I posted in another thread about this bench I'm building for Mrs. DynaGlide. I'd like to start a topic as questions are coming up.

I don't do furniture that much mainly because it's an exercise in frustration. I don't have traditional woodworking machinery. My shop is mostly Festool with a sprinkle of DeWALT. I bought my first planer this week and shoe horned it into the corner on a mobile base.

Here's a picture of what she asked for, more or less:



I made a SketchUp of it to get me going:



I settled on S4S Cherry from my supplier because I thought it'd look nice:



Being the hack that I am I face glued several of the frame pieces together to get the parts I needed:





For the rails (aprons?) I ripped down glued up boards to make them:





After laying out the slats I made some 1/2" or so spacers out of MDF to aid in Domino placement and assembly:













By leaving the aprons/rails long I could trim each shelf to identical dimensions:



Then to get the spacing right I cut some 6.5" spacers out of MDF while I did my Domino layout lines:













That's where the frame sits now. I dry fit the aprons/shelves to the end frame pieces and it all sits flat on my MDF 'assembly table.' The plan is to pre-finish as much as I can prior to assembly. I'll be spraying since those slats are going to be a challenge otherwise. Topic for later.

I'm in the middle of working on the top. It's going to consist of about 5 3.5" wide boards glued up into a panel. Then they'll get breadboard ends to hide the end grain and help keep it flat. Everything is still oversized at this point. I'm playing around with different options for jointing the edges of the boards. I've tried using the TS55 and it works, and I'll probably do that in the end. What I don't like about that is the boards are much narrower than the track so I have to double them up side by side to give support. It makes clamping tricky. My plan was to rip both mating boards at the same time as has been discussed on the FOG and shown on YouTube videos. It's just kind of hard to do so without the boards moving on me with how narrow they are. I tried using a flush trim bit and a straight piece of MDF as a guide to do the jointing but it isn't giving me perfect results, either:



It's close, but not perfect. I'll probably go back to the TS55 at this point and figure out a better way to secure everything. When I tried screwing the ends of the boards down to hold them in place it was splitting the wood even with pre-drilling. Maybe some sandpaper and double stick tape is in order.

Anyway thanks for reading.

Matt

Project looks great Matt.

I used the TS55 jointing technique and it work well. Straightens the edges and self corrects if the blade isn't perfectly 90 degrees.

Given you can adjust the distance between tops on the track tubes, how about dogs at the end of each piece and double sided tape to secure them?

RMW

Dang it that's a great idea. Thanks Richard.

Matt - I like the design too. Nice and clean and somewhat rustic. Looks like you had time to polish up your Domino joining skills on this project. Can't wait to see the final result!

Mike

Mike you just butt the two pieces to be joined edge to edge, position the guide rail so the saw kerf straddles the joined edges, and the cut is basically mirrored on each piece. If the blade is tilted slightly the tilt cancels itself out.

The edges have to be pretty close to start with since the material removed for each edge is only half the kerf. IIRC I first cut each board so then followed up by recutting at each joint. Not my idea, but I forget where I stole it from.

RMW

Quote from: Mike Goetzke on March 29, 2022, 04:13 PM

@Richard/RMW can you give more info on TS55 jointing technique?

Thanks

Bob Marino told us about this trick way back in the early days. Maybe back when FOG was still a Yahoo user group.

Quote from: Richard/RMW on March 29, 2022, 02:45 PM

Project looks great Matt.

I used the TS55 jointing technique and it work well. Straightens the edges and self corrects if the blade isn't perfectly 90 degrees.

Given you can adjust the distance between tops on the track tubes, how about dogs at the end of each piece and double sided tape to secure them?

RMW

Dang it that's a great idea. Thanks Richard.

Dunno, after reviewing your photos again I see a disturbing lack of saw kerfs in the MFT tops... Reminded me of the last time we both shared photos on the same thread and I ended up polishing my filthy routers afterwards out of embarrassment.

