can't get box sq! also want to build router tble

[deema]

I am a little concerned that you are using plywood. I know that certain plywood with a high resin content gives off fumes when it gets warm, I believe there have been incidents where ply lined vehicles have given off sufficient fumes to make the driver drowsy. As a fellow bee keeper, the bees may not appreciate the toxic fumes from the resin. The standard National hives are made from either solid cedar or softwood. The later is normally protected from the elements with a water based paint / protector and left at least two weeks for the fumes it dissipate.

A nuke of bees is not cheap, and I'd hate to see them debunk from their new home due to the smell!

 

[DennisCA]

How are you measuring the "squareness"? Pythagoras, or a measuring tool you "believe to be square"?

I find getting things square to be a pain as well.

I just bought a new sq today. I think I've found the problem. My routered grooves are not the exact same length. I measured from the inside to inside of the routered groves and I'm out by 1-1.5mm. I used a handheld router with a guide running along the outside edge.

My workwork skills aren't the best so yous will be hearing more from me from now on. I'm thinking of making a router table so I'm wondering what I will need for this. I have the router and was thinking of buying an old 2nd hand pine table and turn the router upside down. Can yous tell me what else I would need.

Check your new square is actually square- it won't be 90.00000 degrees, so you need to see how accurate it really is. Cheap squares can be a few degrees off. (To check: take a straight piece of wood and draw two lines at 90 degrees, reversing the square each time. If you have a £100 square, the lines might be close to being parallel). For gluing up, don't trust a square- trust Pythagoras and measuring the diagonals.

You should be able to get a straight groove with a handheld router and two guides, so I wouldn't expend effort on a router table just yet.

I had the same problem, bought a square and it wobbled. I bought an american one piece aluminum (aluminium) speed square instead, it's very close to 90 degrees and won't move or wobble, I love it and think it's a superior design, only problem is the coarseness of the graduations. The old square gets used more as a ruler now.