First time poster here. I am a newly inspired wookworker who is attempting my first piece…a bedside table. I did my own plans and through the guidance and options offer by your magazine and on-line videos and articles, I have figured out by trial and error mostly all my problems so far.
I opted to make the drawer from 1/2 inch birch plywood and drawer bottom from 1/4 in birch plywood. I plan on attaching the 3/4 inch oak front. I want to dado the drawer front, sides and back for the drawer bottom but smallest dado I can cut with my table saw dado set is 1/4 inch and the plywood is 3/16 inch.
I could make two passes with my regular 1/8 in blade. Is there a better way and if not, is there a method of work that would make my fit accurate.I just love this new found hobby and appreciate all the assistance.
Replies
Barry , Two passes on table saw, I do whole sets of cabs this way.
Tom.
As suggested, do two passes, moving the fence over a bit for the second pass. Do a test cut on a piece of scrap, moving the fence in a few small steps until you get the fit you want. The fit should be snug but not tight, you have to slide the bottom in.
Shop Manager for FWW Magazine, 1998 to 2007
Thanks guys. I read somewhere that one could place a piece of material between the fence and the stock and make the first pass. The stock was then removed and the second pass was made with the stock tight to the fence.
The thickness of the removable material would be slightly wider than 1/16"
I was thinking that this method may be more accurate than moving the fence such a small amount. What do you think about method of work?
It is very easy to nudge the fence over. The spacer, once you got the thickness right, would be an advantage only if you were doing a lot of drawer making on project after project, and only if you used the same thickness of plywood for the bottoms each time. Start out with the simplest approach first.John White
Shop Manager for FWW Magazine, 1998 to 2007
Barry ....... what John said.
Tom
barry...
for your drawers, if your think about it, the bottoms were to be 1/4" ply, which would mean you'd have to cut a dado and leave a 1/4" at least below the dado.
So lemme ask you the question, right now you is talking two materiaLs (1/2 AND 1/4), AND YOU IS CUTTING 1/2" RaBBETS ANYWAY, so pursuing this, it begs the question.......Why not just make the bottom 1/2", ie.cut the same rabbets on the bottom too.
The benifets? Instead of two thicknesses of materials, you got only one
The drawbacks, you gotta be sure all yer materials is cut square, cause once that bottom is glued and pinned in place, ain't nothing gonna change. If the sides were out of square, if the bottom was out of square, and well, it's gonna be locked in stone,
You cannot torque it, twist it, it has to be totally square on all cuts up front., but it does save time on set up and avoids multiple materia costs, and is stronger to boot.
If you wanna go with the 3/16 ply, well most dado sets won't go down that fine, but you can easily mimic that fairly inexpensively by purcahsing 3 or 5 cheapo 7 1/4" decking blades and stacking them as you would a stacking dado set, only smaller and cheaper. You may still need to get some of them plastic shims if width don't work out quite right.
Best economic/pragmatic solution I got. Who's got one better.
Eric in Calgary.
What John and Gofigure said.
2 passes
Boiler
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