Shopmade screw blocks – FineWoodworking

“It’s the small print that assist outline a bit.” I recall this being mentioned early on after I was studying to design and make furnishings at Parnham Faculty in Dorset, England. I’ve stored that notion shut, and these screw blocks are a good instance of the place it may possibly lead—even when the specific particulars in query are unlikely to be seen besides by probably the most curious. 

After I made these blocks to connect the solid-wood high to a eating desk (“English-Impressed Trestle Desk,” FWW #310) I used to be aiming for the blocks’ form to be in sympathy with the design of the corbels that act to stiffen the connection of the foot and the brace to the trestle’s submit. It’s an instance of echoing the total design even within the smallest of the way.

On a trestle desk, my most well-liked methodology for attaching the bottom to the highest is to make use of screws by elongated slots within the high rails, or braces, so the strong high can broaden and contract unhindered. Utilizing a plunge router or a slot mortiser, I’ll use a cutter with a radius barely bigger than the pinnacle of the screw to chop the counterbore—a recessed shelf for the screw head to slip on. After which I swap to a smaller radius cutter to plunge by the remaining thickness of the brace to create the clearance slot for the shaft of the screw. 

To anchor the tabletop on the middle, as an alternative of constructing a slot, I reduce an everyday counterbore and clearance gap, which successfully cuts the quantity of high motion in half. Within the case of this desk, as a result of the column is centered on the brace, I couldn’t put the screw proper by the brace, however wanted so as to add a small tab, or screw block, on the within face of the brace. Right here’s how I made the screw blocks.

It’s best and most secure to make a batch of blocks without delay. Utilizing a scrap of the identical inventory I used to construct the desk, I began by drilling the counterbores and thru clearance holes for the screws (they’re the smaller holes on this picture). Then I used the 1-5/8-in.-dia. Forstner bit proven in motion above to chop holes proper by the scrap. 

Subsequent I ripped the scrap in two.

Then I crosscut the workpiece into particular person screw blocks. 

I glued the screw block flush to the highest face of the brace.

And glued the trestle collectively.

After screwing the bottom to the highest, when I burned my signature onto the underside it may need occurred to me that I’d be the final one to see that screw block for fairly a while. 

In case you’d prefer to make some simply the identical, listed here are the size: