LottoBooth3

Lottery/Photo drop booth Page 3
Also: Cutting across the grain in plywood.

5/03

My customer wants to add a "Film Drop Slot" to this cabinet. TO do this I will need to cut a square hole in the top. Yes stuff like this makes me nervous, since plywood loves to splinter!

The first step is to layout the exact size of your hole and run a drill into each corner. Make sure you keep the drill inside the line a bit.
Next, take a sharp razor knife and score across the grain. Keep about 1/4" away from the corners and use a straightedge!

Use your jigsaw with a fine tooth blade (to minimize splitting) and connect the holes, but stay away from the lines you scored before, this is just a rough cut. I like to put painters tape on the bottom of my jigsaw, to help prevent scratching.

Now comes the fun part. Chuck a straight cutting bit in your router. (This one has a bearing but I won't be using the bearing to guide the bit.) Measure the distance between the cutting edge and the edge of the router base, mine is just under 2-3/4".

Now make a jig for the base of the router to run against. The distance between the jig and your scored lines should be equal to the distance between the bit end base edge you measured earlier.

Sorry, no pics while I'm routeing the hole, I need both hands on my router. Here you can see the very clean cut on the edge grain of the plywood. Also, remember earlier when I told you not to score the plywood into the corners? This is why, the router bit leaves a radius in the corners. I didn't think of this and had plenty of sanding to do.

On to Page 4 for the Finished pics and plans!

Back to page 1

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	My customer wants to add a "Film Drop Slot" to this cabinet. TO do this I will need to cut a square hole in the top. Yes stuff like this makes me nervous, since plywood loves to splinter!
	The first step is to layout the exact size of your hole and run a drill into each corner. Make sure you keep the drill inside the line a bit. Next, take a sharp razor knife and score across the grain. Keep about 1/4" away from the corners and use a straightedge!
	Use your jigsaw with a fine tooth blade (to minimize splitting) and connect the holes, but stay away from the lines you scored before, this is just a rough cut. I like to put painters tape on the bottom of my jigsaw, to help prevent scratching.
	Now comes the fun part. Chuck a straight cutting bit in your router. (This one has a bearing but I won't be using the bearing to guide the bit.) Measure the distance between the cutting edge and the edge of the router base, mine is just under 2-3/4".
	Now make a jig for the base of the router to run against. The distance between the jig and your scored lines should be equal to the distance between the bit end base edge you measured earlier.
	Sorry, no pics while I'm routeing the hole, I need both hands on my router. Here you can see the very clean cut on the edge grain of the plywood. Also, remember earlier when I told you not to score the plywood into the corners? This is why, the router bit leaves a radius in the corners. I didn't think of this and had plenty of sanding to do.
	On to Page 4 for the Finished pics and plans!
	Back to page 1