6. It is often easier to assemble upside down

[Sean]

[back to the list]

I am going to jump ahead to #6 as Kim C commented that my choice of wording was unclear.

Also, perhaps I should have titled all of this as Sean's Newbie Rules

My second Kreg project was a set of CD shelves. Yes, I still have all my CD's, a lot of them. All of the shelves that were out there were combination DVD/CD shelves which meant they were not space efficient. After years of looking, I could find nothing to buy that fit my needs, so by rule #1, this was perfect for a Kreg project!

I designed the shelves so that they would be tight, less than 6 inches apart. I had planned to place one of the sides on the ground, attach shelves to it, place the other side on top, and then fasten the shelves to it. I had also planned to assemble and attach the base first as it was the most stable piece in my design.

I pondered though, how am I going to get between these shelves to fasten them in place? I cannot fit the square drive and my cordless drill between such narrow shelves. I did a lot of planning and was prepared to buy an offset cordless screw driver and a smaller square drive when it suddenly occurred to me that if I started with the top shelf and worked down, I would always have lots of room.

I placed the side piece on the ground, attached the top shelf, turned this such that both pieces were on edge, then attached the other side. I added a few shelves until it was stable enough to turn this upside down, so the top shelf was on the ground. The rest was easy.

For experienced Kreg users, this may be obvious, as it is to me in hindsight. But, as a newbie, on my second project, in foresight, this was not clear to me. It is just different than what I would do with biscuits or dowel joints or dadoes. In fact, with other construction techniques, there is no way to do what I described doing with Kreg joinery.

I hope that this rule saves someone time and purchase of equipment.

Sean

[back to the list]