Need Glue-Up Advice

[Casper]

I am starting a new project where I need to glue together small pieces of wood. I have a number of scrap hardwoods that will suit my needs but am not certain of the best way to go about it.

I do not have a planer or jointer, so I will have to do this either by scroll saw or hand. My scraps are round, which are perfect for my project but 'may' make joining more difficult.

Does anyone have suggestions on joining (gluing) rounds together so they are as seamless as possible? Is this possible with a scroll saw or hand plane? [Example: Gluing two dowels together on edge.]

I think I can do this on the scroll saw with the cuts being fairly smooth, but am still trying to come up with the best method of rigging up a jig to ensure the cuts are flat and even every time.

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks, `Casper

[Charlie Groh]

...jeeze, Casper, find a cabinet shop or anyone with a table saw, you'll get your cutting done *real* quick! AFA the glueup, just make a 90 degree angle out of a couple of pieces of 1x and attach a stop on one end...put your rounds in there after gluing (you might cover the "mold" with some wax paper) and clamp 'em in. You need to set up the table saw to get a good 90, but that shouldn't be a problem, then all you have to worry about are the widths cut off the rounds...they should glue up fine...no matter how good you get your jig, you'd have a helluva time gluing those scroll-saw *or* hand sawn pieces...

cg

[Casper]

Thanks Charlie. Unfortunately I neither have room for a table saw or access to one. Right now I'm hoping that if finances improve this year I can finally put up a small shop outside but with the way the economy has been going and hitting my family, it's a slim outlook again.

I've asked at the local woodcraft and rockler about their saws and was told no. /shrug. I imagine it's because of insurance. Even they are a good 45 minute drive for me.

I figured since these were really small wood rounds that maybe I could make a 90 degree jig to fit the scroll saw and cut the pieces on it and get a better cut than by hand. If it takes me a little longer, I don't mind as long as they come out good.

Too many things kept me away from woodworking last year and I am re-determied to get some things done this year. I really enjoy it, especially when other things get rough and I can zen out. Two things connect me with my father and relax me ... walking in the woods and working on a project that I know he would have enjoyed too.

`Casper

[Upscale]

You don't *have* to have a tablesaw. Mine sits over at a friend's place and it's stored in his unheated garage, so I only use it in the summertime ~ Canadian winters.

So, I bought myself a nice little miterbox from Lee Valley. Makes minimal mess in my living room and I'm able to make quite a few projects with it as the base tool.

[Ulysses]

Yesterday somebody was giving away a free band saw on Craig's List that looked like it was perfectly good. Maybe if you keep looking you'll find a table saw in your area.

By "round" I take it you mean cylindrical. What are the diameters and lengths of the pieces? My mind usually registers "dowels" as being something like 3/8" diameter and about an inch and a half long.

If you can come up with a circular saw, a scrap of 3/4 plywood (2' x 3' or so), a length of straight 2 x 4, and a couple of C-clamps you could rig up a makeshift table saw. I did this many years ago and it worked quite well except blade height adjustments were not precise.

[Casper]

If I only had a friend with a garage! I've been trying to convince a friend with an unused basement to make an area for projects but neither he or his wife are inclined to clean it out let alone use it.

Yesterday somebody was giving away a free band saw on Craig's List that

I do the craiglist. Unfortunately my biggest issue is a home for the saw. I just don't have any room. It would be difficult to find someone, even not nearby, who could do anything more than store it. (Goes back to my friend with the basement above.)

Yes, exactly. Various hardwood dowels that were from a molder. They vary in diameter from 3/8" - 1-1/4" and in length from 2" to 7".

I used to have a circular saw and a table (craftsman?) that was made specifically to hold the saw on the underside to use as a table saw. It was an item that hardly got used and was sold in a yard sale. At that time I was not woodworking. In hindsight I should have kept the table. I believe I still have the saw (relative borrowed?) but seriously no room to build something resembling that table.

What I do have is a jigsaw with a small table-top stand that allows the jigsaw to be mounted upside down to mimic a table saw. I have that on the floor of my storage shed which I hope to do something with this spring if at all possible. I first need to clean it up as it belonged to my father and has a fair bit of rust on it (table, not saw).

