rrmccabe

Took another shot at using the jig today and hosed it up. Was doing 3/16 Box Joints and on one of the corners I flipped the board over so the face was in and not out like it should have been. So I was referencing off the opposite side. This staggered my joint about 1/8" and screwed up the box. Would not have been so bad but its wood that started as a log from a tree I cut down and got milled on my bandsaw, power planed and then hand planed perfect and sanded to 220 to make sure it was ready.

@Jronman No, that's a Festool 1080 multi function table (MFT). I just took the legs off it and put it on the bench top. Looks like this.

Well we have more frost in Iowa than you do (42" for footings) so its a bigger deal for me than you. But you want to make them float independently. In a perfect world you would think when the frost goes out the patio drops back down in the summer months. Around here is not uncommon to see a sidewalk or drive lift against a house or garage slab 1 and sometimes even 2". If that joint is not forgiving and either gets debris in it or fractures off some of the concrete from the joint when the frost goes out the patio hangs up on the footing leaving a void under your patio which leads to cracks. So whatever you do, you want to make sure that patio can move up and down without issues. Expansion joint is the most common around here but I suppose you could leave a void and fill it with a urethane expansion caulk.

Looks great and glad you could have quality time with the boy. Something I am forever grateful for having with my Dad. That should work perfect and keep you from having a spinning vise !

Well this is what the new PC 3 1/4" router looks like with lift. This thing works amazing. More money than I would like to spend but I kinda boxed myself into a corner with my router table setup and it was hard to use without a lift like this that brings the collet out of the table for easy changes.

Thats OK I cant remember my name half the time The bench works great. The 1080 table planes with the router table surface and router fence rotates and clamps at 90 degrees from what is show in pictures as well. So If I want to cut a rabbet on a 8' board I have 5' of out feed table on it.

Shop tour in first post. Benchcrafted is the hardware for the vise. The jaws are 1 1/2" thick so I just countersunk the inside of back jaw enough to recess a 1/4-20 bolt head or a 1/4-20 nut. I dont remember which way I ran it. But the bench takes all the pounding and the 2 bolts just keep it vertical.

I love Kaizen !

Looks great. I have never turned anything except the classic gavel 30 years ago in high school. Nice job.

Pure luck man. First attempt at machine dovetails ever. I was very happy. I just wanted to blow through it once so I can go back and look at manual and it will make more sense looking at the various dovetail and box joints. Chris, here is my table before and after I added an extension to give me some working room on router. My Festool 1080 table is on the top. I just removed the legs and sat the table on the top with blocks inside the L shaped corners so it would not move around. I built a Moxon vise which is supported by my rolling bench but has T bolts that slide into the Festool frame extrusion to keep it in place. The drawers are full extension so the three drawers on the left will hold six systainers as they sit sideways. The top drawer will take two SYS 2's but the bottom two drawers will only take two SYS 1's. But 6 total. The drawer with the SYS 4s will hold 3 total as the one on back has to sit sideways. Its on footmaster casters so they have ratchets built in so I can roll it out into shop and crank the feet down. The storage drawers on right are only about 6" deep except the bottom which is a chip catcher for router. Here is the drawer for related stuff. This will be changing soon as I plan to move mallets and chisels to another bench.But the rest of it is MFT/1080 stuff. Below is the extension I added to it. Has threaded inserts in the table and removes easily. More than likely it wont come off. Incra Mast-R-II router lift with Porter Cable 3 1/4 HP router. Home made router fence. Any other questions, let me know.

I bought a new dovetail jig about a month or so ago and had not got a chance to try it out. It works backwards (actually upside down) to normal jigs so instead of having a unit you guide the router over the top of to mill the tails and pins you move the jig over the table. Its kind of nice because you never have to find a place to sit the router when you are switching boards or making adjustments. I sat on a bar stool and made all the cuts in about 10 minutes following the instructions in the book for the first time. I had watched a video previously so I kinda knew what should happen. I used scrap pine and instead of using test boards per the instructions to check pin/tail fit I just assumed it was OK and blew through all 4 pieces. For not having a clue what I was doing I was really happy with the results. Is should have cut a 1/4 groove in the inside bottom so I could have stuck some plywood in there and had a shop box for "doo-dads". I think I will screw a piece on the bottom anyway as I hate to throw it away. You can see the jig is on the end (down low) of my multi function bench which has my Festool 1080 table on it, router/fence and all my Festool systainers. Here are a few pictures of the test box.

