My recent flurry of woodworking has required a lot of head-scratching and problem solving; the work isn't intricate, but there's a lot of it to do and my experience is limited. I'm trying to be careful and efficient. Along the way I have made certain discoveries that I'd like to share. The reactions to my "discoveries" usually fall into two categories:
- Yeah, people have been doing that since 1942 (or 1492)
- No, that's really *not* how it's done.
So here goes:
**The Disposable Work Surface These bookcases are my largest project to date, and my bench is too small for it. I made a table from sawhorses, 2x4s and a couple of pieces of MDF. It's a lot bigger than I'm used to, and I've been keeping it uncluttered as well.
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'm finding the "sacrificial" nature of the table a great boon. Besides allowing me to screw down the dado jig to make it stationary, it has spawned a couple of my other discoveries.
**Poor Man's Bench Hold-Downs I had to rout out some long rabbets to receive the backs of the bookcases. In the past I'd probably have struggled to clamp the piece to the edge of the work surface without the clamps getting in the way of the router travel. But hey, it's just a piece of MDF, so...
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some quick work with a hole saw and a couple of QuickGrips and voila! Quick, secure and out of the way.
**Extra Surface for Router to Ride On Since I could clamp the work so that all of it was on the table, I was able to clamp another strip of 3/4" ply parallel to and a couple of inches away from the work piece:
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don't know if steadier hands would need the extra slat, but it made me feel much more secure to have a surface for the other side of the router base to ride on.
**Mounting Guide Blocks and Strips on the Work Surface
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clamped down a couple of plywood slats to help with the dry fitting, and it got me thinking. I could dry fit and square up a unit, then screw "guide" pieces into the work surface that would help me get back to that same successful alignment quickly during glue up. This sounds promising, especially as glue-up (especially of a number of joints at once) tends to make me anxious.
That's it for now. But never fear; the project isn't nearly done yet.