As an unsociable-hours worker, I get to watch a lot of mid-morning and early afternoon cable television, which has had me addicted to carpentry/workshop shows. There are quite a few UKkian programmes on, plus the USsian king of carpentry: Norm Abram in his New Yankee Workshop. What I find interesting about these shows is the way similar techniques are given slightly different names. Most obvious, to me, are the following three.
1. Rebate/rabbit: a notch cut along the edge of a board so as to give it a lip that can subsequently be used for fastening it to other board and so on.
The Brits unhesitatingly call it a rebate, but for Norm it's always a rabbit. Why? Where did this word come from anyway?
2. Tongue'n'groove: Anybody familiar with wood flooring will probably have encountered this stuff. Again, the Brits say it tongue and groove, but our favourite Yank has it as tongue in groove. Who's right?
3. Temporary fasteners while the glue sets. Clamp for Norm, cramp for the Brits. Help!
Next, can anyone explain what a dado is really supposed to be? There are too many different things shown, all of which the chappie in question confidently refers to as a dado.
Finally, why is nobody called a carpenter anymore?
I pause, for a reply...
the sunshine "hoping there are none I have offended" warrior
Edit: Just to make the point that, apparently, Norm is using the word rabbet, not rabbit.
Rebate/rabbet:
AHD4 says from ME rabet from OF rabat from rabattre. It lists rebate as a variant.
Tongue 'n' groove:
AHD4 gives tongue and groove, but defines it as a tongue in a groove. Go figure.
is a groove in a piece of wood that another piece of wood fits into. It has three sides, as opposed to a rabbEt's two sides.
Here is an example of a dado: Most furniture is based on a carcase, for example a bookcase. If you want adjustable shelves on a bookcase you drill holes in the vertical sides so you can put pins in for the shelf to sit on. But if you are going to have a shelf that stays in place, the best construction technique is to cut a dado in the vertical pieces and slide the shelf into the dado. You can fasten with glue or screws through the vertical into the end of the shelf. The "top shelf" (in actuality the top of the case would be dropped into a rabbet (which is just a dado without the third side.
I generally use a power router to make rabbets and dadoes, though you can also use a specialized plane called a plough to cut the groove. Some people even use a dovetail joint in place of a rabbet, but that's much harder to do because you have to slightly taper the rabbet so the shelf will slide into it easily. The taper might be only 0.2 mm in the entire length of the rabbet. That's too finicky for me. I generally measure to the nearest 1/64th of an inch (or about what half a mm?)
As an aside here, I find myself using the metric side of my tapes and rulers more and more because I find mms a bunch easier to deal with in my head than binary fractions.
TEd
I have an adjustable dado blade(actually a set of blades) for my table saw. using different blades in combination with small cardstock spacers gives you the dado width. works pretty slick. there are also dado blades made for table saws that oscillate from side to side to get the width, but I have never used one of those.
It is a little-known musicological fact that Harry Belafone was an ardent woodworker. He used to fortify himself with a drink of rum in the evening and work in his woodshop all night long, cutting grooves in boards with his table saw. Hence, the song which he made famous:
"Da-do, me say Da-do. Day light come and me want to go home."
eta:
I have both and even though the multiple bladed one is harder to set up, I find it gives a much better dado. The wobble type only leaves a flat bottom at one particular width. Anything else and it leaves either a concave or convex bottom which you have to clean up with a plough plane. Might as well just do it by hand.
I do like the other one, but I usually just reach for the router. particularly on casework where I am dadoing a large panel.
TEd
I found this on the web.
eBay-o, eBay-ay-ay-o
eBay come, now we shop online
Bay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay-ay-o,
eBay come, now we shop online
I bid in the auctions all night long
eBay come, now we shop online
I'm a winner til the Visa bill come
eBay come, now we shop online
Sell your pajamas, now sell your bunk
eBay come, now we shop online
That man's winnings are this girl's junk
eBay come, now we shop online
Come, Mr. Tallyman, tally up me auction
eBay come, now we shop online
Come, Mr. Tallyman, tally up me auction
eBay come, now we shop online
Bid six bucks, seven bucks, eight bucks more
Sniper come, now me wan' go high
Ten bucks, twelve bucks, twenty bucks more
eBay come, now we shop online
Bay, eBay-ay-ay-o
eBay come, now we shop online
Bay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay-ay-o,
eBay come, now we shop online
Percussion break (16 beats)
A beautiful flight to Club Havana
eBay come, now we shop online
Temptation is eBay's deadly manna
eBay come, now we shop online
Come, Mr. Tallyman, tally up me auction
eBay come, now we shop online
Come, Mr. Tallyman, tally up me auction
eBay come, now we shop online
Bid sixty bucks, eighty bucks, a hundred bucks more
eBay come, now we shop online
Postman bring it right to your door
eBay come, now we shop online
Bay, eBay-ay-ay-o
eBay come, now we shop online
Bay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay, eBay-ay-ay-o,
eBay come, now we shop online
wobble! that's the word I couldn't think of.
yah, someday I'll have a router...
FTR : We still have carpenters in Virginia, USA.
the Brits say it tongue and groove, but our favourite Yank has it as tongue in groove. Who's right?
My stepfather is a carpenter (and he DOES call himself that), and a USn, and he has always said tongue AND groove (or, t-and-g, more familiarly), and he considers IN incorrect.
He also says rabbet and clamp, and has not encountered the Britforms of those two things, but I want to say that "rebate" is also a term in Classical architecture, but I don't have my dictionary here.
Also, to continue TEd's aside, my fractional math is also horrible, so I like decimals, too. However, my stepfather adds, subtracts, divides and multiplies complex fractions in his head as easily as I can manipulate integers. It's quite the parlor trick.
Flatlander
Thanks for that. Don't get me started on the indaequacies (as I see them) if the Brit and US 'imperial' systems of measure. Suffice to say that the phrase 'pathetically retrogressive' springs to mind.
cheer
the sunshine "make mine SI" warrior
But you can't deny that a pint is just the right size.
I prefer doing dados on my table saw. I find it is much more precise than with the router since I don't have a router table so am highly reliant on clamped guides.
It's funny to hear you use the metric sytem to measure (in Imperial U.S.)...I prefer using Imperial measures (in metric Canada). The world turned around.
Shanks, what term do you hear for Carpenter? You didn't say. I hear the names Carpenter and Woodworker used interchangeably.
I hear the names Carpenter and Woodworker used interchangeably.
'Carpenter' is most often used (here) as a term for a multi-faceted builder (wood, dry wall(gypsum), tile and paint), wheras 'woodworker' is usually an equivalent to 'cabinet maker'.
over herre there is an intermediate term between carpenter (or Wood-butcher) and cabinet-maker - a joiner.
difference between carpenter and joiner (roughly speaking), is that the first uses screws and nails to get pieces of wood to stay in shape, whereas the latter uses joints and possibly glue.
The cabinet maker is a joiner who makes fine pieces of woodwork - possibly so well made and fitted that they need neither screws, nor glue for then to hold together