Cutting my first rabbet into hardwood, any tips for success?

[Chris Lukowski]

I'd want to maximize the bottom side support with screwed and glued on supports. Who's to say someone doesn't try to carry the baby in this nice little basket? It would be a sad day indeed when the bottom let go.

Well my intention is to secure the tray to the dresser via a bracket screwed into the backs of both or some other means, so it's not going anywhere for a while. I'm trying my best not to over-engineer it too. I would have thought a simple tray with a plywood bottom wouldn't have been too complicated.

[Stew Hagerty]

Here's the rule of "Thumb" for using a router... Point the thumb of your right hand (palm down) at the edge you plan on routing then extend your forefinger and that is the direction you need to go.

[Chris Lukowski]

You don't say how you intend to join the corners of this tray.

If you miter the corners, you can pre-cut the rabbets (or grooves) in the sides before assembly--and use the table saw/dado set.

If you use dovetails, or box joints, or butt joints, you have the choice of pre-cutting then filling small spaces with wood plugs, or cutting the rabbet after assembly with the router (as in your original proposal).

You know what? I think I just might do this. I wasn't going to miter the corners originally, thinking I would have an easier time with pocket screws and plugs since the tray would be painted. I didn't even think of how easy it would be to run the dado through my table saw and miter the corners to hide the groove. That would just leave the decision to make it an open bottomed rabbet or a groove with 1/8-1/4" lip at the bottom to help support the board. I could save $250 by not buying the router too! I already have the table saw, dado set, and miter saw. Sweet!

So in addition to letting me know what you think about that, if I go sans-router how should I ease the edges of the boards? I was going to do that with a small roundover bit but honestly I'm not looking for a visible edge profile so much as a uniform-ish softening of the hard edges. Should I just do that with a sanding sponge or ROS? I don't own any planes just yet unless that really is the preferred tool for this sort of thing.

[Pat Barry]

Here's the rule of "Thumb" for using a router... Point the thumb of your right hand (palm down) at the edge you plan on routing then extend your forefinger and that is the direction you need to go.

I need a picture - this doesn't make sense

[Pat Barry]

Well my intention is to secure the tray to the dresser via a bracket screwed into the backs of both or some other means, so it's not going anywhere for a while. I'm trying my best not to over-engineer it too. I would have thought a simple tray with a plywood bottom wouldn't have been too complicated.

If its going to be attached to the dresser, then by all means do what you were thinking. I would feel better still with screws instead of nails and I would glue it to boot.

[Roger Feeley]

I made this for my grandson. Basically you just need a frame to keep the changing pad from sliding off of the top of the dresser. I did it with mitered and splined corners and no bottom at all. I let the dresser top be the bottom. I made the side of the frame that goes on the back side wider so it extends down and can be screwed to the back of the dresser. In my case, I didn't have the dresser at hand so I also made a set of shims so I could move the frame back a bit. When the baby doesn't need the frame anymore, we undo three screws and no one will ever know it was there.

Since I mitered the corners, I knew that the joints would be weak. So I cut splines. I was staining and varnishing and I made more splines than I needed for looks. You are painting so it's even easier. If you miter, I highly recommend splines.

[Jerry Miner]

.... if I go sans-router how should I ease the edges of the boards?

My favorite tool for any particular operation is the tool I already have.

I have several routers, and I usually do round-over operations with a router--- but if I didn't own a router, I would simply use a sanding block or rasp/sanding block combination.

But if you want to use this project to justify investing in a router, by all means go for it!

[Stan Calow]

Apologies if I missed this in the discussion. Is your plywood a true 3/8" or is it nominally 3/8"?

[Lee Schierer]

So just so I'm clear, is the consensus that assembling the rails and routing out the rabbet in a single circular motion on the bottom edges of the boards a bad idea?

