Woodworking Project #1 - Mitered CD / DVD Rack

After flipping though my new woodworking book, I decided to try the mitered CD / DVD rack as my first official project, it's #16 in the book.  It looked fairly straight forward and only involved one 6' piece of 1 X 2 and 2' piece of 1 X 4 oak.

One thing you figure out quickly is that working with oak or any other hardwood material is about 4 times more expensive than pine.  However, oak offers many advantages, the most obvious is that it is much denser and holds up better to cutting and scratching than pine.  Once you cut pine you need to make sure you are extra careful not to dent or scratch it but with oak that problem is not as apparent.  Oak is also easier to stain and provides a much more uniform finish (at least in my limited experience).

I think the approach I will take with each project is to list some of the lessons learned, so maybe I can help somebody avoid the same things, list the basic steps and show a couple of pictures.  Here are the lessons from this project:

1) When using a mitre saw make sure all the settings are accurate before cutting.  At one point I couldn't figure out why my cuts were slightly slanted, then I realized I had twisted the base about 5 degrees which made all my cuts off by 5 degrees so I had to re-cut several pieces.
 
2) The fence part of the mitre saw is an excellent place to mark how long a piece you need to cut.  Once you cut one piece and if you have several more pieces of the same length to cut, just mark the end of the first piece on the fence of the saw.  That way you just slide the next piece down until you reach the mark and you are guaranteed the same size piece, as long as the cut you are making is not longer than the fence.



3) Packing tape is a great way to hold mitred joints in place until the glue dries.  I am attaching a picture from the book to show what I mean:










This project was good practice using the mitre saw to make angle cuts and learning to glue joints.  Then only tool you really need is the mitre saw.  Overall this was an easy project and produces a nice looking finished project.  I completed this project on December 29.  Here are a couple of  pictures:

My Woodworking Adventure Begins

I already have a blog about car related issues, learning guitar and gardening but now I have a new interest... woodworking.  I have previously built a couple of items including a planter bench and a chicken coop but they were more of a straight build type projects using a hammer, drill and circular saw.

 The planter turned out very well, it was mostly built using straight cuts with only a couple of 45 degree cuts for the legs and top.  The main concern with this project was ensuring all the pieces were uniform in size, it inspired me to invest in a mitre saw which is much better at ensuring straight cuts in boards 8" wide or less.  It also makes cutting at angles a snap.

I actually made the chicken coop before the planter, using only a circular saw, hammer and drill.  This was my first construction project and was undertaken because my youngest son wanted us to try raising chickens (for eggs not eating).  I found a great set on plans online here: http://www.thegardencoop.com/.  I paid $25 and I was off to the races.  This took about $400 in materials and tools (since I had none to start with) so it wasn't a cheap build but it turned out great.

Since this was my first real project there were a lot of lessons learned including:
1) Always read and understand all directions before starting the project.
2) Measure all cuts at least twice if not three times.
3) When making a cut ensure the blade is cutting on the waste side of your cut, and you allow for the blade width in your cutting.  Lets say I have an 8 foot board and want 2 four foot pieces, that is actually impossible because the blade removes 1/4 inch of wood when making the cut in the middle, the best you can do is two 3'11.875" pieces.  It might not seem like much but once you end up with one 4' and one 3' 11.75" piece to make a box you will see what a difference it can make.
4) make sure all pieces are level before screwing / nailing them together.  If you are making a frame or box if the measurements are off even a little bit it can make a big difference.
5) Get the right tools for the job, when I got the mitre saw it made accurate straight cuts in 2X4 a breeze, this would have come in handy when making the coop.
6) Try to rig up a guide to use when ripping wood with a circular saw.  If you clamp a piece of wood to the piece you are cutting it will ensure a straight accurate cut.  Eyeballing it WILL NOT WORK.

Those are some of the major ones I can think of.

For Christmas my wonderful wife bought this book, a brief overview of it will be the topic of my next post.

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