ebooks woodworking plans - five plywood projects

From ShopNotes MagazineAll rights reserved

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Plans N O Ww w w . p l a n s n o w . c o m

®

Shop Projects5

Each Built from One Sheet of Plywood!

PLUS: 7 SHOP SECRETSWorking with PlywoodDread the thought of moving, storing, or cutting a largesheet of plywood? Learn a few of the techniques weuse to make working with plywood hassle free.

Tool Tote - Sawhorse - Workbench - Wood Bin - Wall Cabinet



S H O P P R O J E C T

1 FIGURE

Tool Tote ————————————————————————————————————

As much as I enjoy woodworking inmy shop, I find that I spend almost asmuch time working on projectsaround the house. And because thatusually involves carrying tools towhere I’m working, it’s nice to havesomething to carry them in. That’swhere these tool totes come in. Eachtote is open on one side to make iteasy to load and unload your tools.And a narrow cleat along the frontedge of the opening prevents smallitems from falling out.

Not only does the tote hold anarmful of tools, but it’s just theright height for sawing the end offa board. In fact, you can make a pairof them to use as mini-sawhorses. Andwhen you want to take a break, thetote makes a great little stool.

The tool totes are so small that youonly need half a sheet of 3/4" plywoodto build a pair of them (see cuttingdiagram below). To build the tooltotes, start by cutting the ends (A) tosize as shown in Figure 1. The “feet”can then be cut out on the ends usinga band saw or a jig saw.

After you’ve finished making theend pieces, you can set them asidewhile you cut out the bottom (B),

back (C), and front cleat(D) of the tote. There’snothing out of the ordi-nary here — I simply cutthe pieces out accordingto the cutting diagram.

Assembly – The tooltotes are assembled withyellow glue and screws. Tomake sure everythinglined up accurately, I dryclamped all the piecestogether first and thendrilled the pilot holes forthe screws. Then Iremoved the clamps, gluedthe pieces together, andadded the screws. I startedby screwing the bottomand back together and then addingthe front cleat.

The bottom/back assembly getssandwiched between the two endpieces. Again, I used screws and glueto attach the ends.

Top – The last piece to add is thetop. The top (E) also doubles as the“handle” for the tool tote (see photoabove). So after cutting this piece tosize, you’ll need to cut out an openingin the center. I made this slot by

simply drilling a starter hole at eachend point of the opening and removingthe waste in between with a jig saw.Then for a more comfortable grip, Ieased the edges by sanding themlightly.

To attach the top, I used somemetal corner braces (see photo inmargin). These are just screwed tothe inside faces of the end pieces andthen to the underside of the top, asyou can see in Figure 1b.

b.

{ CCoorrnneerr BBrraacceess..These metal cornerbraces provide aquick and easy wayof securely attachingthe top of the tote.

a.



Folding Sawhorse ————————————

a.


hinges to length first.) It’s a lot easierto attach each half of the end to aleg of the sawhorse first. Then thetwo halves are connected withanother piano hinge.

Top – The top of the sawhorse isnothing more than a narrow, rectan-gular piece of plywood. The top (C)rests on the legs of the sawhorse — it

1 FIGURE

isn’t permanently attached. But to helplock the top in place, a couple of cleats(D) are screwed directly to the under-side of the top.

To use the sawhorse, simply openit up by pulling the legs apart andfolding out the ends. Then set the topin place so the cleats fit securelybetween the legs.

Sawhorses are a necessity in justabout any shop. But these sawhorsesare a little different in that they foldup for storage. This makes it easyto carry them anywhere and theydon’t take up much room when theyaren’t being used. But don’t let thefolding design fool you — these saw-horses are plenty sturdy for justabout any task.

Legs – Before you start cuttingout the pieces for the sawhorses, it’sa good idea to take a close look atthe cutting diagram at right. In orderto get all the pieces for two saw-horses out of a single sheet of ply-wood, you’ll need to do some carefullaying out before you start cutting.And because of the shape of the legs,you’ll need to cut these pieces outto rough size with a jig saw and thensand the edges smooth. Or you cantrim them with a router and astraightedge guide.

Ends – After you’ve cut the legs(A) to size, you can start making theends. If you take a look at Figure 1,you’ll see that each end is actuallymade up of two separate pieces thatare hinged in the middle, as well as tothe legs. This is what allows the saw-horse to fold up.