You can route the rabbet with the drawer assembled. However, you will end up with round inside corners that you will then need to clean up with a chisel. Using a router requires a certain level of care and a close inspection of each piece of wood. Wood grain generally is not straight where it meets the edge of the board. Sometimes routing in the conventional manner will result in chipping of the wood you hoped would be left after making the cut. Sometimes climb cutting is necessary and is safe as long as you understand the differences in technique that are required when making a climb cut. When climb cutting light cuts and strong control of the router and piece being cut are absolutely essential. The first pass with any router bit on any edge should be a very light cut. Taking a 3/8" cut is asking for major chips or tear out. Taking several more light cuts and ending up with a nice smooth tear out and chip free cut is by far preferable to making one aggressive cut and ending up with a ruined piece of wood.

A better drawer design is to insert the bottom in a dado rather than a rabbet. Drawers made this way are much stronger.

[Chris Lukowski]

Apologies if I missed this in the discussion. Is your plywood a true 3/8" or is it nominally 3/8"?

The plywood itself is standard 1/2" birch, and that would have been the height of the rabbet plus another 1/16" or 1/8" to accommodate for irregularities in the plywood. 3/8" would have been the lateral depth of the rabbet in each 1x4 board, which would be 1/2 way in. Now that you mention it, whether I make an open bottomed rabbet or a dado groove, IS 3/8" the depth into the 1x4 (3/4" actual) that I should be shooting for, or is that too deep?

[Jerry Miner]

3/8" is the typical cut for a rabbetting router bit. If you do the cut on the table saw, 3/8" would work fine.

IIWM, I would probably go a little deeper ( like +/- 1/2"), to make it a little easier to drive the nails without "nail blowout"-- but since you are hand-nailing anyway, and you will need to pre-drill your nail holes, it doesn't matter much.

BTW-- you might find it as easy--and stronger-- to use screws rather than nails.

[Chris Lukowski]

That's funny, I never would have guessed to pre-drill holes for brad nails. If you think predrilling is necessary either way, maybe I will just screw it in. Is there any particular type of screw that should be used? I have a variety of Spax coarse thread construction/wood screws, with perhaps the #6 1.5" ones sounding like a good choice for screwing 1/2" plywood into the edge of a maple 1x4. Would they work well for this or should I look for fine thread?

As for the depth of the rabbet, I could easily go to 1/2". I just didn't want to make it so deep that it weaken the remaining material.

[Jerry Miner]

Your #6 x 1.5 coarse thread would work (with a proper pilot hole/clearance hole/countersink).

The "ideal" screw for me would probably be a #6 x 1 1/4 fine thread, but no harm in using what you've got.

[mark mcfarlane]

... if I go sans-router how should I ease the edges of the boards? I was going to do that with a small roundover bit but honestly I'm not looking for a visible edge profile so much as a uniform-ish softening of the hard edges. Should I just do that with a sanding sponge or ROS? I don't own any planes just yet unless that really is the preferred tool for this sort of thing.

Hand sanding the edges with sandpaper will work fine and will only take a few minutes. If you have a sponge to back the paper thats fine, or use your finger tips. If you want to remove a lot of material start with courser paper, otherwise 120 or 150 will ease these edges fine, then finish up to the same grit as the sides of these rails.

[rudy de haas]

"a few hand hammered brad nails" ?

Is it really possible to hammer a brad in by hand? I know I can't do it...

In your place I'd bite the bullet on this and go all the way out to the corners with the rabbet so I could use the table saw to make them and then clean up the corners after wards.

However.. if you know for sure that you can hammer a brad (or, better, borrow a brad nailer for an hour) then what I did to make router cuts that start and stop in arbitrary places was (note past tense, I have a shaper now ) to clamp the workpiece down with a sacrificial piece of the same thickness beside it and then clamp two strips one router width apart centered on the cut line. Two smaller bits of router width then get clamped in place near the ends half a router width from where I want to start/stop. With that in place, a plunge router lets you start close to one end of the slot, cut to the stop, and then cut all the way to the other stop with no risk of going off the center line. (Note: the surface has to be fairly smooth for this to work well, so plane/sand a bit first).