On Fri, 08 Oct 2004 22:55:01 GMT, "Corey" wrote:

For those that haven't been following my saga, I'm a newbie taking an adult
ed class. I've chosen to make a bookcase for my project.

a good place to start.




So I have all of my pieces cut to size and am ready to put it all together.
I plan on using woodscrews to attach the pieces. I'm also planning on
"sinking the screw head into a larger hole" (not sure what to call that)

countersinking.


cut
with a forstener bit and cutting my own plugs to fill in the hole. So now
on to the questions...

1) What size forstener bit should I use (knowing I need to match the plug
cutter)? Most of the panels are 3/4" x 10.5" x differing lengths.

3/8" and 1/2" are common plug cutter sizes. get the plug cutter first.
make some plugs and choose the drill bit to fit the plugs. you don't
have to use a forstner bit, though if you happen to get a good size
match that will be a nice way to go. regular old twist drills are
commonly available in 1/64" increments though, should you need to bump
up or down a tad.

whatever tools you end up using, do a mock up of the whole joint and
make sure it's all going to go together well before you make any holes
in the actual project.




2) How deep should I cut the forstener "hole"?

not more than 1/3 of the thickness of the board, and not less than you
need to be able to glue in the plug.



3) Sanding - should I sand all my pieces before attaching the pieces with
the screws? I ask because I know I'm going to have some additional sanding
after cutting the plugs off in the screw holes. So do I sand everything
first and then just re-sand the plug areas? Or do I wait and not sand until
the plugs are in?

I try to do as much sanding as possible before assembly. there will
always be some sanding to do after assembly, but it's sure easier to
do flat....





If it makes any difference, I'm going to need to do some evening on the
panels I glued together (there is a little variation here and there that I
need to make flat) - either with heaving sanding or trying to hand plane to
flat.

sounds like a good opportunity to learn to use a card scraper.




Thanks for the advice.



thanks for playing.