The bun feet were not a complete sphere as they had a flat section.  While I was able to put this flat section on the bed of my miter saw, the rounded section of the sphere was up against the fence.  The potential for the piece to rotate as I cut it was high.  As well as ruining an expensive fixture it could have caused a dangerous kickback.  As expensive as the bun feet were, my fingers are worth more, so I needed to figure out a way to hold the bun feet so that the cut could be performed on my miter saw accurately and safely.

A couple of pieces of scrap wood screwed together made a jig which allowed just that.  The bun foot is secured to the jig by a 1 1/2″ screw through the jig and into the base of the foot as well as an additional screw through the base of the jig and into the flat section of the bun foot These areas would be against the tile floor and the toe kick  so the holes formed by the screw would be hidden after installation.  The screws, as with the screws used to assemble the jig, would also be out of the way of the cut so the blade wouldn’t be damaged.

As you can see in the image below the bun foot is now held securely and square to the base and fence of the miter saw.   There is no danger of the bun foot moving or rotating in any direction or axis.  The jig also allows me plenty of room to hold it with my fingers far from the spinning blade.

The cut complete.

The bun foot installed.

Typically a miter saw, table saw and band saw are used to cut objects that sit flat on the bed and have a square edge that will ride against the fence.  However, with the use of simple but effective jigs it is possible to cut round and irregular shaped objects.  When designing the jig keep these points in mind:

• The jig must be large enough to allow you to hold/guide it and keep your hands/fingers away from the blade.
• The jig must hold the workpiece securely so there is no possibility of rotation or movement while performing the cut.
• Any fasteners used to assemble the jig or hold the workpiece, screws, nails, clamps etc, need to be positioned so that the blade is not cutting into them.

Above all, if there is any doubt in your mind at all about the safety of the cut, then don’t make it.  There is no cut that is worth bleeding over!

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As with much power tool woodworking, the time is in the set up.   Once the set up is done, repeating the cut for any number of drawers is a quick process.

The first step is to mill your lumber.  The picture below shows the pieces for one drawer box.  The sides are 1/2″ thick maple, the front and back are 3/4″ maple.  The length of the drawer front and back pieces is the same as the finished dimension of the drawer.  The lengths of the drawer side pieces is half an inch less than the finished dimension of the drawer.  As always, I have also prepared a couple of 1/2″ and 3/4″ scrap pieces to use for test cuts during the set up.  It’s also a good idea to mark the outside face of each piece with chalk to avoid confusion.

With a 1/4″ dado blade in the table saw, cut a 1/4″ x 1/4″ groove down the side of each piece 1/4″ from the edge of the piece.  This is the groove that will accept the drawer bottom, which is 1/4″ thick sheet material.  Cutting the groove now gives you another visual aid as to which side is the inside of the drawer as well as which edge is the top and bottom.

Using one of the drawer sides as a gauge block, raise the 1/4″ dado blade to 1/2″ high.  This is a rough adjustment and the blade height will be fine tuned in the next step.

The next step can be made by using a tall auxiliary table saw fence or with a tenoning jig as shown in the picture below.  Using a scrap piece of wood and the blade at 1/2″ height, make a cut.

To confirm the blade is at the correct height, butt one of the drawer sides into the groove just cut.  The drawer side should fit flush with the edge of the scrap piece, as in the picture below.  If the drawer side is proud of the edge of the scrap piece, then the cut needs to be deeper and the blade should be raised.  If the edge of the scrap piece is proud of the drawer side, then the cut is to deep and the blade should be lowered.

Now that the height of the blade is set, the distance from the tenoning jig to the blade needs to be set to 1/4″.  I like to use a brass set up gauge for this.

With the outside face towards the tenoning jig, cut a 1/2″ x 1/4″ groove in the end of each side of the front and back pieces of the drawer.

Using either an auxillary fence on the table saw, or a piece of wood held with a fence clamp as shown, slide the table saw fence so that the piece of wood just touches the blade.

