Day 2 - Cutting the skirt top and bottom

(Originally posted on July 6th, 2013)

I unpacked and read the manuals for both the jigsaw and the Skilsaw that I bought, and watched many, many YouTube videos on how to cut straight lines with both.  Given that is was a beautiful day in Seattle today, I decided to work outside instead of in my garage!  (Ah, the one week per year where the weather is delightful!)

On a spare piece of plywood, I practiced cutting with the Skilsaw, which also provided me with a ~3" piece of wood I could use to guide the saw's foot to make straight line cuts.

To make these straight line cuts, I learned that one must take into account the offset between the blade and the edge of the saw's foot.  For the Skilsaw, it was about 3.95cm (I decided to stick with metric, makes more sense to me, I guess).  I then took a makeshift T-square (two metal rulers perpendicular to each other) and drew additional guide lines to where I would place my guide board.

Taking a tip from Adam S's build diary I bought about 8 clamps and used a few of them to secure the guide board to the uncut plywood skirt, re-applying the board and clamps for each angle.  After what seemed like a long time, the bottom was complete, and I was very satisfied with the result!

Next, I drilled holes just above each angle of the inner skirt top lines for eventual placement of the jigsaw blade.  I learned that plywood hates my drill.  But the holes would suffice.

I tested out the jigsaw using its default blade on a spare piece of plywood, and the results were a splintery mess.  I had a thinner blade with finer teeth that also came with it, and the result of that cut is on the second image.  It was much less splintery, so I went with that one.

As with the Skilsaw, I took into account the offset between the blade and the foot (this one about 3.2cm), and drew new guide lines for the inner skirt top.

Tragedy!  As you can see, the jigsaw did not follow my line at all, cutting deep into the intended skirt top!  Aaaaargh.  At first, I thought it was because my guide lines were off, but then I noticed that the grain (multigrain?) of the plywood was forcing the thinner blade to curve while it cut.  Dismayed, I considered scrapping it and starting with a fresh piece of plywood (or thick MDF) tomorrow, but I decided I would continue, and just glue in a wedge later to correct the difference.  I also switched back to the thicker, coarser blade, splinters or no splinters.

After a rough go with the jigsaw, I finally completed the top piece, and I'm not too displeased with the result.

However, I need to rethink how I want to cut the HDF panels now.  I had fully intended to use the jigsaw on them using the finer blade, but now I'm not so sure.  It could be that the thinner, less grainy nature of the HDF will be fine with the blade, so I'll test that out tomorrow.  Alternatively, I could return to the Skilsaw, though that seems like overkill.  Or, I could go back to Lowe's and see if they have a thin yet sturdier blade.  I'll test it all out on the morrow.

New tally of expenses:

Previous balance: $192.02

Tools:
1 - 36" metal yard stick: $2.98
1 - Safety kit (goggles, mask, earplugs): $6.87
1 - 7 1/4 fine-tooth circular saw blade: $19.98
1 - 12" combo square: $9.98
8 - 2" x 4" clamps: $39.84
1 - Nitrile-coated gloves: $3.98
1 - 9" standard caulking gun: $2.67
Sub-total: $86.30

Materials:
1 - 10oz all-purpose polyurethane adhesive: $4.67
Sub-total: $4.67

Grand total: $90.97

Total to date: $282.99

TL;DR - I'm (mostly) quite pleased with the results of the skirt top and bottom!  Happy building, everyone!