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The Leigh Super FMT at the Popular Woodworking shop

November 20, 2009 By

This is a heads-up, everyone – Popular Woodworking enjoyed a visit from Matthew Grisly, the President of Leigh Industries in Canada. Glen Huey, one of the Editors at PWW, wrote this article, and also concludes:

If you’ve been pining for an FMT to produce rock-solid mortise-and-tenon joints, but price was a concern, you have no excuses anymore. The Super FMT is a great jig. It’s easy to set up, easy to adjust, has too many possible joint sizes and can be used for more than regular mortise and tenons.

I hope to have a copy of the Super FMT in the shop soon. Sandy just called me (I am on the road) – the Super FMT is home – YUM! I will publish my findings on this blog when I have completed the evaluation. Since I have been a long-time user of the older FMT, now called the FMT Pro, I will be able to pick up on differences small and big. And, best of all, I will be able to share with you. Please stand by!

In the meantime, please read the Popular woodworking article, as it includes a nice video of the demo by Grisly.

From the PWW article:

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—– Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, FMT Pro, Jigs, Joinery, Leigh jig, Mortise, Super FMT, Tenon Tagged With: , , , ,

Drawer slips

November 20, 2009 By

Reading an earlier entry, Richard is interested in additional details about drawer slips. He is currently making a six-drawer dresser, and would like to incorporate slips.

The use of drawer slips is required when the drawer sides are too thin, for aesthetic reasons – thinner drawer sides make a drawer not only lighter, but also enhances its looks. But slips are used for more practical reasons, too. For example, if slips are not used on thin drawer sides, failure of the drawer side below the groove housing the bottom may result. The slips reinforce the sides; with slips, grooves can then be made in the slips without fear of failure.

The following is the look of the drawer slip for one of the drawers for the stand-up desk, viewed from the back; the slip has not yet been glued to the drawer side:

drawer-slip

In the next photo I show the bottom secured between both slips – the slips are the narrow boards running the full length of the drawer sides, housing the drawer bottom. In the following photo, the  tongue in the bottom panel is already  inserted in the drawer front:

drawer-slip-2

The use of the slips makes it possible to round over the inside edge of the slip, creating a little detail that my client found interesting. The roundover makes it possible to lift papers and coins in the drawer more easily; it was a pleasant and unexpected detail that pleased my client.

All that remains to finish the drawer is to glue the slips to the sides, and to use a hand plane to smooth the bottoms of the slips even with the drawer sides. This will increase the bottom bearing on the dust frame that will support the drawers.

I look forward to continuing work with the remaining drawers. Now that my client has seen this first drawer, I have a green light to continue work on the remaning drawers!

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—— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog

Resawing wide boards on the band saw – an update

November 17, 2009 By

Almost two years ago I wrote about my setup for resawing boards into thinner boards. That one blog entry generated much interest, and I enjoyed writing about it over a period of a few weeks; I have included a search of the blog archives, and post the entries on the blog at this link.

Well, some things changed, but others didn’t. I still use the Carter guides on the band saw; and I still use a Timberwolf blade narrower than 1 inch; and my resaw fence is still going strong, even though it is made of MDF, a full 11 inches wide, to provide ample support to wide boards – I use my right hand to support the board tightly against the fence, while pushing with the left hand until several inches from the end; at that point I use a suitable board to do the pushing (click on the images to enlarge them):

resawing-action

And I still have a good feeling when I get nice results on maple:

resawing-two-boards

Now for a something that has changed. This is my vantage point as I resaw  – notice the yellow featherboard from Sommerfeld Tools in the following photo?

resawing-my-view

The feather board fits in the miter slot of the band saw; it provides adjustable pressure, to maintain the bottom of the board tightly against the tall fence. It also fits nicely in the miter slot, courtesy of the “T” adapters that came with it:

resawing-sommerfeld-featherguard

The screw clamps still do the bulk of fence-holding, and are more convenient to use than any other type of clamp for this operation:

resawing-screw-clamps

It is amazing how convenient the resawing operation is now, without the fuss of setting up very tall featherboards, like I did in the “olden days”. That is real progress; using the featherboard saved me a bundle – no need (yet) for a power feeder on the band saw!

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—— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Resaw, Tools

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