Lower the blade to 3/8″ of an inch.

With the outside face of the piece up, crosscut each end of the front and back pieces of the drawer.

The front and back pieces of the drawer are now complete.

Still using either a scrap piece of wood held by a fence clamp, set the height of the blade to 1/4″ and the distance of the blade from the scrap piece of wood to 1/4″.  Then make a crosscut in one of the 1/2″ thick pieces of wood you prepared.

The astute among you will notice that I made a large block of wood to use as my “mini auxillary fence”.  The one in the previous image did not reach all the way down to the table saw bed and made some set ups difficult.

The really astute among you will also notice that the position of the “mini auxiliary fence” in the shot below is far from ideal.    Somewhere in the midst of making the new auxiliary fence, performing the cross-cut and then staging everything for the photo I had the auxiliary fence in the wrong position.  My bad.  Once the distance between the fence and the blade is established, the auxiliary fence should be moved back behind the blade, where it can perform it’s function as a stop block but not run the risk of binding the piece as you perform the cross cut.

This image shows the correct position of the auxiliary fence/stop block relative to the blade while performing a cross cut.

Proceeding on, the image below shows the results of the test cut.  The piece is sitting proud of the edge of the drawer front by a smidgen.  To correct this the blade needs to be raised by a corresponding smidgen.

The correct fit after raising the blade is shown below.

Once the correct fit is established, the cross cut is made on each end of both drawer sides with the outside of each drawer side facing up.

All that needs to be done is to perform a dry assembly of the drawer, establish the size of the drawer bottom, cut it and then a dry assembly of the drawer with the bottom in place.

When gluing the drawer together, checking the diagonals match is an easy way to ensure that the box is square.   I find the square check for tape measures really convenient for this.

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A friend gave me a couple of freshly cut cedar logs recently.  The logs were fairly small diameter, about 5″ and the pith was offset quite a bit to one side.  I cut the logs into 2′ lengths using my chainsaw, but did not want to split the logs using my chainsaw.  I knew I would get cleaner, more accurate cuts with my bandsaw and would waste far less of the wood.  I needed a safe way to cut the round logs on the bandsaw.

This is the simple jig I put together.  Two pieces of scrap plywood with a couple of supporting triangular brackets.

The log is then screwed to the jig at the front and back of the jig.  I made sure that the screws went into waste wood.

Set the bandsaw fence making sure that you will not be cutting through the screws!  Because the log is screwed to the jig, it will prevent the log rotating while it is being cut.

Once a flat surface is established, cutting the log into spindle stock is fairly straightforward.

The end results.   A bunch of 2″ to 2 1/2″ spindle stock with some beautiful color.  Ready for the end grain to be sealed and then stacked and stickered to dry.

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Some of my recent posts have been about the work that I did on this built in.  You can read them at these links:

• Shelf pin jig
• Installing shelf edgebanding
• Building a flat panel door
• Installing concealed hinges

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The first step is to mark the center line of where the hinge will be positioned.   Then position the jig using the alignment arrows and clamp it in place.  Note: the clamp is on the underside, or show face of the door.  You can’t see it in the following picture and I didn’t take a picture showing it.  Sorry, my bad.

Set the stop collar on the bit guide so the bit drills to the correct depth.  I like to drill a test hole in a scrap piece of wood and make sure the hole is deep enough to allow the hinge to fit in without bottoming out.

The bit guide is then positioned over the alignment plate.   The wide circumference of the bit guide ensures that the bit is held square to the work surface, important when drilling with a large Forstner bit. As the  bit guide fits over the alignment plate it also stops the bit from wandering.

After placing the hinge in the hole, check that the back of the hinge is parallel to the frame using a square.

Use a self centering bit to drill pilot holes for the hinge screws.

