mkirby

Are you searching for panel saw? Under 24" is usually a panel saw and most makers made them. Like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Disston-D-23-General-Purpose-20-Panel-Saw-11-ppi-INV151-/252078399021

Ok decided to give dovetails one more try. Laying out the pins: I really must get a bigger vice. Results: I haven’t got it to seat all the way yet, i have about a 1mm gap. The joint really is far too tight but I’m having a hard time working out where its sticking. Leaving it for today as I’m knackered and don’t want to risk breaking it again. Hopefully once i have flushed everything up this should look a lot nicer. I will have some holes to plug but i expected that. What i didn’t expect was how tight this joint would be, i can hardly take it apart.

HI Aj, another fellow brit but I'm from the best part

no the whole board just split. Just tried clamping it and it looks like i may be able to glue it back together if i can keep it flat. Not sure its worth it as the dovetails are junk so i might as well start over,.

Started cutting the dovetails today. Got the tails cut on the sides and got the pins cut on the top. Unfortunately, even though my practice piece was perfect, i had gaps galore big enough to get a big rig through. To top it all of the the top split in half when taking it apart. Today was not a good woodworking day. sigh

Another week gone and I’m a bit further on. The door panel glue up came out cupped which is what i wanted. I figured if the wood has curved its less for me to do. Unfortunately it curved on the inside face. I flattened the outside and let it be. Week later its perfectly flat on both sides. So then i moved onto cutting the curves and got to put my beam compass to good use. After lots of experimentation a 26″ radius curve looked the best which is good as that is the biggest i can draw. Getting the arc centred on your work piece is no mean feat. If your piece is not perfectly square you can’t just draw a centre line and centre your compass. It took a lot of fettling to get it to look right, it didn’t help that the direction of the grain made it look asymmetrical. Next was cutting it out. I started by trimming of the corners with a carcass saw tying to get as close to the line as i could. Then i used my spoke shave which didn’t really work so i settled on using my files and rasps. In what seemed forever i came up with this Again a lot of fettling was had to get it looking good. Then i traced the curve onto the second piece and repeated the process. I clamped the two pieces together so i could do the final finessing in one go and have the pieces identical. Next i sized the side pieces to final dimensions and i am now ready to cut the groove to hold the back and some dovetails, just as soon as i get a bit more practice in and decide what pattern i want. Im really happy with how this is coming together so far. It looks a nice size and hopefully everything will fit together nicely. Going to take my time with the joinery as I’m not sure after all the milling i have done i can face all the re-sawing I’m going to have to do to get the draw parts Im very tempted to order some thinner stock.

The door is in the clamps I think it will come in at not much under an inch thick assuming it doesn't curl on me. Plenty of thickness to get the curve. It has a small check at the top edge that I'm deliberately keeping as i want to put a small butterfly in. I think it will accent the door quite nicely. As the door is a panel I'm bound to have a gap somewhere on the join so i may put another butterfly in there as an off centre interest. I got the top sized, unfortunately the edges are parallel with each other but not with the panel glue up line. Doesn't really matter as you will only see it if you look from the top. Hopefully tomorrow i will get the bottom panel sized and can spend the day finding a pleasing curve for the front edges.

End of the day and i have the door parts milled. That was a mission. the larger board was twisted but i just couldn't find where. didn't help it has swirly grain so that threw the plane off. Managed to get there in the end though and i still have a good thickness left over. Hopefully tomorrow i will get the door panel glued up and the curves cut on the top and bottom.

Jeeze a whole month of on and off milling. I had serious issues with my planes but i seem to have most of them resolved. I have now got the carcass parts down to almost final thickness, and the shape is starting to appear. I am currently milling the door. Once i know what thickness that turns out to be then i can set the curves on the top and bottom and get all the parts to final sizes. Im currently off for a week to solely work on this project. I didn't get too much done so far as I'm still exhausted from work but hopefully from tomorrow i should see some real movement on this. The weeks aim is to get to the point i have a carcass that has joinery cut and fits together.

This cabinet is based on the second project from Tom Fidgen's 1st book made by hand. It is a small cabinet that will hold 6 small draws and a larger draw. The original uses half blind dovetails at the top of the carcass and through at the bottom. I'm aiming to just do through dovetails but if they don't work i will revert to joinery i know i can do. The only other tricky part is that the door is curved and will use knife hinges. The carcass and dividers will be maple, draw fronts will be walnut and purple heart and everything else will be what ever scraps i have lying around, probably oak. As always all done by hand. Day 1, I got all the parts cross cut. i have one rip to do. Tomorrow is a sharpening day ready for the heavy milling. I couldn't get the widths i needed so there are quite a few panels to glue up.

How thin can you go with draw sides that will be dovetailed? Im building a small cabinet that will hold 6 draws. The draw front will be 10cm wide 8.5cm tall to allow as much room as possible i was thinking of making the front 1cm thick and the back and sides 0.5cm. Will i be ok with 0.5cm thick parts or should i bump them up to 1cm and the front to 1.5cm? I'm deliberately using metric as i can't deal with fractions it translates as can i get away with slightly smaller than 1/4" stock for draw sides?

You could always put a foot treadle on it then you can go as slow as you like

I don't think post drills made it to this side of the pond i certainly haven't seen any. Instead we have these, this is my brads No 5. I am on the look out for one of these though i doubt i will ever find one.

IT’S FIXED And it was such an elementary thing as well. My friend took it to the Tyne Tunnel’s maintenance shop where the sailing clubs tractor is being repaired. They got the biggest vice they could find and managed to push the quill out. Turns out the previous owner had put it in backwards. The threaded holes are where you put some grub screws which bear down on the brass ring on the hand wheel, thus locking the wheel in place but allowing it to turn. The centre is not morse tapered and instead screws in. So either that dates my lathe to pre morse taper or Britannia never adopted them. So i won’t be able to use any modern parts without first getting or making a new quill. But i now have a working lathe as soon as i join the drive belt and i get my tailstock back I’ll try and do a little vid when i get it all working.

Well the tailstock barrel is proving a stubborn little fellow. It has got its self well and truly jammed in the tail stock. Cant get it out with a hammer so i soaked it for a few days in rust remover, cleaned it off and dowsed it in penetrating oil. Still won't move. Looks like I'm going to have to break the blow torch out and see if i can get the tailstock body to expand enough to tap it out. Hope it comes out in one piece as i don't really want to have to convert the whole lathe to modern tapers.