SKILL SET

By Carter Swift

Wood lovers might love the unique “Old West” accents that Randy Stephenson of Cropwell, Alabama, made from rough-cut lumber for a

cowboy-theme room at his home. By incorporating the exposed wood grain and natural live edges into the baseboards, ceiling molding, and door and window casing, he gave the room an old-timey feel which he enhanced with a pair of batwing-style saloon doors. "My wife Donna came up with the design of the room," explains Stephenson. "She is the brains, and I'm just the grunt."

Enclosing a closet, the saloon doors were comprised of edge-joined boards enclosed by a four-piece rail-and-stile frame. To give the doors their batwing shape, the top rails were constructed with a mirrored swoop on each side, which Stephenson cut from solid pine with a jigsaw.

The door panels were made of individual rough-cut boards, and Stephenson first trued their edges on a table saw to ensure a tight fit to the joints. A feather-board makes a handy table saw accessory that applies pressure across the work-piece and against the fence, so the board is held in place and the cut-line maintains alignment with the blade.

To assemble the doors, Stephenson first used a router to cut dadoes (grooves) along the inner edges of the rails and stiles, which encased the panel edges like a picture frame and concealed the end joints. To fasten the panels, wood glue was applied to all mating faces of the corner joints, and the entire construction was clamped together, then strengthened with trim-head screws.

Tool Tip: Quality trim-head screws such as the Fine Screws from U2 Fasteners have self-drilling tips and aggressive threads that draw joints tightly together. When countersunk, the small screw heads leave a tiny hole similar to a nail head, which is easy to conceal with wood filler. H

Editor's Note: Randy Stephenson is a professional remodeling contractor in central Alabama, who can be reached by email at handyrandyco@yahoo.com.

For the tightest fit between the edge-joined boards, Randy Stephenson first squared up the sides of the 1x boards using a table saw and feather-board accessory to maintain cutting accuracy. Once the sides were true, the edges were joined to assemble the door panels and wall paneling.

The top rails of the batwing saloon doors each had a mirror-image decorative swoop cut with a jigsaw from solid 2x12 boards.

Stephenson routed a dado along the inside center of the 2x rails and stiles to conceal the end-joints of the door panels. He then cut the stiles and rails of the door frames to length.

The frames and door panels were assembled with clamps and fastened using wood glue and trim-head screws.

HOW TO CUT BOARDS TRUE AND SQUARE USING A TABLE SAW

Rough-sawn lumber often needs to be squared up to construct everything from doors, trim, wall cladding, and flooring to tables, countertops and window shutters. Even if one face is left with its natural live-edge shape as a decorative accent, the opposite edge should be squared with straight, true corners if the board is to join correctly to any other workpiece. Avid woodworkers might use a jointer to square board edges, but a table saw can also get the job done. 1. Decide whether at least one long edge of your board is straight and flat. If it is, then align the straight edge with the table saw’s rip fence. Make sure the blade is set to 90-degrees, then push the workpiece into the blade to cut off the rough side, removing only enough material to straighten the board’s edge.

If neither edge of your workpiece is straight, you must create a straight edge using your table saw. 2. Select a scrap piece of 3/4-inch plywood that is 1- to 2-inches wider than the width of your board and is at least as long as your board. Make sure the plywood has one straight edge. This edge will ride against the table saw’s rip fence while the plywood serves as a sled for ripping the workpiece edge straight. (Ripping is cutting a board lengthwise in the same direction as the grain.) 3. Position the workpiece on the plywood sled so the edge to be ripped is facing the table saw blade, and the straight edge of the plywood is flush with the rip fence. Attach the board to the plywood sled using two wood screws located safely away from the blade.

4. Adjust the rip fence so that the sled/board combination will push through the blade, trimming off any defects while straightening the edge of workpiece. 5. While wearing safety glasses, make the cut and use a push stick to guide the material past the blade.

6. One edge of the board should now be perfectly straight. The workpiece can be flipped around to align the straight edge with the rip fence to square up the opposite side.

7. Repeat the process for all board faces that are out of square. 8. For short workpieces, the square ends of the boards can be aligned snugly against the table saw’s miter gauge and passed through the blade to square the edges. Long workpieces have a tendency to misalign when cross-cut with a table saw. Longer boards will get a more accurate cross-cut from a miter saw or a handheld circular saw guided by a Speed Square.