# Desk for Daughter's Room



## scott lindsay (Jun 22, 2010)

I am making a desk for my daughter's room out of 3/4" plywood for the sides and 1/2" plywood for the shelving. I was cutting down 30" x 60" sheets of plywood down to 30 x 39" plywood using the Kreg Accu-Cut guide. For the most part this tool is pretty good yet there are some issues. The guide on the bottom to help lineup the guide to be right angle cut sometime is not totally in place for that perfect 90° cut. I have one board that at one corner is 39" but it slope up to the opposite end to a rise of close to 1/8" to 3/16". See photo, the third board is taller than the rest. I would have used my table saw but I can only cut 23" wide comfortably and not enough room on the other side for overhang. I work in a tight spaced area. Any idea on the best way to level it out to match the other 3 boards? Is using a palm sander with 80 grit the best way to reduce this extra height or is there a better way? I am not sure of I am confident with lining up the Kreg Accu-Cut and try using the circular saw. If I screw up then I will not get the height for the desk I want. Any ideas or suggestions?


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

scott67 said:


> I am making a desk for my daughter's room out of 3/4" plywood for the sides and 1/2" plywood for the shelving.
> 
> 
> I was cutting down 30" x 60" sheets of plywood down to 30 x 39" plywood using the Kreg Accu-Cut guide. For the most part this tool is pretty good yet there are some issues. The guide on the bottom to help lineup the guide to be right angle cut sometime is not totally in place for that perfect 90° cut. I have one board that at one corner is 39" but it slope up to the opposite end to a rise of close to 1/8" to 3/16". See photo, the third board is taller than the rest.
> ...



First we could use more information on your design. Overall dimensions and type of construction would be important. Please sketch what the desk is going to look like.



I assume that you are making some type of framework for the overall desk. I would use the 1/2" plywood for the fill on this framework and the 3/4" for the shelves.


I know nothing about the Kreg guide, but any good straight edge clamped to the plywood is a perfectly good guile for a circular saw.


George


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

the 'guides' will cut things as straight as they are 'mounted' - they have no special powers to prevent one from sawing things crooked.


when I need stuff to be identical I cut the "blanks" a bit over size, then - for free hand sawing - clamp them together and trim both pieces to final size in one pass. using a sled on the table saw also works - stack up the pieces and cut in one pass.... always measure the diagonals to check for layout squareness.


rejigger the dimension and square up the two pieces together. you won't miss 1/4" on the height. if you're going to to do leveling feet, make the feet blocks at tad bigger if needed.


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## scott lindsay (Jun 22, 2010)

GeorgeC said:


> First we could use more information on your design. Overall dimensions and type of construction would be important. Please sketch what the desk is going to look like.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



George, I will post a sketch of it soon. The basic construction is two outside cabinets similar to kitchen cabinets then on top would be two layers of 1/2" plywood. The cabinet sizes are 39" tall 16" wide and 18" deep. Then I was placing them 22" to 24" a part. The side support for each is 3/4" plywood, all plywood is Baltic Birch. 


Come to find out after rough cutting the plywood, the not so square end was actually squared up because I had to do another fine tuning ripping cut on the table saw. The Kreg guide works pretty good however the beginning part of the guide which is supposed to make everything square to the edge is not always square. They really need to fix that. You get a nice straight cut but it is not square when that one piece is even 1° to 2° off.


My issue now is in previous projects I would put in my stack dadoe blade and cut the dadoes. I would always get chip out. I watch videos and TV shows and their dadoes come out nice with zero chip out but for me I get real ugly chip outs. So this time I took someone suggestions and marked my dadoes and lower my 40 tooth combination blade at 3/8" deep cut and cut the outer limits of each place I needed a dadoe. Then put in my tacked dadoe blade and cut out my dadoes. It worked very nice except the deep of the cut was not quite exact so my shelves are slightly off. I am actually going to use screws for holding it together since I do not have a brad nailer gun. I still think everything will be okay.


