Hi, Mike.
I do a lot of M&T work, making windows, doors etc. One thing I find
invaluable, even for one-offs, is to make up a rod for the job. This is
effectively a full-size working drawing (using the cross-section) taken from
the plan and drawn onto conveniently-sized boards.
To give you an example, I use 2 boards to draw a panelled house door. I use
3" x 1" PSE softwood, but MDF, hardboard or ply would do as well for your
project. One board is cut (on site) to the exact width of the door opening,
the other to the exact length. This way I _know_ that the finished door
will fit exactly once I've planed it in on site - no guesswork
Then the cross-section of each member - rails, muntins, stiles, panels and
mouldings, including hidden detail, such as tenons, is carefully drawn
full-size on the boards in its correct relationship to the other components.
Use a very sharp, hardish pencil to give an accurate line. These rods are
invaluable for working out the allowances to be made for long-and-short
shouldered tenons, many of which have to be subsequently scribed. They also
help you to cut tenoned members accurately to length when you're using
stopped (blind) mortices.
Once you've drawn out your project, checked and double-checked it with your
plans and the job site, then you hide your ruler and plans and mark all of
your components directly from the rod. This avoids any
measurement/drawing-reading cock-ups and will better allow you to visualise
each joint - as you finish a component you lay it out on the rod, and you
can see very clearly how the next component is going to go.
Be fastidious in giving every component a face side and face edge mark, then
use these marks to determine which side of the component goes against the
tool fence. This way, if, for example, your mortice is fractionally
off-centre, then it will be fractionally off-centre _in the same direction_
in all your components. In the case of the panelled door I've been
describing, if some of the mortices were fractionally off in one direction,
and some fractionally off in the opposite sense, it would lead to a twisted
door. I hope that makes sense to you.
Bear in mind that some of your components will be handed. So when your're
about to cut a mortice, hold the component against the rod, just to
double-check that you're not about to cut it on the outside of the
component, rather than on the inside.
This may seem a lot of trouble to go to, but believe me, you'll save time
and money in the long run by avoiding expensive mistakes. Once the job is
finished, you can either store the rods to allow you to make an identical
piece sometime in the future or, more often (in my case), you can run a belt
sander over them to clean them off for the next job. Some guys give the
rods a coat of flat white paint to make the drawing stand out a bit more.
I've never bothered, but my eyes aren't a good as they used to be and I can
see the day coming when I'm going to have to do the same!
HTH
Frank
"Mike S." wrote in message
. ..
I have the Shop Fox Mortiser and the Woodcraft tenon jig for the table
saw.
I've messed around with it a little back in the summer making some small
tables for the patio and they turned out ok with some trial & error. Now
I'm
in the process of building a Mission sofa table for my daughter out of
qswo.
Any of you guys have any tips, tricks or things to watch out for so I
don't
screw this up. I'm working from a set of plans I bought and it has all the
measurments but I know how things can go. Little tips & tricks the pro's
use
to make the job smoother.
Thanks, Mike
--
Mike S.
http://members.tripod.com/n0yii/woodworking.htm
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