Smitty
JAN/FEB
2004
Volume 47/Issue 1
IN
THIS ISSUE
Project
Articles
•
A New Kitchen
• Wooden Utensil Rack & Knife
Block/Cutting Board
• Gallery Rail Paper Towel Holder
DEPARTMENTS
•
Ask Smitty
• Owner’s Gallery
• Letters from Owners
•
New Baby Workshop Calendar
Academy Notes
Clean
Cuts - Pt. 4- Using Oriental Waterstones
Service Pointers
Keeping
Your MARK V Running Smoothly
Safety Tips
Router Safety
What's
New
Bandsaw
Cover and 6" Drum Sander Sleeves
EDUCATION
• Find
A Shopsmith Woodworking Academy Near You
•
National
Woodworking Academy in Dayton, OH
ONLINE
CATALOGS
• Online Accessory Catalog
•
Request
Printed Accessory Catalog
• Online
Replacement Parts Catalog
MARK
V INFORMATION
•
Find
A Shopsmith
MARK V Demo Near You
•
Request
MARK V Information Package
LINKS
•
Links Worth Visiting
•
Free Woodworking
Tips
FEEDBACK
Contacting
Shopsmith
Copyright
2003.
Shopsmith, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
ASK
SMITTY!
Here
are the questions . . .
and SMITTY’S answers for this issue!
Cutting
Cove Molding
From D. Graore, via email:
I need to cut a cove molding that will fit on a dentil molding so
it will fit a 45-degree angle. I tried cutting a 22.5-degree angle on
the miter box and have had no luck forming the required 45-degree angle.
What am I doing wrong?
P.S.: I'm trying to put this cove molding on a 5-sided curio cabinet with the sides angled 45-degrees. The dentil molding fits just fine when I cut them at 22.5 degrees to form my 45-degree joint.
It sounds like you're attempting to make an 8-sided cabinet with 3 sides removed so you have the remaining 5 sides protruding out away from your wall...and I'm also assuming that you want your crown molding to project out away from the top of your dentil molding at a 45-degree angle.
If I am correct about the 8-sided cabinet (I must be since your 22-1/2-degree cuts on the non-sloped dentil molding is working for you), your problem lies in the fact that you're not holding your molding in the proper position on your saw when you make your cuts.
Miters on crown moldings cannot be cut accurately when the molding is laying flat on the saw table surface. These moldings typically have flats on their back sides -- one flat rests against the ceiling and the other against the wall when the molding is installed. This is what creates the “slope” of the molding when it's fastened into position.
TABLE
SAW APPROACH
In order to cut these moldings properly, one of these flats must rest
against the saw table surface and the other against the face of your miter
gauge during the cutting process. If your miter gauge face isn't high
enough, you may have to make an auxiliary wooden face for the gauge that
is high enough to support your molding adequately.
MITER
BOX (power or “manual”) APPROACH
If you're using a cutoff saw, radial arm or miter saw, one flat rests
against the table surface and the other against the back-up fence on your
saw. In this case, if your saw's back-up fence isn't high enough, you
may have to make an auxiliary fence that's high enough to support your
molding adequately.
I probably don't have to remind you of this...but remember that the saw table surface and miter gauge face (or back-up fence) MUST be at an exact 90-degree angle to one another. In either case, it's extremely important that these two molding faces rest solidly against the required surfaces throughout the entire cut. If the flats twist off the surfaces while you're making the cuts, your miters won't match properly.
If your molding is symmetrical (45-degree angled slope at both the top and bottom on the back side of the molding), it makes no difference which slope is against the table surface and which is against the back-up fence or miter gauge face.
If, on the other hand, these slopes are NOT symmetrical (that is, the bevel on the back side of your molding is NOT the same on the top and bottom of the molding), you'll have to turn your molding upside-down when making your miter cuts. In either case, your miter angle will still be 22-1/2 degrees. The difference is how you hold your molding in position on the saw as you make these cuts.
Hope this is all clear to you.
Tricks
for transferring project patterns
From Jim Schmick, via email:
What's the easiest way to transfer patterns to actual size for cutouts?
I recently retired and am interested in making crafts. I purchased my
Shopsmith MARK V many years ago, but with my work schedule, had to let
it go. Now, I am ready to go back to the work that I enjoy of making things
out of wood and possibly supplementing my income. I have been reviewing
the archives and see many patterns but most are not to scale.
The easiest way...depending on the size of the project...is to do so using a, enlarging photocopy machine (ala “XEROX”). Just enlarge your pattern in trial steps until it reaches the size indicated on the plan.
The second way (if the pattern is provided on a gridded background stating the sizes of the square grids) is to follow the drawing and re-draw the pattern onto gridded paper...which is available at many art supply stores. If you can't find such paper, you'll have to draw the grids on plain paper...then transfer your pattern onto it.
The third way is to use a pantograph...a mechanical drawing device used for enlarging and reducing drawings. Shopsmith sells such a device for $21.99. It can be found here.