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The first step is to mill the wood for the stiles and rails of the doors.  I am building three doors for some base cabinets.  All three doors are the same size and the cabinets will be painted white.  I am using poplar for the frame of the door and 1/4″ plywood for the flat panel.  The stiles and rails are 2 1/2″ wide, 3/4″ thick and I cut them an inch or so longer than what I needed.  While I was preparing the wood I also took the time to make some scrap pieces the same width and thickness to be used for test cuts.  You can also see my set up block in the picture.  You can also see my raised panel router bit set.  For this project I will only be using the two bits on the left, the monster raised panel bit will stay in the box.

Mount the bit for cutting the profile on one edge of the stile and rails.  I use my set up block to adjust the height of the router bit, although I still plan on making some test cuts in scrap wood.   The profile in both the stiles and rails will be cut with the face side (the outside of the door) down.

A close up shot of my set up block.  I keep this in a drawer right next to my raised panel router bit set.

The fence is then moved so that it is flush with the bearing of the bit.

After routing a profile in a scrap piece of wood, I use the rail section of my set up block to see if the two surfaces meet flush on the top surface.  I got lucky this time and the fit was perfect

I then routed the profile on one edge of all the stiles and rails.  Remember the cuts are made with the show side down.  For this project it was not that important as the doors will be painted, but if you are not painting the doors you will want to take care to chose the best side of each stile and rail and then to route it with that side down.

I then took the stiles to the table saw and used a cross cut sled cut them to length.  To calculate this length I measure the height of the door opening and added 1 /4″.   My crosscut sled was not quite wide enough to enable me to use its stop block, so I used a fence clamp and a block of wood as a stop block.

The next step was to calculate the length of the rails.  I wanted the door to overlap the door opening by 5/8″ all round.  The depth of the groove in the stiles was 3/8″.  The width of the stiles was 2 1/2″.   So the length of the stiles needed to be:

(Door opening width) + (2 times 5/8″) – (2 times 2 1/2″) + (2 times 3/8″)

To many years in school dealing with the metric system means that I suck  at working with fractional inches, so I always reach for my handy ProjectCalc Plus at times like these!

The router bit for routing the sticks in the rails is mounted in the router table and set to height using the set up block.   Again the fence is positioned so that it is flush with the bearing.

Remeber those scrap pieces of wood.  Route the profile in the end of one of them.  When making this cut it is important the the rail be kept flat on the table face down and that it remain at 90 degrees to the fence.  It is also important that the cut be backed up to prevent tear out as you are routing end grain.  There are a number of commercial rail coping jigs that will allow you to achieve this easily.  I don’t have one, although every time I build some doors I promise to buy myself one.  So what I normally end up doing is to cut a piece of 3/4″ plywood or mdf, making sure that one corner is a perfect 90 degrees.  Then I use that sacrificial piece of plywood to hold the rail square to the fence and to back up the cut.

Satisified that the set up of the router bit was correct, I made the coping cut in all of the rails.  Remember to make this cut with the face side of the rail down!!

Calculating the size of the panel is pretty simple. Measure the frame opening, then add for the 3/8″ groove all round and then subtract to allow for expansion.  With a solid wood panel you would want to subtract at least 1/8″ all round.  With the more stable plywood panel that I’m using I subtracted 1/16″ all round.  The groove is 1/4″ wide so the undersize 1/4″ plywood fits pretty loose in the groove.  However with a couple of coats of paint it should fit just right.

Test fitting the panel.

I like to paint the panel before gluing the door together.  That way if there is any expansion of the frame then there won’t be any unfinished part of the panel exposed.  This is probably more important with solid wood panels, but it is a good habit to get into.

When gluing the door together the panel is not glued into the groove.  Glue is only applied to the coping cuts on the rails.  The glue should be done on a flat surface so that the door will be flat and it should be checked for square.  I really find the square check for tape measures useful when checking for square.

In closing, and before you head out to the shop to start making a set of doors, I invite you to review a previous post on router feed direction and bit rotation.

