A quick jig for making tenons

I need a quick tenoning jig, and will resist the urge to get the nice one at BusyBee tools. Instead, I'll cobble a couple pieces of MDF wasting away in the shop and put them together like this.

The bare minimum to cut tenons for some pieces in the TV stand project.

This will insert into the sled that I've made today, and will clamp to the edges of the sled as well. I'd like to make a better jig in the future, but for now I'll focuss on getting the actual project underway and worry about a versatile design later. I wish this wasn't going to be made with MDF... but hey, let's think pragmatically.

A day later...

The actual jig... minus a few parts.

I did not enjoy working with MDF: the dust is a annoyance but the worst is that it clogged up the drill bit after every pilot hole drilled. Only after a while, I tried a masonry drill bit and solved the clogging problem.  I skimped on one support and one of the wing since neither proved to be necessary to get the job done.

A table for the tablesaw II

There is nothing like the doggiest day of summer to get for building something. As the apparent temperature raised to 40 Celsius, I went from this:

Enough for both the table and the workbench

To this (sketches here):

Not much to look at, but now I can safely
use the tablesaw for small cuts.

This is not going to be making it to the reader's gallery on finewoodworking.com, but it is strong enough to be used as a step latter if I choose to. I still need to fit a shelf on the lower part, and probably a set of wheels to make it easier to push around when I setup/teardown.

Lesson learned: spruce in the 2X4 stock isn't very good and it makes it unmotivating to do a good job with it. But hey, it sure beats the sad quality of end-joined spruce in the 2X3 stock.  But when push comes to shove, I'd rather spend time and money on other things than this piece of utility furniture. Mmm, oh yes, I don't know how I feel about MDF either (which is what I used for the horizontal surfaces), but it's cheap and does the job.

A table for the tablesaw

Alright, I got myself a tablesaw. It is a small jobsite one with the rationale that it can be stowed away when needed (I've got a very small area to dedicate to the shop). The bad news is that, in order to operate it safely, I will need to build a table for it. It isn't so much a bad news, but rather that I'd prefer trying my hand with dovetailing on a nice piece of hardwood...

Problem

I need to take the top of the tablesaw to waist height, or 31". I will build a matching workbench which can be also used as an outfeed table. Here are the constraints:

1. Must be cheap (no fancy hardwood structure here): I prefer to keep my scarce money for a bandsaw, a jointer and a planer for the moment.
2. Must be solid: no vibrations nor wobble that would make operating the saw dangerous.
3. Should have a bit of storage underneath.

Design

The design of this table is very simple: It will be made with framing spruce in the 2"X4" and 2"X2" stocks. The traversal section are made of 2"X4", mounted atop of the legs to ensure very solid joints. The Table top and lower shelf are made of 3/4" plywood.  The L-shaped legs will be both light but sturdy and match the legs on the workbench (to maximize the clamping area near the corners). I plan to make dowels as I go from rounded rods of lumber, although I think that I'll have to use lots of screws to tighten the whole thing.

The diagram doesn't have dimensions on it for two reasons: Inkscape doesn't have a measuring tool, and most measures have to be made on the go (especially with rough lumber such as spruce), which makes keeping track of precise dimensions futile. The only important measure here that isn't going to change is that the top of the tablesaw (13 1/4" height) must fit slightly above at 31": so the legs and tabletop together must add up to 17 3/4". The distance between the bolting holes is also fixed by the dimensions of the table (18" frontage, 20" depth).

Hopefully, I'll get the lumber tomorrow and get cracking on this project: I've got some tenons to make for my pair of desktop shelves to match the desks that I recently completed.