Project:    Making Small Clock/Frame Presents

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   It's time to cut a groove for the front panel and a rabbet for the back.
   With the table saw unplugged, Beth inserts the two outside dado blades. This will give her a 1/4" groove.

   With the dado insert in place, she checks to see how smooth the small piece slides over the insert.
   We decided to use some of the same white material to give us a smooth, zero-clearance insert for the 2 blade dado.

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   A couple of clamps are used to hold the large panel in position. The fence has been loosened so that it rides on top of the board.

 With the saw on, she slowly cranks the blade height adjustment until the blade cuts its own 'zero clearance" hole.

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  She clamps one of the router fence boards upside down to use as a "sacrificial" fence for the rabbeting operation.

   Before she makes any cuts, Beth practices the operation. Using two push blocks, as before, would work. But, since we have about 50 pieces to run through twice, we decided to take a few minutes to build a holder that would make handling the small pieces better.

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   Here is the bottom of the MDF portion of the pushblock we used at the router. Beth has positioned the workpiece where it should be held.

   This is the same pushblock with two scraps of wood fastened to hold the workpiece in position. Beth is now adding a small piece of rubber matting to further keep the workpiece from moving.

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   This view shows it ready to be lowered on the workpiece.

      She makes the cuts. It took about 5 minutes to construct the special push pad, but it probably saved that much time, or more, in providing Beth a safer and quicker way to make the 80+ cuts,

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   And there you have both cuts made. The left dado will receive the front panel. The rabbet at the right, will hold the back.

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