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(jazzy music)
The following is an excerpt
from the wall-hanging cabinet Guild Build.
The clip is approximately 15 minutes long,
but it's just one small part of one video
for this project.
That should give you an idea of the depth
that we go into during these Guild Builds.
To learn more about the benefits
and features of membership,
head to WoodWhispererGuild.com.
Marc:Now this bad boy is my exact-width dado jig.
I love this thing.
The reason it's so great is because
you don't have to necessarily worry
about the thickness of the material.
You use the same router setup
each and every time,
and you can get a dado of any width
because the jig itself uses the work piece
to decide the position of the jig.
Basically you have your layout lines
on your work piece.
You slide the fence up.
There's a fixed side of the jig
so you line it up with your one line,
and then the mobile side, the movable side here
basically take your work piece
drop it in place,
and then pinch it in there with the jig.
Of course, you would want to clamp this
to the work piece.
Tighten it down.
You've got two knobs on either end.
Remove the work piece and now you just use
a router with a guide bushing and a router bit
just a simple straight bit,
or a spiral bit and you could just plow through
ride on one side and then ride back
on the other side,
and you'll have an exact width dado.
Now we're going to cut them using that method,
but it's important that you know how
to make this thing so let me show you that process.
Voiceover:So here's what you'll need,
four pieces of 3/4 inch ply cut into 2 1/4 inch wide strips,
our two main rails will be 24 inches long,
our long fence is 12 inches long,
and our short fence is 8 inches long,
a few pieces of 1/4 inch thick
solid wood edge banding cut to
approximately 24 inches long,
and some simple bolt and knob hardware.
The first step is to glue the solid wood trim
to our plywood pieces.
Just make sure that each piece has
solid wood trim on one side.
The solid wood is smoother and more durable
and will help our jig last for years to come.
Once the trim is dry,
I use an auxiliary fence at the table saw
to trim it flush.
The fence is nothing more than a piece of ply
with a rabbit cut into one corner.
The key is to position the blade
perfectly flush with the fence.
I use a scrap piece of wood to help me
determine when the blade is in the perfect position.
If the scrap piece moves the blade,
I tap the fence over just a hair and try again.
Once the piece rides safely past the blade
without the blade moving,
the fence is set.
Now I just run each piece through
and the edge banding is trimmed flush.
It's not perfect, but it's close and it saves
a lot of time.
Any overhanging edge banding
is trimmed flush at the miter saw.
A little sanding further smooths the edge banding
making it perfectly flush with the surface.
With the solid wood edge facing away from you
lay out the slot on the short fence.
Mark a line 1 1/2 inches in from the left edge,
and then another line four inches in.
With the solid wood edge facing you,
lay out the slot on the long fence.
Mark a line 2 1/2 inches in from the left edge,
and another 5 inches in.
Now when you butt the two fence pieces up
solid edge to solid edge,
it should look like this.
Now mark a center line on the end
of one of the fence pieces.
This is going to help us set up the router.
At the router table I adjust the fence
so that the center line of the work piece
lines up perfectly with the center line of the bit.
Now I'll use my auxiliary fence
to show me where my bit starts and stops.
You'll see why we need this in a moment.
I simply push my work piece up against the bit,
and line up the auxiliary fence
with the end of the work piece
and then lock it down.
Do this on both sides.
Now with the bit raised about 1/4 inch,
I start cutting my slot.
I want to stay within my lines
so knowing where that bit starts and stops
is absolutely essential.
The process can be a little scary at first,
but watch the technique.
Push the work piece against the fence
and slowly slide it down onto the bit.
Make the cut and then carefully lift the piece off
while pushing it against the fence.
Now I raise the bit another 1/4 inch
and repeat the cuts.
You can keep raising the bit until
it goes all the way through,
but I decided that it would be safer
if I simply extend my reference lines
to the other face,
and then finish the routing
from the other side of the work piece.
The movable rail piece now needs a couple holes
for the bolts so I mark in 1 1/4 inches
from the edge.
Since my bolts have an elliptical head,
and I want to keep the head just below the surface,
I use a 1/2 inch forstner bit
to create a flat-bottomed recess
about 1/8 inch deep.
A chisel can help fine tune the fit.
Now using a 3/8 inch bit,
I drill the through hole for the bolt.
The next step is absolutely crucial
to the accuracy of the jig.
I said before that the solid wood edging
was for durability,
but that's only half the story.
It also allows us to fine tune the edge
to make sure that it's perfectly straight.
So I use my straight edge to determine
if there are any hills or valleys.
It looks like there is a bit of a dip
on one end of one of my rails.
I mark the location of the dip,
and then put pencil marks along the edge
where I need to remove some stock.
With the piece secured in the vise,
I can now use my Number 7 joiner plane
to joint the edge perfectly straight.
I start removing the trouble area first,
and then work my way back with each pass.
I thought about muting the sound here
because of the game in the background,
but seriously the playoffs combined
with the sound of a plane making shavings,
if that's not paradise
I don't know what is.
(tv sports in background)
Now when I get full shavings from one side
to the other,
I can check my progress again.
When your two solid wood edges go together
with absolutely no gaps,
your work is done.
Now with the two rails facing each other
like you see here,
we can lay out the rabbit.
The rabbit is approximately an eighth of an inch
by a half inch.
The dimensions aren't super critical.
A straight bit in the router table
makes quick work of the job.
Now it's time to attach the rails to the fence.
With the two fence pieces facing one another,
line up the slots and mark the spot
where the short fence ends.
This is the point of attachment of our rail.
Pull the pieces apart and line up
the fixed rail with the mark on the long fence,
and the end of the short fence.
With the long fence clamped to the bench,
I add glue to both pieces
and line everything up with a reliable square.
