glenn bradley
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I have reached that brief but joyful place where I have drawers that have little to nothing in them. They are this way since I cannot decide exactly what I am going to use them for. To avoid 'analysis unto paralysis' syndrome, I needed an easy, temporary method of trying things out. I salvaged the ply back off of a really old bookcase. It has been laying around waiting to be useful.
I ripped the skinny 3/16" ply onto 1" strips.
I add a sacrificial fence to the sled . . . yes I have an i-Box but, this sort of thing is outside its design parameters. No matter, this method is quick and reliable.
Set the blade to a smidge over half an inch in height and make a cut in the sac-fence. Slide the sac-fence over the amount you want between slots, clamp it down and add a "key". In this case I am using a setup bar from Lee Valley but any piece of scrap will do.
.
I am going to do about 4 at a time so I even up the ends and tape them into a bundle. I make the first cut about 1/4" from the end. Then I slide over enough to widen the slot to fit the stock; this becomes my initial reference slot.
. .
Place the initial slot over the key and reference the right side of the key (viewed from the operator's position), make a cut, slide the bundle over a smidge to reference the left side of the key and complete the slot.
Do this till you run out of material and you get these.
Now you can cut them to whatever length you need and move things around, changing easily till things stay put for awhile . . . "awhile" is however long it takes you to decide that the organizer's compartments are the right shape and so forth.
Once you are sure you are happy, you can make a permanent organizer or just use the temporary ones if they are stout enough for the job. If the temp strips are going to stay I cut out a piece of shelf liner, double tape it to the drawer bottom and drop the organizer back in. If I decide I want to reorganize I just reuse or toss the strips since the material was free and I made a bunch of them in just a few minutes.
I ripped the skinny 3/16" ply onto 1" strips.
I add a sacrificial fence to the sled . . . yes I have an i-Box but, this sort of thing is outside its design parameters. No matter, this method is quick and reliable.
Set the blade to a smidge over half an inch in height and make a cut in the sac-fence. Slide the sac-fence over the amount you want between slots, clamp it down and add a "key". In this case I am using a setup bar from Lee Valley but any piece of scrap will do.
.
I am going to do about 4 at a time so I even up the ends and tape them into a bundle. I make the first cut about 1/4" from the end. Then I slide over enough to widen the slot to fit the stock; this becomes my initial reference slot.
. .
Place the initial slot over the key and reference the right side of the key (viewed from the operator's position), make a cut, slide the bundle over a smidge to reference the left side of the key and complete the slot.
Do this till you run out of material and you get these.
Now you can cut them to whatever length you need and move things around, changing easily till things stay put for awhile . . . "awhile" is however long it takes you to decide that the organizer's compartments are the right shape and so forth.
Once you are sure you are happy, you can make a permanent organizer or just use the temporary ones if they are stout enough for the job. If the temp strips are going to stay I cut out a piece of shelf liner, double tape it to the drawer bottom and drop the organizer back in. If I decide I want to reorganize I just reuse or toss the strips since the material was free and I made a bunch of them in just a few minutes.
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