Jim Dwight
03-20-2020, 10:53 AM
I'm making a "Nine Drawer Chest" based upon plans by WoodSmith. I'm making it of softwood because the other furniture in that bedroom is softwood. I was surprised that number 2 1x12s were about $3/bd ft at HD - that's what I paid for rough sawn maple last time I bought some. Anyway, I dealt with a couple things this morning that might be useful to others.
I made the 5 horizontal drawer supports out of 2 5/8 strips cut from 1x12s with a couple 6mm domino tenons (home made) in the corners. I made them 1/4 inch oversize so I could trim them after the glue set. Trimming was this morning. Ripping them to final width involved taking 1/8 off each long edge. I got a lot of dust despite my overhead dust collection. I could see it was being generated in the front half of the blade. So on a whim, I took a piece of painters tape and put it on the front half of the hood over the blade going down to the table saw surface. I didn't seal it to the saw, just the hood. It made a BIG difference. The hood now got almost all the dust. Some long slivers got involved with the tape but not too seriously, it still worked. I'll probably make a piece for the hood I can drop down when needed but until then, when I am doing a lot of ripping with the blade exposed, I will use a few inches of painters tape.
I also needed to trim them on the short - 19 3/4 ends (they are 46 3/4 the long way). So I drug out the sled for the table saw. But the vertical support for my over blade DC prevented me from using the sled my normal way with the work to the right. I squared the sled on this side using the 5 cut method. So I tried using the left side of the sled. That only left a foot or less of the workpiece supported by the fence of the sled. That worked very poorly. I cut the workpieces to more of an angle than I started with (they started within 1/16 of square over the 19 3/4 inches). So I had to get out the 12 inch speed square to draw a right angle on the other end and cut them with the track saw. Fortunately I had enough remaining material.
So my tips are to try a piece of tape on your overhead DC on the table saw when ripping off an edge and to be careful with using the short side of your sled on long pieces.
I made the 5 horizontal drawer supports out of 2 5/8 strips cut from 1x12s with a couple 6mm domino tenons (home made) in the corners. I made them 1/4 inch oversize so I could trim them after the glue set. Trimming was this morning. Ripping them to final width involved taking 1/8 off each long edge. I got a lot of dust despite my overhead dust collection. I could see it was being generated in the front half of the blade. So on a whim, I took a piece of painters tape and put it on the front half of the hood over the blade going down to the table saw surface. I didn't seal it to the saw, just the hood. It made a BIG difference. The hood now got almost all the dust. Some long slivers got involved with the tape but not too seriously, it still worked. I'll probably make a piece for the hood I can drop down when needed but until then, when I am doing a lot of ripping with the blade exposed, I will use a few inches of painters tape.
I also needed to trim them on the short - 19 3/4 ends (they are 46 3/4 the long way). So I drug out the sled for the table saw. But the vertical support for my over blade DC prevented me from using the sled my normal way with the work to the right. I squared the sled on this side using the 5 cut method. So I tried using the left side of the sled. That only left a foot or less of the workpiece supported by the fence of the sled. That worked very poorly. I cut the workpieces to more of an angle than I started with (they started within 1/16 of square over the 19 3/4 inches). So I had to get out the 12 inch speed square to draw a right angle on the other end and cut them with the track saw. Fortunately I had enough remaining material.
So my tips are to try a piece of tape on your overhead DC on the table saw when ripping off an edge and to be careful with using the short side of your sled on long pieces.