I have a Triton Workcentre, which imposes a few constraints on me. One of those is that the clearance for my blade is fixed, and while it is wider than a zero clearance, it is too narrow to install a dado balde in my saw. That meant that making box joints on my saw was a problem. But a while ago there was a “craze” on LJs for making kerfmakers, and that gave me an idea. I made a jig that would mount onto my mitre guage that could be adjusted in a manner similar to a kerfmaker to position the peg in the correct place for each of four initia,l and all subsequent cuts that need to be made. Perhaps the following diagram will help to explain. In the diagram, “T” is the width or the fingers and “t” is the width of the peg.

I started by making a T-shaped fence that is bolted to the mitre gauge. This fence needs to be T-shaped so that (a) it can be consistently positioned on the mitre guage, and (b) to provide a fixed stop against wich to adjust a second, sliding fence. To allow the sliding fence to slide, the T-shaped fence has slots in it (see photo 2).

Next I made a sliding fence that includes an aluminium peg. I used aluminium for this because I could get a piece that is the same thickness as my blade, and by using an angle section, I had the ability to screw it into place from below. This fence has two bolts through it with wing-nuts for easy adjustment.

Last, I made an aluminium insert that adjusts the sliding fence position by the thickness of the peg. That was the jig complete.

• I start by marking one edge of each piece of wood. This edge must always be on the right when standing behind the saw.
• I remove the aluminium insert and set the sliding fence with one spacer between the sliding fence and the fixed fence, then I make one cut on each end of the side pieces, with the edge of the wood agianst the peg.
• I insert the aluminium insert and set the sliding fence with one spacer between the sliding fence and the fixed fence, then I make one cut on each end of the front/back pieces, with the edge of the wood agianst the peg.
• I insert the aluminium insert and set the sliding fence with two spacers between the sliding fence and the fixed fence, then I make one cut on each end of the side pieces, with the edge of the wood agianst the peg.
• I remove the aluminium insert and set the sliding fence with two spacers between the sliding fence and the fixed fence, then I make one cut on each end of the front/back pieces, with the edge of the wood agianst the peg.
• Keeping the sliding fence set with the aluminium insert removed and two spacers between the sliding fence and the fixed fence, I move each end of each piece of wood across from left to right, placing each kerf over the peg and making as many cuts as are required for the number of fingers in the joint.
• Lastly, I simply remove the waste ( the rectangles shaded grey in the picture above) between the individual cuts.

So, does it work? Well yes, but … you absolutely have to keep your wits about you as it is incredibly easy to make a mistake. In fact, I made this jig over a year ago, but today was the first time that I did everything right. This is the joint that I made as a result

If anything, the joint in the picture above is too good. It is so tight that it would probably squeeze all glue out of it.

Over the period of trying to get this jig to work, there is one addition that I made to the design. I acquired two paper rulers (from a large, four-letter furniture store) that I stuck to the back of the sliding fence. The zero position of these two rulers are different by the thickness of the peg.

The idea is that I could, in theory, set the sliding fence position without needing to use spacers. I have yet to try that though.

I have been teaching at a school for the last year. While most of my students built cabints, two preferred to build boxes. Many of the techniques that they used were the same as the cabinets, but there were a few diferences, so I decided to demonstrate some of the techniques required by making a box myself.

The box is made from 3/4” radiata (i.e. Monterey) pine with meranti strips in the lid. The pine is all offcuts from the student projects, but the meranti was cut specifically.

The joints are simple rebate joints that were made first as housing joints (using a router and a jig that I made) before cutting the waste ends off. The front, back and sides were also rebated on a router table to take the top and bottom. As you can see, the rebate for the top was (deliberately) not as deep as for the bottom as I wanted to give the impression of the strips being inlaid – when you look from the outside at least. All joints were simply glued and clamped.

