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No table saw? Build a $15 Sawboard for your small budget project!
DrewKaree:
Now I'm making this out of MDF, and for those of you making your cab out of MDF, you should already know (and if not, this is your reminder) that you should be drilling pilot holes for your screws. For that nice smooth finish, you'll want to countersink your pilot holes and then fill in the indentation with putty, spackle, or whatever (use toothpaste for all I care....your cab will have that minty-fresh flavor! ;D ).
Whenever you drill a pilot hole, try to match the drill bit to the screw you're using. Hold the drill bit to the screw (or vice-versa). The drill bit should be the same thickness as the shank of the screw, but NOT as wide as the threads. This is a piss-poor picture, but here's a reasonably close idea of what I'm talking about.
DrewKaree:
Use the screw to set the depth of the drill bit if you don't have a stop collar for your drill bits. Just hold it up to the bit. In some woods, you want the pilot hole to be a tad longer than the screw itself, in others, just match it up reasonably close.
Like so:
DrewKaree:
Lastly, countersink. There are several different kinds. If you only have one drill, you might want to pick up an all-in-one pilot/countersink/screw combination. These will have a holder that you chuck into your drill, pull on a collar (like an air hose fitting) and insert the combination "bit" with whatever side you need, the pilot/countersink side, or the screwdriver bit side. When doing LOTS of holes needing countersinking, these save a tremendous amount of time. The first picture below shows such a combination. The piece on the far left is the holder, and one of the bits is shown next to it. Usually they come with one bit, but the kit shown comes with several. The green line represents where it'll chuck into the holder. The yellow arrow shows the drill/countersink side of the bit, and the red arrow shows the phillips bit (which can be changed out for whatever type of screw you're using) which you'd undo the collar, flip the bit, and drive the screw into the material. The second picture shows what just a drill bit/countersink combination looks like, and is essentially what's being pointed to by the yellow arrow in that washed out did-the-best-I-could-to-make-it-visible picture.
I have several drills, so I have a "dedicated" countersink bit that I'll put in one drill, and have another drill with the bit I need to do the pilot holes. The dedicated countersink is shown in the third picture. Whatever works for you, but seriously, if you only have a single drill, spend your money wisely and get the combination setup. It'll cost about $10-15, whereas the other two will cost about $6-10. After doing half a dozen or so holes and having to remove the drill bit, chuck the countersink, tighten it up, remove it, etc, you'll be tempted to skip this step. Don't.
The fourth picture shows what a pilot hole and countersink should look like when finished. Precision is nice, but not necessary. Countersink enough that the screw head will be below the surface of the wood. With practice, patience, or both, you'll get the "feel" for what the right depth is. Remember, too little at first is easy to fix. Too much just makes the job harder on yourself. Slow, test the screw head in your countersunk hole. When the head of the screw can be placed inside, you've gone deep enough.
DrewKaree:
Use some glue and screws to keep the ripping guide and base together, just use glue, just use screws....WHATEVER. It's YOUR decision to make, and the only way you'll ever learn what method is acceptable to YOU is to give it a shot. I've thrown some Gorilla Glue on here and screwed it together. Gorilla Glue expands like crazy, so I threw the screws in there BEFORE it dries to help act as clamps and keep everything together. The only thing to remember is if you have glue squeeze out, clean it up right away, and very thoroughly. A glob of dried glue can affect your sawboard, so tidy up if you glue.
I told you earlier that you don't have to be precise with your initial measurements, that a good "eyeballin" is good enough at this point. To demonstrate just how determined a fool you have to be in order to screw this up, I'm REALLY setting this thing up out of wack. It's nice to match up the 3 sides as close as possible, but I'm going to be demonstrating that it's not VITAL to get them dead-nuts even.
I think you'd be able to tell just how much of an angle I'm fastening these together at even if you were drunk. I'll be posting more pics when I finish this up, for now, here's the cockeyed example that should tell you if a dolt like me can't eff this up, you should be giving this a try too ;)
Bones:
A decent bloke would have posted this before I started my cabinet and trashed a plethora of wood due to crooked cuts.
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