Man I hate the Flu..

For those of you reading this in the northern hemisphere you should know that we are in the dead of winter here in Tassie. With that said, it's not all that bad. I mean it does get down to 0 or -2 overnight. But that's about it. But last week I had a flu that knocked me out for about 3 days.

So needless to say not much happened on my cabinet table. But things were good today I started cutting the finger joints that will hold the sides and the bottom. Along with the finger joints that well become through tenons on the top shelf where the table sits. I'm doing this all by hand, and I know what most of you would say. Why not make a finger joint jig and use a router or a table saw. Well, the school has a Gifken's dovetail and finger joint jig. But I have found out that that jig is made mostly for boxes and not much else. It's a really good jig, I actually made a small box to test it out. It took me longer to dress the timber than it did to make the box. The thickest it can take is about 16mm which is about 5/8 of an inch. And my sides and tops and bottoms are all 20mm which is just a hair over 3/4 of an inch. So that ruled out that jig.

Next I wanted to use the table saw. I spent 2 days making a jig and then testing it. Finding out that it wouldn't work, then making another. I did this 3 times. And came to the conclusion that if I was at home and had my Delta X5 table saw with my shop made crosscut fence I could have had this cabinet done already. But because the school has a really nice sliding panel saw that doesn't accept a stack dado blade, that it is virtually impossible to figure out a way to cut these things. And I started to think I could do them all by hand by the time I figured out and made a jig to do them. And if I ever want to make this table again, I will be home on a table saw that I already know how to make a jig for.

So I will post a couple of pictures on the finger joint cutting process by hand tomorrow night.

So until then my friends... finish your Harry Potter book, I don't want to spoil it for you.

goodnight