I have a problem with raised panels....

[Greg Tatum]

...using my TS. I have the bade tilting right at 12 degrees. The blade ht. is 1". My auxillary fence is 10" tall and 20" long. It is square to the top, parallel to the blade and 1/4" from the blade. I am cutting from the left side of the blade. The 3/4 ply test piece is 8" sq.

When I cut the panel, the angles don't line up with the corners. The resulting field is square, the slope is consistant all around and leaving a 1/4" edge but....

I tried to do a pic of it but I don't know if it will come out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Greg

Nope....I am unable to upload a pic...(?)....it starts to then goes to a 'can't find server' page.

[Jim Becker]

Make sure your picture is in JPG format, less than 100kb in size and (preferably) 500 pixels or less wide. The error you mention usually results when you use a file format that the server "thinks" is a program.

As to your issue, is your fence parallel to the blade and square to the table?

[Todd Burch]

Greg, is the angle line good on any of the corners, or is it off on all the corners? My first thought is that the panel moved away from the fence just a little bit. It doesn't take much from being off-vertical for the angle line to be off. Maybe a push-thrugh hiccup, maybe a small chip of wood between the panel and fence...

Since it's a test piece, take a marker/pencil and draw zig-zag lines all around the bevel. Then, move your fence just a scosh (sp?... < 1/132" ) closer to the blade and run the sample through again. If there is any place that your zig-zag line is not removed, then the panel must have moved away from the fence the first pass through, thus cutting a little deeper.

Another jig option would be to have your vertical fence taller, and incorporate a clamping system into it to free up your hands (and make the process safer and more consistent too).

When raising panels on the router table, there are times when my panels also do not have a "perfect" line in the corners. If I were making a $10,000 cabinet, I would worry about it. Otherwise, noone will see the true corner of the panel once it is set into a door frame. Actually, noone will even think to look for it.

Actually, in reality, noone could care less about it, or even have a clue that you even fretted over this.

Now, for a tabletop edge, it should be "look" right. There are a few ways to fix it. 1) Belt sander. 2) card scraper. 3) block plane. 4) sanding block. 5) wide chisel. And, it's not like you have to re-bevel the whole length of the edge either. Just remove enough to make the angle line correct, and noone's eye will be able to tell that 2" away, the bevel is a few thousandths different.

So, I think you get my point on how worried I would be about it! :) I gave up on pursuing perfection a L O N G time ago.

Todd

[Byron Trantham]

Todd is right about the clamp. Norm makes the TS created raised door panels and his jig has two slots at the top of the jig that allow clamps to be applied to the panel being raised. This ensures that panel being raised is flat against the jig [fence].

[Greg Heppeard]

If it's not off too much, you can take care of this during the sanding process. I know it sounds like a pita but whacha gonna do?

[Lars Thomas]

Is your throat plate flush with your table top?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Greg, is your material completely flat/straight? I had a similar problem making raised panels on my router table. The one panel that exhibited the problem was in fact slightly cupped. Just a thought! Good luck!

[Greg Tatum]

Thanks to all who replied......my stock is square but it is not completely flat....I do use clamps which does flaten it to the tall fence. I then push the fence thru the blade.....I went ahead and made the TS panel raising jig from American Woodworker #70 using straight, flat stock. On the test piece all the angles missed the corners by exactly 3/16". This is also the blade kerf.

I never took geometry in school because I was sure that I would never need it :rolleyes: (I took plenty of naps, though :o )

The throat plate is flush....
The fence was 90 to the table....
Now the blade stays at 90 and the bed angle of the jig is 14 degrees....

I drew a simple pic using MS Paint. A sqaure in a square with the angles off the corners. Thats it but it comes to 507kb...can't post it at that size....

Well...guess I'll call it a night and try again in the morning.
Thanks for the input.

Greg

[Todd Burch]

Greg, with all corners being off the same amount, it sure sounds like the stock (panel) is passing the blade at an angle, as if you were tapering a table leg. Me thinks the jig is not square to the fence/blade.

[Greg Heppeard]

I think Todd could be on to something...could be a saw alignment problem

[Jim Becker]

I drew a simple pic using MS Paint. A sqaure in a square with the angles off the corners. Thats it but it comes to 507kb...can't post it at that size....
Greg, MS Paint creates bitmaps and they tend to be very large and uncompressed. You'll need to convert the file to GIF or JPG; and since this is a drawing, GIF may result in a smaller file. In fact, I suspect it will come out at under 20kb once the conversion is done! I don't have MS Paint on my XP system so I can't determine if it can save in alternative formats. If not, you'll need to use a different program to create or at least convert your picture.