-Scott


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## scott lindsay (Jun 22, 2010)

TomCT2 said:


> the 'guides' will cut things as straight as they are 'mounted' - they have no special powers to prevent one from sawing things crooked.
> 
> 
> when I need stuff to be identical I cut the "blanks" a bit over size, then - for free hand sawing - clamp them together and trim both pieces to final size in one pass. using a sled on the table saw also works - stack up the pieces and cut in one pass.... always measure the diagonals to check for layout squareness.
> ...


I have used the Kreg guide a couple of times. They say the blue pad is good enough to not have to use clamps, not that there is any place to put clamps even if you wanted to. I have had the guide move on me a couple of times plus if you want exactly a 36" panel cut you need to make sure you line the guide up on the waste side of your mark or you need to add an additional 1/8" blade thickness. I know 1/8" will not do much if you want to be a perfectionist then it does. I am just starting with this woodworking/cabinet/furniture making with no one to help except for some Woodsmith Shop videos and this forum. 


I think because I need to trim the width of the boards I was able to actually cut of the non-square section.


I tried making a cross cut sled and all three times it came out disastrous. The overall construction was really good however I could never get it align like in the videos of Woodwhisper or William Ng on You Tube. Even a woman with zero experience on You Tube was able to make one and after a couple of adjustments make a squared cross-cut sled. I made three and each time I tried making little adjustments it got worse and used up all the space I could use for screwing in new positions. My wife keeps saying try it again, yet I only have some much money.


I made a nice zero clearance tablesaw plate however, my blade does not retract down far enough to put the pate in and move over my fence to raise up the blade through it. I have a 10" saw blade and I need to get a 7" blade to get the cut started. I have not bought a blade yet knowing that I may never use it again because my tablesaw is for a 10" blade.


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

well, we'll see if I can get this posted . . .

I set up my sled using a framing square - tack on end of the stop with a finishing nail, adjust the loose end, then glue&clamp it. found out the framing sqaure was off and had to reglue it! works and you can get very accurate with it. the five panel cut method amplifies the error - making it easier to see/measure/correct.

the 'fixed' sled has an obvious drawback - so I eventually bought the Rockler sled, which allows for angles and is easily reset to 90'. I use them both - the homespun where I need to fasten/jig something as it is inexpensive to remake if it gets too beat up.


as for the cutting issue - clamping the pcs together is more intended to cut both in one pass thereby ensuring the dimension is the same. it is possible to cut them both crooked - been there, done that . . .

for you zero clearance insert - mark the top of blade arc on the underside - you can use a spade bit to reduce the thickness enough to fit it with the blade down; it's a theory...

here's the framing square method - do the a squared plus b squared = hypotenuse squared math to be sure the frame square is really square. I set most of my shop up, then discovered the old one I had wasn't square. slide the sled along a single tooth to adjust the backstop... get the same ting-ting-ting sound as the tooth just touches the square....


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## scott lindsay (Jun 22, 2010)

TomCT2 said:


> well, we'll see if I can get this posted . . .
> 
> I set up my sled using a framing square - tack on end of the stop with a finishing nail, adjust the loose end, then glue&clamp it. found out the framing sqaure was off and had to reglue it! works and you can get very accurate with it. the five panel cut method amplifies the error - making it easier to see/measure/correct.
> 
> ...


Tomct2, I also used a framing square, I actually used 3 different types 3 different times and still my cuts were .05" to .08" off. I checked the squares of my blade to my fence and it was dead on. I would align it with the cut in the sled and it still I never got it right. Right now, I have a bottom of a sled that is the best one I made yet and am afraid of putting a fence on it because I really do not want to screw it up.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Are you setting up/checking a table saw or a miter saw? If a miter saw then this statement (" I checked the squares of my blade to my fence and it was dead on") is OK. If a table saw then incorrect. On a table saw the fence would impossible to get square to the blade. On a table saw the blade and fence are supposed to be parallel.


George


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