Nickbee

The next step is to trim the 4 way book match to the proper size. For this I mark the centers of the substraight and line them up with the seams of the book match:



A couple swipes of the xacto and the book match and the backer is cut:



Since the bottom side of the floor will be facing the down most of the time (unless someone picks up the box to look at the bottom) I keep it simple with a solid piece of veneer. But I do stick to the same corner of the sheet that I used for the book match.

For the larger platens I break out a platoon of clamps. I need to clamp shopping!!!!



Tomorrow I sand! Any tips from the experts out there? I was just going to stick to a sanding block with 220.

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Nickbee

The bottom comes out for the press looking good:



Joe mentions in his taping article that you should wait a while before removing veneer tape. Just in case there is some still wet glue under the tape. So I let the panel site overnight.

I then moisten the tape slightly with a damp paper towel and use a small putty knife to get the it off:



And residual glue is wiped off with some denatured alcohol .

Now it’s time to sand. I was a bit nervous about this step since I didn’t know what to except. I’ve also read horror stories of sanding through veneer. I stick with 220 paper on my aluminum sanding block:



As I start sanding my mind is eased a bit. I remember, this is just wood. I can immediately see and feel the high spots of the panel getting knocked down. I sand until the entire panel looks like covered in coco powder. Then checking the panel with my digital calipers I’m amazed at how flat it is. From corner to corner there is only a few thousandths deviation.

Here is the bottom and an example of both sides after sanding and a mineral spirits wipe down:



The panels are also very accurate in thickness from panel to panel. They average about .155” This is what I’ll set my grove to in my rails / stiles. I figured if a panel or two end up being too tight there is still plenty of veneer thickness left sand them into submission.

With the panels sanded and ready to go next comes the easy part. Well at least it’s the part I’m more familiar with. Cutting up the rails / stiles on my router table. Stay tuned for more!

Nickbee

The next step is to cut up the rails / stiles. The stiles are easy, they will be 4”, the over all height of the box. The rails are going to be 7” plus the length that makes up the tenons. .155” x 2 works out to be almost 5/16”. So the rails get cut to 7 5/16“.

I kiss each end on my disc sander and make sure the rails stiles are all exactly the same length and squared off This is more important than the exact dimension:



A quick 90 deg mock up shows the joints should look good:



And all 8 rails and 4 stiles are ready to go:



Next stop, the router table…

Nickbee

A project is not worth doing unless I get to buy a new router bit. For this project I pick up this beauty:



A 1/16” 4 winged slot cutter from Whiteside. The bearing is for show (and to secure the slot cutter on the arbor). The fence on the router table will be setting the depth of cut, not the bearing. I also now realize that I could have used a 1/8” kerf cutter (since my groves will be cut to .155”). I ordered the 1/16” not knowing what the final panel thickness would be for this project. Oh well, it just means one extra pass, not a big deal.

Since I know my grove width is going to be .155” I set my fence at this dimension also. This will produce a square looking tenon at the visible joints.

As I start my test cuts I run into two issues. 1st off the wood was feeding into the cutter roughly and the wood was smoking????? WTF? Then looking at the bit coming to a stop I noticed I installed it on the arbor upside down (see the pics above again)!!! Doh!!!! I didn’t even think of it when installing the cutter on the arbor.

With that issue settled I make a test cut with a .155” x .155” grove. With the grove centered in the stiles it was not leaving enough meat on the inside corner of the stiles. So I adjusted the fence to .125”. My visible tenons will not be perfectly square but they will work with the design.

Now’s a good time to mention that the fence will only be set once while cutting the rails/stiles. This will guarantee that the groves (mortises) and tenons will be the exact same dimension. The only adjustment made will be to the bit height.

Here’s the router all set up and cutting the 1st pass of the groves:



Here are the rails / stiles after the 1st pass:



The bottom rails will need another grove cut to accommodate the box floor but they will be cut after the tenons to avoid tear out (this is a hard lesson I learned while building the plant stand).

Here are the stiles after a few passes. Note how the grove is centered since the panel will be visible from both the outside and inside of the box:



Some quick mock ups show the panels fit nice and snug in the groves:







Here are the rails with the 1st groves all done:



And here’s a panel mocked up with rails / stiles:



But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. The tenons need to be cut! That comes next.

Nickbee

Next it’s time to cut out the tenons in the rails. Or I guess it’s more like cut the rails to show the tenons? Was it Michael Angelo that said a sculpture in every piece of marble, it’s just a matter of bringing it out? OK, Zen woodworking moment over…

Here’s the coping jig I made just for this purpose. The center toggle clamp holds a backer to minimize tear out and the two outside clamps hold the work piece:



This holds everything in place nicely as I start making passes with the same slot cutter set at the same fence depth:



Note the inverted feather board that acts as a stop.

After two passes here’s what we look like:



You’ll see that there is still a “sliver” that needs to be removed. The nice thing about this process is that the final cut setting can be done by sight (no measuring necessary). I raise the bit a little at a time until that sliver is reduced to a few wood fibers:



At this point one cheek of the tenon is cut precisely. Next is the other side…

Nickbee

After a few passes on the other side the teneon ids complete:



A few dry mock ups show things are looking good:







Next I need to cut the groves in the bottom rails to fit the box floor…

bobj3

Hi Nickbee


Looking good very nice job on the veneer as well,, I just can't wait till you discover the T & G router bit set and the R & S bit sets,,and what you can do with them...I know it will be great work just like the work you are now doing
just quicker and easyer ...

Sorry I have not jumped in on your other post, but it takes a long time to load up the pictures from a off site service...sometimes 5 mins. or more..

But it's worth the time but I'm always in a rush

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__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

Nickbee

Thanks Bj, I promise one of those sets is in my future. One question I have about them is how the slot thickness is adjusted. When making multiple passes with my slot cutter I can use the 1617’s micro adjust to open up the slot at 1/128” resolution for a perfect fit. I’m just wondering if I can get results that precise with one of those sets.

And I am very happy with the veneer process so far. Just goes to shoe that with enough research almost anything is possible. Anyone need some brain surgery?

bobj3

Hi NickBee

"I’m just wondering if I can get results that precise with one of those sets"

Yes,,,almost all of them come with copper shims,that are about the same thickest as a hair...but more like .002 of and inch.. hows that for precise
and you can make your own with a gasket puch set and copper that you can pickup at many machinery shop supply outlets and ACE hardware outlets..


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=========

__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

Nickbee

Sweet BJ! You have me convinced! I'll pick one up for my next rail / stile project.