Let me put it this way, I'm a burgeoning woodworker with a mini lathe and scrollsaw stuffed in a tiny hallway where I can only use one tool at a time. I have no basement or garage, only a tiny shed which houses other stuff due to lack of storage space in-house. So I try to get as creative as I can in ways of storage and areas for living and crafts.

`Casper

[Lee Michaels]

"Casper" wrote

Reminds me of my first shop as an adult. I was living in a rental house. The landlord had all his junk stored in our basement and we couldn't set up our shop. And we had some paying jobs that needed that space. The landlord's wife liked me. She said if I cleaned it out and moved it to their present house, it would be an opportunity to go through the junk and toss what wasn't neded.

Sooooo....., we loaded it all up and hauled out to his house and depositied it into his large, uncluttered basement. Thus freeing our basement to set up our shop. The landlord wasn't happy, but we were.

[Casper]

My friend's basement is about 2000 sq ft basement, of which about

700-800 feet are in use. I would love to talk him into letting me setup a shop. He has one room sectioned off that's at least 16" x 16" with it's own sliding glass doors to the outside. It would be perfect for a shop. Easy access from outside, a large doorway to get anything in or out, and he is maybe a mile from my house.

Sadly, things have not turned out for him and his wife as they planned when they bought the house and I think he has just gotten so depressed over all that needs to be done that he doesn't care anymore. And I have even offered to help him clean out the basement, make repairs (inside and out) and build the deck he's been hoping to build. Believe it or not, the second floor back doors are just blocked off with pallets nailed into the house. No stairs or deck. I told him when he bought the house to consider taking the extra money he could have gotten in his loan and build the deck right off, but no, and now, 7 yrs later, he just shakes his head figuring it will never get done. `Casper

[Ulysses]

Well, many years ago all I had was a one bedroom apartment and I was manufacturing custom picture frame moulding (small quantities, usually less than a couple hundred feet at a time) and making custom hand-finished frames with 17 coats of hand rubbed lacquer. I had a box fan in the window (blowing out, of course) as a spray booth. My bed was the drying rack. My air compressor was under my desk/workbench. I was using a circular saw like what I mentioned to make everything--no real table saw. I was still able to produce extremely high quality products. Nobody ever complained about it. BTW I was single at the time ;-)

One of the problems with the jigsaw is that it moves up and down making it more difficult to get a clean, straight cut. But, if it's all you have... I'm having a little trouble imagining running 3/8" dowels though such a setup without trimming some fingers too. I'm not sure what you are making with small dowels but perhaps some wood glue and a brad nailer would work for joining them side-to-side. The nails would all be hidden in the joints except on the outside dowel.

[Upscale]

Same point I was trying to make. If the OP wants it to happen bad enough, it will despite whatever circumstances he's currently in. Anything else is just procrastinating.

[Casper]

I've wanted to make frames, but I couldn't do that in a bedroom.

I have a 5ft x 9ft space in a hallway/washroom. I got a lathe first and made a square out of PVC piping to hang up with a curtain on it which I close up around me and the lathe to contain debris and dust. I also hooked up a 1gal shop vac to the lathe tool rest for more debris removal. It works fairly well.

My furnace is in the same room and its filter stays fairly clean. I upgraded the filter quality and clean it every month.

I can't pull the curtain around the scroll saw, but I can cut off the rest of the room, use the shop vac and open the window above it. Since I'm not doing volume projects, this works fine. I just have to do my finishing outside, so in really cold weather some projects pile up till spring. So more lathe in cold months and scroll saw in warmer.

I haven't used a jigsaw in years and after thinking about it, you're right, the cuts probably won't be straight. I'll have to figure out an alternate plan.

I'm using the dowels to create various turned projects. The dowels are exotic wood cutoffs that I plan to join with more common woods such as maple, poplar, etc, to conserve the exotics. This way I can be more creative in the designs, still have a fancy wood for flair, and keep the cost down. I'm also tight on wood storage space. I keep my scroll wood inside (so no warping) and my turning logs outside.

Woodworking ... it's an adventure all the way around. :)

`Casper