# Best way to make (Teak) grating?



## gwgreece (Feb 20, 2010)

Can any one give me advice on the best way of going about making teak grating for a yacht? I have a table saw, but will not take a dado. I have a 1/4'' 1000w router and am toying with buying the 1/2'' Triton TRA001 router which has much more power, but of course is a pretty heavy cost for what will probably be a one off job. I guess I have to make up some jigs whether using a table saw, or router? I don't have much experience with a router if that is the best way to go and so would appreciate anyone explaining what is the best way to ensure all the dadoes end up being accurately cut. Also is there any technique in measuring up to ensure the grating is central to the rails (i.e. equal distance from each side and top bottom?). Thanks in advance for any advice.


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## wseand (Jan 27, 2010)

Do you have solid pieces of teak or is it already made into slats. I have seen it made from solid pieces with holes drilled in it in a grid pattern that resembles the square pattern. A forstner bit was used for the holes so there was little tear out. Without a dado blade I would think it would be difficult to make it easily. But there are a lot of guru's on here with better ideas. There is a guy on the Cruiser Forum that has made them. Not sure if he is still contributing to the forum but here is the site.

www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f55/best-shower-grate-finish-25034.html


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## gwgreece (Feb 20, 2010)

Many thanks your response and link. I checked the link and the cockpit shown in the photo's is similar to what I have to achieve, but unfortunately the author doesn't explain how he made it and couldn't find anything else on that site, but good idea to look at boating sites for some ideas. To answer your question; it has to be made out of solid teak pieces. The first piece I will attempt is pretty much a rectangle and another one much smaller for the central cockpit of a yacht. The aft cockpit narrows and so will be a little more difficult. The frame (on the first one) in cm is 180L x 80W x 3D and the slats that have to be dadoed are 3×3 so that the whole thing sits flush. I am pretty sure there must be a trick to getting it all to be cut accurately either on the saw table or with a router, but not quite sure what it is. Maybe it is screwing on a guide to the router so that each consequential dado is absolutely parallel to the other, or maybe you do it on the table saw using a spacer for each cut? However, I am also guessing that you don't do each slat (the 3×3's) one by one and you somehow stick them all together (or at least a number of them) and cut through the lot in one go? Maybe you have to make a jig of some kind that holds them all together in a frame and pass that through the saw blade, or pass the router over it. Anyway, if anyone can give me some advice I sure would appreciate it.


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## FlWoodRat (Sep 12, 2007)

GW, If you have a solid boards of teak, you can cross cut the dado's with your table saw, using a stop block to ensure constant spacing. It might be a good idea to prepare stock of two different lengths for the slats. One board the full length of the long slats and one board the full length of the shorter slats. Of course, you need to do some test cuts to ensure your dado hight is exactly 1/2 the thickness of your stock. I'd recommend building a "dead square" cross cut sled to use when cutting the dados

Before you rip all the slat materials to width, it might be a good idea to cut a tenon on each end that fits inside of the dado of your outside rails. Time spent in 'set up and test cuts' will save you a lot of time adjusting later.

After you have completed the dado cross cuts, you can then rip off the stips to whatever width you want the slats to be.

After all of your rips are done, you can then lay the strips out horizontally and vertically (perpendicular to each other) and form your grid. Using a marine suitable glue and some brass or stainless steel tacks from the bottom side, you should be able to snap it all together. . Finally, rip some teak strips the same thickness and depth of your tenon/rail dado. You can cross cut small pieces to fill in the rail dados between the slats.

Since you are building it out of teak, I'd also recommend that you pre-clean all of the joints with acetone to remove some of the natural oils before applying the glue.

Good luck.


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## gwgreece (Feb 20, 2010)

Many thanks your posting/advice (much appreciated) As mentioned in my previous posting, my table saw won't take a Dado blade(s) and my 1/4'' router is probably not up to the job (and hence thinking of investing in the Triton TRA001 2,000w 1/2''). Indeed I will be ripping down and planing/thicknessing from some rough teak planks of about 20×5x280cm, so indeed I can dado and then rip a number at the same time, however should I do this on the table saw and mill out each of the dadoes needed do you think? Seems a bit laborious. Or, would it be better trying with a router? All the rest of your advice is well noted and thanks again. Good tip about cleaning with acetone! Any router experts out there for a comment on going the router road? By the way Teak costs a fortune here, so don't want to mess up this job and as a matter of fact am going to build one in pine first and hopefully use this as a patio table on my balcony. At least I will get the experience on this cheap wood which I have lying around anyway. Cheers/GW


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## wseand (Jan 27, 2010)

On the board draw a center line across the width of the board of where you want the dado to be. You want to measure the distance from the center of the bit on your router to the edge of the router. You want to clamp a straight edge (a level or a solid straight piece of wood) that distance away from the dado line. Place the router tight up against the straight edge and push the router across. Make sure the straight edge is a few inches wider than the board for stability when starting the cut. You want to take several passes to get to the required depth. So if you are looking for 1/2" depth you would do your first pass at, 1/4" depth than 3/8", than 1/2". This will help to control the router and tear out. Hopefully this helps. Taking shallow cuts should make it possible to use your 1/4" router, but try it out on a the pine and see what you come up with. Just remember teak is harder than pine so the router will act differently but shouldn't be to bad.


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## gwgreece (Feb 20, 2010)

Many thanks, especially for how to control the cut with the router. From looking around the web and some old books I have, you are correct, you start with the center and work out with each rebate/dado. I also understand that to keep the dadoes equidistant it is a good idea to screw on a guide to the base of the router that you slide in the dado you have just cut, which reflects the distance from each dado. In this way you don't have to keep on measuring and lining up the straight edge. and I further understand that in fact you do all the grating first and THEN cut the grid/grating to the sides of the rails (called margins on boats/yachts by the way). I have to thank wesand (see above) for prompting me to check the internet for boating advice on making grating For anyone else who may be interested in such projects, please check out http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=O7xVK5ej1MkC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=how+to+make+teak+grating&source=bl&ots=kkkTS_SaMD&sig=Lfz3IatgveOSA9XCiWDZLv0GwYQ&hl=en&ei=GXKDS4fmJ5H20gSJsanSAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=how%20to%20make%20teak%20grating&f=true - which explains how to make traditional teak grating on a table saw, but I am sure readers will see that you can adapt the router to do the dadoes, especially if, like my table saw, it will not accept a dado cutter. Thanks for everyones input and help. Much appreciated. I report back on my progress in due course.


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## fredf (Mar 29, 2008)

A somewhat off the wall thought: It would be tedious but you could do your dadoes with an 1/8" blade maybe build something akin to a box joint jig that will index side to side by the width of your dado


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## gwgreece (Feb 20, 2010)

Thanks Fred. Could be a solution, but as you say will be tedious, so I will try the router way first and if that doesn't work out will try as you suggest. Thanks and regards to everyone. GW


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