Screwing: Just say no?

[Drew Eckhardt]

Originally posted by tizeye
While everyone has concentrated on screws, drilling, filling, and finishing - overlooked one area. If routing a 3/4 round on the 3/4 MDF front baffle, where do the screws go?

Corner cleats would be the obvious choice.

[DrumDude]

For a box with roundovers on the coner I like Biscuit (plate) joiners. About biscuit joiners

[Jeff Robinson]

Rabbets without any mechanical fasteners.

I have done butted joints (early projects), interior cleats, double layered (MDF/plywood), biscuits, screws and bolts.

I like rabbets because:
1: self aligning (proper clamping even straightens out mild warping, in case you let your stock lay around a while)
2: clean edges for rounding them over (no fasteners)
3: no weakened/stressed/split material from screwing into under sized pilot holes (plus have to dry fit and edge sand/joint after drilling pilot holes)
4: maximum strength/surface area for glue to bond (modern glues are stronger than the wood so choose based on your joinery skills-yellow carpenters for clean tight joinery, gorilla to fill imperfect seams)
5: Even with mechanical fasteners you still have to glue all the seams, so why bother with all the additional steps? (snarky comment, I have a small 8" table saw dedicated to rabbeting)

I'm sure there are more but you get my bias.

About the only drawback is the forest of pipe clamps laying around the shop.

Jeff Robinson

[Pano]

Very nice Jeff!


I'm taking the cowards way out and building an inside frame that can be glued and screwed to. Never tried this before, but hope that it will be easy and rigid. Frames are 1/2 finished.

[brucegseidner]

I was about to mortgage my home to buy a table saw and was discussing this with a neighbor when he confessed it would be a blessing to move his out of the garage into my garage.

New to table saws and wanting to preserve all of my digits for the complex math of which I am capable, I will be reading up on the wonders of these contraptions.

I think I understand how one does a rabbet. And this makes perfect sense for outside edges. This way it is not merely the surface of the material that is bonded with glue. The surface material of a non rabbeted surface will likely fail before the glue. But why not use 45degree cuts so a full cross section of the board is bonded?

It is the mystery of the dado that now captures my attention. Joining the internal baffles baffle me. But all this talk of screwing and dado's seems a bit licentious.

Maybe I should take the plunge and go a different router?

[Jeff Robinson]

Originally posted by brucegseidner
I was about to mortgage my home to buy a table saw and was discussing this with a neighbor when he confessed it would be a blessing to move his out of the garage into my garage.

New to table saws and wanting to preserve all of my digits for the complex math of which I am capable, I will be reading up on the wonders of these contraptions.

I think I understand how one does a rabbet. And this makes perfect sense for outside edges. This way it is not merely the surface of the material that is bonded with glue. The surface material of a non rabbeted surface will likely fail before the glue. But why not use 45degree cuts so a full cross section of the board is bonded?

It is the mystery of the dado that now captures my attention. Joining the internal baffles baffle me. But all this talk of screwing and dado's seems a bit licentious.

Maybe I should take the plunge and go a different router?

A router is the proper tool for blind dados, full width dados are almost as easy as wabbets on a table saw.

This photo is of a more recent cabinet showing it's front to rear bracing (a full width strip on the plate amplifier sub-baffle's rabbeted edge and the added rib, with a screw to stabilize it while the glue set under compression).

A note on table saw safety-never let any body part near a blade (unless power is locked out) and always (I mean ALWAYS!) wear eye protection (practice safe sawing). Wear hearing protection, too.

I never put the guard on my main table saw, but I've been using power tools for 35 years and have never been cut by one (famous last words: Hey, check this out!).
I suggest you use the guard for at least a couple decades.
A good friend shortened a thumb by not following both rules while ripping lathe. A stick sometimes is the right tool.

Jeff Robinson