One brad nail holds everything in place
temporarily while I clean up the glue squeeze-out.
Now I can do my final alignment.
When everything is perfectly square,
I put in the second brad nail to lock things down.
I like to add a couple of screws
for extra reinforcement,
but only after the glue is set up.
Make sure the screws sit below
the face of the rail.
Now repeat this process for the small fence.
And here's the final assembly of the jig.
Insert the bolts through the moveable rail,
and then through the two fence pieces.
Flip the piece over and add a washer
and a knob to each bolt.
Now with the jig set up on a piece of scrap,
we can make our first vital pass with the router.
This is what establishes the edge.
As you can see there's a slight gap
between the guide bushing and the rabbit that we cut.
This is done intentionally so that
the very first pass we make,
we'll trim away just a slight amount
of material from the lip.
But it ensures that the lip is now
perfectly representative of where the bit
is going to cut.
Marc:Now that our jig is together,
let's cut those dados.
So I've got the work piece clamped
to the bench here,
and our jig is going to go just like so.
The reason I have it overhanging
is because the handles on the bottom of the jigs
stick out too far.
You can't really put everything flat on the bench.
You need a little bit of extra clearance here.
So let's put that out there as a little challenge.
See if somebody can take this basic design
and modify it so that it's a little bit easier
if you use on a flat workbench.
Until then this should do the job.
What we need to do now is take
our actual work piece that's going to be
this divider and put is up here,
mark up the center lines,
and then we'll trace the outer edges of the shelf.
I'm just going to line up my center line
on my divider piece with
the cabinet side center line.
Once it's perfect hold it down with one hand,
take a nice, sharp pencil and mark one side.
Now just bring the jig over,
and I'm going to line up my fixed portion,
the fixed side of the jig, to that line
that I just drew.
Now I just secure the jig with a small clamp.
Now the cool part about the jig is since we
know that this rail is perfectly square to the fence,
we only really needed that one
little portion of a line.
We don't need to extend the line all the way,
and we also don't need a second line
because we're going to use the work piece itself
to give us the measurement we need.
Just basically slide it on over.
Give it a good amount of pressure.
You really want to squeeze that work piece in.
Tighten that bad boy down.
Now I always recommend testing on scrap first
because you want to make sure that this jig
is producing the fit that you want it to.
You might find that it's a little bit too loose
and you need to squeeze these pieces together
a little bit more firmly before
clamping everything down.
If you do have a slightly loose fit,
what I would recommend is tightening these up
with the use of a clamp.
Bring a little clamp in here and see
if you can't just bring those pieces together
with a little bit of clamping pressure, not a lot.
If you clamp too much,
you're going to have a problem.
Just a little bit more than you would do
with your bare hands.
Once you're there tighten it down.
That's pretty good.
Remove the clamp,
and now what you'll want to look at
is when you pull this piece up,
this gap that's in here is reflective
of the actual fit that you're going to experience.
If this piece just pops right out
with no problem,
you're going to have a loose dado.
If you have to sort of pull on it a little bit
before it lets go,
you're in pretty good shape.
I wouldn't recommend doing this too much
because you can sort of push these rail pieces
out of the way if you're not careful.
But you can put the piece back in
and get a pretty good idea of how
that's going to fit all the way across.
To me, that feels like it's going to be perfect.
(router buzzing)
And there it is,
our stopped dado.
Cut it pretty close on the front line here,
but I'm just on the line.
This one still needs some work,
but nothing that we can't do with a chisel
and a hammer.
To test the fit I've got my divider here.
I won't be able to get the whole thing in
because I haven't cut the divider
to the proper size yet,
but it's a nice, snug fit.
Frankly, with just a little bit of finish sanding
on this piece,
I think it's going to slide in just perfectly.
As you can see this is an extremely handy
jig to have around.
I've been meaning to build one for years,
and I always kind of cobble something together,
but I think this one although it's not perfect,
it's close enough.
I think it's one that's going to stick with me
for a while.
One thing I do want to mention about it
is you have to keep in mind
it is sort of married at this point,
not to the router.
That's the reason I built it this way.
I'm not worried about the router base,
I'm just worried about the guide bushing
and the router bit that I use.
This is specifically designed for a 5/8 inch
guide bushing and a 1/2 inch router bit.
It works perfectly for this.
If I change the guide bushing or the router bit,
I'm going to get a different result here.
But this can handle dados from
I can probably just do a simple 1/2 inch dado
on up to well, as big as I make the jig really.
You can go as far as you want.
So any practical size that I would need
for furniture making is covered with this jig.
You may want to downsize it.
You may want to make it bigger, wider,
use a different guide bushing
and bit combination.
For me, this is what I had on hand
and seems to work really well.
I hope you guys will make some variations of this
and show me what you were able to put together.
(sung) By Marc Spagnuolo, The Wood Whisperer.
Voiceover:I've been getting a lot of questions
about our closing music.
Most of them say something like,
"What the heck is that lady saying?
"It's driving me nuts."
Well, here's the story.
One of our biggest international fans
happens to be a musician.
His name is Horatio and he's pretty much
the Venezuelan Kenny G only cooler.
He calls himself El Saxofonista.
It sounds a lot cooler though
if you say it like El Saxofonista.
Anyway, several months ago he sent me
this great song with a very talented woman
saying something that vaguely sounded
like my name.
Turns out she's saying, "By Marc Spagnuolo,
"The Wood Whisperer,"
only with a very heavy accent.
While I couldn't use the song
as my main intro music,
I figured it was groovy enough
and funny enough to use as the outro music.
Hey, it's not every day that someone
in Venezuela makes a custom song for you.
How can I not use it on the show?
And now you know.
You can learn more about Horatio
and his music at Elsaxofonista.com.
(sung) By Marc Spagnuolo, The Wood Whisperer.