Best selling wood projects - An Elegant Jelly Cabinet Construction Part 8 Back and Front

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Attaching the back panel was as simple as gluing the two stiles to the back edges of the carcass.  These are rebated to take the sliding back panel.
Ill leave the panel out for now so that I can have easy access to the inside of the cupboard.  It will slide in easily from the bottom at any time.

Making the Door Frame

The door frame will be morticed and tenoned.  I cut the mortices first, and once again the trusty Makita does the job.  By placing the two stiles side by side and projecting beyond the edge of the bench vice, I have a more stable platform for the router.

The fence runs against the side of the stile (actually the face - but you know what I mean), and it simply has to be swapped from one side to the other to cut both mortices.

Once all the mortices are cut - top and bottom - I clamp the stiles in place and mark out the tenons on the top and bottom rails.  I find that it is easier and more accurate to do it this way.

After marking out the tenons, I use a bench hook to hold the piece while I saw the shoulders of each.  The finished tenons are cleaned up with a shoulder plane.


Because the mortices were cut with the router, the ends of all of them have a rounded profile, the same as the router bit.

To make the tenons fit closely, I round over the end of the tenon that will abut the round end of the mortice.  Pare with a chisel first and then finish off with some cloth backed sandpaper.  This is a broken sander belt (never throw anything away)

 It is easier to round the tenon than to square the mortice.

These mortices are left open at the top for the top rail, and for the bottom of the bottom rail, to give me more glue area for the joint.

Neither of these will be seen in the finished cabinet, and I prefer the strength that the extra tenon area provides.

Here is the top rail - trial fitted.
Not too shabby at all.

Wish it was the same story with the bottom rail.  Boo Hoo !!!!
I got a bit carried away with the router when cutting the mortices.  They are too long and, as a consequence, the rail is now too narrow, and the top of the mortice peeks out from above the rail.

Heres my fix.
The rail width is not critical, and if I widen it just a tad - then the holes will disappear.  I dont have enough timber left to make another rail, so I have glued a ripping to the bottom of the rail, and will simply re-shape it to follow the tenon when it dries.  Like I said - never throw anything away.  Now, of course, the door will be a smidgen shorter.  Another reason to be glad I left it until last.

The bottom of this lower rail will be covered by a moulding - so the mistake will never be seen from the front, and even from below, a cockroach view will show only a clean edge.   It is a relief to get out of trouble so easily.

This necessary fix stopped me from finishing the door frame today.  And so I started to prepare the rosewood panel for the door.  I wont make the door until the frame is installed, so that once again it is a good fit.  No more mistakes I hope.

As you can see on the left, this panel has plenty of ripples from the power planer that dressed it at the mill.  I remove these with a bevel up plane. This one is a copy of the Stanley 62 - (made by Stanley from 1905 - 1942) - and was made by Lie Nielsen.

This piece of Australian Rosewood also had a nasty snipe on the end that had been left by the power planer as well.  It needed attention, and while I was at it I finished surfacing the whole panel.

OK, the end is in sight.  Maybe two more entries here at the Village Woodworker will see it through to completion.

Happy woodworking to all .....


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Best selling wood projects - An Elegant Jelly Cabinet Construction Part 6 Hand Cut Dadoes Stuff

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Holy Macaroons Batman!
I thought that retirement was that period in life when there was plenty of time to do just what we wanted to do.
I mustnt be doing it right - where do the days go?

Cutting Dadoes By Hand

The sides of the carcass will house the shelves, and these in dadoes.  Commercial joineries would likely cut these on a table-saw or with a powered router.  More fun by hand!
It is much easier to cut these before assembling the carcass, so lets get to it.

To maintain accuracy, both sides of the carcass should be aligned beside each other, and the measurements transferred to both at the same time.

I am using two shelves and they will be equidistant from top and bottom.


Measure the distance - inside top to inside bottom - and subtract the combined thickness of the two shelves.  Divide this measurement by three, and we have the distance of each shelf from the top and the bottom respectively.  The middle will look after itself.


After measuring and marking each piece in pencil, I like to scribe the marked lines with a marking knife.  This does two things - it makes the marking easier to see, and severs the wood fibres along the edge of the dado.

After cutting out, the cleanup back to these lines will leave a crisp, clean cut.

Once again, I turn to my preferred tenon saw for this panel work.  A brass backed Spear & Jackson - probably post WWII vintage - is such a pleasure to use in this situation.  The handle is soooo comfortable  - and look at that kerf!

After cutting inside the scribed lines, I remove the bulk of the waste with a bevelled edge Titan chisel.  Cleanup is with a longer handled Japanese paring chisel that can reach right across the dado.

To clean out and even up the depth of the dado, I used a Stanley 71-1/2 hand router.  Stanley made this and a 71, and there are similar hand routers by Sargent, Millers Falls, Record and Carter.  A simple, yet elegant tool, and so easy to use - a sharp blade is a must
These dadoes are cut right through from the front of the carcass to the back.  If the front edges of the side panels were to be visible, I would have stopped the dado short, but there will be a door frame at the front and a pair of stiles at the back - covering the dadoes completely.

Notice here, that all of the cutting is still inside the scribed lines.  Ill work back to them next.

One of the most useful cabinet making tools that I own is this little side rebate plane.  It was made years ago by an unknown craftsman, and is perfect for trimming back to the scribed lines of the dado.
Terry Gordon still makes two versions of this plane (left and right) and they can be seen HERE.

Because Im cutting across the grain, the orientation of the side rebate doesnt matter.  That is, I could use a left or right side rebate plane - mine is a right.

Since the wood fibres at the ends of the dado are fragile, they need to be protected from tearing away while using the side rebate plane.  Here, I have clamped two scrap wood blocks to the edges, to prevent this from happening.

OK I am just about ready for carcass assembly.

One more thing for today. I will glue up the legs from three pieces of one inch stock, making some laminated blanks for later turning when they are dry.  Going to be needing four of these.  Might as well glue up the finishing top piece while Im at it.  Mouldings will sit under this on the finished top.

Better leave something for next time .......

.... and happy woodworking to all ...............
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