--- r e f l e X i o n ---

[Xion X2]

So now I'm going to share with you what I've been working on for the past two weeks.

Often when modding, you feel as if you've encroached on a new idea, but being able to put it into practice isn't as easy as it often seems it will be. So when you're able to make something work as you've imagined it, it brings a special sense of content.

I present to you a new way of shelving Lexan and Plexi, the Dovetail.

This is an ancient practice, actually, but I have never seen it done on plastics or glass before. It's often used as a method of bonding two pieces of wood together and is used in dressers and desks commonly. But could I get it to work on Lexan.. could I get it to look clean and bond securely without adhesive. That was the question and was my goal. I wanted to discover a way of bonding two or more pieces of Lexan together without using adhesive such as Weld-on or epoxy. That's fine for many, but I just don't like using adhesives on glass because it always leaves a residue behind that's visible to the eye.

For those who aren't familiar, this is what is called a "Dado" or half of a sliding dovetail--



In the most basic terms, it's an angled groove that serves as a keyhole of sorts for an adjacent piece to slide in and bond. Here's how it bonds together--





Notice how, when cut accurately, it bonds nice and clean. A perfect fit--like a key into a keyhole. And it's a snug fit.. no adhesive of any sort needed as long as you cut the key or what is technically called the "Tenon" correctly.

To cut the dovetails, I use dovetail bit at 4mm depth--



But-- you've seen how it looks on wood already, so let's view it on glass.







You can see how I can hold it, and it hangs firmly in place. In fact, chances are you could not force it apart with your bare hands; it would take a rubber mallet to separate these two pieces.






The edges of this Lexan had not been sanded since these were just used as test pieces. To sand out the saw marks, I use my power sander--



--and to get the finer imperfections out I sand by hand with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 grit and then finally aluminum/metal polish to get to perfect transparency like on the flat side of the glass/Lexan.

More to come in the next update on this. I'll show the actual shelves which will be going into the Zero-G Chamber being fit together by this method.

Thanks for checking in.

[voigts]

That is a very ingenious idea to use a dovetail joint for your shelves. It also can be time consuming to get things lined up correctly, not to mention the sanding involved.