My first real project - garage ceiling shelving

[Bruce]

Chris,
My shop-vac filter used to cake up with dust just like yours. Now I use the bag liners and never clog it. It's another expense, but if you're going to use a shop-vac for dust collection, it's a worthwhile expense.

Bruce

[chrispitude]

I thought my old crusty drill chuck was causing the countersink bits to wobble. I bought a better chuck from Bill Mayo (thanks Bill!) to get rid of the wobble. When it arrived, I anxiously chucked up the countersink bit and - you guessed it - it wobbled. I then did what I should have done and chucked it in my hand drill. I held the hand drill flat on the Shopsmith main table and spun the bit, and sure enough I could see wobble in the end of the bit when I sighted it against the table ribs. (I did this before but I wasn't sure of the result since the cheapo keyless chuck body on this hand drill also does not spin straight.)

I bought these three countersink bits at Harbor Freight:

#6 - #8
#8 - #10
#10 - #12

I figured if all three wobbled, it had to be the chuck and not the bits. Shame on me.

I chucked a regular 1/8" drill bit into the Shopsmith and using all my taped-up guide markings, I drilled all the holes. Then, I used the countersink bit in the hand drill to add the countersink. I have to admit, the design of the bits above is really nice. It's a shame they aren't manufactured to better standards.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a better quality countersink bit with an adjustable stop?

- Chris

[paulmcohen]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a better quality countersink bit with an adjustable stop?
- Chris

I got mine from Rockler/Insty-Drive, they include stop collars, matching plug cutters and are quick change.

[Bruce]

Your mistake was expecting quality from anything Harbor Freight sells. Anything I buy there is going to be on sale and I don't expect it to last very long.

[chrispitude]

Your mistake was expecting quality from anything Harbor Freight sells. Anything I buy there is going to be on sale and I don't expect it to last very long.

The funny thing is, I expected these to be a little better because they were made in Taiwan and not China.

- Chris

[charlese]

Hi Chris! Although I've probably offered enough advice in this thread, I'll risk this bit!

Instead of going fancy, go simple and time proven stuff first!!! Buy expensive! (especially with bits and saws) Then, later, if you want to get fancier inventive variations of the simple, Go ahead! Often times the fancier stuff offers more fiddling than work!

[dusty]

Hey, Chris -

Have you made any more progress in assembly of your shelves?

[a1gutterman]

Yes, Chris,
Dusty wants to get this thread back on track! How are your shelves coming?

BTW, buy US made tools: Without counting, I believe that there are fewer complaits about them, here on this forum, then there are of non-US made tools.

[chrispitude]

Hi guys,

Thanks for keeping me moving along. I have some other distractions which have been taking my time.

I cut the vertical supports this morning. I measured the clearance between the ceiling and the garage door as the door opens. The shelves towards the front of the garage needed 16" supports, and the ones near the back needed 19" supports. Each shelving unit has four vertical supports, so I needed 16 16" pieces and 16 19" pieces.

I laid out the cuts onto the 96" boards as follows:

piece 1 - 5 19" pieces (95" total)
piece 2 - 5 19" pieces (95" total)
piece 3 - 5 19" pieces (95" total)
piece 4 - 1 19" piece, 4 16" pieces (83" total)
piece 5 - 6 16" pieces (96" total)
piece 6 - 6 16" pieces (96" total)

I actually made the 16" pieces slightly shorter, to account for the kerf. Here is the table setup I used:

[ATTACH]1529[/ATTACH]

Again, I used a stop mounted to the rip fence to cut to proper length. Since my flip-up fence stop recently arrived, I used that as my stop:

[ATTACH]1530[/ATTACH]

It was nice because I could slide it up, measure the distance between the stop and the blade, then slide it back to the front and lock it down.

Here is a mock-up of what the shelving will look like:

[ATTACH]1531[/ATTACH]

It's looking pretty good! This is one of the units with a 19" support.

I'd like to get some advice from my fellow forum members. Here is a closeup of the dado joint with the countersunk pilot holes for the wood screws:

[ATTACH]1532[/ATTACH]

This is actually why I wanted to use the drill press to drill these pilot holes. They are precisely vertical, and exactly centered across the width to ensure the screws drive centered into the ends of the vertical supports.

Since these joints will be supporting the weight of the shelving and its contents, it's critical that they be as strong as possible. I plan to glue and screw the joints. My question is, how do I glue these up? I have some Titebond wood glue from a big box store. My plan was to spread some glue on both ends, use the screws to pull the joint tight, and wipe off the excess. Is this all that's needed?

Do I want to do anything special like let the glue set up a little bit first before pulling the joint tight?

- Chris

[Ed in Tampa]

Chris
I don't think your design will fail but next time try a design where the force is laterally on the side of screw inside of agains the threads. If you had made the piece that goes on the ceiling fit between the uprights then the screws would be holding with their bodies instead of only with their threads.
An even better design would have been to cut small holes in the ceiling dry wall and mounted the verticals directly the side of the ceiling joists.

Like I said with the screws, glue, dadoes, and all I don't think you will have a failure. I just would have built it so a failure could only have resulted by the screws actually shearing off.
Ed