Rebates on small pieces

[kell]

Hey guys,

I need a pointer on the best way to add a rebate to a small piece of timber. I want to make some picture frames for people for christmas and I have some small bits of oak lying around i'd like to use. They're about 2.5cm x 2.5cm and about 30cm in length. Any idea the best way to put a rebate about half the depth say 1cm in them? any help is very much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[StevieB]

Safest way would be a router in a router table with fingerboards to hold the pieces tight. An alternative would be a rabbet plane. The use of a tablesaw with guards removed to dado the rebate is not advisable :shock:

Steve.

 

[Waka]

because the pieces are so small I would favour using a hand plane, as Stevie says the other option is the router table, but with small lengths it could be a bit awkward depending on your set up.

 

[OllyK]

The use of a tablesaw with guards removed to dado the rebate is not advisable :shock:

Steve.

Tish pshaw! Using a table saw will have the frames stained a nice festive red all in in the same process.

 

[Barry Burgess]

I would cut the rebates before I made the frames using the longer pieces of wood in the router table. If you have already assembled the frames and you are doing a number - make a jig out of say MDF and then use a hand held router to cut the rebate.
Some ideas
Barry

 

[kell]

thanks guys i'll pop out tonight and get a router table

 

[Scrit]

The use of a tablesaw with guards removed to dado the rebate is not advisable :shock:

Tish pshaw! Using a table saw will have the frames stained a nice festive red all in in the same process.

Unless, of course, you add Shaw guards - or even a top and side feather boards and use push sticks. The same applies to using a spindle moulder or router table, both of which are more than happy to rebate an unguarded hand or fingers :shock:

thanks guys i'll pop out tonight and get a router table

You don't need to buy a router table at all. All you need is something stable to screw your router to, such as a piece of 15mm MDF. Plunge through with a straight cutter. Then flip the right way up and clamp onto a bench. You now have a router table. The fence can be a piece of 3 x 2 PAR and if you drill it at one end (one the narrow edge) to take an 8mm dowel, and drill near the edge of the router table this "fence" can be mounted on a dowel so that it pivots on the dowel. Lightly cramp the pivot end of the fence so that it can still swing, then turn on the router and gently feed the fence into the cutter until it has cut a "tunnel" through the fence. Now adjust the router to give you the depth of cut you require and pivot the fence to give you the width of cut you require. You now have a £3 router table, albeit without feather boards - and there's an article on how to make them here. I've made up this sort of router table on job sites quite a few times and they do work - even make-up my featherboards from pieces of plywood/softwood scrap using a jigsaw. Not sophisticated, but cheap, quick and safe

I have to say I'm not keen on using a hand plane as holding long small pieces can be a problem unless you have a sticking board.

Scrit