Best selling wood projects - An Elegant Jelly Cabinet Construction Part 9 The End is in Sight

Best selling wood projects

Lots of Little Bits

The door frame is finished and the bottom rail repair came out very well.  Clamp and glue time - as the door frame is fitted to the front edges of the carcass.

It is time to start adding the various parts to bring the cupboard to completion.  Before this, however, I like to give the straight carcass a complete sanding outside.  It is much easier to do this before the top and the mouldings go on.  Of course there will be final sandings later, but since this wont take long Ill do it now.

The picture on the left shows the difference that this initial sanding makes.  The ripple marks from the power jointer can be seen towards the top left corner.  The sander is an old German Metabo  RAS - still going strong.  Today was a magnificent early autumn day, so out front of the shed was the place to be. Blissful it was!

 
Now is a good time to break those sharp edges with a sanding block.  Here I am using 180 grit. The sun came out onto where I was working - look at that beautiful timber.

 This is the back panel - inside and outside. Note the rebated edges so that it can slide into the back of the cabinet from the bottom.  The sun came and went as I worked - what a joy.

I glued the top to the  sanded carcass and set it aside to dry.  Should be set by tomorrow.  Meanwhile its time to attack the door.


Making the Frame and Panel Door

The frame for this door is quite narrow, so I have decided to use an open slot mortice on the stiles, and tenons on the rails.  This should give me a larger glued area and a stronger joint - even though the end of the tenon will be visible at the corner of the door. The frame pieces already have the groove cut previously, so part of this has to be removed for the joint to work.

I could have chosen to mitre the face edge of the groove, but decided to keep it simple in keeping with the cabinet.  I now wish I had, because I would have given it a little more thought, and avoided the mistake that I went on to make.

The astute reader will see the makings of the "Oh Shit!" moment in the layout of the picture above.  If you dont see it yet, be patient and it will be revealed.

I chose to cut the mortice first, and good old Spear & Jackson sawed the cheeks, and a little jewellers saw cleaned out the waste.  Spotted the blue yet?

Chisels to the rescue to tidy up the saw cuts and square the bottom of the mortice.  I like to undercut the bottom as shown in the last picture - right - as this leaves somewhere for the glue to pool, and guarantees a flush fit.  That middle chisel is a slim tapered Mathieson, the only one I have - wish I had more in different sizes.  It is perfect for getting into the mortice to gently adjust the interior by removing any high spots.

OK - time to cut the tenon.  Measure up against the mortice - (that middle picture is a give-a-way to the clanger that is about to happen).  Cut carefully and fit.
Look at that last picture - right - almost perfect .............................................. almost !!!!!!!!

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.... and it was looking so good up until then.

Another fix is necessary.  Ill still glue it up and add an appropriate sized plug to fill the hole.  Lucky its on the hinge side of the door, so will rarely be seen.

The mistake was mine from the get-go, and it happened because I was tired when I started this, and didnt think it through.  I was smart enough to stop at this point and do something simple before calling it a day.

I decided to add some dowels to the middle of the tops of the feet, so that they will register easily with the bottom corners when they are glued in position.

It was a daggy old piece of dowel, but wont ever see the light of day - so - good enough!

Rightee-o, one more post and this will be finished.  Cant wait.

LOML is hounding me about starting work on the repairs to the house gables.  Guess that will be next.

May your days be joyous and your mistakes small ....

 ............................ and happy woodworking to all .......
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Best selling wood projects - Hastings Woodworkers and all things Woodie

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As an active member of the Hastings Woodworkers Guild, I have the pleasure of the company of many like minded wood loonies, as often as I choose to visit the clubrooms.  Open every day over at Timbertown in Wauchope, the Guild offers a centre of excellence in woodworking that is fun to be part of.
The Guild offers members a meeting place, a workshop, a display room, lunch room, timber store and a small mill for converting logs to lumber.
It may very well be unique in its range of services to members.
The workshop is well equipped and there are members whose collective expertise in all things woodie, has educated many others in wood lore.

We held our annual exhibition back in October, over a three day period in the heart of Port Macquarie NSW.
A couple of thousand visitors came through the doors and experienced the demonstrations, discussions and displays that were offered.

Planning has already commenced for 2012s big event.
In the meantime we will be present at a number of other functions, the next of which is the Craft Show in Port Macquarie on 18-20 November.
Meetings are held on the third Saturday of the month, and our next will include a club auction of a wide variety of tools and timber.  Cant wait!

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Best selling wood projects - An Elegant Jelly Cabinet Construction Part 7 Bringing Things Together

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Cleaning Up Dovetails with a Plane

The carcass is glued, and once dry needs the dovetails cleaned up.  They were a little proud, remember.
Low angle block plane to the rescue.  Thank you Stanley 65!

Here I have flush planed the tails, but you can see that the pins still need attention.  Mouldings will hide these on the finished cabinet, but what an excellent joint they make.

 I dont have a low work table in my shed, so I have had to improvise.  One side of the carcass is held in my bench vice and the other side is supported on a roller stand.  This gives me access from above and below.

Time to slide in the shelves.  I left the cutting of these to length until this stage so that I could fine tune them for a snug fit.  I also used my block plane to chamfer the two front edges of the shelves before they went in. Much easier now than later.

I had a little problem with staining of the New Guinea Rosewood when I cleaned up the excess glue with a damp cloth earlier.  It will plane or sand off in visible areas.

Time for a trial fit-up of the back panel.  It is a little over size, and will be cut to length later.

This slides inside two stiles which will be attached to the sides.

You will notice that I have left a small gap on each side of the panel and inside the stiles.  This is to allow for seasonal movement of the panel which will be fixed towards the centre, leaving the timber free to move.

Turning the Feet

While waiting for the glued stiles to dry, I decided to make up the four feet from the laminated scraps that have been glued and  are now dry.

Into the lathe and round them down to a cylinder.  My lathe is a classic and original Teknatool Nova 1000.  This must be almost an antique by now.

The cylinder will be the same diameter as the widest part of the finished foot.

I start by marking out where each of the significant details are - top and bottom of foot,  and bottom of the beady thing that terminates the top curve.  I then use the parting tool to mark both ends, and at the bottom this becomes the width of the finished base of the foot.  This gives me a width to work down to.  Im no woodturner so I hope this makes sense.

OK - need to repeat this process until I have four feet that look close enough to each other to pass muster.  You can see that mine are related but are definitely fraternal quads and not identical.

Like I said, I am not much of a wood turner, and I could be at this all week and not get four identical feet.

Whats that old saying - Perfection is the enemy of good enough!

If you are a perfectionist - then do not look at the next picture, and if you just cant help yourself and caught a glimpse by accident, then take two asprin and a cup of tea and have good lie down.

OK - nuff for now.

Door frame and door to come.

Happy woodworking to all ...........

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Best selling wood projects - Wet Weather Shed Time

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Its wet, its cool, and its just the weather for spending time in the shed.
The bench and tool cupboard project is coming together nicely.  Today, the rear rail was mortised and tenoned, the top was prepared with a nosing piece, and the carcass took its first steps towards assembly.

First step was to cut the mortises in the legs with the trusty Makita. Unlike a traditional mortise, these will be open at the top because the brittle old hardwood disintegrated at that point when the router approached it.  No matter, the particleboard top will be screwed in place and covers this quite well.

Next step was to cut the tenons in the rail. This is a very old Blakeley Tenon Saw that still cuts like a dream. Check out that kerf.

 

 The roughed out tenons were then finished with a Stanley shoulder plane. This is an English made 93, and even though some poo-poo the quality of the English blades, I have found them to be fine in practice, and a joy to use.

With the rail glued in place and firmly clamped, it was time to add the shelf.  This will be an open cabinet bench, where the shelf will keep things off the floor and out of the way.  The front and rear have had a second thickness of particleboard added as stiffeners.  These were offcuts anyway, and better used than discarded. Glued and clamped with spring clips, they will dry overnight.

The particleboard top needs a nosing piece across the front to both protect the edge and to stiffen it.  I have cut a rebate in a length of matching hardwood, and glued this to the front edge.  Since this has glue faces at the front and underneath, it needs clamping pressure in both directions.  Tighten the clamps gradually, a little at at time, working along the row of clamps in sequence to pull it in snug in both directions.

An end view shot shows the rebate, and the directions that the clamping pressure needs to move in, to snug this up good and tight.   Good old PVA - what a great adhesive.

I can hear the rain tumbling down outside, and I am looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when Ill be ready to continue assembly.

Life is good!

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