Tuesday, November 25, 2008

T squares

Back at the work bench today. Design wise I am not sure that the subconscious had much that was useful to contribute besides telling me to start from the bottom and suggesting a concrete method from the past to use for jointing boards.
The photo may be confusing, I made up a kind of T square a while back for making cross cuts with the groove cutting machine shown here. This is normally used with a fence, but with the T square I can make cuts at any point along the board using a flat edge to reference off of. Having a square for each cutter allows one to use the cut in the cross piece to position the cut on the board by matching the edge of the divot to a line marked in the appropriate place. Being able to run the tool on either side of the guide means one only has to have one edge to run off of. You can see that there is a little divot cut on either side of the guide part of the nearest T square. I use the pony clamp to snug the guide up against the board and I also use a silicon spray to keep the base of the machine slick. The narrow cut means I have to make several passes and I am also making a stopped groove, so I finish up with a router and a chisel. The dog leg chisel is ideal for trimming off the bottom of grooves.