- Joined
- Jan 22, 2007
- Messages
- 1,641
Shane, the following content is sketchy, so feel free to move it to another forum. To me, it seemed like it fit here best, but I could be wrong about that.
This weekend I was working on a project of making a pair of granite side tables with my 10-year old son. I'm making one for me, and he is making one for his mom (Christmas). The tops are 1-1/8" solid granite, framed with cherry to conceal the unpolished granite edges. The inside profile of the frame is complex because it has to wrap the top corner of the granite plus have a rabbet for a substrate below the granite. Here is a picture of the frame profile. The small lip conceals the unpolished granite corner, and the rabbet supports the plywood substrate that connects the base with the top.
Even though Domino is not designed for it, whenever I make mortises, I always try to register the position from the finished faces. In this case, I don't have any choice, because the inside surface is not flat. So I needed to rig up my Domino to register from the outside "point" of the mitered frame instead of the normal inside corner.
To do this, I took one of my older Domino Support Brackets (495666) and bolted it to the underside of the Domino fence, using the triangular alignment holes for mounting. I came up with this idea 5 years ago, but didn't implement it until recently. It gives accurate positioning from the "point" (outside corner) of a mitered frame.
To do this, I removed the two thumbscrews from the support bracket and drilled a couple new holes through it that align with the triangular alignment holes in the Domino Fence. Note, I did not modify my Domino to do this! Only the Support Bracket. In effect, this creates a new fence that is 90-degrees to the standard Domino fence.
The drawback is that in this configuration, the Domino sight gauge is too far away from the workpiece to be usable. Also, the lines on the base of my Domino are not accurate. Only the sight gauge is perfectly centered about the mortise position at the level of accuracy I demand of my joints.
I couldn't use pencil lines with the sight gauge, so I needed an external reference edge. Then I realized that the SCG-10 is perfect for this. It will register the sideways position of the tenon from the finished edge of my frame. Moreover, these tenons are not centered on the workpiece. They are offset, closer to the top edge due to the rabbet for the substrate.
Because my son's piece of granite was different from mine, the frames are slightly different too. Notice how the tenons are equal distance from the "points" but not the "blunts" of the miter. Also notice how they are centered about the space for the granite, not across the whole width of the frame.
Here is the final result of the mortising operation. The Support Bracket is registered off the outside face of the frame, and the SCG-10 stop arm is registered off the top edge of the frame. Everything is locked in so tight that the tenon alignment was perfect. The mitered corners were so close to perfect that it took only a couple passes with the ROS sander to flush all of the edges.
The tables aren't finished yet, but if you are curious, here is my table with the granite in place, and my son's base-legs without his granite (he was still sanding the decorative flutes). They are both now ready for lacquer and final assembly. Hopefully I can get that done in the next couple of days.
This weekend I was working on a project of making a pair of granite side tables with my 10-year old son. I'm making one for me, and he is making one for his mom (Christmas). The tops are 1-1/8" solid granite, framed with cherry to conceal the unpolished granite edges. The inside profile of the frame is complex because it has to wrap the top corner of the granite plus have a rabbet for a substrate below the granite. Here is a picture of the frame profile. The small lip conceals the unpolished granite corner, and the rabbet supports the plywood substrate that connects the base with the top.

Even though Domino is not designed for it, whenever I make mortises, I always try to register the position from the finished faces. In this case, I don't have any choice, because the inside surface is not flat. So I needed to rig up my Domino to register from the outside "point" of the mitered frame instead of the normal inside corner.
To do this, I took one of my older Domino Support Brackets (495666) and bolted it to the underside of the Domino fence, using the triangular alignment holes for mounting. I came up with this idea 5 years ago, but didn't implement it until recently. It gives accurate positioning from the "point" (outside corner) of a mitered frame.
To do this, I removed the two thumbscrews from the support bracket and drilled a couple new holes through it that align with the triangular alignment holes in the Domino Fence. Note, I did not modify my Domino to do this! Only the Support Bracket. In effect, this creates a new fence that is 90-degrees to the standard Domino fence.

The drawback is that in this configuration, the Domino sight gauge is too far away from the workpiece to be usable. Also, the lines on the base of my Domino are not accurate. Only the sight gauge is perfectly centered about the mortise position at the level of accuracy I demand of my joints.
I couldn't use pencil lines with the sight gauge, so I needed an external reference edge. Then I realized that the SCG-10 is perfect for this. It will register the sideways position of the tenon from the finished edge of my frame. Moreover, these tenons are not centered on the workpiece. They are offset, closer to the top edge due to the rabbet for the substrate.
Because my son's piece of granite was different from mine, the frames are slightly different too. Notice how the tenons are equal distance from the "points" but not the "blunts" of the miter. Also notice how they are centered about the space for the granite, not across the whole width of the frame.

Here is the final result of the mortising operation. The Support Bracket is registered off the outside face of the frame, and the SCG-10 stop arm is registered off the top edge of the frame. Everything is locked in so tight that the tenon alignment was perfect. The mitered corners were so close to perfect that it took only a couple passes with the ROS sander to flush all of the edges.

The tables aren't finished yet, but if you are curious, here is my table with the granite in place, and my son's base-legs without his granite (he was still sanding the decorative flutes). They are both now ready for lacquer and final assembly. Hopefully I can get that done in the next couple of days.
