Chris McLeester
01-29-2013, 8:21 AM
I finished the bookcase that the forum helped me out with. Special thanks to Kent Bathurst, Sam Murdoch, and others. I think it's pretty good for a first effort. I learned a lot of good lessons along the way. I'm sure they're rudimentary for most, but some things you only learn by doing.
1. Buy wood that's as straight as possible.
2. Use less glue.
3. I still need to learn how to do dados and tongues with the table saw. I used a router (with table for the tongues). The tongues were difficult to get to perfect, even width (requiring me to really press the wood down to the table and make many passes). The dados didn't up perfectly straight. Even when I used machine-edge of plywood to make my square/jig, I still had about a 1/32 difference over a span of the 19 shelf inches (I routed both sides together).
Anyways, I'm happy with the results. Thanks to everyone for the help. I hope to one day be able to provide some help myself.
Best,
Chris
1. Buy wood that's as straight as possible.
2. Use less glue.
3. I still need to learn how to do dados and tongues with the table saw. I used a router (with table for the tongues). The tongues were difficult to get to perfect, even width (requiring me to really press the wood down to the table and make many passes). The dados didn't up perfectly straight. Even when I used machine-edge of plywood to make my square/jig, I still had about a 1/32 difference over a span of the 19 shelf inches (I routed both sides together).
Anyways, I'm happy with the results. Thanks to everyone for the help. I hope to one day be able to provide some help myself.
Best,
Chris