BT Mobile base and router table

[poolhound]

Jon

What a spectacular build, and a great finished cabinet. I have watched the whole process and did not want to jinks it by commenting earlier. The effort you have taken to document the whole process is better than most of the free plans available.

I am sure the new cabinet and the router table are the platform to take your woodworking to the next level. I don't know how much better ic can be but I am sure it will make your job easier.

Again thanks for creating a furniture grade shop fixture!

Mike,

Thanks, the documentation of the project was actually quite fun and when I see projects in the magazines I always find the pictures and descriptions more useful than cutlists etc as I usually adapt them to my own ideas and/or dimensions anyway.

I primarily decided on this project to create more space a) to use the wasted area under the BT stand b) to do away with my separate router table and c) to extend the working area of my saw and increase the rip capacity.

I started doing a re-org of my shop last weekend and now have lots of extra storage with all the new drawers. Decidinh what should go where is a real puzzle and I am certain I will change things around multiple times before I get it like I want

The mass of the saw now makes it rock solid and the limited use of the router table I have had so far especially the quick lift shows a vast improvement on my previous setup.

It didnt start out as "furniture grade" but the addition of the walnut trim, which is really just functional, does give it a FG look. I can assure you there are plenty of little mistakes that LOML would point out preventing it from being "fine furniture"

[Van]

I see when you built your torsion box, you used Ray's idea of putting dados in the top & bottom for alignment. It definitely sounds like a great idea to dado the bottom. But, as I think about assembly, it seems like it will be real pain when putting the top on to get all of the webs into all of the dados. So, I was thinking about just putting dados in the bottom, gluing in the webs, flopping a smooth (un-dadoed) top on the assembly and stacking on plenty of weight to "clamp" the webs and bottom skin. I could then come back later, apply glue to the tops of the webs, do the final install of the top and re-weght the assembly. What do you think of no dados in the top and of the two-step glue up process?

Van

[poolhound]

I see when you built your torsion box, you used Ray's idea of putting dados in the top & bottom for alignment. It definitely sounds like a great idea to dado the bottom. But, as I think about assembly, it seems like it will be real pain when putting the top on to get all of the webs into all of the dados. So, I was thinking about just putting dados in the bottom, gluing in the webs, flopping a smooth (un-dadoed) top on the assembly and stacking on plenty of weight to "clamp" the webs and bottom skin. I could then come back later, apply glue to the tops of the webs, do the final install of the top and re-weght the assembly. What do you think of no dados in the top and of the two-step glue up process?

Van

You are right that getting the top to fit was a real PITA. I dont see anything wrong with your idea. you can always toenail the main webs in place (I think I may have even done that). Make sure they are SQ. When you fit the top, mark the position of all the webs and then fire some brads/staples to hold it down. You could still add some weight to the top as it wouldnt hurt. Remember that yellow glue will dry really quick in MDF as it suck it in.

[dbhost]

Okay, I'm slow... I just now noticed that you don't have an SMT on that saw at all... What do you do for miter cuts? I assume a miter gauge in the slot, but how did you line up the slot table to the blade?

[poolhound]

Okay, I'm slow... I just now noticed that you don't have an SMT on that saw at all... What do you do for miter cuts? I assume a miter gauge in the slot, but how did you line up the slot table to the blade?

I do have one (look in the photos behind the jointer) but I rarely use it unless I need a strange angled cut. A second assy table stays on the saw most of the time. I have both a x-cut and miter sled for 90 and 45 degree cuts and they are dead on!

Lining up the slots is pretty easy. I planed a piece of straight grained stock to fit snug in one of the slots. I then attached my dial indicator to it and aligned in a similar fashion to the way you would do it for the rip fence or SMT.

[Van]

Remember that yellow glue will dry really quick in MDF as it suck it in.

Yeah, I was imagining putting a mile of glue on all the ribs and then trying to get the top on and get all the ribs into their dados, and then clamp everything up before the glue dried. I could hear mysellf cussing already.

Thanks for the advice.

Van

[John Hunter]

Very nice!

[LarryG]

Remember that yellow glue will dry really quick in MDF as it suck it in.

Adding to Jon's advice here, remember too that since all the "squeeze out" will be contained within the torsion box's cells, you can slop the glue on as heavily as you like without consequence. When I built my torsion box assembly table, there were actually puddles of the stuff forming in the bottoms of some cells by the time I slid the top skin into position.