Project Number 1 - Garden bench - COMPLETED

[OPJ]

Great work Paul, glad to see you've got everything up and running.

I like the router table fence but you'll probably find you could do with some side-on pressure from featherboards that run in the mitre slot. This'll further improve your accuracy, reduce chances of kickback and ensure your fingers don't need to be anywhere near the spinning cutter.

Rounding over the corners of some 5mm square stock on the router table is probably your best bet. You can buy pre-cut beech dowels but they're generally only available in 6, 8 and 10mm. I'm not sure if you can get a smaller diameter cutter so you'll have to use a portion of a 1/4" (6.35mm) round-over bit. Best to have a couple of spares to get the setting just right.

As long as you have good, even support to the timber around the cutter (your featherboards) then this process should go smoothly. It becomes problematic when there's insufficient support and the timber starts jumping about at each end, which of course ruins the finish.

Another alternative would be to make your own Dowel Plate by drilling a 5mm hole in a piece of steel...? I'm not sure... If you have any sash cramps, check the diameter of the holes as a lot people simply knock square stuff through those to make dowels.

What's your next project going to be??? :wink:

 

[LarryS.]

Paul

You may wonder what I was going on about with my last post well this morning I was brousing the forum and realised it was almost time to set off for work, I thought I,ll just look at one more topic and saw yours, I got to the bottom of page one and for some reason thought I,ll shove my twopennyworth in so I submitted my post then realised that there was two more pages, looked at the clock and it was time to set off thought,what a plonker and went to work.What I was pointing out in my initial post is that it sometimes pays to waste a little wood in the cutting out stages than to waste even more plus your time and efforts later on.

Dennis

thanks for the clarification dennis, I read your post about 3 times and couldn't get my head round it, thought either you were drunk or I was !!

 

[LarryS.]

I like the router table fence but you'll probably find you could do with some side-on pressure from featherboards that run in the mitre slot.

Rounding over the corners of some 5mm square stock on the router table is probably your best bet.
What's your next project going to be??? :wink:

I've made some feather-boards so could use them but am stuck on how to cut a strip of 6mm square stock, any suggestions ?

Actually started the next project today, been down to interesting timbers to buy some 1.5 inch thick oak to make a side table like this :
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22847
I'll do a post about it

 

[CWatters]

If it's not too late...

I'd drill the holes a bit bigger and make a feature of them.

I have an idential bench to yours. I painted the iron with a metal paint made by Dulux that I got in Belgium. That was about 10 years ago and it's still sound.

 

[OPJ]

Paul, there are several ways you could accurately cut or machine something 6mm square. First, take one of your offcuts (assuming they are much larger in diameter) and plane a face and edge on the planer. Take this semi-prepared piece over to the bandsaw (much safer than the table saw for narrow cuts like this!) and rip off thin piece, referencing the face and then edge against the fence each time.

On a table saw, you may find the finish is good enough to then go straight to the router table. Since the bandsaw is the safer option though, rip it over-size and then run it through the thicknesser. You should just be able to thickness 6mm stuff... If not, then you need to make a simple MDF bed to sit on your thicknesser bed, which effectively raises the depth of cut by 18/19mm.

Don't even think about trying to face and edge anything thin like this as you'll find the results are disappointing and it's also quite dangerous. Much safer to run a wider, thicker board over the planer and cut it out after, like I said. :wink:

 

[Tusses]

I'd say just rip 6mm on the table saw - or if you have on a band saw.

then go right over to the router table and use a 1/4 " roundover.

no need to fuss about - only the bit you cut off will be seen !

open up the holes to 1/4" if the dowel is too big - its slightly easier than trying to sand down the dowel. but watch out for tear out.

Rich

 

[dennis]

Paul

I could be wrong but I have always known dowel as something that is rounded with the grain such as brush handles and wood that is rounded across the grain as plugs or pellets which is what you need you can buy different sized plug or pellet cutters to use in a drill but you may have to enlarge your holes to suit the available sizes with a forstner bit or router cutter,using dowel you would end up with end grain showing.Unless of course I am wrong which wouldnt be unusual and what I know as plugs or pellets is actually called dowel.

 

[OPJ]

Very good point Dennis. Plus or "pellets" are a lot easier to cut than a new length of dowel, if you have the right plug cutter and matching drill bit, of course. You should be able to find a cheap set almost anywhere that'll match up to any drill bits you have, Paul, though I reckon you'll still have to enlarge the existing holes (slowly and carefully).

With a good grain match you can make these "holes" practically inivisible, which is something that wouldn't happen with dowels because of the visible end-grain, as Dennis said.

 

[dennis]

Before plug cutters were available we used to cut them by hand we would mark the desired sized circle on wood not any thicker than 1 inch cut slightly over size with a coping saw then holding on a scrap piece of wood pressing down hard with a thumb and taking great care pare with a sharp chisel there can be a tendency for it to flip that is why you dont want it too long as the longer it is the harder it is to hold safely.I suppose it would be possible to turn short lengths on a lathe but being across the grain there would be a tendency to break a turner could answer that,but as plug cutters are cheap to buy that is the best way.


Dennis