I'm playing around with some new MFT tops to replace the monster cart I disassembled and your setup gave me some ideas. I've toyed with buying track tubes but have been limping along with chunks of 80/20. Any overriding benefits to the tubes?

RMW

Looks great so far! How do you plan to attach the Xes to the ends?

I believe the technique is known as 'kerfing-in', not to be confused with kerf bending.

The method was used with hand saws long before power tools existed.

Matt, if you haven't already seen this method, it's another option.

RMW

Interesting method for using the table saw. I've edge jointed on the router table with the bit inline with an offset on the outfeed side of the fence, but only with smaller stock (<30"). I might have to try this on the table saw.

@DynaGlide  Looking really good so far!  Thank you for all the pictures.  They really help illustrate and inform.  I was able to easily visualize how you used the TSO stop in creating those mdf
spacers you cut.

Mike A.

As I mentioned earlier I wanted to do breadboard ends on this top. I watched a few YT videos to get an education but settled on this one from a fellow FOG member:











I'm not one for big roundovers so I settled on 1/8" and am pleased with the outcome:







I probably skipped some steps but with young kids and spring break this week I don't have the luxury to take pictures of everything. Very happy with how it is shaping up to this point and I'll do some final tweaking before working on finishing.

Matt

Quote from: DynaGlide on April 04, 2022, 12:23 PM

I probably skipped some steps but with young kids and spring break this week I don't have the luxury to take pictures of everything. Very happy with how it is shaping up to this point and I'll do some final tweaking before working on finishing.

Matt

Looks great. I would reconsider dropping the dfecorative X parts. The sides look a bit baren without it, now it is complete.

Or think up some other decorative fill, not have to be X ... maybe even simple vertical "poles" would work out well. The decorative X in the original also "hides" the shoes placed in there when looked from side, makinge the whole think a bit more "woody". Having something "woody" in that area just seems right, me thinks.

You're right and that's been gnawing at me. I don't have the material left to do the X's. I could buy more. I'll give it some thought.

Is there a crafty way to get a dead on fit for the "X" pieces on the ends? I took some 3/4" MDF and clamped it where I wanted for the first piece so the corners met, marked the backside, and cut a bevel on both ends as close as I could. It got close but there were gaps on each end.

I can't really think of a better way to approach it. My plan was to get the fit right with trial and error then transfer the MDF angles/length etc to the real material.







Something like this maybe?

https://www.woodpeck.com/ott-tool-stair-tread-and-shelf-gauge-2022.html

In cases like these I like to choose a low-tech approach and make an oversize piece and then snug up to it with a plane. What helps is the Veritas Adjustable Shooting Board I have. I use a bevel square to get the precise angle and set the shooting board to just that angle. To get the angle I do as you did and just clamp the wood to the workpiece. Try to err on the cautious side and be patient while getting close to the size you need. Lots of fitting...

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/jigs-guides-and-fixtures/110737-veritas-shooting-board

That certainly does seem to be the best way to do this. However it's also a $500 solution  I'm looking to get into hand tools more but I think a proper jointer plane is next on the list to go with my new planer.

I would forego the X at this point. The "original" likely had it made mortise/tenon/domino way when it was being assembled.

Try cutting a couple pieces of MDF for vertical "stiles" in the same place the X was - to gear how it would present.

You can fix vertical stiles there relatively easy by through-screws and visually it should work as well or an upside-down semi-open "V" "supporting" the bench etc. etc., does not have to be "X" to provide the function.

Example below - not a suggestion.

That still means Matt has to create cuts at the right angle and the right distance. And for 2 semi-diagonals on each side at that. More work and as far as I can see not much easier to do. Just one diagonal per side should be enough for stability. You'd loose symmetry, but it would mean less work.

The difference is that your cuts do not have to be (absolutely) precise - you can put the piece in and then rotate half a degree etc. You cannot do that with an X part which is "fixed" in all axes except the one pushing it in. So a tracksaw bevel will do while for the X not so much..