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I like to apply the edge banding to the sides of the shelf first, and then to the front and back of the shelf.  It is a small touch, but it means the front edging is overlapping the side edging and so there is less chance of any joint being visible when viewing the installed shelving.

The first step is to secure the shelf in a vise. Then, using a pair of scissors cut a piece of edging about an inch longer than needed.  I don’t have a dedicated iron for this job.  Up till now I’ve managed to sneak my wife’s iron out to the workshop, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this blog either so I think I’m safe!  I set the iron to the “cotton” setting.  That would be the hotter setting, although I’m not much of an expert when it comes to irons.  Slowly move the iron over the edging so that the adhesive melts and sticks the edging to the shelf.  As you do this make sure the edging overlaps the shelf slightly on each side.  The edging is 13/16″ wide so you should have about a sixteenth overlap on each side of standard 3/4″ plywood.

Then, apply pressure to the edging using a veneer roller.

Using a pair of scissors, cut the edging on each side, leaving about an 1/8″.

Using a double edge trimmer, trim both edges flush to the plywood.

Using a veneer trimmer, square off the ends of the edging.  This is a pretty expensive tool and for a long time I was reluctant to buy it and so used to use a utility knife for this part of the operation.  I must admit that once I purchased the veneer trimmer I was pleased with how much cleaner the cuts were and how much quicker I was able to make the cuts.

The final step is to touch up the edges using some 220 grit sandpaper.  I like to sand at a slight angle to put a small bevel on the edge.

The corner of the shelf once complete.

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A quick search on the internet for “drilling shelf pin holes” will result in many hits showing how to build and use a jig to drill the shelf pin holes using a hand held drill.  There are even commercial jigs available.  I prefer to use a plunge router to bore the holes.  The work proceeds faster and the high speed of the router produces a cleaner hole.  Also, as the weight of the router is supported by the workpiece, I find it less tiring than holding a drill.  Often when drilling holes for shelf support pins you have to do a couple of hundred at a time, so these factors are important.

The jig that I use is made from a scrap piece of pine which I re-sawed and planed to 3/8″ thick.  1/2″ thick MDF or plywood would work just as well.  The pine was ripped to 3 1/2″ wide and is just over 60″ long.  A line was drawn down the middle of the board and then a series of marks at 2 1/2″ intervals were marked out along that line.  The marks start and end approximately 9″ from each end of the board.   A 3/8″ hole is then drilled at each mark and a slight counter sink at each hole.  The counter sink is just to make it easier to locate the router collar in the hole.  Take care to make sure the counter sink is not deeper than the depth of your collar, the collar needs to be supported by the walls of the 3/8″ hole.

Mark one end of the board “top” and the other end of the board “bottom”.  This will make it easy to ensure that you are always referencing from the bottom of the cabinet wall.  Then line the side of the jig up with the side of the cabinet wall and clamp it in place.

I use 1/4″ shelf pin supports, so I mount a 1/4″ spiral upcut bit in my router along with a 3/8″ collar.  Set the plunge depth of the router so that the bit extends 3/8″ past the jig.  Then it is just a matter of positioning the router collar in a hole in the jig and plunge routing a hole, repeat as necessary.  I find the slight counter sink at each hole makes positioning the router quick and easy.

Once the line of holes at the front of the cabinet are drill, slide the jig to the back of the cabinet, making sure you are still referencing the bottom of the jig from the bottom of the cabinet, clamp it in place and bore the line of holes for the back of the cabinet.

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I use a router a lot in my workshop, both hand held and table router.  However, I can remember when I got my first router and the learning curve I went through figuring out which direction to move the router when routing by hand or the workpiece when routing on the table router.   Hopefully I can help others out and make that learning curve not quite as exciting!

Essentially the workpiece always needs to be feed into the bit, so the first thing you need to know is which way is the bit rotating.  Lets deal with the table mounter router first.   Hold out your right hand in a classic “thumbs up” gesture.  Imagine your hand is the router and your right thumb is the router bit.  The direction of the router bit follows the curve of your fingers.  In this case, it is counter clockwise.  You can see this clearly in the picture below.

Now rotate your right hand into a “thumbs down” gesture.  Again imagine your hand is the router and your right thumb is the router bit.  The direction of the router bit is still indicated by the curve of your fingers, in this case it is clockwise.  You can see this in the picture below.

This “right-hand thumb rule” applies to almost anything that spins, faucets, right hand thread screws etc.

So, moving back to the router table, you can see that in order to feed the workpiece into the router bit, you need to feed from right to left, assuming you are standing facing the fence.   By feeding from right to left you are feeding the workpiece against the direction of rotation of the bit.  The natural reaction as the workpiece contacts with the bit is to push the workpiece back towards you.  By controlling the workpiece, by hand and through the use of featherboards, you prevent this from happening.

Feeding from left to right, the rotation of the bit would grab the workpiece and pull it forcefully from right to left.  This can happen in the blink of an eye and the danger is, aside from ruining the workpiece, that you don’t release it and your fingers are pulled towards the router bit.

For the same reason the fence always needs to be positioned so that side of the router bit that is furthest away from the fence is doing the cutting.  To illustrate, suppose you need to route a groove or dado that is 1″ wide, but the largest bit you have is a 3/4″ straight bit.  Obviously the groove will have to be cut with two passes.  The first pass will form a 3/4″ groove and then the fence can be moved 1/4″ in order to make the groove a full 1″ wide after the second pass.  No problem.

However, it is very important that the fence be moved in the right direction before the second pass.  Moving the fence closer to the router bit would mean that the side of the router bit that is closest to the fence is doing the cutting.  Remember the way the bit is rotating?  This would cause the bit to pull the workpiece away from you forcefully.   The following picture shows what not to do!!

The correct method is to move the fence away from the router bit so that the 1/4″ section of the groove you are removing with the second pass is on the side of the router bit farthest from the fence.  The following picture show the correct position of the fence relative to the router bit.  By setting up for the second pass this way you are once again feeding the workpiece into the direction of rotation of the bit.

Cuts like this need to be planned very carefully to ensure that the correct side of the router bit is doing the cutting.

Moving back to the hand held router, there are two different scenarios which determine feed direction.  Imagine a circular picture frame that you need to profile both the external and internal edges of.  Which direction to you rout?

Hold your right hand out again with fingers closed except your thumb and index finger.  Imagine your hand is the router.  If your right thumb is pointing to the workpiece then your index finger is showing the direction of travel of the router.  Take a look at the picture below.

You can see that when routing the outside edge of the picture frame, you need to move the router in a counter clockwise direction.  When routing the inside edge of the picture frame, you need to move the router in a clockwise direction.

I have found these two “right hand” memory aids very useful in determining router bit rotation and router feed direction.  I hope you do to.

I’ll end the article with a short video clip showing the Rockler Bench Cookies supporting a workpiece I was making some test cuts on.  I found they held the workpiece securely and it was nice to have it raised above the table.  I did find that I needed to lightly support the workpiece with my inboard hand to prevent it from tipping slightly.  I’m sure that if the workpiece was wider or if I had been using an offset base on the router, this would not have been necessary.   I can also see the Bench Cookies will be useful for other applications, sanding and finishing are two that come to mind.

In full disclosure, the links are affiliate links.  If you purchase anything from Rockler via the links, Rockler will send me buckets of money and I’ll be able to quit my day job and play in my workshop every day.  Not necessarily a bad thing

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The case is made from Tiger Maple and African Mahogany and is approx. 16″ x 32″. The joints are inlaid half blind dovetails.   The wooden hinges are made from tiger maple. The pockets for the knives were routed with the Daisy Pin Router and then were flocked. A french cleat on the back of the display will allow it to be hung on the wall. It is pretty heavy and I thought a french cleat would be the safest means of hanging it.

Here are some images of the completed project.

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