Popular Woodworking 2009-08 № 177, страница 21

One piece of wood and a lot of bamboo skewers do the trick.

— I Can Do That —

BY CHRISTOPHER SCHWARZ

Knife Block

Flexible protection. This simple knife block allows you to store any size knife.

w,„ we build an "1 Can Do That"

project we buy all the materials froma home center. For this project, however, I alsohad lo stop at the grocery store on the way back to the shop.

That's because t his knife block holds all your cutlery in an array of bamboo skewers- the kind you use for kabobs. Though you're not going to believe me, you need more than 1,000 '/s'-diameter skewers to do the job. Good thing skewers are cheap -about $1,80 for 100.

In addition to cleaning out your supermarket of bamboo skewers, you're going to need some '/2"-ihick wood. You need about 4¹ of a boa rd that's abou 110" w ide. 11 Licked out. O ur Lowe's happened to have one piece of Vi'-thickquartersawn red oak.

Begin by crosscutting your parts to lengthwithyourmiLersawandrippingthem to width with your j igsaw. The next step is to cut the finger joints wilh the jigsaw.

Jigsaw Joinery

A jigsaw that's fitted with a quality blade (such as the Bosch T308B Xtra-clean blades) can make cuts that require only a little Iweakingwilh achisel. The trick isto work against a fence.

First you need to figure oul the exact distance from the edge ofyourjigsaw'sshoe toonesideoftheblade.Imadeatestcutin some scrap to figure this out. Your blade might not be exactly centered so you'll want to check against the left and the right sides of the jigsaw's shoe.

Lay out all the cuts on the side pieces usingtheconstructiondrawing. Then make the short Vsⁿ-lor.g rip cuts that define all the fingers on the side pieces.

To remove the waste between the fingers, clamp a straight piece of scrap to your work-

26 ■ Popular Woodworking August 2009

piece that will act as a fence for the shoe of the jigsaw. This fence will guide thejigsawto make astraight cut as you saw out the waste. First remove the waste from the ends.

To cut the waste from between two fingers you'll have to make several cuts. Break up the waste with short cuts, then swoop in with the saw. A couple swoops and you can maneuveryourjigsaw'sshoeagainst the fence to make your finished cut. Ifyou take off too much your blade can deflect.

Transfer the Shape

Now use the shape ofthe side pieces to mark the complementary shape on the ends. See the photoat right for details, Mark the waste thenremove it from the ends using the same techniques (and the same fence) you used to cut the sides.

Now clean Lip thejoinLs with a sharp chisel until the sides and ends fit together snugly. Sand your pieces and ease all the edges ofthe finger joints with sandpaper.

LEAD PHOTO 8* AL PARKISHL^TIP PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOMLLUSTRrtTTON BY ROBERT W. LArtG