Built doors for the chopsaw station case

  • Posted on: 15 August 2013
  • By: Jay Oyster
Parent Project: 

Over the past 3 or 4 days, I've managed to build doors to fit over the openings in the front of the case. These are only intended to keep dust out of the inside of the case. The doors are made up of scraps I had around the shop. The stiles are 3/4" poplar. The rails are 5/8" clear pine. (Yep, I didn't even bother thicknessing them to match.) The panel is just 1/4" baltic birch plywood. 

I cut everything on the table saw, chopped to length, and sanded prior to glue-up.  In the glue-up, which should have been trivial, since I'm gluing all the way around to a proven squared panel, I still see what a poor craftsman I can be.  Now, I know that any woodworker is his own worst enemy when it comes to viewing the work fairly, but this goes beyond that. I always seem to be in a rush when it comes to glue-up (even dimensioning) and I end up with a sloppy part. In this case, one of the stiles went through the table saw the wrong face to the fence. Since I didn't have the time or spare lumber to make another one, I just ran it through the right way, and created a slightly wider slot for the panel than necessary for the plywood. This would be fine, except I *also* seemed to get a slightly different depth on the cut, so there's a two step 'bottom' to the slot. Gluing up the panel, this stile ended up torquing 5 or 10 degrees off of vertical because of this slop in the rail.  Infuriating, and  it drives me bonkers, but the door is sound and it fits in the opening (mostly).

I know the reason for this. I'm rushing and working to the end, not the moment. When I've got my head in the moment, things tend to go right. When I'm focused more on making progress and I feel rushed by limited time, I invariable make a sloppy part.  But as I've said before, this thing has gone on too long and I just need to finish the damned thing.

After a final sanding, I test fit the doors in the case opening and figured out how to set the hinges. The left door is a little tight, probably due to a slightly out of square opening on the case.  I'll just plane down one corner slightly and work to get a good even spacing all around on the door.  I did go a bit beyond these photos last night and chiseled a slot in one door to accept the hinges. I'll do the other tonight and fit them both to the case.  The end is not only in sight, but I can feel the breeze coming from the tunnel opening.

 


Case doors, glued up and sanded, waiting for hinges
Woodworking