The lid was separated from the base using the table saw (mine at home because it’s not worth my job to remove the guard at school) and this technique provided much entertainment. Both before I made the cuts and even after, but before I used the box cutter to complete the separation, I had a variety of students speculating about how to open the box! It made them think at least.

One of the students who built a cabinet, wished to do a large chamfer around the top, so I acquired a large chamfer router bit for the workshop that I made good use of for the lid of the box. It is an idea that I have wanted to try ever since I made my box with the inlaid lid, and I like the result. I also lightly chamfered the corners of the box as well as around the lid and the top of the base.

As you can see, I used piano hinge on this because I thought it would be a good choice for one of my students, plus it was a new experience for me. My thanks here go to Boxguy for his blog on piano hinges and for responding to a question that I asked. I had to do it a bit differently to the way that he suggests, but he was still a big help.

The finish on this box is nothing to boast about. It is a water-based varnish but the sanding was a bit rough and rushed so I was never going to get it right. I needed to get the box finished though as I finish off with the school next week.

I have added a chain to hold the top open since taking these photographs.

The box is to be given to the school to be used in its fund raising efforts next year.

It’s not my fault ;-). Dusty 56 started it. Then Jaykaypur did it. And finally JR45 did it too. I just couldn’t help myself … (sob)

Really though, I have had a bit to say on Dusty56’s and JR45’s posts about this guage being based on a theorem of circle geometry (an angle inscribed in a semi-circle is always a right angle), not on the Pythagorus sum of squares theorem. Sure Pythagorus is valid, but he came well after the geometry, especially if a guage such as this was used by the Egyptians to build the pyramids some 2000 odd years earlier.

I also posted in JR’s project 5 steps (see below) to make this guage so I figured that I should put my money where my mouth is and test the process. And while I’m not going to deny that JR’s laser guided block plane might have made the job a whole lot easier, I just don’t have one of those so I had to rely on my dusty rusty old No. 4 – like the ancient Egyptians would have had to since lasers hadn’t been invented back then. (!)

The five steps that I followed to make the guage were:

1. First make the short arm, complete with pointy end and hole for the pivot bolt.
2. Cut the long arm more than double the length of the short arm and drill the pivot hole in the centre of the arm – some error can still be tolerated at this point.
3. Align the short arm along the long arm in one direction, then use the short arm to mark the shape of the long arm.
4. Align the short arm along the long arm in the opposite direction, then use the short arm to mark the shape of the long arm.
5. Shape both ends of the long arm using the short arm to check that the ends of the long arm are accurate.
6. Apply finish, in this case wax because it is quick, easy and I still love the feel of it.

Okay, I lied – there is a sixth step. After all I am posting this as a project which requires it to be completed, not just half-done. I did take photos, so if the instructions are not clear enough, and if enough people ask nicely, I could do a blog.

So now the ultimate question, what am I going to do with it? And well you might ask!

Actually, the most useful thing I can think of to do with it is take to to school if and when I ever teach the geometry of circles as a demonstration of the practical application of maths (you weren’t expecting me to say that now, were you?). The next most useful thing would be to use it in my woodwork class to check the squareness of some sliding lid boxes that my students will be making this term. I could use it to dazzle my students with my brilliance – in my dreams! But more realistically, it could be useful when I assess their work because it is a quick check using a guage that actually fits into the boxes

Whatever I do with it, it was a fun way to spend a little time in my workshop this afternoon. And isn’t that just what it’s all about?

Oh, materials are a strip of oak that I had in my scrap bucket and a bolt, washer and wing nut that I had on my shelves. So while I suppose the bolt and wingnut cost me something sometime, the effective cost for today is $0.00.

At 10” long, I’m guessing the woodpeckers one would be about $25. So special one-time offer, $12.50 anyone?

I originally wasn’t intending to post this as a project – technically there is not much merit in it. But by the time I had finished it and handed it over I felt so rewarded that I thought it would be good to share the story.

