Shopsmith Forums

So you should now have your wood and be ready to get started. It is good idea to check the wood you have to make sure it is what you think it is size wise. When I measured the stock I have it was 5-3/8" rather then the 5-1/2" I was expecting. I went a redid the drawing working with the new number.
I also looked at the end and found this knot that I did not want in my pieces.
I then marked the part I wanted to cut off.
I then mark a datum mark on the edge that I will be using against the fence and that is the same edge I use for marking with a square. This is not critical for this project but it is a good idea to get use to keep a reference edge.
Next I want to get the saw ready so I can cut to the line and not just use line of sight or guess. I do that by using magic transparent tape, a strip put down on the table insert just before the cut out.
I then use a piece of scrap wood and make a cut to establish the left edge of the blade. You make the cut and turn off the saw then slide the piece back to where the tape is and mark.
The line should look like this but be in focus better.
You use this line by making a line matching the location on the face. The line and the one on the saw table get lined up and you make the cut. Keep in mind that the waste side must be on the side of he line that gets cut.
After the cut it always a good idea to make sure it is square.
Ed

Now you could start marking to make the 7 pieces that are the trays or you can set up your fence with a block and make all 7 pieces the same size and not have to measure each one. I think that is a better way so here we go.

Put the rip fence down and rotate the blade so a tooth that is closest to the fence matches where the ruler sits.
A scrap clamped to the fence is then used to measure the distance you want from the block to the blade. In our case that is 5-1/2".
This block is now moved up on the infeed side so the stock can be pushed against it and then clamped by the miter gauge. You always do this if you have a through cut and want to use the fence as a reference.
You are now set to cut the seven piece. Just keep moving the board to the stop and cutting to length.
With the seven pieces cut you can now cut the last piece out of this board.

You will have to measure this and draw the lines like before. When you get to the saw you will see you have a problem. You know where one side of the blade is but not the other. In order to make the cut you need to establish were the other edge is.
You will do pretty much what was done the first time but with the miter gauge now in the right slot. Just cut and turn off the saw then slide back and mark.
Now you have both edges. Just make sure the waste is to the waste side and you will be good to go.
With that part cut to length you can then rip it to width.
This is all the parts out of that board.
You can now cut up the pieces out of the second board. Since that is pretty much what I have already shown you I will assume you can get that done.

Ed

We are now at the fun part where we do some routing. As I mentioned I want to use may new router so I will be using that but there is no reason that you can not use your shopsmith to do the same function.

You will need to do a few things first and we will cover those first before we finish setting up to route.

We need to divide up our rack so we can route 7 slots. I've provided a drawing at one point but who wants to do all the measuring??? I will now show you an old wood workers trick to make this pretty easy and still be accurate.

You start by laying the rule so the edge of the rule is on the edge of the work piece. They you find a nice even number to use to divide into. In this case 6 is our number.
Half of 6" is 3" so we can mark that and that will be the center of the board.
And of course half of 3" is 1-1/2 and half of that is 3/4". I went ahead and did all of them but we really only need half of the lines as you will see later. Here are the seven lines which will become the 7 slots.
Now that we know where you want the slots we can set up to route them. First I'll show you have it is set up on the shopsmith then we will go to my router table and so the routing.

The shopsmith runs a little slow as a router but if you go slow and let it cut you will get there. First you need to go vertical, well unless you have the powerpro and dual tilt but we are not going there today.

Next you need to set the fence so you can route where the lines are. They make a device to help you do that as seen here:
Or just a visual with the bit works for this as the bees will not be complaining if the holes are a bit off.
You should be able to make these cuts in one pass but if it feels to hard to do then do it in two passes. We want something on the order of 5/16" deep but again that is not critical.
Since you have the router above you then use the right hand rule. The thumb faces the fence and the fingers point the direction you move the work piece.
There is one more important thing to talk about before we actually get to the cutting of the slots. Since this stock is not likely to be flat and since we are doing noting to make it flat this can be a problem. If you look at this picture you can see that it is not even close to flat.
When you go to select which side is against the table it should be the one that has the two edges touching. If you go the other way the piece will rock which is not a good thing. So remember the two edges are against the table so it sits stable.

Ed

Now to the router table and cutting some wood.

First I set the depth of cut using brass bars.
I then eye-balled the bit to line placement.
Keep in mind we really only need the lines pointed to in green.
With things lined up and locked you router all 7 boards.
Then you line up to make the next slot and cut it.
This time once the first cut is done you rotate the stock 180 degrees and route the slot on that side.
When you have finished this second pass
you then move on to do this to all seven pieces the same way.
Back to lining up the next slot, cutting, rotating and cutting and working through the pile. Pretty soon all the slots are cut.
That is about it for the piece parts for the project.

Ed

So here is the stack of parts
The racks
And this is as far as I got
Weather permitting I will be back on this tomorrow.

Ed

Excellent! I'm so glad to see you have come so far already.

The picture taking and so on slows things down so my posts will be coming but in there own time. I'd like to get to the glue up tomorrow if nothing else but we will have to see if that happens.

Ed

I dont know how you read a tape measure, but to me it looked like 5 3/8s not 5 5/8s instead of 5 1/2"
Good thing I caught it b4 JPG.
Thanks for all, will be building one off your design but using 5 1/2"

ERLover wrote:I dont know how you read a tape measure, but to me it looked like 5 3/8s not 5 5/8s instead of 5 1/2"
Good thing I caught it b4 JPG.
Thanks for all, will be building one off your design but using 5 1/2"

Perhaps you need to check what you read. I was expecting 5-1/2 but the lumber as shown and noted in the text show that the piece was 5-3/8.... were did you get 5-5/8 out of this?????

Buckaroo Banzai: Hey, hey, hey, hey-now. Don't be mean; we don't have to be mean, cuz, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

Ed

reible wrote:

ERLover wrote:I dont know how you read a tape measure, but to me it looked like 5 3/8s not 5 5/8s instead of 5 1/2"
Good thing I caught it b4 JPG.
Thanks for all, will be building one off your design but using 5 1/2"

Perhaps you need to check what you read. I was expecting 5-1/2 but the lumber as shown and noted in the text show that the piece was 5-3/8.... were did you get 5-5/8 out of this?????

Buckaroo Banzai: Hey, hey, hey, hey-now. Don't be mean; we don't have to be mean, cuz, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

Ed

Boy am I glad you posted this I was going crazy trying to figure out what he was talking about. I saw 5 3/8. For the life of me I could not find any picture of a measurement that looked like 5 5/8

Maybe just a typo?
JPG must be napping in his rocker to have miss that
I was in CA at my brothers ranch a few years ago building a Pergola for him, 30 miles from the lumber yard in Stockton, I read the tape upside down/backwards, cut a critical/support beam 10" short, my bro sez can we just glue it on? It happens. Back to town to get another one.