It’s been a while since I’ve had a shop of my own. While I was in college I lived out of my families cabin in northern MN where I setup a basic shop. That was the last time I could truly call a space my own. From MN my wife and I moved to NY and I worked out of two separate shared shops, and now here in Tokyo I’m in another shared space. I’ve also spent a fair amount of time working for other woodworkers and carpenters usually out of their own workshops.
As much as I long for my own space I’ve really learned a lot by working in a variety of different shops and with different people. Not only is it a great opportunity to see how other people approach work and their own unique techniques and methods, but it also teaches you to be flexible in your own approach to work. Sometimes you find yourself in a space lacking certain tools, or sometimes the person you’re working with has a completely different way of making things.
Carpentry in particular seems to demand a certain level of flexibility as you alternate between working in an orderly well equipped shop and site work which tends to be more chaotic and lacking in tools and space.
A couple weeks back I went down to Okayama to use Somakosha’s shop for a project that was too large for me to handle here in Tokyo. The job involved making two suspended ceilings composed of simple slats of wood spaced apart for light to flow through. There were some 200 slats total for both ceilings and they all needed a special beveled profile on the outside face.
There are a lot of ways to cut a bevel on a piece of wood. For 45 degree bevels (chamfers) the router table works well. The table saw also is great and gives you much more flexibility in terms of angle. A shaper with tilting head could also work if available. There are lots of options depending on what machines you have available. For this project my plan was to cut the bevels with the table saw since one of the bevels was 45 degrees but the other was closer to 64 degrees. The table saw seemed like the best option especially for that odd 64 degree angle.
Then I mentioned my plan to my friend Yama-san, who was helping me out with this project, and he recommended using the groover for cutting the bevels; a method he often uses in carpentry work. So he went ahead and set up two groovers, one for cutting 45 degree bevel and another for the 64 degree bevel.
The setup is simple and looks a bit crude, but it’s really effective. Essentially a base is made for the groover which guides the wood over the cutter at the correct angle. The wood base is screwed to the groovers adjustable fence, and screws are also driven through the base into the wood blocking that is resting on the saw horses. From there a we used clamps to lock down the blocking, and a couple of extra clamps to hold the groovers in place for added assurance.
Below is the groover setup for a 45 degree bevel.
And here is the second groover setup for the 64 degree bevel.
Here you can see the pair up hanging groovers from below.
Yama-san ran a few test cuts and adjusted the depth for each groover. Then it was time to make some noise and chips.
The following video shows the whole process in action.
I started with the 45 degree cut, and here’s how the profile of the slats started to look.
Here are all the hinoki slats complete with 45 degree bevel.
And here are the slats after milling the 64 degree bevel.
The sheer quantity of chips from all that milling is pretty amazing.
All in all this process worked out pretty well. Working through all the slats took me the better part of a day to complete, but in the end I’m glad we went this way versus using the table saw. This approach makes it easier to get a really even surface since you are pressing down against the guide block of the groover, which prevents overcutting. I also found that this approach was more forgiving when it came to slats that had a slight bit of bow, since any curvature could be pressed out towards the base of the groover.
In woodworking there are often many ways to approach a given task, and this was a new one for me. A huge part of woodworking and carpentry is problem solving, and I feel like the more tools/techniques/methods that you can draw from the more efficient and more adaptable you can be in a variety of situations.
Thanks for reading
-Jon
Makes so much sense!
Pretty slick. A motorized mentori kanna! I suppose that would work with a small electric plane as well as the groover.
Yeah I think that would probably work too. There actually is a stationary machine here in Japan that works in a similar way. Basically it’s like a jointer with adjustable v-shaped guides/fences similar to what we used here with the groovers.