Roundover Bits

You may have seen my past blog about a wedding card box that Steve, my daughter's father-in-law, made from picture frames.


Well, Steve decided he could use up a lot of scraps by making the box in miniature, and this is how it turned out.


Not only is it a good way to use scraps, but it is a great way to practice woodworking techniques with small pieces so you are an expert by the time you tackle a big project. 


So, if you are new to woodworking, or just want to practice a new skill, try making a miniature. 


You might end up with a great Christmas gift, or birthday present for your family or friends.


Eagle America has a large selection of picture frame bits, so this project is only limited by your imagination.


The 4 slots on each side are just big enough to hold a piece of 1/8" glass, a standard 3x5 picture and a mat.

 
These tissue box holders can be filled with photos, cards, antique postcards, drawings or even coordinating wallpaper.


They are even a great way to display your child's artwork.


The pictures just slide in and out, so they can be changed quickly when the seasons change, the holiday is over, or the new school pictures come home.


Some of the woodworking router bits used to make this box include a lock miter for the corner joint, roundover bits to round the top edges and a pattern bit to cut out the profile on the base.


With a little bit of gluing, clamping, and sanding using a few sanding supplies, this project helped hone Steve's woodworking skills and made a nice decorative piece for the house.

Have you ever been loosening up the collet on your woodworking router table with the wrenches supplied with your router and when it released, your knuckles rubbed across the seam between the router plate and the top?



I had this happen to me the other day when I was changing out one of my roundover bits from my Kreg router table. Usually I am careful with my router woodworking but this always seems to be the point where I destroy my knuckles.




This was the last straw for me. I finally decided to break down and buy a set of offset collet wrenches for my Porter Cable 7518 router.


These wrenches are designed to fit around the opening of your router plate so you can easily secure the collet below the router bit on your router. The handles have a nice rubber grip which prevents slipping and adds comfort.

 

On Saturday, February 6, 2010 Dave R. posted a few questions regarding my post on the Kitchen Cabinets I made.

Dave wrote:

Very well designed and built cabinet unit. Would you please describe what slides you used for the pullout work surface and how you reinforced its mounts against the considerable loading that could occur, e.g. while using it to mix and knead bread dough? Also, what did you use in finishing this project?

My response:

Dave,

Let me start by saying that the pull-out took a little more than just your standard cabinet tools and hardware. Since the pull out is made from 2" thick hard maple and weighs approximately 40 pounds I needed to build the cabinet to support it.

The sides, back, base, and top are all made from 3/4" solid core white oak plywood and held together with Titebond glue and Kreg pocket hole jigs screws. Some people would say this is overkill but I build things to last.


The glue-ups for the top needed to be re-enforced so rather than using dowels or biscuits, I pulled out my Festool Domino and used the largest domino tenon Festool makes. There are 4 domino's in each joint to add rigidity and support when someone is pounding on the top. The domino's also help lock the wood together so as it expands and contracts, it moves as one continuous piece of wood. If you don't have a Festool Domino, you can do the same thing with long dowel pins that run through all of the pieces.

I should also tell you that on the back side of the pull-out there is a piece of 2" angle iron supporting the 47" wide pull-out and the white oak face is 3/4" thick and held to the front of the pull out with Kreg pocket hole jigs screws and Titebond glue. 

The hardware I used is a set of the Accuride self-closing series ball bearing drawer glides with a 100 pound load rating. These work great and allow the top to move in and out of the slot freely. 

After the cabinet was built and the pull-out installed, I cut and installed a center support inside the cabinet and secured 3/4" slick strips to each side, similar to drawer runners/supports. I used my router table and fence and roundover bits to round over the top edges to help reduce any gravitational forces that might increase the chance of any potential bowing over time. This may not have been necessary but it put my mind at ease. 

To finish the project, I used a clear semi-gloss polyurethane applied with my Earlex HVLP sprayer, one of the best woodworking accessories for your shop! I thinned the mix and applied at least 5 light coats with minor sanding in between. 

The cabinets work great and everyone is happy. Can't ask for any more than that!

 

I got a call one Thursday evening to go over to my in-laws for dinner. When my wife and I arrived, we sat down and had a nice meal. During the meal, my wife's aunt, Teresa, mentioned that she wanted to add kitchen cabinets on an open wall in her kitchen. The problem was, she could not find anything to match her existing cabinets. My wife immediately volunteered me for the job knowing I have all kinds of cabinet making tools!

After dinner, we stopped by Teresa's house and I took a few measurements, made a few drawings and made sure that Teresa was happy with the design.

The following Friday evening, I figured out what the total cost for the job would be and called Teresa to see if it was acceptable. She gave me her approval and I was off and running.

Early Saturday morning I was at the lumber yard hand selecting my material and by noon, I was back in my shop cutting everything to size.


Kreg pocket hole jigs have to be one to the best woodworking accessories you could have in your shop. I used it to build the cabinet's carcases and face frames all within a hour.

I used my woodworking router table with Eagle America's stile and rail bits to make the door and drawer frames and a 3-wing raised panel bit for the panels. It really helps to have some type of router height adjustment on your router table. I use a Jessem Master Lift and love it!

The edges of the door frames were finished using Eagle America's roundover bits. I figured I could use this project to showcase my talents as well as some of the cool cabinet hardware that is on the market so I used ball bearing drawer slides with Blum Blumotion accessories.