wooden clamping squares......

In the interest of time I decided to use my tablesaw to do the bulk of the work tonight. I needed to make 3 more large wooden clamping squares tonight for use tomorrow. If I had tried to do them by hand tools alone, I doubt I would have gotten two done. As it was, I still managed to get a fair amount of hand work in.

I don't have a jointer anymore so all my squaring I have to do with hand planes. And all the scraps I gathered to make the squares with all had rough sawn edges. Four or them I had to joint and square both edges. I used the tablesaw to get parallel widths and to saw the slot mortise and tenon cheeks.

9 squaring clamps

I got 3 large ones with 12 x14 legs and the remainder have 8 to10 inch legs. I got a wee bit full of myself again tonight with my squaring. I wasn't checking after I planed the legs. I saw I wasn't square when I was sawing the legs on the tablesaw. If I plane what ever square it would lay up tight against the fence. If it is OTL, I can see a gap. Another cause of a gap is a twist in the stock.  But tonight it was the reference edge not being square. I lost about a 1/4" in the width on 5 of the clamps due tore-squaring and sawing again for a parallel width.

slot mortise sawn first

 All of the stock I'm using is about the same thickness so I sawed the slot mortise in all of them first. I had to pay attention and change the height of the saw blade to match the width of the stock. The thin web left in the middle I removed with a chisel.

layout for the tenon

I started working on the 3 largest ones that I'll need for tomorrow. One marking gauge is set to the width and the other is set to the slot mortise. I sawed the shoulders by hand.

good fit after a bit of trimming

I never got such good fitting joints when I was a machine only guy. Working to a scribe line is more accurate then a pencil line. The first tenon came out slanted because I didn't check the tenon jig fence was square to the saw table. Squared that and the second and third ones went together off the saw. The first one I had to trim with the tenon plane.

Big Red says it's dead nuts square

I plan on pinning these with dowels but I will do that after they have set up overnight.

3 big ones cooking

I doubt that the furnace is going to kick in tonight. Today was in the low 50's and the weather girl said it is going to continue with the warm temperatures into next week past xmas day. It doesn't look like it's going to be a white xmas in RI this year.

tried something new tonight

The first two clamps that I did I made a knife wall before I sawed the tenon cheeks. The rest of them I sawed the cheeks first. After that, I sawed on the knife line. My sawing was pretty good and on a shop project like this I don't mind experimenting. I had to trim all of the shoulders because the tablesaw blade left a uneven shoulder.

I got some practice in using my shoulder plane which I don't use much for this. One thing I did right was I avoided blowing out on the exit. I did that by planing from both ends into the middle. Using the sole of the plane I could easily see if my shoulder was straight and hump-less.

very little to saw off on the shoulders

This was one reason why I did not make a knife wall. I sawed the cheeks of the tenon first and that left a very thin piece of wood to be removed. Not much meat there to make a wall in.

little red says it's square

I really don't care if the inside is square at all. I only want these to be square on the outside edges. On this one here I forgot to set the height of the blade to this stock.  It was something I had to do on the others too as they were all different sizes.

stopped here

There 3 are the same width so I only have one setup to make.  I had four of these but I had to toss one because it bowed up into a pretzel shape. I am sure I'll have left over stock from the top and the drawer to make a new 4th.

good nights work

I got six of these done and I have 3 more to knock out tomorrow.  Making my own is way better than paying for them. I think I bought my black ones from Rockler several years ago for $15 ea? I'm not sure, it's been quite a while. Time to go and do some last minute shopping to help out Santa.

accidental woodworker

trivia corner
What national political experience did Abraham Lincoln have before being elected President?
answer - he had been elected to a two year term in the House of Representatives in 1846

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