After cutting out all the ends (B)they can be attached to the legs withpiano hinges. (You’ll need to cut the

{ PPiiaannoo HHiinnggee..Also known as

“continuous” hinges,piano hinges are

used to attach theends to the legs of

the sawhorse.




Cut-Off Bin ——————————————————

b.1 FIGURE

Dealing with short cut-off pieces oflumber is a problem that just aboutevery woodworker has to face. Nomatter how neat you try to stack thecutoffs, it doesn’t take long for asmall pile to turn into a mountain.And this makes it almost impossibleto sort through the cutoffs to find apiece that you can use.

Which is exactly why you need astorage bin like the one you seehere. It’s fairly small, so it doesn’ttake up much space. But it holds alot of cutoffs. And dividers inside thebin allow you to sort the cutoffs,making it easier to find that onepiece that you’re looking for.

Construction – To build the cut-off bin, start by cutting the front (A),back (B), and bottom (C) to size (seethe cutting diagram below). After cut-ting out these pieces, you can glueand screw them together. The bottomis trapped between the front and backto create a U-shaped assembly. Butwhen you’re doing this, make surethat the ends of the pieces remainflush.

Dividers – The next step is to addthe dividers (D). These three piecesare all identical. They are cut to fit inbetween the front and back of the bin.After cutting the pieces to size andcutting the taper on the front edge ofeach piece, the two end dividers canbe glued and screwed in place so thatthey are flush with the ends of thefront, back, and bottom of the bin. Thecenter divider separates the spaceinside the bin into two equal sections.This divider is centered between thetwo ends and then glued and screwedin place.

Interior Dividers – The lastpieces to make are the two interiordividers (E). These pieces help toseparate long and short cutoffs bydividing the bin into smaller com-partments. The interior dividers arecentered between the front and theback of the bin. After cutting them tosize, they’re attached with cornerbraces (Figure 1a).

Most of the time, this cut-off binwill probably just sit in a corner ofyour shop. But you may want to move

it occasionally to clean behind it. Theonly problem is that once it’s loadedup with lumber, moving it is no simpletask. So to make things easier, I addedsome casters to the bottom. (I use twofixed casters and two swivel casters.)As you can see in Figure 1b, thecasters are just screwed in place nearthe corners.

a.

{ CCaasstteerrss.. To makethe cut-off bin easierto move around, Iadded casters tothe bottom.



Workbench ———————————————————


1 FIGURE

This workbench is just the right sizefor working on small projects. It canbe set against the back wall of thegarage without taking up too muchspace. And it has some storage roombelow the top for your tools. Even ifyou already have a full-size workbenchin your shop, this bench makes a great“backup.”

Joinery – Like the other plywoodprojects, there isn’t any complicatedjoinery on this bench. It’s put togetherwith screws and butt joints. But thetrick is to assemble everything in aspecific order and cut the parts to fitas you go along.

I started by cutting out the ends(A) and back (B) of the bench (Figure1). Then I used a jig saw to cut awaythe waste and create the “feet” on thebottom of the two ends. I also drilledsome shelf pin holes in the right-handend piece.

After screwing the ends to the back,you can cut the fixed shelf (C) to fit inbetween the ends. Once you’ve posi-tioned this piece between the ends,you can screw it in place.

Top – The top (D) is cut to sizeand attached to the ends with corner

braces (Figure 1a). Then you cancut the divider (E) to fit in betweenthe top and the fixed shelf. Beforeattaching the divider, however, you’llwant to drill some shelf pin holes tomatch the ones in the end of thebench. Then you can screw thedivider to the fixed shelf and attachit to the top of the bench with acouple of corner braces.

Finally, I cut an adjustable shelf(F) to fit in the space between thedivider and the end of the bench.

a.

{ SShheellff PPiinnss.. Theadjustable shelf is

supported byspoon-style shelfpins like the ones

shown here.




Wall Cabinet —————————————————

The last project I made was the wallcabinet that you see in the photo atright. Actually, this project is two cab-inets — one with a door and onewithout. You can stack them or hangthem on the wall side by side.

Cases – The cases of the two wallcabinets are identical except for theirdepth. One of the cabinets is 3/4" shal-lower than the other one to allow forthe thickness of the door.

You can start by cutting all the sides(A, B, C), tops and bottoms (D, E),and backs (F) to size, as shown inFigure 1 below. When it comes to cut-ting the sides, you’ll notice that thecabinet with the door has one sidethat is 3/16" narrower than the other.This is to allow for the door hinge thatwill be added later.

