My partner and I want to make a plant stand, one of those things kind of like a stepladder with two or three shelves for plants. We have decided the measurements. We’ve bought a pine board (18mm thick) that has a brushed finish. The shop cut it into 41cm lengths, but now we need to take the final centimetre off and cut down about 5-10cm off the other side to bring it down to our desired size of 40cm x 40cm.

How do we do that? How do you cut down to a straight line? The tools (that I think are most relevant anyway, we have a pretty decent home maintenance toolkit of spanners and screwdrivers etc.) we have are:

-large rip saw,

-basic router,

-2 or 3 chisels,

-small hack saw.

Should I cut as close as as possible with the rip saw and then use a straight bit in the router? I am not sure that the guide on the router will be long enough to reach across ~40cm of board to brace against the far edge. If I’m barking up the wrong tree and need to get some other tool, please do let me know. We’re on a tight budget but if it’s a tool that we will use repeatedly, we can probably afford a budget version of it.

Thank you in advance :)

  • Ugly Bob@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    If you insist on that set of tools:

    1. Scribe the line you want to cut with a sharp knife (or chisel)
    2. Use a sharp chisel to make a 5-10mm shallow v cut on the waste side to the base of the knife marking. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iQ1-kuQ1qY)
    3. Saw on the waste side of the line with the rip saw. Go slow and don’t try to muscle it. Long strokes. Focus on keeping to the line.
    • V4ty6BybVXjr@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for the video. I know the set of tools is sub-optimal, so I appreciate you offering a way to make it work.

      We’re going to buy a drill in the near future. Do you think that is a useful priority? I think an orbital sander would be useful too. We don’t have a workshop space, so we can’t get tabletop tools, if that makes sense.

      • spauldo@lemmy.mlEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Drills and sanders are useful for almost any woodworking project (and many non-woodworking projects), and they don’t take up a ton of space, so you get a lot of bang for your buck there.

        You can sand by hand, of course. But pretty much everyone hates sanding. Spend an hour doing it and ask yourself if the $20 for a used sander is worth it.

        Drills are basic necessities in the home toolkit.

        (Edit: typo)