Housing (Dado) Joints

[Harbo]

I recently made some housing joints where I had over sized the tounged part by 1mm (- I actually got around the problem by sanding off the extra mm on the tongue but that seemed to be cheating a bit?)

But if this was not possible, how would you go about widening the housing?
I suppose using the router again is one solution but 1mm is very small?
What about a plane - do the Stanley Types 98 & 99 work in such a case?
What would you do?

Rod

 

[Chris Knight]

Thinning the tongue is terribly infra dig you bad boy! Really I say - whatever works for you..
The side rebate planes work fine - exactly what they are intended for. I use a Stanley 79 but certain tool enthusiasts here have a pair of the LN's which are no doubt nice but IIRC they are a bit wider than the Stanley and won't work as narrow housings.

 

[mr]

Shoulder plane on the tongued part probably, on the basis that it's easier to access and secondly the housing is probably the more accurate of the two parts.

Cheers Mike

 

[Kane]

I'd throw a temper tantrum, smash it up and set fire to the workshop ....

 

[Pete W]

Chris Schwarz has a recent blog entry on this very subject:
http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/blo ... Bites.aspx

Trimming the shelf/tongue/insert is precisely what he recommends. I'd never thought about it before, but Chris's argument makes sense to me. Though there are (inevitably ) other views in the comments to that entry.

Pete

 

[Steve Maskery]

What you need is a jig! COming very soon to a GW near you.
S

 

[mailee]

Oh no Steve! Your not going to tempt me with another great jig to make are you?

 

[mr]

What you need is a jig! COming very soon to a GW near you.
S

Bearing in mind that we're talking about a tongue don't we already have a jig for the shoulder plane in the form of the side of the tongue ? It wouldn't take but a coupla seconds to run a shoulder plane down the thing using the side as a fence surely.

Cheers Mike

 

[Steve Maskery]

Yes of course Mike, you are absolutely right. But it does assume that you have such a plane to hand (I don't, but would love a nice matched pair, if anyone has a spare set taking up valuable space).

But my point is that with the right jig the problem doesn't occur in the first place. It's Right First Time Every Time (TM).

I've made a new jig (new to me, that is, it's not an original idea) for a library I'm building (rather more mundane than Tim's, unfortunately) and I have the best housing joints I've ever made. Snug. That means tight without being forced, easy without being sloppy, in my thesaurus. It should fit without distorting the receiving component.

It's not difficult to achieve if you have the right jig or the right (expensive, beautiful and rarely-used) hand-tools.

CHeers
Steve

 

[mr]

Yes of course Mike, you are absolutely right. But it does assume that you have such a plane to hand (I don't, but would love a nice matched pair, if anyone has a spare set taking up valuable space).

You what ? You don't have a shoulder plane? Heaven forfend!

Cheers Mike

 

[Steve Maskery]

Ah, my mistake, I was thinking of those nice planes for doing the side of a housing, not a tongue on the end of a board, apologies.

S

 

[mr]

Yes I ignorantly misread the OPs question about widening the housing, my apologies too.

Mike

 

[BradNaylor]

I recently made some housing joints where I had over sized the tounged part by 1mm (- I actually got around the problem by sanding off the extra mm on the tongue but that seemed to be cheating a bit?)

But if this was not possible, how would you go about widening the housing? I suppose using the router again is one solution but 1mm is very small?
What about a plane - do the Stanley Types 98 & 99 work in such a case?
What would you do?

Rod

Radial arm saw?

 

[dennyk]

Use a rasp

 

[Philly]

Surprised no-one mentioned a dado head in a table saw...... :lol:
Running for the door....
Philly

 

[dirtydeeds]

dado heads.................

as far as i can work out they take quite a bit of setting up, shimming them out test cuts. etc

it would drive me to distraction

 

[BradNaylor]

I've never tried them, but I remember that American with the beard on TV used to use them a lot.

Are they worth the trouble of setting up etc?

 

[dirtydeeds]

that i guess would be the new yankee workshop norm abraham

ive not got a tv (by choice) but it sounds like him

all i know about dado heads (apart from what ive said) is that this side of the atlantic they arnt favoured on safety grounds

the idea of a wide cutting blade isnt new, wobble saws were popular at one time