How to fix these mistakes?

[Tom H]

While working on my garage cabinet, I've made a few blunders that I'd wager many of you know how to fix!

I got the design from a WW book. I've had some great replies to an earlier finishing question. The bottom of the cabinet is a deeper shelf than the upper shelves, because the doors are built with shelves in them. The door sides are cut 5 1/4 in wide, to make narrow shelves for cans of finish, paint, etc. This should make more sense after looking at pic 2 & 3.

Picture # 1 is the cabinet top. It's supposed to be 4ft x 18in. As you can see, I cut it about 1/8 in too long. If I slide the rails of the TS all the way to the left for support, I think I can fix this with the SMT to the left of the blade. I think the kerf is about that thick with the factory blade I'm still using, so it would be a pretty fine cut. The cabinet top isn't attached yet, I took the pic with it resting on top after I tried to square it before gluing, and realized my mistake. Is this how you would cut off the 1/8 in?

The other problem is going to be harder to fix. Pic # 2 shows a side view of the cabinet. It looks like I cut the shelf a little too wide (deep), but what I actually screwed up was the cut of the "L" shape, which is cut away from the cabinet sides, where the doors will be attached. (Again, should make more sense when looking at pic # 3).

Pic # 3 is the bottom of the "L" cut out. Again, the shelf appears to be too wide (deep), but actually I overcut the L shape depth by about 1/8 in. You can also see that I went too far with the TS when cutting the L (ugly cut marks going past the bottom right corner). These were made on the side of the piece that was facing the table, of course, and I know now to stop a little sooner, and will need to saw a little more with the coping saw next time.
I guess I'll fill those with putty and drive on.

Obviously, I should have cut the shelves down a little before gluing the cabinet together...but I didn't, so now I need to cut them down as they are, or forget about trimming them and hope they don't interfere with closing the doors, which I think they probably will. Even if they didn't, leaving the shelves this way just doesn't look right.

Since I cut the L shape too deep, it also means the width of the door sides will have to be adjusted (widened) about 1/8 in. That is not a problem...already cut the door and door shelf parts, but haven't glued them together, so I can cut new sides. I had plenty of wood left over after cutting everything.

So, do I have to go get a new tool..like the rabbit said, "Please don't throw me in the bryer patch!"

Hope this post makes sense. I expect to hear measure, remeasure, then check your measure again, again, again

Ray, this would have been a very pointless post without the pictures. Thanks for the help mate!

Ed, thanks for the offer, but I guess I figured out the mystery of how to post pics. (Or did I...we'll see after I hit the submit button )

[jackellis]

For the second problem, you should be able to cut down the shelf using a router. Set the cabinet with the shelf edge facing up, attach a piece of plywood cut about 2-3 inches wide on either side (brads/pin nails or make a jig you can clamp) of the shelf to provide support for the router base, chuck a 1/2" bit, adjust the depth, and you should be able to trim it with two passes.

You can probably do something similar with problem 1 if you have an offset base for your router if you're not comfortable using the saw.

[Tom H]

AH HA, the router. I knew it was only a matter of time until I would need one. So many threads include talk about routers...seems like more than just about any tool except the TS.

I know what you old timers are thinking..."You say you want to build things with wood, and you say you think you might need a router...well...DUH!"

I think I've got a pretty good visual of what you're suggesting. Definitely need to get a router anyway, and experiment a little before trying to fix the shelves (so I don't go and make them even more boned up).

[crokett]

I'd fix the top with a router too. You can either set up a fence on the top and run a straight cut bit to trim 1/8 or (and my preferred solution) put the top on the cabinet, get a flush trim bit for your router and cut the top to the exact length you need using the side of the cabinet as a guide.

[Pappy]

Trim the top with a router and a flush trim bit. Clamp a piece of stock on the right cut line for the bearing to ride on.

On the ends, I would add a 'face' to build up the part that is over cut. Since these are garage cabinets, I am assuming they will be painted so the type of wood used won't matter. Use a caul to get even clamp pressure.

If you decide to trim the shelf and recut the doors, do as much as you can with the router and flush trim bit. Then finish off the ends of the shelf with a flush trim saw, rasp, file and sanding block (sounds like a lot more work to me).