What wood are you planning on using for the raised panel doors? Raised panel bits need lots of HP. The other question is, do you plan on using a router lift so you can make easy bit changes and height adjustments from the top or are you willing to work under the table making adjustments with a plunge router and bit changes? My picks for router table router and handheld router are going to be totally different. If I planned on doing a fair amount of hardwood raised panel work I would be purchasing a 3 1/4 HP unit.

Happy Birthday John! Hope you have a great day.

Now knowing the rest of the story and that inspectors are involved I would just rent a quickie saw. Depending on the depth of concrete you will probably have to overcut your 12" box to get a full depth cut. That means you are going to get short cut lines outside of your 12" box the width of blade. These are easily filled using the fines from the concrete for footings or later using a cement patch mix without the large aggregate in regular concrete. In reality you will need need to make sure the existing concrete and new concrete do not bond together. Separate with sonotube or use expansion joint. Because of frost they are going to move up and down at different rates. In theory the footing wont move and the slab of course will rise.

Yea that's the problem with an angle grinder. You are only going to get about 1 1/2" deep cut. I suggested it to clean up your cut and make it look good at the top after you have your hole. But you are pretty much going to have to drill through it around the perimeter to get a semi clean break to start with.

I am guessing since he said footings he might live somewhere cold like me. The patio floats and he needs to punch through and go down to get below frost so his covered patio is not moving up and down in the winter.

He never said deck. Cutting through existing "patio" that is 4" thick or more tells me is concrete.

Well today is my final day of UPS Christmas. Nothing else coming Festool DTS400 sander and assorted grits of sandpaper. Lie Nielsen "Hot Dog" for my #62 plane and Lie Nielsen block plane which is similar to the one I got yesterday but not rabbeting. I have a Lie Nelson large closed router plan on order but its about 5 weeks out. Marc Spagnuolo's hybrid woodworking book is costing me some money but I am sure Lie Nielsen appreciates it

Chris and I have a Festool bromance going on. He knows I love green too. Probably not as much as he does, but my favorite tool brand.

No doubt. Its the first Festool product I purchased about 15 years ago. I have several tracks and it gets used all the time. It has saved my butt several times. With the slot on the back of track I have been able to clamp it to things sideways and make a clean cut.

Sounds like you are talking about concrete. Unless you have specialty tools I would drill the perimeter with a 1/2" concrete bit and a few through the center and break it out with a sledge. You will need a lot of holes to weaken the concrete to get the center breakout started. If you need a really clean edge you can follow up by cutting the top edge with a cheap 4" diamond blade on a grinder. All depends on what you have available for tools.

Well the vise came today from Lee Valley. Once I had final dimensions I could finish my drawing. Will beef up that one cell in the torsion box top with plywood to make a rigid mount. Guess I better find some steel and make the low profile leveling base. Would like to get this done in the next week or two.

Thanks. So far its done a good job! Its going to get more use now that I have a planer in the shop.

Chris, The saw is a Grizzly G0513X2BF. The blade is one that I ordered at same time I ordered saw. (see picture below). I dont remember all the details but 1" with 2 tpi. Not a high end blade by any means. I really was not planning on doing a lot of fine re-saw work with it and the 1" blade was for milling logs. I have since changed my mind and will probably go for a couple nice carbide blades. I also have a couple other blades that are not quite as aggressive I need to try before I make boards out of all this rough timber but this one did a pretty nice job.

Another awesome UPS day Quick release vise for the center island torsion box top upgrade I have coming up, Lie Nielson rabbet block plane, set of Japanese back saws and a small tool only version Milwaukee's 1/4" hex driver. Have a couple things coming tomorrow and then Christmas is over