The next step is to drill some holesin the sides for the shelf pins that willbe used to support the shelves. I did

this on the drill press. After you’vefinished drilling all the shelf pinholes, you can assemble the twocases. The sides, top, and bottomare all wrapped around the backpanels and then glued and screwedtogether.

With the cases assembled, you cancut some adjustable shelves (G, H) tofit inside them. There are threeshelves for the open cabinet and twofor the cabinet with the door.

Door – At this point, the open cab-inet is done. To complete the othercabinet, all you need is a door. Thedoor (I) is just a piece of plywood cutto fit over the front of the case. It’sattached with a piano hinge. Then tohelp keep the door closed, I added acouple of magnetic catches — one atthe top of the cabinet and one at thebottom. Finally, I mounted a handleto the front of the door.

1 FIGURE

a.

b.

{ DDoooorr HHaarrddwwaarree..A window sash pullmakes a low-cost,yet practical doorhandle. And amagnetic catchensures that thedoor stays shut untilyou’re ready toopen it.



G R E A T T I P S

n The first step in dealing with ply-wood is just getting it into your vehicle— and then back out once you get itto your shop.

I came up with a way to do this withan old appliance cart (see photo). Withthe cart resting on the tailgate (withthe wheels up), I lift one end of thesheet onto the wheels. Then I pickthe other end up off the ground and“roll” the sheet into the bed of thepickup. To get the sheet out, simplyreverse the process.

n Once you get the sheet of plywoodhome and out of the truck, you’ll needto move it into the shop. To avoidhaving to carry it around the shop, Imade a “skateboard” from a piece ofscrap 2x6 and a set of casters, like yousee in the photo at left.

To ensure the plywood doesn’t slipoff the top as you’re moving the sheetaround, there’s a shallow groove cutdown the center of the top, as illus-trated in the drawing below. And tomake it easy to steer, the caster at thefront swivels.

Shop Secretsffoorr WWoorrkkiinngg wwiitthh PPllyywwoooodd

a.

Plywood has its challenges. It’s heavy and cumbersometo work with. And the edges and veneer are prone to

being damaged. But with a few of our shop secrets, youcan meet each and every challenge.

1. Easy Loading—————————————

2. Move it Along———————————————————————————————————————————

77



G R E A T T I P S

n I like to cut up the plywood for myproject right away. But there are timesI can’t always do that. So I came upwith a way to store plywood sheetsnice and flat until I can.

All you need to do this is some freewall space and the storage bracketshown in the photo and illustrated inthe drawing below.

The wall bracket consists of twoparts: a hinged bracket attached tothe wall that holds the plywood inplace, and an index bar that adjusts

the opening of the bracket to allowfor varying amounts of sheet goods.

The hinged bracket is nothingmore than two 2x4s joined together atone end with a 3" butt hinge. You’llalso notice that there’s a 1/2"-dia. dowelglued into the top of each 2x4.

These dowels fit in holes drilledinto the index bar so you can adjustthe front bracket piece. The plywoodis held against the wall with another1/2"-dia. dowel (8" long) that’s gluedinto the bottom of the front bracket.

n Rolling a sheet of plywood aroundis quite easy. But sooner or later you’llneed to carry a plywood sheet to getit right where you need it. When that’sthe case, I use the “handy” tote shownin the drawing and photo at right.

The tote is designed to hook underthe bottom edge of the plywood. Around handle that fits into the sides ofthe tote is easier on your hand thanthe sharp edges of the plywood. Andthe extended sides on the tote make itpossible for me to pick up a heavysheet by lifting with my legs — ratherthan my back.

Note: When using the tote, be sureto center the plywood sheet on thesupport for better balance. And to pre-vent the plywood sheet from tipping,place your other hand at the top of thesheet to steady it.

I ripped the index bar to width froma short length of 2x4. Once you haveit cut to size, the holes can be drilled.Then, to soften the sharp corners andallow the index bar to clear the wall,I sanded a radius at each end of thebar.

To use the storage bracket, select ahole in the index bar that takes themost slack out of the front bracket.When you want to sort through thestack, just set the index bar so thedowels are in the outside holes.

a.

3. Quick & Easy Tote—————————————————————————————

4. Up Against the Wall———————————————————————————————————————————



G R E A T T I P S

n One of the biggest challengeswhen working with plywood is cut-ting a large sheet down into piecesthat are a little easier to handle. Evenwith help, it’s a hassle to cut plywoodon a table saw. To avoid this, I use mycircular saw and a cutting guide likeyou see in the photo at right.