I do volunteer work for a local charity that designs and makes one-off items to simplify the lives of people with a disability. Recently I was asked to make a cup holder for a client, whom I’ll call Tom. I don’t know what Tom’s disaility is, but that is not important. He is wheelchair bound, does not have great control of his arms and hands and cannot talk at all clearly. But he has a mind and knows what he wants. One of the things he wants is to be able to drink without the assistance of anyone else.

To achieve that, someone once made him a box with a hole in which to place a cup (picture 5). This worked for some time except that his wheelchair table was modified such that he can no longer have it close enough to him. Then, to top it all off, someone bought him a new cup that has a handle and so it does not fit into the hole. Enter our charity – can we please make him a new cup holder?

After some discussion with one of his carers, we decided that it was necessary to not only alter the shape of the hole, but also to raise the cup and move it closer to him. This could all be achieved by simply adding a new cup holder to the existing box (picture 6), which is really heavy and so stable.

The making of this cup holder was fun because I also recently bought a new router. I did not have this project in mind at the time, but it proved to be just the tool that I needed. Plus I took the opportunity to test the router and router table (if you can call it that) that I have in the workshop at school to chamfer all the edges.

But the real reward came today when I took the new cup holder to install onto the old one. It was a simple job, just plane down the high spots in the corners where the MDF had peeled upwards and then put in four screws to hold the new cup holder onto the old one. Tom wanted to help! I’d no sooner screwed in the fourth screw when Tom’s carer put it on the table of his wheelchair with empty cup in place and a straw bent as required. Tom went to it, wanting a drink. So his carer poured in a drink and Tom drank with relish.

Tom wasn’t finished though. As I was packing up, he made it clear that he wanted to carry my toolbox and cordless drill case to the door. So onto his table they went and he wheeled off with us in tow.

Chances are that I’ll never meet Tom again. But I hope I made today, and some of his tomorrows a little brighter, because he certainly did that for me.

For a while now, I have wanted and needed a mallet. I’ve seen a nice one in the shops for under $30, but I was given some old oak shelving a while back and so I decided to try making one out of that. The design and dimensions are based on the plans from Craftsmanspace.

It has been an interesting project because it has gone backwards and forwards between home and work workshops depending on which is best equipped for the next step in the process. You could even say that it’s already quite a well travvelled mallet!

The finish is three coats of BLO thinned with Turpentine as per the instructions on the bottle, which I did actually read since it is my first time using BLO. I think I’m going to leave it at that for now and decide later whether more coats of BLO, or anything else, are required

That’s because you have.

I was recently required to do a course related to workshop skills and safety where I needed to do a woodwork project that would challenge me. So I went a-Googling for images and found this box made by Mike (stefang). Well one look and I loved it – I decided that I wanted to make one very similar.

As I progressed, started to enjoy myself in the making of the box and started looking at the blogs that Mike has posted on Lumberjocks, I realised that I owe him a huge statement of gratitude. In fact, that became one of the key reasons why I subsequently joined LJs. So …

Mike, I hope you do not mind that I have replicated your box as I have. Please accept my efforts as a compliment to your fine work. And thank you for posting your project and your blogs; for the information and the inspiration that they provided. (Actually, I could happily make that last statement to many others out there, but for now, this is for Mike).

Okay, now about the box. It is made from bits of an old dining table, which, I was told, is Australian (probably Tasmanian?) Oak. I don’t know what the light and dark wood in the inlay is – just some bits that I found in the wood store. Size is 250×180 x 115 mm (approx. 10×7 1/2×4 1/2 “).

I did want to do either box or dovetail joints but the workshop did not have a suitable router jig (one of my challenges was to use a router since I did not have much previous experience with one). Instead I used double rebate (rabbet) joints everywhere except the top, which has a single rebate all round. It has a wooden hinge which I did entirely differently to any way that anybody on LJs has suggested – and I wouldn’t do it the same way again. I made the rebate for the inlay using a forstner bit in the drill press, and the inlay pieces on the band saw and disc sander. The finish is sanding sealer and wax polish.