After at least three weekends of no action on the Teardrop there was a decent desire to actually get something done. To that end both Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend were dedicated to the cause.
The next step in construction was going to be building both the front and rear shelving units given that both these need to be complete with some parts varnished before the roof goes on. These units are built out of 12 and 18mm Paulownia plywood to save weight.
First step then was to purchase a sheet of 18mm MDF and mount the larger router upside down on it. Given that most of the joints are shouldered dados it made sense to create a jig which would allow us to rip a 6mm square section out of one end of one piece of the joint to create the tongue whilst a 6mm router bit in a laminate trimmer with guide allowed us to create the dados in the other.
The fence at the back is designed to angle in and out to allow different cut depths, the handy black depth gauge at the back of the show made it really easy to get both the height of the router as well as the angle of the guide set to get the desired cut
From here it was a case of interpreting the intent of the imperial plans and converting that to work with the metric materials. Pieces were cut and test fitted to build up the cabinetry, then assembled into smaller sub assemblies before all being glued up together at the end of the day.
Front shelving at end of Saturday
Front shelving sub unit mid-day Sunday
Front shelving end of Sunday
Rear shelving ready for glue-up
There are a few more pieces that need two be glued onto the front set of shelves and then that will be finished. I’m hoping to be able to get those on this week and then start gluing up the rear shelves next weekend. Initially there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to working out where to cut all the joints to not only hide the ends of the dados but also end up with a strong joint but hopefully cutting our teeth on the less complex front unit will put us in a good position to tackle the rear unit.
