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If I were to build a bookshelf and need a dado in the middle of each side to hold a shelf, what is the best way to do that? Can I do it on my small router table using a wall or something for a fence for the long board so it is straight? I made a small dad with some small boards and the dado came out crooked.
Use the router free-hand. Clamp some straight edges to the work piece such that the router base rides between the two straight edges. Use a straight cutting bit smaller than the thickness of your shelf, make two passes, that is, one pass down each straigth edge.
brian
such that the router base rides between the two straight edges. Use a straight cutting bit smaller than the thickness of your shelf, make two passes, that is, one pass down each straigth edge. brian
Yep. Andy
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How do I control the depth of the cut?
Do you know how to use a router?
This is always a tricky procedure. After years of trying different methods I finally came up with this one. Its based on an epsiode of "This Old House" where Norm used two step ladders and a Band Saw on a mobile base to cut a curve design on a trelis (sp?).
Step 1. suspend your piece of wood between two saw horses. If you don't have saw horses, substitute something similar. Note, don't use real horses. They spook to easy, don't ask me how I know that... Make sure you place the side of the board you want the dado on facing down.
Step 2. Put your straight cutting bit in your mobile router table and adust the depth to your required needs. Oh, and yes its critical that the router table is mobile. If you don't have a mobile router station, go a google search for plans. Just make sure they one you pick doesn't require any dados or you'll be screwed.
Step 3. Adjust the height of your board on the saw horses to be just slightly higher than the surface of your rounter table. You might want to use a dial caliper and feeler guages for this. After a couple of times you'll be able to just eye ball it.
Setp 4. Take an edge jointed board about 8' long and place it perpendicular to your board in the saw horses. This is going to be your track for your mobile router table, so its important that it be both perfectly square to your board and aligned properly laterally. I modified an old sun dial I won on Ebay for this exact purpose and she works like a charm. Once I've got it in position I like to use tapicon screws and secure the track to the floor. Some don't like to do this, but I think its a bit safer this way.
Step 5. This is where it starts to get tricky to describe... Line up your mobile router station at the start of your guide track (the one you just screwed to floor in step 4).
Step 6. Now make sure you read this, because this is critical... Make sure you got a long extention cord, 30' atleast to attach to your router. If you get one thats too short you could lose power at the wrong time and screw up your work and no one wants that! ;-)
Step 7. Start pushing! Did you watch any of the winter Olympics? In paticular the Bobsled event? Yes, perfect! You want to haul ass like the guy at the back, they call him the brake man. Funny that, my friends call me the Break Man, no idea why though... Make sure you keep it on the guide track and what ever the hell you do, let go before you hit your board. You might knock it out of alignment and screw up your piece if you don't.
The great thing about this method is that you can gang up multiple boards edge to edge and do whats called a "Production run". I guess now you know where the "run" part comes from eh?
Good Luck!
Break Man
Try being more careful. Any way that works is best. If it is difficult to handle long boards, then dont' usethe router table, but clamp a bit of wood as a freehand router guide.
Make mistakes. We all do. That's how we learn ...sometimes. Your technique and attention to detail will improve immensely when you get you next lumber bill.
That's why you need at least two routers.
Yes, it is. Proper work flow cuts down on repeated setups, but it can be annoying, regardless.
You should check out some books from the library on how to use a router, see if you get The Router Workshop on the tube and generally investigate what you are using. It's a great tool but it can be dangerous and/or expensive (wasted wood) if used improperly.
RInstruction maunual for the tool?
I made a dado jig a while back, and while I liked its adjustability, I was concerned over whether or not the rails were clamped flush to the workpiece. That is, I was concerned that the depth of cut would vary throughout the cut - most likely full depth at the edges and somewhat less deep in the middle. The cause of this could be that the rails flex a bit as you clamp them down on each side of the workpiece.
Does anyone here have the same concerns? I'm thinking of a slight curve, like a clamping caul, to the rails. Someday. This post just got me thinking.
JP
Do you have your workpiece on a nice flat surface? Is your jig made out of a stable material (i.e. MDF or Plywood)? I have to think, that even if you were using warped wood in your jig, the weight of the rotuer would help to eliminate some of that play.
Chuck
Ingenious! Creative, too. I would never have thought of doing it this way. Now I know why I want to build my router table with wheels.
Gary
You need to take that router out of the table.
For years I didn't have a decent TS. My fence was terrible at best and only cut 28" to the right of the blade. I used Pat Warner's technique religiously after I saw a video on the net.
The real trick here is to route the dados from the board that will become both your side pieces, so the dados are parrell. In other words, cut a panel to size that equals 2x 1 side (plus a litte extra for fudge factor). Route your dados. Then cut the shelf pieces to size.
Of course, now that I have a decent TS and fence, I use a dado blade. But I swore by that router method before I saved up enough quarters.
Good luck,
Chuck
No. You are working with warped wood. First plane it flat, and the router will follow that path instead of a warped one. If you don't have the proper tools you can't do a proper job. I've been there, so I know both alternatives.
By how hard you push down. How else?
It really isn't easy to make a dado in a long board on a tablesaw. It's possible, sure, but if it's longer than your table and wider than a couple of feet, you're pretty much out of luck. Get a router with a straightedge and you won't have a problem.
I ran into that problem when I was building shelving and needed 3/4" dados every 5.5" throughout 10-foot boards. There wasn't any clearance on either side of the tablesaw to make the cut, even if I had been crazy enough to try to support it on both sides. I just clamped the boards together, side-by-side, routed the dados so they were identical on both sides, and bingo.
you mean, bob's your uncle.
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