Hello,

I have a 2.5 inch by 18 inch by 7/8 inch thick piece of wood. I was hoping
to cut a slot down the middle 12 inches for holding knifes. Has anyone ever
done this and lived, or should I just take the knifes and chop off the ends
of my fingers and save time. The wood is veneered (part of a store bought
cabinet set) so I was hoping to not have to cut and glue the pieces back
together.

Thanks in advance

Larry C

L C wrote:
I have a 2.5 inch by 18 inch by 7/8 inch thick piece of wood. I was hoping
to cut a slot down the middle 12 inches for holding knifes. Has anyone ever
done this and lived, or should I just take the knifes and chop off the ends
of my fingers and save time. The wood is veneered (part of a store bought
cabinet set) so I was hoping to not have to cut and glue the pieces back
together.

Bandsaw down the middle, as you stated, would be easiest.

Maybe you could use a scabbard chisel. Or, use a biscuit joiner or
slot cutter to cut the slot in the front, and then hollow it out on an
unexposed face to the depth you need. Is it going to be visible on all
sides?

JP

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 12:02:24 GMT, "L C" wrote:

I have a 2.5 inch by 18 inch by 7/8 inch thick piece of wood. I was hoping
to cut a slot down the middle 12 inches for holding knifes.

Knife slots are tricky. The block design I use is a great slab of tree,
chopped into slices and then re-assembled. While the slices are separate
I machine each face to have a step in it (one pass on the table saw),
but the steps in opposing faces aren't in the same place. Re-assembling
now leaves a slot behind. These sots are also separate and parallel,
which I think gives a better result than one long slot with the knives
bumping into each other.

As to your slot, then you could saw the board in half, then re-assemble
it with spacers. This could be done with almost any sort of saw, even
by hand, as it's only 2 1/2" wide.

When you re-assemble it, use little pegs (chopstick) every couple of
inches to separate the knives from each other and also to stop them
tipping over.

On the whole though, I probably wouldn't use this piece of timber. It's
_hard_ to make things out of one piece of found timber! It's generally
easier to find cheap timber, lots of it, then design with a free hand
and no thought for economy.

There's also the risk that if this stuff is veneered and modern, it's
probably only chipboard underneath.

This is what I mean

A piece that has a slot all the way through so the knives will go through it
and hang down.

kind of like this

__|__|__|______
| |
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| | |



"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 12:02:24 GMT, "L C" wrote:

I have a 2.5 inch by 18 inch by 7/8 inch thick piece of wood. I was
hoping
to cut a slot down the middle 12 inches for holding knifes.

Knife slots are tricky. The block design I use is a great slab of tree,
chopped into slices and then re-assembled. While the slices are separate
I machine each face to have a step in it (one pass on the table saw),
but the steps in opposing faces aren't in the same place. Re-assembling
now leaves a slot behind. These sots are also separate and parallel,
which I think gives a better result than one long slot with the knives
bumping into each other.

As to your slot, then you could saw the board in half, then re-assemble
it with spacers. This could be done with almost any sort of saw, even
by hand, as it's only 2 1/2" wide.

When you re-assemble it, use little pegs (chopstick) every couple of
inches to separate the knives from each other and also to stop them
tipping over.

On the whole though, I probably wouldn't use this piece of timber. It's
_hard_ to make things out of one piece of found timber! It's generally
easier to find cheap timber, lots of it, then design with a free hand
and no thought for economy.

There's also the risk that if this stuff is veneered and modern, it's
probably only chipboard underneath.

"L C" wrote in message news:j0N%f.2$V73.1@trnddc06...
This is what I mean

A piece that has a slot all the way through so the knives will go through
it
and hang down.

kind of like this

__|__|__|______
| |
------------------
| | |


Simple - use any saw. A handsaw, a circular saw, a table saw - whatever you
have access to. Just determine your depth of cut and set the saw to that
depth. If you do it with a hand saw you'll have to ensure you hold the saw
so that the cutting edge is parallel with the surface of the block and
simply cut to your defined depth.

--

-Mike-

L C wrote:
This is what I mean

A piece that has a slot all the way through so the knives will go through it
and hang down.

kind of like this

__|__|__|______
| |
------------------
| | |


If you don't have a router, you can even do it with a drill and a
coping saw or a jigsaw, just like you were cutting out a long, skinny
rectangular hole.

You can also plunch down through the wood with a circular saw, or up
through it with a tablesaw. The ends of the slot won't be perfectly
verticle though; you'd have to finish them up with a handsaw or a
narrow chisel.

I did this once, but it was to lay in a drawer. Just used my dovetail
saw, which made a pretty narrow cut. Marked depth of cut on both sides,
and simply sawed to the line. The dovetail saw is nice and stiff, so it
was easy to keep it vertical.

Assuming you want several parallel slots of varying lengths and widths to,
each, accommodate a particular knife blade, I would suggest drilling holes
through at the respective end points of each slot.

Use a bit as small as you can but large enough to allow a coping saw blade
to pass through that you might attach the frame and saw through to the
opposite end of each slot.

Then, working with a thin file (fingernail file?) widen and square up each
slot appropriately.



"L C" wrote in message news:j0N%f.2$V73.1@trnddc06...
This is what I mean

A piece that has a slot all the way through so the knives will go through
it
and hang down.

kind of like this

__|__|__|______
| |
------------------
| | |



"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 12:02:24 GMT, "L C" wrote:

I have a 2.5 inch by 18 inch by 7/8 inch thick piece of wood. I was
hoping
to cut a slot down the middle 12 inches for holding knifes.

Knife slots are tricky. The block design I use is a great slab of tree,
chopped into slices and then re-assembled. While the slices are separate
I machine each face to have a step in it (one pass on the table saw),
but the steps in opposing faces aren't in the same place. Re-assembling
now leaves a slot behind. These sots are also separate and parallel,
which I think gives a better result than one long slot with the knives
bumping into each other.

