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Saucer Invasion - Upright following Saint's Book
GAtekwriter:
FINALLY got away to spend a few days at my dad's workshop to cut the cabinet pieces. I've been ordering my components, bit by bit, but this is the part I've been anticipating most. I'll post some pictures below with some comments and will continue posting images as I put together the cabinet...
First images here include the side panels being cut. My dad and I worked together with the rule of double-checking each other's measurements. The great part is that I made a few mistakes that he caught and I caught some of his... so going slow and measuring twice (and sometimes more often) definitely paid off and we made all the cuts correctly the first time and I didn't have to invest in more than the original 3 sheets of Sandiply.
Speaking of sandiply - this stuff was great to work with. Not too heavy. EXTREMELY smooth on the "good side" and DECENTLY smooth on the "bad side." There were ZERO snags/splintering of the edges and all pieces were flat and no warping. I've not worked with warped plywood before so I can't speak to how much work this might have saved me, but I can tell you it made measuring and marking the cutouts much easier.
In one of the images you'll notice that we clamped two sheets together. "Good sides" were placed together so that when we cut out the side panels they will be mirror images of one another and I can use the smooth side. This also saved time and I only had to draw one side panel on the wood. We used a circular saw set to 1.75 depth and it cut through both sheets easily. No sanding was required to "match" the sides. That said, it was very helpful to have two sets of hands and eyes to do this.
I'll end this post here, post some images, and continue commentary in another post.
Jim
GAtekwriter:
More pictures of the side panels (which took the most time).
In these images, you'll notice that piece of long metal that looks like siding. That thing was invaluable. We would draw our lines, then clamp this metal guide 5.75 inches to the right of the line. This was the guide that let us use the circular saw with very good accuracy. The metal guide can be separated into 2 pieces for smaller runs.
The sander you see wasn't to even up the edges but to take off the little slivers that inevitably happened along the edge. Just one quick pass down each long cut and the burrs were gone.
GAtekwriter:
Dad had some great tools that I don't have, including a nice belt-driven sander. In a few of these images, you can see the control panel sides... we clamped them together and then gave them a quick run through on the sander. We were able to do this on all the various pieces that had matching pairs.
Also in this batch of images are the 2 control panel tops and a small stack of wood that's the beginning of the rest of the cabinet parts.
GAtekwriter:
You know your dog loves you when she will sit for 30+ minutes under the table saw while you cut away. When we finished, she was almost 100% yellow but I wasn't able to get a final shot because she ran away and shook it all off... argh.
GAtekwriter:
Last post and images for today.
So, there they are... all the wood cabinet parts. I've wrapped the side panels because it was supposed to rain on my ride home, but luckily that didn't happen.
Everything is now unpacked in my own workshop and I'm ready to start assembling.
A summary in case anyone is interested:
Started at 9am
Lunch at 12
Picked back up at around 12:45
Finished at 3pm
All in all, 2 man job took about 6 hours. We're both fairly comfortable using power tools, measuring, clamping, sanding, etc... that probably shaved some time off the job. Could this have been done by someone with no help or real experience with power tools? Absolutely. I think the keys to success are:
1. Proper measuring
2. Re-checking your measurements
3. Planning the order of your cuts ahead of time will save time.
4. Do not rush.
5. Circular saw and jigsaw are all that is really needed for the cuts (I'm not talking about routing the t-mold groove)
6. Table saw is very helpful, but if you don't have one, cinder blocks or sawhorses can be used with circular saw to fake it.
Hardest part is probably cutting the 45 degree edges on some of the pieces. Key here is taking your time. Some circular saws and jigsaws will allow you to cut at 45 degrees.
I had fun... it's always good to spend some time with Dad in the workshop and catch up on things. More later...
Jim
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