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by
Dave Boulton
photo: Mark Burstyn
illustration: Len Churchill |
BOOT BATH |
Keep
garden mud out of your house with
this simple grate for rinsing off your boots |
Cleaning
garden mud from your boots is a tedious task that can be made
easy with this handy boot-washing grate. Keep the grate outside,
near your door—it’ll be poised for the mud-footed
to stand on and hose dirt off without standing in the runoff,
because the sluice drains through the grating. Even when your
boots don’t require a bath, leave the grate just outside
the door so you can wipe off debris on the way inside.
To complete your grate, you need 12 pieces of 3/4" x 11/2"
stock cut 12" long. While I used pine, you could select
pressure-treated wood or even a species that’s naturally
resilient to the elements, such as teak. Due to the number of
lap joints involved, these pieces should be free of twists and
warping, so buy straight stock.
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| Give
mud the boot at the end of a long day of gardening
using this easy project |
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I machined my parts from scrap 1x2 rough pine, then planed it
down to the right width and thickness. When you have your stock
cut to these dimensions, cross cut the material to 12"
long. Set up a stop block on a compound mitre saw to regulate
length and you’ll get consistent part sizes without remeasuring.
You could achieve the same consistency using your tablesaw with
a stop block attached to an auxiliary mitre fence.
While you’re sawing, cut a few spare pieces: you will
need at least one for trial cuts later on, and it doesn’t
hurt to have a couple of extras on hand in case a part needs
to be substituted because of a building error. Consistency is
important, even with spares, so plan on fully completing each
operation before changing your set-up for the next phase of
work.
Saddle Up
This project uses notches to connect the grate. To ensure consistent
results, I used a finger-joint jig with my tablesaw (see April
2005, “In Good Hands,” p. 20) to complete all the
notch cuts. The work goes best with a 3/4"-dado blade installed
in your saw. Make a trial cut in a piece of scrap and test the
fit with the parts you cut earlier. They should fit snugly,
but not so tight as to require a mallet to force the pieces
together. Make any adjustments to your dado blade thickness
and height, possibly with some additional shims, until you are
satisfied with the results.
Next, turn your attention to the finger-joint jig. The spacing
between notch cuts is 11/2". The spacing between the jig
pin and the blade is crucial. Make your first cut at the edge
of one rail, so the pin isn’t involved. In other words,
you’re making a 3/4" x 3/4" notch in the end
of the rail. Now move your workpiece over so it straddles the
pin, then make your next cut. If the jig is adjusted properly,
this cut will be 11/2" from the inside edge of the first
one. Continue until you have all six cuts completed: four in
the middle and one on each end.
Repeat on the remaining 11 rails, plus a few spares. All rails
are exactly the same—their positions are interchangeable.
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1 | PART 2 |
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