Sawdust on the Floor

The last time we were here we worked to mill the rails, stiles and the intermediate stiles for the sides of the bedroom nightstands.  After milling the flat panels that will reside in these panels it’s time to assemble them.  These are simply pieces of cherry that I planed down to 1/4″ thickness.  In an effort to save on the wood this project consumed, I resawed some 4/4 stock down to about 3/8″ on my bandsaw. From there the stock was run through the thickness planer to get it to its final 1/4″ thickness. 

Resawing on a bandsaw is a simple task that can drive any woodworker crazy.  The concept is easy. With the stock standing on one edge, run the stock through the blade of the band saw, splitting the board down it length.  A 4/4 piece of stock can be resawed into two 3/8″ thick pieces.  The reality is a little more complicated.  Most woodworkers will have several different blades for their bandsaw, just as you would for your tablesaw.  Bandsaw blades are sold by length, width and teeth per inch.  The length of the blade is set by the manufacturer of your bandsaw, and can not normally be altered. The width of the blade in fractions of inches, determines how flexible the blade is.  A 1/4″ wide blade will allow you to turn a very tight radius, great for intricate work but lousy for resawing. A 1/2″ or larger will allow you to do resawing, but don’t try turning a very sharp corner with this blade.  The number of teeth per inch (TPI) determines how smooth of a cut you can get. I have equipped my bandsaw with a 1/2″ 14 TPI blade, which should be good for resawing. Read more…

Let’s talk about making the cope and stick panels that I used on thebedroom nightstands.  After dressing all of the stock, that will be used to form the rails and stiles of your panels, it’s time to rip it into its final width.  A simple task for the table saw. I am using this technique to make the side panels of my nightstands, but the process is the same as if you were making a cabinet door.  The only difference is how the outside edges of the rails and stiles are treated.  In my application, I left those edges at a straight 90° angle. If this were a cabinet door, the outer edges would be rounded over, or decorated with an Ogee bit.   The bottom edge of the door is normally softened or eased  either with a round over bit or your sander. 

 After ripping the stock, it was time to cut the edge profile  into all of the stock.  I choose to use my shaper table equipped with the stick portion of the router bit set.  This is a really simple bit to use.  The only hard part is to get the bit set to the correct height.  I really wish I had a magic formula for determining the correct height , but for me this is more of a what looks good rather than an actual measurement.  There are a couple of things about the height adjustments that you should keep in mind.  Read more…