Pigeon hole divider v notch

[woody dixon]

I'm making pigeon hole dividers for a slant top desk and want to use a v-notch joint where the divider meets the rounded over drawer divider below. I read an article in FW where Lonnie Bird cut these on a router table but am not sure how to cut both parts of the vee on the divider. The vee would be about 1/2 inch on the front of the divider. YOu could cut the first side using the fence and a stop. The second side it seems you would have to flip the divider, reposition the stop so the cut starts 1/2 inch from the end and drop the divider on the bit to cut. The alternative would be to move the fence, flip the piece from right to left, and cut using the same stop. Since you have to reset the fence this may be problematic. The first way for me seems inaccurate but I have never tried making a cut dropping the back of the piece on the bit with a stop ahead of the bit.

A second way would be to use a chisel. I assume you could use a paring block with a 45 degree angle cut in it. The groove cut I can visualize but am not as clear on v cut for the vertical divider.Would you line the block up to the left of the divider laying flat on the bench? The divider is also only 1/8 inch thick so what size should the paring block be?

If there are easier ways to do this I am open to suggestions. Thanks.

Woody Dixon

[Robert LaPlaca]

Woody, I built a couple of those desks, but that was 15 years ago so my recollection might be off..If IIRC the dividers themself were cut on the router table only, using the vee bit. I believe that I created a template for 1/2 of all of the necessary cuts and used the same vee bit with a PC style template to cut them for the gallery..

IIRC the vee depth was a little fussy, but the technique worked quite well.. Unfortunately, the project was before I started taking pictures of critical steps..

[woody dixon]

Woody, I built a couple of those desks, but that was 15 years ago so my recollection might be off..If IIRC the dividers themself were cut on the router table only, using the vee bit. I believe that I created a template for 1/2 of all of the necessary cuts and used the same vee bit with a PC style template to cut them for the gallery..

IIRC the vee depth was a little fussy, but the technique worked quite well.. Unfortunately, the project was before I started taking pictures of critical steps..

Robert,

Can you remember how you used the pc style template with the vee bit to cut the gallery dividers? I can't picture that. The gallery vertical divders are 1/8 inch on my desk. I assume you mean that you cut that on the router table also. Thanks.

Woody

[Robert LaPlaca]

Woody, OK my bad.

Looking at the desk, the template i mentioned was used for the straight dado's for the underside of the top, the reason was at that point, a misstep would ruin the partly constructed lower desk.

The vertical divider vee joint “dado” and the joint on both ends of the horizontal dividers were cut on the router table with the either vertical or horizontal dividers laying horizontal on the table..

Hope this helps...

[woody dixon]

Yes that does but I still have doubts as to the best way of cutting the notch on the vertical divider. The first side is clear, just run through the front against my router table fence for 1/2 inch> The second cut is where I am not sure of best technique since I have never done a stop cut. To run the divider through right to left I think I have to tip the divider over front to back to run the bottom through next to the fence. This cut would start 1/2 inch from the back. At first i thought in terms of dropping or pivoting the divider down on the bit which I thought might not be accurate for such a small cut. I think now it could be left flat on the table and just pushed straight to the fence then right to left for the cut. I had thought about turning the divider around and pushing it throught from left to right. This would be a mistake the more I think about it and might not be so controllable. Do you recall how you handled the second side?

Woody

[Robert LaPlaca]

Found FWW 154/155 in the attic..:)

The notch on the vertical dividers were cut by hand, set a marking gauge set to 1/8”, pare the material off with a sharp chisel.

The amount of material that is removed from the dividers for the vee is pretty small, not saying to not to respect the climb cut, but I believe that I just ran the dividers for the second cut using a climb cut with the divider flat to the table.