microjig, maker of the grr-ripper. work safer, work smarter. oooh...this week's video is also sponsoredby harry's. i'm sure i've got every grit of random orbitsandpaper there is but i can never find the one i need. the problem is that whenever i am done using a certain grit of sandpaper and it's still good, i peel it off and i toss it in the drawer.
then the next time i need to use that gritof sandpaper it's buried, i can't find it, so i open upa new package and get a brand new one. the solution i've come up with is this sandingstation that holds my random orbit sander and it's got trays that hold five differentgrits of sandpaper. so whenever i'm done sanding with a certaingrit, and there's still life in it, i'll remove it and place it into the traythat has the same grit.
at least that's the plan. this is a scrap wood project, so i found this piece of 3/4" or 19 mm plywood that i'll use for the two sides and the topand bottom. i'm going to start by cutting one oversizedpiece of wood that is eventually going to be the two sides. i can cut the height of the box to its exactlength. every time i use my dado blades to cut grooves in a projects, i get people asking me aboutthem.
i know dado blades aren't available in atleast parts of europe, but in north america theyare really handy. this is a really inexpensive set of bladesthat i've had for over ten years now. i still keep it in its original box. a dado stack is just a bunch of blades that you stack together. two of the blades are the ones that you alwaysuse. they have the logo on it and they have a lotmore teeth
than the other blades. in between those blades, you put these little chipper blades that just have five teeth oneach one. these come in different thicknesses. these have carbide tipped teeth that havebroken off on a lot of these chippers but they seem to still work okay. so to cut a groove, you just stack in whicheverones of these you need to get the width you needon the groove.
this one would go like that. my set also comes with these little brassshims of various thicknesses that you can put in between the individual blades to fine tuneit even more. i never use those. that said, i always like to point out to everybody, especially my overseas friends, that i don't think a dado stack is an essential woodworking tool.
it's nice to have, but you can accomplish the same tasks and make grooves using multiple passes with a regular blade on yourtablesaw or you can use a router. i've installed the dado blades into my tablesaw and i've run a few tests to get the rightcombination. this is the material i'm going to use forthe shelves. it's always just a matter of trial and error. this was my first test and it was too loose.
so, by playing around with combinations ofblades, i got to this one that has a pretty nice fit. to make the ledges that will hold the topand bottom of the box, i need to make multiple passes sliding my fence over each time. i cut all of my grooves at half the thicknessof the wood. the layers in the plywood make it easy to determine the center. i'll test it along the way using another pieceof plywood.
here you can see i need to go a little deeper. that gives me a pretty good fit. if this side is a little bit longer, that'sfine, because i can sand it flush. and of course i only need to make one pass for each of the grooves for the shelves. i'll space all four of them equally apart. the top is going to have a larger notch than the bottom so that it will have a rim
around the top to hold the sander in place. with my regular blade back in place, i can cut this into two pieces. by cutting those grooves first, i can be sure that the shelves are going toline up. i'll glue and tack the top and bottom intoplace. the glue is doing all of the work here. the tacks are just holding it together longenough for the glue to dry.
it allows me to move on to the next step ofthe project without having to clamp it all together andwait. i'm using 1/4" or 6mm plywood for the backand shelves. i think it's going to be easier to pull thesandpaper out if there's a little arc on these shelves. i can draw that arc perfectly with this weapon that peter brown made for me. i'll stick these all together with carpettape so a i can cut them all at the same time.
i don't think shop projects require any kindof finish on them. i just really like bright colors. -- visit harrys.com. $5 off. coupon code:woodworking-- well, i hope this works out for me. at this point, the organization falls on myshoulders. i've got to try to keep up with the sandpaper. but i think i can now that i have a dedicated spot for each grit. if you'd like to make one yourself,
check down below. i've got a free set of plans. oh, and because i know you're going to ask, yes, we have brand new t-shirts at the woodshoppe. they're all designed by wyatt including thisone. check out all of the designs he's come upwith. he's got some really cool ones there that i think you are going to like. all proceeds go to wyatt's college fund. thanks everybody. i hope you're having a greatsummer.
i'll see you next week.