The cutting guide not only solvesthe problem of making a straight cut,but it makes it easy to position thesaw so you know exactly where thecut is going to be.

An Accurate Reference Edge –The way this works is simple. Theedge of the guide acts as a referencethat indicates the path of the blade (orrouter bit, but more about that in aminute). Ensuring an accurate cut isjust a matter of aligning one of theedges of the guide with the layout lineon the workpiece.

Build the Guide – There’snothing too complicated about makingthe cutting guide. Start out with anextra-wide base made from 1/4" hard-board (see drawing below).

The next step is to glue and screwa plywood fence to the base. Since thefence is going to establish the refer-ence edge, it’s important to attach it soit’s perfectly straight.

Once the fence is in place, you cancreate the reference edge by trim-ming off the waste with a circular saw.The nice thing about the extra widthon the base is that by using a hand-held router and a straight bit, you cancreate a second reference edge on theother side of the guide.

THE CUTTING EDGEAlthough the guide will make astraight cut with either a circular sawor a hand-held router, it won’t alwaysguarantee you a chipout-free cut.

When I’m using my circular saw, Ilike to use a steel saw blade designedspecifically for plywood, like the oneshown in the margin. But when usingmy table saw or router, I use a dif-ferent blade or bit. See the box belowto learn more about cutting toolsmade specifically for plywood.

The Cutting Edge< CCoommpprreessssiioonn BBiitt.. Combining upand down shearing flutes eliminateschipout on both faces of a sheet ofplywood by “compressing” the cutto the center of the sheet. They’resold with either single or doubleflutes (double shown at left).

PPllyywwoooodd BBllaaddee.. >Designed to produce a superior cuton both the top and bottom oflaminates and melamine, this triplechip grind blade with a negativehook angle works equally well whenyou’re cutting plywood.

5. Build a 2-in-1 Cutting Guide———————————————————————————————————————————

{ CCiirrccuullaarr SSaawwBBllaaddee.. To help

reduce chipout, theinexpensive, steelsaw blade shown

above has tiny,razor sharp teeththat remove small

amounts of material.



G R E A T T I P S

n One of the reasons for allowing alittle extra material is to remove the“factory edge.” You can usually counton this edge to be straight and true.But it’s often dented or nicked. So it’sbest to trim it off.

To do this, adjust the rip fence tomake an extra-wide cut, as in Figure1. Then, after readjusting the fence,run the “just-cut” edge against it andrip the piece to final width.

One problem area is crosscutting awide piece. Trying to do this oftenresults in the bar of the miter gaugenot being fully supported, resultingin a less than accurate cut.

Sliding Platform – The solutionis a large, sliding platform that pro-vides extra support for the workpiece,like you see in Figure 2.

The platform is just a plywood basethat carries the workpiece throughthe blade. The base is guided by ahardwood runner that slides in themiter slot. As you make a cut, a fencekeeps the workpiece square to theblade.

Flush Trim It – Sometimes aworkpiece is too wide even for thesliding platform. That’s when a hand-held router comes in handy.

With the cutting guide and a com-pression bit (see page 9 ), you can cuta clean, straight edge without anychipout (Figure 3).

n Before making any cuts, you’ll needto lay out the pieces on the plywoodfirst. It’s a good idea to allow a min-imum of 1/4" extra all the way aroundto provide enough material to makethe final clean-up passes later.

Still, cutting plywood to rough sizedoesn’t mean you want a ragged cut.The goal is to end up with clean,straight edges that can ride againstthe rip fence (or be placed against amiter gauge or an auxiliary sled).

Foam Support – To accomplishthis, I use the cutting guide and saw

blade I mentioned earlier.In addition to the guide,you’ll also need a way tosupport the plywoodduring the cut. The bestway I’ve found to do thisis to lay the plywood on asheet of foam insulation,

2

1

3 a.

6. Breaking Down Big Sheets ————————————————————————

7. Get a Perfect Finish Cut ———————————————————————————————————————————

wood is likely to splinter. So even witha specialty blade that reduces chipout,it’s best to place the plywood with itsgood face down on the foam.

as in the photo at right. (I got mine ata local home center.)

Keep the Good Side Down –One thing to be aware of is the bladeon a circular saw cuts on the upstroke.This means the top surface of the ply-

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