Widening notches

[Bobby Rullo]

Hi there,

I'm pretty new to woodworking, and use mostly hand tools (I've got a planer, power drill and a circular saw and that's about it as far as powered goes). I'm in the middle of my first 'real' (i.e. not shop tools) project, a bookshelf with long walnut verticals (an adaptation of Fine Woodworking's "Bookshelves in a Day", though it's been more like "Bookshelves over the course of several months aka 28 Dados Later' with my skill-level).

Anyhow as you can see in the picture there are all these notches on the 7ft verticals. Unfortunately, I messed up a bit and need to adjust them a bit - basically widening a few of the so that at least the bottom shelf of the notches lines up with the other vertical's notch. So my question is: what would your technique be to widen these notches very slightly, like 1/16" of an inch or so, depending? For the dado parts, I've been able to use a carcass saw. But that can't work for the notches because it's a back saw. I'm thinking maybe paring chisels (which I don't have yet - tried with regular ones but they're not deep enough....) but would like some advice on how to do it square, make it clean, etc.

Thanks everyone!

Bobby

[Tony Shea]

Scribe a line with a square and sharp marking knife. This is the only way to really get that super straight line to chisel to. If it were me I would mark both sides of the notch and use a chisel. I don't completely understand why the chisels aren't deep enough, unless you are only working from the front edge of the board toward the dado. If you scribe a knife line all the way around exactly where you want your dado you should be able to work from both sides of the board toward the center of the thickness, similar as you would when paring/chopping dovetails. I personally would pare away most of the material and once there is just a sliver left I would drop my chisel right in the knife line and chop away, again working from both sides. Clamp a guide block to reference your chisel on if you'd like but I personally don't bother with this step anymore, it's amazing how well we can see square after training your eye. A very slight undercut wouldn't be bad as this would give you very crisp joint.

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Bobby and welcome to the creek.

There are a few ways to widen your slots. In the absence of paring chisels you might try a light rasp or a file.

You could use your shorter chisels from the side. Cut a little from one side and then from the other to avoid splintering the wood at the edges. For this type of work your chisels need to be as sharp as possible.

One technique for this would be to mark the piece notch for how much needs to be removed. Then it would be easy to chamfer the notch on both sides. after the taking down the excess wood in the center will be a breeze.

jtk

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Do you have the case glued up? If that is the case and you have a rabbet plane or shoulder plane it might be easier to adjust the shelves.

[David Eisenhauer]

I would not use the chisel the "long way" because I would be afraid it would catch some grain and then "dive" into the board off-line. As Tony said, scribe the desired line on both sides of the vertical and then chop/pare it half way from the underneath/back side first, then finish up from the "show" side. A regular bench chisel (maybe 1/2" or so wide?) will work fine here and, as always, sharper is better. Nicholas also has a good suggestion to custom fit the shelves to your existing verticals if that is possible.

[Bobby Rullo]

Thanks everyone! I apologize for disappearing for so long - we have a 3 month old and woodworking just fell of the radar for a while.

There are a few ways to widen your slots. In the absence of paring chisels you might try a light rasp or a file.

You could use your shorter chisels from the side. Cut a little from one side and then from the other to avoid splintering the wood at the edges. For this type of work your chisels need to be as sharp as possible.

The rasp/file idea is interesting - maybe use that to take away the bulk of it, and then chisel to clean it up?

The thing that makes using the chisels here so tricky is that these boards are 7ft long, so I'd have to do it sideways (with the notch vertical in other words) which seems awkward to me.

Clamp a guide block to reference your chisel on if you'd like but I personally don't bother with this step anymore, it's amazing how well we can see square after training your eye. A very slight undercut wouldn't be bad as this would give you very crisp joint.

A guide block is good idea - might make the sideways aspect of things easier to deal with.

Thanks again everyone,

Bobby