As to your slot, then you could saw the board in half, then re-assemble
it with spacers. This could be done with almost any sort of saw, even
by hand, as it's only 2 1/2" wide.

When you re-assemble it, use little pegs (chopstick) every couple of
inches to separate the knives from each other and also to stop them
tipping over.

On the whole though, I probably wouldn't use this piece of timber. It's
_hard_ to make things out of one piece of found timber! It's generally
easier to find cheap timber, lots of it, then design with a free hand
and no thought for economy.

There's also the risk that if this stuff is veneered and modern, it's
probably only chipboard underneath.

L C wrote:
Hello,

I have a 2.5 inch by 18 inch by 7/8 inch thick piece of wood. I was
hoping to cut a slot down the middle 12 inches for holding knifes.
Has anyone ever done this and lived, or should I just take the knifes
and chop off the ends of my fingers and save time. The wood is
veneered (part of a store bought cabinet set) so I was hoping to not
have to cut and glue the pieces back together.

When I made one to lay flat in a drawer I cut the slots positioned as I
wanted them with a thin (1/16"+) blade on a radial saw. The cuts *were*
slots; i.e, not all the way through. I then glued in splines (of the
same wood) from the top to fill the top leaving enough slot for the
particular knife.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

"L C" wrote in message news:j0N%f.2$V73.1@trnddc06...
This is what I mean

A piece that has a slot all the way through so the knives will go through
it
and hang down.

kind of like this

__|__|__|______
| |
------------------
| | |


Rip the board in half. Dado the slots in one half. Glue back together.

Dave

"Teamcasa" writes:
"L C" wrote in message news:j0N%f.2$V73.1@trnddc06...
A piece that has a slot all the way through so the knives will go through
Rip the board in half. Dado the slots in one half. Glue back together.

The user requested a solution of not doing this.

It looks like the user wished to cut a long hole connecting the 7/8"
sides. It seems to me that the way to do this is with a plunge
technique, either with a router, as several folks have suggested, or a
table saw.

Sounds like a TS would be easiest:
Set the fence of a TS to 3/8"
figure out a safe way to plunge the piece of wood onto the blade.
Run the wood along the slot to the block stop you've put in place.
Flip the wood over and cut the other side of the slot the same way.
Use a hand saw to remove the material left at the ends of the slot
left by what the blade could not reach due to the curve.

The hardest bit of this, assuming you have a table saw, is probably
safely plunging the wood for the first cut. Anyone more experienced
have any ideas?

--
May no harm befall you,
flip
Ich habe keine Ahnung was das bedeutet, oder vielleicht doch?
Remove origin of the word spam from address to reply (leave "+")

On 14 Apr 2006 13:51:42 -0400, Philip Lewis
wrote:

"Teamcasa" writes:
"L C" wrote in message news:j0N%f.2$V73.1@trnddc06...
A piece that has a slot all the way through so the knives will go through
Rip the board in half. Dado the slots in one half. Glue back together.

The user requested a solution of not doing this.

OK, method 2. Same thing with two halves, but one long dado rather
than individual for each knife. The safe way ...Dado across the
piece, leaving little bits not dadoed for support, and they are easily
chiselled out and lightly sanded. Join the two halves when done.

Method 3. Router again. Set up a guide to avoid sudden mistakes, and
rout half way up into the wood, nibbling to avoid stress etc. Turn
over and repeat. With the guides and not biting off too much at one
time it's safe enough to slide through by hand.

In article kbM%f.4032$5f7.3931@trndny03, L C wrote:
Hello,

I have a 2.5 inch by 18 inch by 7/8 inch thick piece of wood. I was hoping
to cut a slot down the middle 12 inches for holding knifes. Has anyone ever
done this and lived, or should I just take the knifes and chop off the ends
of my fingers and save time. The wood is veneered (part of a store bought
cabinet set) so I was hoping to not have to cut and glue the pieces back
together.

Thanks in advance

Larry C



How about lowering your table saw blade all the way down, clamping the
piece of wood to the saw table over the blade, then raising the blade.
Move the workpiece & repeat as necessary. If the rounded ends left
by the saw blade are a problem, you can square them up with a hand
saw or small file.

Another alternative would be to drill 2 small holes 12" (or whatever)
apart and cut out the space bewtween them with a scroll saw or jig
saw.


--

Larry Wasserman Baltimore, Maryland

replying to L C, Holy Smokes wrote:
dude just clamp er down friggin drill a hole down it the size you what your
width to be maybe drill another one to gow it out frickin stuff a jig saw in
until you made your slot the rest is just farkin around getting er as deep as
you need helps to have grinders and drill presses and shat to make holes and
special tools like grinding shat to make chisels and shat i dunno buddy just
fackin look at some shat and do it its a friggin block not a piano

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/woodwo...ood-94103-.htm

"Holy Smokes" wrote in message ...

replying to L C, Holy Smokes wrote:
dude just clamp er down friggin drill a hole down it the size you what your
width to be maybe drill another one to gow it out frickin stuff a jig saw
in
until you made your slot the rest is just farkin around getting er as deep
as
you need helps to have grinders and drill presses and shat to make holes
and
special tools like grinding shat to make chisels and shat i dunno buddy
just
fackin look at some shat and do it its a friggin block not a piano

--
for full context, visit
https://www.homeownershub.com/woodwo...ood-94103-.htm

More evidence that you should be thoughtful about what you post on the
internet as it lasts for ever.... case in point, this is a response to a 12+
year old question. I've found things I originally posted on BBSs back in
the early 90s on the web. Looks like I'll live forever! LOL