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Originally Posted by bobs10 /forum/post/19531320
Thanks for the response. The cabinet looks very nice. Any reason to use biscuits over say a dado and tenon? I guess with the strength of today's glues it probably doesn't make much difference which way you go?
I don't find that there is much difference in strength between dado and biscuits over long lengths, though I'd use biscuits for short runs. (By the way, biscuits are often misunderstood, and there is a very technical reason why they are so strong - basically, people think of them in terms of shear strength, but the reality is, if the vertical got pushed side-to-side, the biscuit would want to slip out. Just try to pull out a glued biscuit! You don't have to worry about a biscuit failing from shear stress, as you have the whole glue joint for that). Anyway, I use biscuits over dados for several reasons:
1. Less sawdust.
2. Ease of cutting. Imagine tring to cut dados both width and length wise on those seven foot sections. And I hate making cuts I can't see.
3. Everthing self aligns and the pieces mate nearly perfectly. Dado cuts rely on the accuracy of your ruler, the biscuit jointer's fence system does the alignment for you.
4. You just can't do a dado for partial length pieces without having to do a lot of notching. Some of the verticals stop halfway through the horizontals. If you stop a dado halfway through a board, your stuck with the curve of the saw blade sticking out. If you stop it shy of the edge, then you have to notch the edges. Too much of a hastle for me.
5. Ease of measuring. If you want a 12 inch vertical, cut 12 inches. You don't have to allow for the depth of the dado, and then find out that it cut just a bit to deep or shallow, resulting in a change of height.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobs10 /forum/post/19531320
It's been a very, very long time since conics in high school, but If I remember correctly, I can get an elipse using just a string? I really like the rounded front so I'll probably do the same if I can figure out how. I'll probably make up a MDF pattern and then just copy the arc onto the pieces using a router.
True, if you know the focci. I did not. String works reasonably well for small ellipses, but over large ellipses, the elasticity of the string will be very problamatic. Even if you used steel wire, it is hard to keep the pen perpendicular. A trammel of Archimedes workes great, is very precise, and you only need a yard stick or similar scrap of wood to do it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ar...es_Trammel.gif
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobs10 /forum/post/19531320
I take it you will be doing a high gloss finish? Please go into detail about how you finish the cabinet as that is usally the most difficult part of wood working projects.
I will not do gloss, actually. I highly prefer satin around screens as I hate glare. The main reason I rejected plasma screens was due to screen glare. I had built speaker cabinets last year, and was happy with the finish. I will be matching those. Besides, the only visible part of the cabinet will be the thin front edges of the horizontals.
As for finish, I will be using an interior/exterior oil-based primer and paint. Sprayed with a HVLP gun.
The interior/exterior is cruicial as it prevents heavy objects from sticking on the shelves over time. The oil-based paint is just a bit tougher than acrylic, but truthfully, I am only using it becuase flat oil-based paint comes out "satiny" whereas flat water-based comes out looking somewhat unfinsihed or "powdery." I would have preferred a water-based satin paint (ease of cleanup, safer to spray) but I couldn't find any in-stock locally.
