Ever since seeing Perry McDaniel’s breadboard, I have wanted to try one myself – doesn’t look particularly complex, but it has been one of those projects I’ve just never gotten a round tuit.
Image may be NSFW.
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So with the clamp review, and finally obtaining some purpleheart which I always planned to use as one of the timbers, I begun cutting.
First job was to get the dust extraction up to spec again – after finding the thicknesser blocked the DC inlet too quickly. It looks a bit confusing in a photo – it is slightly less confusing in real life Image may be NSFW.
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Dust Collector with Preseparator
The tablesaw, and router feed directly into the DC. The thicknesser and planer feed into the precollector. There are 3 different sanders that happen to be feeding into there, but they don’t need as much air draw so they won’t suffer from any performance hit caused by the preseparator. The bandsaw also feeds into that line, so will assess how it performs, but as a general rule it is also a pretty fine dust that will be fine with any lower air flowrate.
Once the machines were again online, I was able to take a piece of mahogany, and one of purpleheart and run through the inital stock preparation, with all the generated dust and shavings whisked away to the extrator. To any really observent amongst you, yes, I have turned the DC around. This gives me better access to the start/stop switch (and was necessary with the location of the precollector, as it pretty much blocked access to the back corner). It also means that the demented spider of tubing is more intrusive into the shop, but again, necessity is the biggest force of nature!
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Resaw with MagFence
I resawed both the mahogany and purpleheart, but I did my usual trick of trying to get too much yield out of the timber I have. Sometimes a bit of wastage is necessary to get the stock you need, but it is a lesson I still need to learn. I ended up, after dressing the timbers, with stock that was thinner that I wanted. This does reflect that I am still struggling to find where to get good timbers from at a reasonable price.
Once all planed and thicknessed, it was time to move to the tablesaw. For this project, I finally used the Incra LS Positioner on the tablesaw for the first time actually using it as a tablesaw fence. I used the MagJigs to hold it down, which worked ok, but I found it did need some more holding force, so I will add an extra two MagJigs, which will be overkill, but there is no such thing as too much where it comes to locking down a fence securely.
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Incra LS as Tablesaw Fence
On the tablesaw, I ripped increasing widths of timber, from 2mm to about 15mm wide. This worked well with the Incra, although it would have been better if I had remembered that it is an imperial measuring system, not metric! Even so, the absolute precision of the Incra worked well – it clicks into precise location without having to microadjust the fence position with a fist-tap (as is normal practice). A really interesting look at the Incra system.
After taking the mahogany and purpleheart through the ripping process, they were then interleaved, and clamped in the Jet Bar Clamps, which are really nice I must say. They stay balanced where they are put, whether horizontal or vertical, they don’t slip, clamp tight and really look the part.
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Mounting in the Jet Bar Clamps
I haven’t glued these up as yet – consider this a dry-fit.
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Storing vertical
I didn’t realise how stable these clamps were when vertical, but the job was in the way at one point, and I went to put it on the floor, and did a double-take when it stayed quite comfortably where I placed it. A definite bonus of this sort of clamp design IMHO.
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Ready for glue-up
This is as far as I have gotten with the project – next I will be gluing it up, topping and tailing it then rotating the ends through 180 degrees, finishing with a router dressing of the edges. Mahogany wasn’t my first choice of materials – I wanted even more contrast between the lighter timber and the purpleheart, but even so, unfinished as it is, it still looks the goods.
Posted in Techniques, Timber Tagged: Bandsaw, Bar Clamp, DC, Incra, Jet, LS Positioner, MagFence, MagJig, MagSwitch, Mahogany, Pre-Separator, PurpleHeart, Resaw, Tuit Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
