May 23, 2012

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for Joinery / Tongue & groove

A little push for Woodworking in America – 17th century carving

September 28, 2010 By

If you are still on the fence about attending Woodworking in America this year, don’t wait any longer. I trust what follows will change your mind.

First, class sessions are sold out – you won’t be able to attend, as you simply cannot register for any courses. Registration closed a while back.

What is still available? The Exhibitor Marketplace, of course!  Click here to read an article by Christopher Schwarz – you will get to meet Tommy MacDonald, Rob Cosman, Reto Odermatt, and Don Webber; in fact, they will be “permanent fixtures” for the duration of the Marketplace!

And if you have not considered attending the conference this year, maybe this article will make you want to attend next year. For example, a 17th century carved box by Peter Follansbee, which he shared with us during his hands-on session at Valley Forge, in the 2009 edition of the conference:

Carved box by Peter Follansbee.

If looking at this box still does not sway you to plan to attend, maybe the following video will help change your mind. I extracted 20 minutes from Peter’s 90-minute hands-on session at Valley Forge. This is the value you get when you attend the conference: you get a unique chance to watch, and to work with, the principal woodworkers invited to lead the hands-on sessions. The close-up exchange of ideas, the question – answer environment, is a terrific way to learn during the conference.

Enjoy this video! And Please let me know if you like what you see – details of carving, Peter’s technique to quickly make a tenon using a large chisel, his drawboring technique, etc.  — Al Navas

I hope to meet many of you in Cincinnati. Have a safe drive!

Filed Under: Blog, Conference, Drawboring, Education, Joinery, Layout, Mortise, Popular Woodworking, Tenon, Tongue & groove, Valley Forge, Video, Woodworking in America, Woodworking Magazine Tagged With: , , , ,

A tip to align drawer slips perfectly

January 22, 2010 By

In earlier posts I discussed the use of slips as a technique to reinforce thin drawer sides. But slips can also be used to enhance the appearance of drawer bottoms in fine furniture. After reading my latest post on slips, a reader wrote to ask “…how do you maintain perfect alignment during the glue-up”? This is a great question, and one I did not address earlier. I will use photos to illustrate.

I make the slips with a groove that accepts the tongue machined on the sides of the drawer bottom. The front edge of the drawer bottom, in turn, also has a tongue, and is housed in a groove in the drawer front. And since the slips will be glued to the sides, it is imperative to that the groove in the slips be in perfect alignment with the groove in the drawer front.

Tongue & groove joinery is great for this purpose. I do the entire process with the drawer upside down, but not yet glued. The key to proper alignment is to use a small piece of waste, and cut a tongue on one side and one end. I then insert the tongue on this piece into the groove in the slip – remember, we are looking at the bottom of the slip in this photo:

This piece can now hold the slip perfectly aligned with the groove in the bottom of the drawer front:

I then bring everything into place, with the slip clamped to the side, and registered against the drawer front:

Voilá – perfect alignment. Note that I also machined tongues on the two additional small blocks, to allow me to use clamps while reducing the risk of damaging the groove on the slip:

The outside surface also requires a small block, to distribute the pressure and to reduce the risk of compressing the wood too much:

That does it – perfectly aligned drawer slips!

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Joinery, Tongue & groove Tagged With: , , , ,

Making slips for drawers

January 21, 2010 By

I received several questions about making and using drawer slips; in this entry I will show how I do it, using power tools and a simple layout technique.

Drawer slips are are grooved strips of wood, used primarily to hold the drawer bottom in place. It is a terrific way to reinforce thin drawer sides. The slips are glued to the sides, to provide the reinforcement. I showed one such slip in a sample drawer prepared for a client – nothing was yet glued:

It was this  photo that prompted several questions from readers.

In the photo above, notice that the slip projects just below the drawer side. In fitting the drawer, the slips are planed even with the sides, which increases the total surface area; this results in reduced wear of the frame supporting the drawer(s).

What follows is how I go about making the slips, using simple tongue & groove joinery; rabbets would also be a good joinery choice.

I start by preparing several strips, including some spares that I will use for machine setup and testing – notice I match and mark each pair, to enhance their appearance when placed in the drawer:

Using one of the spare strips, I set up the groove router bit to height. A straight edge helps me align the bit’s bearing with the fence:

Remember the spare slips? I use one to assure myself the router bit height and groove depth are properly set:

A tip on the use of the tongue & groove router bit set I use: The “show face” is always down, to ensure flush surfaces of the assembled pieces. The router bits are perfectly matched in height, which simplifies changing from one bit to the other as needed.

Once satisfied the setup is good, I machine the grooves in all strips. Then I change to the tongue bit, in preparation to machine the tongues on the drawer panels:

Do you notice the bearing sandwiched between the cutters in the router bit above? This bearing is registered with the fence in the say as I showed for the groove bit. Another tip: The offset wrench allows me to change bits without changing the height of the bits!

Before machining the tongues on the bottom panels, I must first dimension the panels to proper width. I start by clamping two slips to one drawer edge, measuring the width, and adding 7/16″; this allows for machining the two 1/4″ tongues, while leaving 1/16″ of side-to-side  movement. Then I mark a story stick with this dimension:

After trimming the bottom panels to proper width, I now machine the tongues – the Feather Guard is my third hand, as it keeps the edge of the panel tight against the router table top while I press the panel against the fence:

The next photo shows the bottom panel inserted in the slip. Notice the perfect alignment on the top edges – this is possible because I did not have to change the bit height:

All that is left at this point is to machine a very slight roundover on the top inside edge of the slip. After trimming the slips to proper length, and gluing them to the sides, the drawers will be ready for glue-up. Note to self: I must remember to machine the groove on the drawer fronts…

If you are interested in drawers, you might want to watch the video of Mario Rodriguez I shot during the Woodworking in America conference at Valley Forge, and later edited for the blog.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, furniture, Joinery, Tongue & groove Tagged With: , , ,

Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin