Dollhouse Dormer Part 3

Cutting dormers for the Elizabethan birdhouse part 3.

Today I am cutting the window openings in the dormers using a miniature table saw with a 3 and3/8" diameter blade. 

First thing to do is draw lines right onto your tablesaw top. Use a felt tip marker and  a straight edge draw a put a line across the top that is the same width of the saw blade that runs parallel with the blade. Then draw a line perpendicular to that line to indicates the center of the saw blade's arbor hole.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

That intersection of those two lines is the center point of where your blade will come through when you raise it up through your panel.

The first two sides of the window openings, top and bottom, were done using the table saw fence against the bottom edge of the dormer. The top point of the dormer lines up with the line indicating center of the arbor.

The last two cuts are created by placing the bottom edge of the dormer against the miter fence and using those lines on the table top as my reference point I line up the dormer to center the blade on my cutting line.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Because my window is centered on the peak of the dormer I have used double back tape to stick to temporary plywood fences to the top of my table saw (those are the light colored wood). Now I can just flip the dormer piece  over after making the first cut to make the second cut without recalibrating my position.  Note in the photo that I have clamped the dormer to the table saw top to make these cuts. When it is possible to use clamps I always take the time to do so instead of risking my fingers.

Cutting dormers part 1
Cutting dormers part 2

Cutting Dormers: part 2

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Cutting dormers for the Elizabethan birdhouse part 2.

This time I am using the same miter slot sled jig I made in part 1  to cut a dormer for the back of my structure and also  the two side gable  ends. These pieces are triangular without any vertical side lengths. I have changed the angle of my miter fence using the 60 degree drafting triangle and now the base of the triangle will rest against the fence unlike in part 1 where the vertical sides were resting against the fence.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

The first step was to cut a piece of material to the width of the base of the triangle given in  my measured drawing.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

The right side of my jig was cut off by the saw blade so that is an easy indicator of where the actual cutting line is and I will make use of it as the registration for the point of my triangle. All I have to do is place a scrap piece of plywood at the corner where the fence and that right side of the jig intersect. Then I butt the material I am using for the dormer over to that location, remove the scrap and while holding the material down on the jig against the fence I slide it on through the saw blade to make the first cut. I always turn off the saw motor and let it come to a full stop before removing the part from the jig or trying to remove the waste cutoff piece.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Now flip your material over, register it again to that same intersection as in the last step (don't forget to remove that scrap you used to located the corner of the triangle) and then cut the last side of the triangle. The peak of your triangle will be perfectly centered across the width and that means it will also be the correct height. This is a very simple method once you get the hang of making triangles this way on your table saw. But if you are going to do lots of them exactly the same size for a production type of product then use a stop block on the left end of the fence instead of registering your pieces it to the corner each time.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

I will do a post on making the roof cuts for the dormers later, it involves making compound cuts, a bit more complicated as you have to make a left and a right side but  it is  also done with a miter slot jig.

Elizabethan birdhouse

Cutting dormers part 1

Cutting Dormers: part 1

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Cutting dormers for the Elizabethan birdhouse part 1

I still remember the days when I did not know how to approach making things like dormers for a miniature building. Lack of knowledge and often a lack of tools is where we all begin. This being a teaching blog I will show you how I am cutting the pieces for the front of a dormer that has a steep roof pitch. There are a number of methods to make these cuts and I don't always make them this way.

The miter angle fixtures that come with table saws won't rotate past 45 degrees but for this house I have to cut a sharper angle than 45. The method I chose  is to make a single runner miter sled for my 10 inch table saw. I have a number of pieces to make using this particular angle so the jig will be useful for insuring all the parts get cut to that same exact angle without variation.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

The runner that goes in the table slot could be made of hardwood or if it is only going to be used a few times pine or basswood will also do the trick.  I am using a metal slide since I have one that I can unscrew and use it again and again for other jigs if I wish. As you will see I am using materials out of my scrap bin for the sled base and for the fence as well. Actually the plywood came out of a neighbor's scrap bin, I am not too proud to use his leftovers!

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

As I am cutting this roof at a 60 degree angle I am using a  drafting triangle with a matching angle to accurately establish the angle. I place the edge of the triangle right against the saw blade being sure it is not resting on any of the saw teeth, sneaking it between them, touching only on the flat of the saw blade. I have attached the fence to the base with double back carpet tape, it is plenty strong enough to hold it in place without shifting. I am using double back tape because I am going to reposition that fence to a couple of other angles for other dormers and gables and dormer roofs before I am done with all the cutting on this structure.

This first dormer front wall I am cutting has some vertical sides on it. Other dormers and gables I will cut are simply triangles with no vertical sides on them. I am showing those in other postings.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

First the dormer plywood material is cut to width. Then I mark out how tall the vertical sides are. I make sure the mark at the point where the roof pitch starts gets transferred on down the edge of the plywood. That mark is going to be aligned with the cut edge of my miter jig. See photo above, it will enlarge if you click on it. This is a quick, simple and accurate method of aligning the starting point of the cut for the sloped roof line on the dormer.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

The first cut goes just past the point of the peak.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Then the board is flipped, aligned to the mark and the second cut is made.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Notice how my board is left longer than the length of the small dormer, it gives me good registration against the fence. I will cut the second dormer piece I need from the other end of the board. That butterfly shaped piece left in the middle will still be there for a nice long registration against the fence.

That center waste piece has complimentary angles that will soon be recycled into making yet another miter sled jig for cutting the timber frame trim pieces that will go onto this dormer and on the gable ends of the house. Be sure to watch for opportunities like this because they give you those exact matches on angle cuts that will fit perfectly onto your house parts. I will show you the jig I make from it later on in this blog.

If I was making a dormer with equal side lengths I could have used a stop block on the fence for the second cut. But these dormers are on each side of another third dormer that sits between them and the peak is not centered across the width of the dormer.  You can see the dormers I just cut on the CAD model in the image below. They are on the left and right of the center dormer. Elizabethan birdhouse image below.

photo and design copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Link to Cutting Dormers: Part 2
Link to Cutting dormers: Part 3

Miniature real slate roof tiles

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

The photo above shows a real, full sized, slate shingle next to my newly made miniature slate shingles. A full size tile was cut up and split thin to make the miniatures. It is amazing that real slate stone scales into making a miniature version very nicely. But it is not an easy task to do. I have tried making thin miniature slate roof tiles for a dollhouse before and failed at the task so I have been putting it off. But today I was able to make them so I am very pleased with myself.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

These slate shingles will be used on the shed roof over the box bed. It is a small roof so I don't mind making the small amount that is needed.

I will make a jig tomorrow to hold my splitting blade more safely; it is very sharp and I don't want to loose any fingers. I don't think it is wise of me to do a tutorial , it is a dangerous task to do. I would feel bad if anyone got hurt doing it. In addition cutting up the stone into small rectangles requires a water cooled, diamond blade tile saw. I already owned the tools because I have for many years done my own tile work on houses I lived in including installing slate flooring.

Acorn Cottage Roof

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

I have been busy with things other than miniatures this week but I am posting a few photos on how I made that unusual roof for the Acorn Cottage.


The beams which support the roof have a curve to them which creates the curve for the roof. Putting it together is the tricky part. The beams have to be held in the correct position in a six sided radial pattern. So I made a custom assembly fixture. It is not pretty, just made out of scraps I had around the shop but it works great.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

The plywood I used for the roof is thin, it will curve in one direction. Getting it stuck to the beams without using clamps was the tricky part. For this task I used polyurethane hot melt adhesive that comes in cartridges. The glue set up in a 90 seconds so the pressure of my hands holding the panel against the beams was the clamp.  This polyurethane glue gets harder as it ages and it cross links with the wood fibers. This is probably not a glue and gun you will buy for the occasional job, the glue is expensive, the dispensing gun is expensive and the glue has an expiration date. I purchased my kit from ROCKLER

photo from Rockler

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

You can see the beams inside of the roof. The opening is finished off with a strip that will be grooved to accept thin, clear plastic to close the house off from dust and unwanted intruding sticky fingers.

The roof plywood is so thin you can cut it by scoring with a knife. I made a pattern for the shape and also a stencil to mark the rows of shingles. I marked the rows before I assembled the roof. You might think that because the plywood is thin the roof is not strong but it is. I used to use heavy plywood for dollhouse roofs but I realized as long as there are beams to help with support  thin plywood is adequate and it is much more in scale. The look of the roof edge is nicer and it weighs a lot less. I created a wavy curve in the edge of the cottage roof to resemble the loose shape of the lower edge of the leaf canopy on a deciduous tree. The Acorn Cottage is very organic in its various elements.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

The leaf shaped shingles I used for the roof are one of the unique features on this cottage. They started out as normal rectangular dollhouse shingles. A pair of scissors is all that is needed to trim one end into that point. Boring work but just fine for TV watching time.

Tile batch show

A sample section of the tiles I have been working on. They are just loosely laid out in rows on a board. I have made no calibrated attempt to get the rows even. You know how it is, you just can't wait to see how it is all going to look someday in the future. Of course they will look different when the dollhouse roof is finished. There will be more darker tiles in the mix, I have not made any of those "kiln burnt" batches yet with the black in them. There is no moss, mildew, dirt or bird droppings on this sample either. They do have some water color washes on them bringing up various shades of the terra cotta color range.

As a side note it takes about 720 tiles to cover one square foot of dollhouse roof. I will need somewhere around 2,000 tiles for my project. One reason it takes so many is there is a required triple overlap to this kind of roof covering. That means only the bottom one third of each tile is left exposed.

Now I have to quit having fun and get back to organizing the chaos that reorganizing creates. I swear that I make a bigger mess than ever when I make changes to the workshop space and it seems like I will never reach the goal.

Roof tile progress

The first batch of weathered roof tile keepers.

I am starting to achieve the look I want for the tiles my roof, another dozen batches and I might be satisfied. I threw out the first experimental batch as the color, shape and texture were not up to my expectations. The batch in the photo above is representative of the aged and cracked end of the spectrum. I made some adjustments to my mixing and rolling methods as also added more color to the mix. I am not adding premixed paint, I am adding in the tints they put into paint cans to make it the color of your dreams. That avoids adding in excess liquid. Put in some PVA glue to give the tiles a little more strength and some powered earth pigments to keep the clay dry enough to run through a pasta roller. Whirled it up in small batches in a mini food processor, kneaded it together, rolled it with a pin to flatten the piece enough to get it go into the pasta machine.

Some of the tiles for my dollhouse roof will be worn and cracked, others will have far less texture with a much smoother surface. Different areas of a roof get different amounts of sun, wind and rain all of which damage the tiles. Remember each of the tiles on a real roof was hand made, not machine made, so each is unique. This batch has more of the weathered look, other batches will have more of the smooth tiles. That look is dependent on the variables of what I mix into the batch. More or less liquid is one factor, this batch was on the dry side. It is also dependent on how smooth I decide to roll it out, I left this one on the more highly textured side. A scale of 10 with 1 being smooth and 10 being rough this batch ranges in examples of a fairly smooth 4 through a 10 with its ragged broken edges. The cracks in the tile are not from the clay shrinking and splitting, they are created along the outside edges when it goes through the pasta machine.

But mixing and rolling is just the start, the tiles have to be cut to size without pushing the edges down leaving a rounded surface. Miniatures loose character if you loose all the crisp sharp edges that are supposed to be there, they no longer look believable.

8 Sided Roof Tutorial

This is a long posting today, I am showing how to use a table saw with a miter gauge to cut a multi sided roof for a miniature structure. The roof you will see me cutting has 8 sides and a 55 degree pitch. It will have a cupola coming up through the center, therefore you will not see a point on the roof panels. This same cutting method will produce roofs with 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 any number as long as it is more than 2.

Please note that I have the safety blade cover removed from the saw, always follow the safety recommendations from you saw's manufacturer.

I figured out what the angles on the roof panels would be from my design in a CAD program. There are charts for determining these angles on the internet with the most common multi sided numbers and angles of slope given as well as online calculators and formulas to use with scientific calculators.  Click here to see  my favorite online calculator for finding the settings for saw blade bevel angle and the associated miter gauge angles that go with a particular roof pitch.

The first cutting task will be to cut a long plywood strip(s). the width of that strip is equal to the distance from the bottom edge of the roof to the top edge perpendicular to the bottom edge. You can bevel the top and bottom edges at this time but those bevels must be parallel to each other as you will be doing a flip cut technique. The length of the strip is figured out by sketching a layout of the panels. Along your layout sketch strip one roof triangle will face point up, the next point down. There is a small waste triangle at the start of the cuts and also saw blade thickness between the cuts. I usually allow for a few extra panels just in case I goof. OK your basic material strip is cut now lets get to the trickier stuff.


