Davids for Tom

[publicIdaho]

Now for the tools...

This is a Porter Cable router with a 1/2" guide bushing installed. If you noticed, the router I used for the 22.5° cut was a Bosch. We like those a little better than the Porter Cable, but only the PC has a base that takes these bushings.

[publicIdaho]

Had to change the straight bit- the first one was too long.

Put the router up on the guide board and adjust the cut depth to half way - pretty easy to eyeball with the nice plywood. This is not super critical, the other piece is the one we will work hard on to fit this one.

[publicIdaho]

Take small passes around, keep your attention on keeping that router base flat on the guide. Make the last pass with bushing up against the guide board edge.

[publicIdaho]

Notice that the notch you cut out is a bit smaller than the size of the guide board opening.

Here is what it looks like without the guide board.

[publicIdaho]

Take your piece you just notched and set it up on the other interior panel that you have cut the smaller opening out of. Make sure you get the alignment right - easy to flip pieces upside down.

Mark the new piece with where the notch ended up on the first piece.

[publicIdaho]

This second opening was 2 1/4" deep, so I made a mark 3" from the back of the guide board on each side.

Put the guide board on the new piece, set the 3" marks to the end of the panel and make sure that the marks you made from the other board is equally spaced between the guide board opening. At this small distance, you should be able to eyeball it within a few thousandths - or at least good enough.

[publicIdaho]

Hummm, hard to see the mark on the panel in that picture...

So, when you have this panel routed too, it is time to see how it came out.

Use the pocket screws to put the pieces back in.

Not too bad.

That is all for today.

Looks like it is just about time to get the PL Premium out...

[LelandCrooks]

Nice work.

[Fenderfan]

Awesome build thread! Love all the step by step explanations with such a huge array of pics - not to mention tools and processes you used. Keep em' coming!

[publicIdaho]

It was cold here today - yesterdays rain puddles were solid this morning.

I decided to include a shot of the router bit set I mentioned before that I got off of ebay.

The quality is decent, fine for the DIY crowd out making sawdust in the garage. That is how we got started by the way. The folks bought their first house with an unfinished upstairs and dad finished it off, buying a Craftsman radial arm saw to do it. Soon, it was come home from his engineering job, change clothes and go out into the garage to build stuff.

I remember catching boards out the back of that radial arm saw that dad was ripping and they were at eye level to me - I was young!

Pretty soon, dad was refinishing kitchens for the neighbors and more tools trickled in. By the time I was in high school, it took ten minutes to roll out all the stuff out of the garage so that we could work in the drive way.

When the Berlin wall fell, defense contracts dried up and dad lost his engineering job that he had for 21 years. No problem - just opened a cabinet shop and never looked back.

[publicIdaho]

I also staged a little photo showing how the hand plane can be used to bevel the panel edges.

[publicIdaho]

And in the interest of full honesty, I did not use that hand plane to dial that panel in just right - I un-clamped it and slapped it up on the edge sander. I love that thing! (I have done plenty of hand planing on job sites thinking about the nice edge sander sitting back at the shop with every stroke.)

The next thing I decided to do was get the top pieces cut out. Put the front up against the cabinet as it was sitting and marked where the angled edges were.

[publicIdaho]

Then it was over to our newest big toy.

This baby is sweet - it has the articulated arm that comes out to extend the cut.

[publicIdaho]

Did not have to unlock the arm, it could handle the cut as a regular chop saw.

[publicIdaho]

Here is what the new saw replaced. It is a monster and can handle some things even our fancy new saw can't do. Unfortunately, the motor armature winding is messed up and destroys brushes. We could have fixed it, but it was a good excuse to buy the new saw we were lusting after.

Now we need to get rid of it. It is a monster to ship, but I am planning on heading from Idaho to Southern California after new years to deliver the new speakers and I might be able to haul the saw down too if there is anyone out there who is on the way and would like to get a good deal on a fixer upper saw. It is a 14" Hitachi.