stretcher....not relying on the legs for all of the structural rigidity. Although, as I write, I'm thinking this is going to be one HEAVY dresser!
I've decided to use 8/4, plane down as little as possible for maximum thickness, cut 45-degree angles on the table saw, and develop a simple, safe way to spline the posts before gluing up.
Two factors resulted in this decision:
1) I want to use the thickest stock possible. If I were to use thinner stock, my tapers legs would be pretty thin at the narrowest point. The tallest mitre-lock bit I can find only works on up to 1 3/16 stock...not even close to the 2" that I'd like. Perhaps a shaper could be used, but I don't have one....lol.
2) The whole Arts & Crafts movement was about using craftsmanship in lieu of manufacturing devices..the splining will take more work, more precision, but will also tap into skills and won't require me to buy yet another "make it easier" tool...
So my reasons are practical as well as philosophical.
I'll try to post some pictures as I go. I'm working from American Furniture Design plans that I'm pretty heavily modifying....not great plans...but good enough with some modifications.
Thanks to all..and advice/thoughts would be appreciated!
lp
Make sure your fence is exactly parallel to the blade, or even a little farther from the back of the blade than the front. That will greatly reduce the chance of the work binding. Next, use a feather board clamped to your fence to keep the work flat to the table and prevent the piece from sliding back at you. You could also clamp another featherboard on the table to hold the piece against the fence. I've seen one featherboard setup that had a t-slot rail attached so that the FB could be moved and secured via the t-slot. Finally, make sure you are using a sharp blade. A dull blade will cause burning and make life difficult.
The first cut is easy. The second cut (opposite side) is a little trickier since you have a fine, sharp edge presented to the fence. Make sure the fence is sitting absolutely flat on the table with no gaps for the work to get caught in.
Actually, just thought of something. I did it the way I described above for some 6X6 posts I put on my front porch. In retrospect, perhaps the best way to do it would be to cut the first edge with the fence on the right of the blade (assuming right tilt blade), then move the fence to the left and flip the work over for the second pass. This would put the thin edge of the piece further up on the fence. Featherboards positioned appropriately, of course.
Mark
Edited 8/5/2002 7:03:45 PM ET by MARKTRAV
Thanks to all.
I actually cut all 16 "quarters" for the four leg posts this weekend. Note all of my letters (fingers?) remain intact.
I'm actually pretty proud of what I ended up doing. Here goes:
I cut the 16 pieces to identical widths.
I then set up VERY careful and exact 45-degree blade angle...putting my fence to the left of the blade. I butted each piece up against my square fence and used featherboards to keep tight and cut the first 45-degree mitre.
Now start paying attention..I took one of the 45-degree cutoffs and put against the fence so it would support the previously mitred board..to essentially make a squarte... attached featherboards, put on my chain link gloves and my Superman t-shirt, crossed my fingers, and cut 16 more mitres....all were good!
Now I'm busily cutting 1/8 slots and splining the posts together..it takes 16 clamps...all I have...to glue up one post
But I'll have ray flecks on all four sides!
Now watch me screw up one of the mortises!
Thanks again to all. Be safe!
lp
Larry-
I hear what you're looking for and I have a solution that woodworkers do all the time- veneer!
I'm not suggesting you go out and buy veneer when you have good QS oak there. I would just rip a 2-3/4" wide board into 1/8" or 1'4" thick (or whatever) sheets and glue those on to a square core. You could make the core out of anything, including MDF for added stability. Make the core 2-3/8" square for 1'8" veneer. The 1/8" "veneer" you 've made on the bandsaw can then be beveled on the edges much more safely on a tablesaw if you like (or with a chamfer bit in a router), or just glue up 2 opposite sides, trim with a flush router bit, and then do the other 2 sides of the post.
All in all, probably a whole lot easier and a whole lot safer.
Kevin
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled