Popular Woodworking 2003-10 № 136, страница 62
A sharp and tuned smoothing plane can reduce your thickness in small increments, allowing you to sneak up on a seamless dado joint. . Clearance hole - Countersink is exactly the same width as the thickness of its mating piece. The problem is getting the dado sized exactly right so you don't have an ugly gap at the front of your joint or along the trench where the boards meet. Of course, to precisely size your dados you can use shims in your dado stack, buy undersized router bits or cut your joint in a couple of passes. Another option is to cut a rabbet on the mating piece. Using a rabbet requires an extra machinery setup, but it is worth the trouble. Cut your dado so its width is 1/8n undersized. For example, if you were planning on a 3/4"-wide dado, make a ^"-wide dado instead. Then cut an 1/8"-deep rabbet on your mating piece that allows the two pieces to nest together. You can tweak the size of the rabbet to get the joint just right. — Steve Shanesy Use a Hand Plane for Dados Another way to get perfect dados is with the help of a smoothing plane. If you can sharpen and set up a plane, this is for you. First, cut your dado so it is slightly undersized. I've found that the dado made by dado stacks is always a few thousandths of an inch less than the width you re quire. To cut a slightly undersized 3/4"-wide dado, I merely install all the chippers for a 3/4" dado. This has always worked, regardless of the brand of dado stack (Forrest, Freud and others). Then I just plane down the mating piece on both sides to sneak up on a perfect fit. Make sure you set your plane to make the finest shaving possible, and this should work for you. — CS Stop Bridging Your Screws When Using Butt Joints There definitely are ways to improve your butt joints if you find gaps appearing. Screws and biscuits - used correctly - can make the joint tighter and more durable if you know how to use them. While dovetails and mortise-and-tenon joints are excellent options, we know that a lot of woodworkers use screws to simply pull butt joints tight. There's nothing wrong with that, but using the correct screws and techniques will ensure that your joint actually is tight. Lots of woodworkers are using sheet-metal screws and drywall screws to assemble projects. These will work, but there's a reason woodworking screws exist. The thread-free part of a wood screw shank (under the screw head) allows the threads to bite into the second wood piece, while the first piece (the one being attached) is able to pull tight against it. If there are threads over the entire length of the screw shank, the threads will bite into the wood in the attaching piece and will The trick to a tight butt joint is drilling a proper clearance hole before you drive in a sheet-metal screw. The clearance hole prevents the threads from catching in the top piece. Biscuits keep the shelf aligned vertically and the pocket-hole screws help clamp the middle of the panel.Add some glue, cinch the screws down tight and you're done -it's that easy.And here's the best part: No clamps required. 62 Popular Woodworking October 2003 |
