First Completed Project of 2021!

[JohnnyEgo]

It's my New Year's resolution. From 2018.

I have needed a shelf in my utility room for a while, since the current system is piles of stuff in cardboard boxes shoved up against the pilot light for the water heater. The bright thing to do would have been to go to Lowes or Home Depot and spend $99 on one of those metal utility shelves, and I would have been done in an hour. But how could I call myself a woodworker unless I procrastinated forever and then threw a thousand dollars worth of tools at it? And what kind of Woodnetter would I be if I didn't share the process in all it's glory.
Since the forum software limits the number of photos I can cram into a post, I am going to chunk this out in rough units of 10. This is cheapish-quickish utility grade furniture, and not a master-work, but I hope my foibles with power tools will at least be entertaining for some.

On the plus side, this went together quick. A few hours Saturday, a few hours Sunday, no paint or finish, and minimal sanding. Start with a fairly simple plan and a few quick measurements to make sure it will fit in the space I have for it.


Breaking down the sheet:

First step was to carve up the sheet goods. I have a track saw for these purposes, so I drug out some saw horses and my adjustable height table, slapped a piece of foam on it, and started cutting away.




Made a reference cut along the long edge. I probably didn't need to, as the factory edge was straight and in good condition, but it's cheap insurance on things being square.


Once I had the long reference cut, I cut the side at 90 degrees and checked for square.


I have the TSO rail guides, which are great when you have to build ten of these things, and honestly pretty great even when you only have to build one. Set them to 12", and they made quick work of dicing up the sheet and having everything cut to the same width.




Useful on cross-cuts as a positioning guide, as well.


Sheet is all diced up!

[JohnnyEgo]

Joining all the parts

Next came time to poke some holes so I could join all these pieces together. I really like pocket holes for this purpose, and if I had used them alone, I would have been done with getting the shelves fixed much faster. However, I have decided that I am going to learn to love my Domino 500 in 2021, whatever it takes. So I punched a bunch of Domino slots into pretty much everything. Used the TSO guides and the back side of my rail as a story stick so that everything ended up in the same place on both shelf sides.




Used a Kreg 5mm shelf pin jig to give myself about two inches of adjustability on all the shelves that aren't fixed.


So many poked holes.


What rocks about the Festool system is that this is the dust that made it to the shop floor for all of these operations:


I put in a bunch of pocket holes anyways, because I trust them more than small Dominos in particle board.


Screwed it all together. Bolstered the middle fixed shelf to support some extra weight.




Cut up some Doug Fir strips to face frame it out on the compound miter. Face frame will give it some more strength and rigidity under load.:

[JohnnyEgo]

Iron-on Edge Banding

I had planned to trim out all the shelves the same, but it needlessly complicates the adjustable nature of the adjustable shelves, so I decided to edge-band them.

First step when working with iron-on edging is to wait until your wife is too distracted and then ask where the iron is, when she is unlikely to ask follow-up questions like 'why'. Also, a little pro-tip: using mineral spirits on a hot iron to clean up any hot-melt adhesive residue will result in a very unique smell, a discolored iron, and a wife who will guard the new iron carefully and vigorously interrogate you whenever you ask for it for the next 20+ years.

Anyways, the kit requirements for doing this are fairly simple. An iron, some scissors, a razor blade or something sharp to trim the excess, and a roller or block of wood to help smooth it out and make sure the glue makes good contact with the particle board.


Slow and steady pass with the iron:


Hit it with the roller to make sure everything sticks:


Trim the excess with a flush plane or razor:


I don't know if this is a thing you should do, but it's a thing I've always done; burnish the corners by running a screwdriver along the edge at about 45 degrees, with moderate pressure. Breaks the edge a bit.


Followed up by a quick hit of 220 grit sandpaper, and I get a nice-looking edge that won't cut you or catch on things dragged across it.:

[JohnnyEgo]

Edge routing and finishing:

Time to soften the edges. I used a 3/8 roundover bit in a handheld router for this. While the dust collection on the Festool tools is pretty good, it does have it's limits. And one of those is inside edge routing around corners. So I knew this part would be messy going in. And it was.




Not much sanding necessary on this. My weapons of choice are 150 and 220 grit sand paper in some Preppin Weapon sanding blocks, and some adhesive-backed 220 in a rubber curved profile. For these long, narrow, and flat pieces, they were faster and more controlled than a power sander would have been.


Knocking it all together for a test fit:



Once it was looking like it was in final form, I knocked it all apart again. I need to notch all the shelves for a stud that runs through my unsheathed utility room walls. Unfortunately, my dado stack didn't have the depth to knock it out in one operation, so I had to improvise a bit. Poked two holes with a half-inch drill bit.


Then ganged them up and defined the edges of the notch with my table saw blade as high as it could go.


Then carved out the rest at the bandsaw. Good enough for utility-grade shelving.


Last thing I needed was some short legs, which I cut out of some 2x scrap:

[JohnnyEgo]

Installation:
Dragged all the knocked down parts to the basement. I screwed the shelf back together in the hallway, then fit my little platform in the utility room where it is going to live.


Then I dropped the shelf in place between the studs, and secured it to the platform with pocket-screws from the underside of the base. It also has two screws driven through the studs towards the top to keep it from tipping.


Fit like a glove. Well, a semi-tight glove, just in case the walls settle or shift. A little glue and the application of the face-frame finished the job.


This seems so much nicer and less likely to catch fire than the previous jumble we had. I am very content with it. And thus ends my first completed project for 2020!

[lincmercguy]

Looks good!

I have to ask, do you not like the Domino? I'm thinking about pulling the trigger one one of those this Spring.

[JohnnyEgo]

Honestly, it is not my favorite thing. I know that for some folks, I've just relieved myself in the punch bowl. I have both the 500 and the 700. Got the 700 first, loved it, and still do. For things like picnic tables and planter boxes, which I make a lot of for my son's scout troop, it's strong, simple, and fast. I liked it so much for those purposes that I bought the Seneca kit to be able to use smaller dominoes on casework, but I found it pretty unwieldy for smaller stock. So I purchased the 500, but I don't find it that much more weildy.

Precision matters a lot more in casework, and to me the Domino is a large and heavy tool that needs to be held very steady in awkward positions on lightweight stock. I find it fiddly and not very forgiving. The DF700 is a lot bigger, but so are the materials I am using it on, and I like the plunge action a lot better. With the 500, I find I spend a lot of time either clamping the stock or shaving dominoes after the fact to bring things back into alignment. I used it a couple times when I first got it, and then spent about a year actively avoiding it. I still prefer just about any other kind of joinery for anything 3/4 inch or less. I spend a lot more time making sliding dovetails or actual through tenons rather than bust it out of the Systainer stack from it's least used, bottom position.

But everyone else seems to think it is a game changer, and I have vowed to use it as much as possible in 2021 and see if familiarity and experience change my position on it. My two cents, anyways.

[lincmercguy]

Want to sell it?

[JohnnyEgo]

Not ready to give up on it quite yet. That said, if you want to take it for a test drive for a month or two before you make your own purchase, I have no problem lending it to you.

[KC]

Honestly, it is not my favorite thing.  I know that for some folks, I've just relieved myself in the punch bowl. 

Chuckled out loud at this.