The Day We Routered....
I often get all philosophical on myself. All the time. About everything. Nothing is sacred. And I wonder why I get the joy I do from running my power tools and creating something. The end is such a gratifying, climatic moment for me that I often rush the process, skipping details I had wanted to add or taking short cuts I know I shouldn't. Just like life. Just like my own life. I can't wait to see what's on the other side, what it looks like when it's all done, and before I know it, it WILL be all done and I won't have appreciated all the small joys on the way to getting done....
They say "to stop and smell the roses." I'm trying. I'm trying to live more and more each day with my goal being to make it count. To enjoy myself. Sometimes that's being weird, and different, and having to MAKE myself not care what someone thinks. And to try new things.
Like my router. My favorite tool. It's made to do a lot of awesome shit. And I only ever have used it for one thing: fancy edges. I know that's not very technical. But I'm talking about, for instance, a Chamfer, or Ogee, or Cove edge. I love them all. I bought a router table but never set it up.... Always free-handed it. Posted on Facbook one day - "router tables are for pussies."
But the BEST USE of the router, really, is to make a dado or rabbet cut and create a nice, strong joint. Now that's just my personal opinion. But, I'd never done it.
With the island, I decided to attempt it. The one cabinet that I had to make for my new kitchen island, is constructed out of plywood. Yes, cabinets are made out of plywood people (for the most part.) I had drawn out the cabinet as I showed in my first post about the island. My goal was to make all the dado cuts (which are basically grooves in the wood that another board can then slide into) for the two side pieces before I ripped them into their respective sides. Sorry I'm not very good at explaining this. (I think I blog more for my own purposes than it may help anyone.) So, to further dig a hole here, I'll say it like this - if I needed say, each side to be 2'x4' (for ease of explaining) and they were to have a 3/4" dado cut in the middle to slide a shelf into (also forming a solid joint) I left the 4'x4' piece whole, routering the dado joint where I needed it, and then ripped the 4'x4' into half to create the sides. When I did that, I then was left with 2 2'x4' pieces that had exactly matching dado joints routered at the exact same place.
My first attempt ever, using my router to make a joint cut resulted in me LITERALLY jumping up and down freaking the hell out! No matter that the joint was way too tight!
You can actually see here that the joint was so tight the plywood looks squeezed into the cut. I corrected it the following weekend after a WEEK of coming to terms with the fact that it would need to be redone. But when I did re-do it - it was great.
One of my favorite pictures of the entire process. Seriously. Of all the pictures I will show for the island, this represents something significant to me. This took HOURS. I was soooo lucky to have my guy helping with some double checks on the measurements and the depth of the cut. What you are looking at (above) is beauty. I love this perfection. The two pieces laying left and right are the sides. Picture them connected. I did the entire dado cut before they were ripped. The piece laying closest to the camera in the foreground is the very bottom of the cabinet and the three cuts are for 1/4" ply "dividers" so I can house cookie trays, cutting boards, etc within easy reach. The piece standing up, you are looking at the bottom of what will support the microwave....
Are you starting to picture this? Go back to the first post about the island and check out the sketches if they aren't too light....
The aerial view.
My second greatest creation ever was beginning to take shape. So back to philosophy. I have begun to think - do I use all of my skills in the best way they were made to be used? If I wasn't using a simple power tool to it's potential, I know I'm not running my own life, using my own skills to their greatest potential. How can I do better? This I ponder.
As the most excellent man I've ever known would say:
Sermon for the day.
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