Thanks for Sharing, John…

I never would have attempted this project without your inspiration and encouragement through the Router Workshop series.  It is a Ming side table I built for my wife as a bed-table to rest meals and “stuff” on

The wood is from a Douglas fir construction cutoff at a construction site near my home which I got for free! It was 12×4x40.  Every part of the table except for the inner tray was made from that single cutoff.  The legs were shaped by a using my router with a template I made from the original illustration of the table.

The leg joinery is mitered mortise and tenon. The top piece is attached by tenons in the vertical section of the legs and mortises in the tray. The tray has mitered through tenons wedged.  The tray is made from a quarter inch piece of plywood slid into a groove in the edge pieces at a higher elevation than the tenons.  This tray is supported by two dovetail clamps in the bottom of the tray which fit into mortises on the side pieces.  The finish is lacquer.

Thank you for your inspiration to “get out my router”.

John Stark

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How to determine Shelf Size…

Today we are talking about how to determine the pattern size needed to create a specific shelf size for Bob’s magazine rack.

We are looking at a Magazine Rack that has a 90 degree angled shelf in the middle of the project. See Photo 1 and 2

So how do you calculate the correct size of the pattern that will be used to create a dado within the gable used to hold the shelf in place. First we need to decide what router bit and guide to use. For our purposes we have decided to use a 5/8″ brass guide with the 3/8″ spiral router bit.

Here is the math used to determine the size of pattern. First, what is the difference between the brass guide and the router bit diameter. The guide is 1/4″ larger than the router bit which means that the guide is 1/8″ larger on all sides.

So if you have a shelf that is 3/4″ thick by 4 inch by 4 inch you will need what size of pattern? Let’s first talk about the thickness of the shelf and the comparison needed to make the thickness of the pattern. The width of the pattern needs to be 1/4″ wider than two times the guide size, why?

Well the thickness of the shelf is 3/4″ and the thickness of the router bit is 3/8″, which means to cut a 3/4 inch dado we need to cut two times the router bit thickness. This means two times the guide diameter plus the offset between the guide and the router bit. See Photo 3

Question: Using the above math figure out what the length of the pattern needs to be? The length of the shelf needs to be 4 inches…so what is the length of the pattern used to make the dado in the gables of the table.

place your answer in the comment section…