[Tom H]

Trim the top with a router and a flush trim bit. Clamp a piece of stock on the right cut line for the bearing to ride on.

On the ends, I would add a 'face' to build up the part that is over cut. Since these are garage cabinets, I am assuming they will be painted so the type of wood used won't matter. Use a caul to get even clamp pressure.

If you decide to trim the shelf and recut the doors, do as much as you can with the router and flush trim bit. Then finish off the ends of the shelf with a flush trim saw, rasp, file and sanding block (sounds like a lot more work to me).

I like the idea of adding the face to the section I over cut. After thinking about cutting new door sides, I realized that means I'd have to cut new door shelves as well, or settle for shelves that aren't flush with the door sides. The door shelves are already glued together (just not to the sides yet). Each shelf has a "lip" to prevent items from falling off. At four shelves per door, that's 16 pieces that would need to be cut again! Cutting two face pieces to fill the over cut would sure save a lot of time.

The L shape is exactly 1/8 in too wide. How do you cut a 1/8 in "face?" It doesn't look like the TS is the right tool. The cut would need to be 3/4 x 1/8 x 30 in. to replace the stock I overcut. I think cutting 1/8 in. wide is conceivable with a crosscut using the SMT, but it would mean removing all of the safety equipment around the blade for a rip, which I obviously don't want to do. Router? Jigsaw? Circular saw?

I think you're right Pappy, paint will be the way to go after all this repair work. I don't know what a "caul" is, so I looked it up at Wikopedia. It also referred to a "batten." I'm going to dig around the resources on the BT3 site to see if I can find anything describing how to make it all work.

Sounds like the cabinet top should be pretty easy once I've figured out how to use the router (oh yeah, once I go get one).

Thanks

Tom

[Garasaki]

I'm not having a lot of sucess visualizing many of your problems, but I have gathered that one possible solution involves producing a piece of wood 1/8" wide by 30" in 3/4" plywood.

This cut is perfectly acceptable to make on a tablesaw, just start with a piece that's maybe 3" wide, trim to the correct length (30" in this case), then rip on the TS with the 1/8" piece to the LEFT of the blade.

You may need to remove the stock guard assembly because the 1/8" cutoff might jam in the pawls though. Or devise a way to hold the leftside pawl up while cutting.

[Garasaki]

I don't know what a "caul" is, so I looked it up at Wikopedia.

I tried to find a good picture of a caul but didn't have much luck.

It's a board thats straight on one side, then has a slight bow shape on the opposite side. You put the bowed side on top of the surfaces to be clamped together (so in your case, it'd be cabinet > glue > 1/8" face > caul ). If it were sitting there in perfect equalibrium, only the center point of the caul would be contacting the surface to be clamped.

When you apply clamping pressure on the ends, the board basically bends evenly along it's whole surface until the board is making even contact with the clamped surfaces along their entire length. (and now the top of the board has a slight bow to it)

Thus, even clamping pressure along every bit of the surface, only using 2 clamps. Hope that makes sense.

[Tom H]

Yeah Garasaki, I think I can visualize that. Sounds like when the "bow" is reversed, the force of the "reversal" causes pressure to be spread across the surface evenly?

I'm going to the garage to see if I can make your other suggestion work, to make 30 x 1/8 in. pieces. Don't know how to make a gaul, or if that is something I would have to pick up somewhere. Maybe a few more clamps will help, but I realize pressure wouldn't be evenly distributed that way.

Tom

[Tom H]

Ripping to the left of the blade worked. Didn't have to remove the pawls or modify anything. Took a couple tries to get it right.

I can see where there might be some inconsistency along the length of the "face", where the glue will bulge a little as it dries, in the absence of the caul. Not really a show stopper for this project. I used just about all of my clamps to try to spread the pressure evenly. All good ideas, thanks.

Tom

[JimD]

Tom,

It may be too late but I would suggest using solid wood edging for the plywood and making it thicker where the wood is not as narrow. For instance, use 1/8 edging for the wider piece and 1/4 for the narrower. Should be a lot easier than cutting it down and the solid edging is a good idea anyway.

For the overcut area, bondo will work well and be easy to sand and paint.

Jim