With the blade upright at 90 degrees as high up as it will go I set the miter fence to my needed angle. I made an angle template using acrylic on the laser cutter specifically for this job but you can also use an adjustable bevel gauge instead of an angle template. If you want to use the bevel then use a graphics program or CAD program to draw out the specific angle and print it onto paper. Use a light coat of spray adhesive to  stick that pattern onto a flat piece of wood. Next tack wood strips to each side of the angle being very accurate about getting it right against the lines of the angle. Do leave as shown in the photo below a small gap at the apex of the angle to facilitate the use of the bevel gauge.  Now the bevel gauge  between, open it against the wood strips and then lock it to that angle.  You must have a template or bevel gauge short enough or else thin enough to fit between gaps on the saw blade teeth so that  it does not touch any of the teeth on the blade. It should rest only on the solid body of the saw blade, never on top of a tooth. (This angle setting method will not work on a hollow ground saw blade as it does not have a flat surface.)



The next step is to tilt the saw blade over to the angle you need. You must have a bevel gauge or angle template thin enough that to slip fit into the space between the saw teeth so it can rest against the body of the saw blade. I shine a small flashlight from behind my gauge and if any light comes through I adjust the blade tilt until the angle is a snug fit.


Place your long plywood strip against the miter fence and make a cut that takes off that square end and leaves you a lovely angled, beveled edge. In the photo above you can see that waste piece, the skinny triangular cutoff piece to the far right side. Note before you cut anything that if you have beveled  the top and bottom edges you will first need to figure out how the first panel needs to be positioned so those edges are oriented on the roof panel as you want them to be. Now rotate the board 180 towards yourself so the side that was against the table now faces up towards you. From this time it will be rotate cut, rotate cut until you have enough sections for the roof.


At this time you need to set a couple of stop blocks to control the width of your panel. You will see in the photo above that I have used as stops two magnetic blocks made just for table saw setups. Regular magnets would not be strong enough however you can firmly double back tape wood strips to you table saw top to act as stops. You won't be putting a lot of pressure against them, just gently moving your plywood strip over to them. A stop block of some type is absolutely essential so your panels are always the same width. You will need the blocks to be positioned far forward enough on the table so the plywood panel is clear of the blade when you begin the cut. The block along the side should be fairly short in length, an inch or two is enough.


Postition the panel against the blocks, turn on the saw, hold the panel in position against the miter fence while pushing the miter handle forward, cutting through the panel and moving it on past the blade. Then I turn off the saw, let it come to a stop and remove the newly cut roof panel section out of the way of the next cut. Move the miter back to the position forward of the saw blade, flip the plywood, set the material against the stop blocks and the miter fence, turn on the saw and cut again. Only 8 times and you are done! It does not take long to cut the panels, most of the time is in the setup.

The following photos show how to assemble the panels. I use a quality duct tape from 3M that leaves no residue behind when you remove it. I normally buy it at Lowes or my local hardware store but here is an online source for it.  http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Tough-Residue-1-88-Inch-20-Yard/dp/B0014LQK58 That duct tape is my only clamp.  I use the body of the bird or doll house to conform the perimeter angles of the roof while the glue dries.




First I lay the panels side by side with the angled bevel facing down then I tape the joints.


Next I pull it up into the shape and tape the last joint. I always do a check fit before I glue them together. Would you look at those joints in the photo above, NO GAPS, PERFECT miter joints! That is the beauty of my cutting method, it really does work.


Now take the tape off one joint and put the taped side against the table. Fill the joints with glue but don't get too heavy handed or you will have a big mess to clean up. The adhesive I am using is from Locktite and it is called Polyseam Seal, it is labeled clear, extra adhesive and it has a lifetime warranty. This is an acrylic caulking product I purchase at a hardware stores or at Home Depot or Lowes. This is my primary glue for birdhouse and dollhouse shell building, it has never let me down. When building a birdhouse I make sure every cut edge of the plywood on the birdhouse is completely covered with glue, this prevents any water getting up into the plys and possibly causing dry rot. I am using water resistant plywood, the flat surfaces are very good but those cut edges are the most vulnerable area for water infiltration soaking into the material.


Now pull the last two edges back together, tape that joint and place the roof on the house structure to dry. Put some waxed paper under those corner so you don't glue it to the house just yet as you will want to do more work on the roof such as painting the underside, installing edge trim or even gutters. Because this is a birdhouse I will put an exterior rated gray primer on the plywood before I shingle it. The shingles will weather to gray and any cracks that may develop won't show with the matching primer under there. I have never lost a shingle on a birdhouse, even ones that have been outside for over 15 years. For birdhouses I make thick shingles, thin dollhouse shingles won't hold up for long.

OK now you know how I make my roofs so go forth and build octagon houses, gazebos and towers.