Sideboard

[Chestnut]

I guess I'm basing this off of Matt Cremona's sideboard enough that i can reference it. I mentioned in a few other threads that I'm going to make a Sideboard where I will use the interior of the doors as the guestbook for Megan and I's upcoming wedding (provided it can happen).

Here is the plan.

A good portion of this project will be made from walnut that I got in a batch on craig's list. A guy was selling a couple 8/4 boards for $8/bf and threw in a bunch of scraps. The scraps are 6/4 rough and should plane and joint out to a hair over an inch. I'll probably take them down a bit further though to the thinnest common board.

So far i have leg stock milled with the curve laid out and I'm working on grooves and joinery.

I'm going to do some traditional style joinery with structural dovetails tying pieces together instead of just M&T. It's going to be fun to try some new techniques.

For a warm up I made a card box to set out and hope that people put money in at our wedding reception. I'm not above begging if needed.

[RichardA]

Begging at one time in history, was a professionally respected trade.

[Ronn W]

Looking forward to following this.

[JohnG]

Following!

[treeslayer]

I’m in 

[Coop]

Just curious. Why is one side of the card box shorter than the other three? 

[Chestnut]

9 hours ago, Coop said:

Just curious. Why is one side of the card box shorter than the other three? 

That's the money slot ... er card slot.

[Chestnut]

So frame and panel construction isn't the most exciting so i skipped some of the repetitive parts and skipped to the fun parts. Sides together and long rails cut brings us here.

The stock for the horizontal dividers is sitting on top. I cut it to length accounting for 1.25" tenons and dovetails. After cutting to length I cut  the shoulders on one end. This allowed me to dimension the exact location of the other shoulder from the project. The tenons aren't the exact same length as a result but it doesn't matter much if one is 1.2" and the other is 1.3". After the shoulders were cut i cut a dovetail onto the ends of the top divider.

After a bit a chopping the tail was cleaned up and it was time to scribe the socket on top of the leg. I used a forstner bit to remove the waste and then diligently worked my way back to the scribe line with chisels.

They aren't perfect but after working In i got a tight fit and it locks the legs together really well.

The lower horizontal divider will have a twin tenon. I cut these at the bandsaw. The tenons are 3/8" with 1/4" in between and 1/8" on either side. I make sure to stay away from the baseline.

After cutting the bulk at the bandsaw cleanup with a chisel to the baseline is pretty easy.

Tenons first is a bit more tricky than mortise first but it makes layout somewhat easier in a way. I clamped a board to two faces of the leg and then scribed around the outside of the tenon.

After scribing the lines, i removed the bulk of the waste with the drill press and chiseled to the lines. On the long grain portions i made sure that i kept the chisel as square to the face as I could as that is where the good glue connection comes from.

Fit like a glove.

With the horizontal dividers done now it's on to the vertical dividers.

[pkinneb]

Nice work Drew!

[treeslayer]

Nice work Drew I always enjoy your builds and since my lumber yard is shut down due to the virus I’ll enjoy following along

[Tom King]

Looking great.  Probably useless information, but I use Iwasaki wood files for fine tuning tenons for good fits in mortises.  Might seem like cheating, but it works, and leaves smooth surfaces.  They clean up the sides of through mortises too.  I think they call the finest ones Extreme Fine, and those are the ones I use the most.

[Chestnut]

9 hours ago, Tom King said:

Looking great.  Probably useless information, but I use Iwasaki wood files for fine tuning tenons for good fits in mortises.  Might seem like cheating, but it works, and leaves smooth surfaces.  They clean up the sides of through mortises too.  I think they call the finest ones Extreme Fine, and those are the ones I use the most.

That is an excellent idea. I'll have to look into those files. I've used metal ones before but i always feel like I'm doing something wrong there.

[JohnG]

I've used a fine file on some tight dovetails before, worked well.

[Chet]

14 hours ago, Tom King said:

Might seem like cheating,

 

5 hours ago, Chestnut said:

i always feel like I'm doing something wrong there.

Not really on either count.  Your just using a woodworking tool to do woodworking.  Just part of the journey.

[pkinneb]

I'm with @Chet the right tool for the job. I started using rasps when I did my sculpted bar stools I started with 2 I now have almost a dozen and use them all the time. Case and point my recent digital movie poster frame I used a small riffler to clean up the inside corners after I routed the 1/8" round over  

[Chestnut]

Rasps and files designed for woodworking are 1 thing. I was just grabbing a metalworking file though. I imagine that there is some sort of sacrilege about using a metalworking tool for woodworking.

[JohnG]

That’s what I used. Just a cheap Nicholson “Handy” file. It cuts slowly but leaves a nice finish. I have a few specific wood files and rasps but they are all on the coarse side. 

[Tom King]

The Iwasaki files cut really fast. 

[wtnhighlander]

On 5/13/2020 at 1:13 PM, Chestnut said:

Rasps and files designed for woodworking are 1 thing. I was just grabbing a metalworking file though. I imagine that there is some sort of sacrilege about using a metalworking tool for woodworking.

Single-cut metal files leave a nice, shiny surface on wood. Just consider them a variation of a chisel or plane. 

[Chip Sawdust]

I fine tune dovetails with a steel rule that has sticky sandpaper on one side (I think it's 120 grit). I found it's best to put the sandpaper on the side without the markings, but I digress... The rule isn't real stiff like a rasp, but a well-placed finger guides it to where it needs to go. Also really good for putting a tiny angle on the backside, more helpful when you're working hard woods.

Drew, my wife suggested that you take the boards you want signed, and if people aren't able to attend in person, mail it to them for signatures, then they can mail it to the next person and so on. It'll take more time, but it'll be what you wanted.

PS that sideboard is taking shape nicely

[Chestnut]

6 hours ago, Chip Sawdust said:

Drew, my wife suggested that you take the boards you want signed, and if people aren't able to attend in person, mail it to them for signatures, then they can mail it to the next person and so on. It'll take more time, but it'll be what you wanted.

That's a cool idea. We're still reasonably confidant that the current situation won't totally inconvenience us. In a way it may just reduce the guest list and save us some money.

[Coop]

Less attendance, less donations, err uh, cards. But less attendance, less open bar tab. Almost makes you want to go to the courthouse and just sign the papers , doesn’t it? Just one GUYS opinion. 

[pkinneb]

10 hours ago, Coop said:

Less attendance, less donations, err uh, cards. But less attendance, less open bar tab. Almost makes you want to go to the courthouse and just sign the papers , doesn’t it? Just one GUYS opinion. 

Careful Coop I mentioned that to my youngest last week and she lost it, I felt terrible 

They did push their ceremony/ reception to July 2021 so that's good but they  still want to be married this year so they plan to have a small ceremony in August I'm like you know you can go to the court house and in 5 min be legally married right...yeah not the right thing to say!  I feel bad for them but my normally very intelligent and grounded daughter is so emotionally tied to this dang wedding its unbelievable. 

[Chip Sawdust]

Girls dream of a big, beautiful wedding from a very young age. That may sound sexist this day and age, but I've seen it in so many that I can state, at least empirically, that it's a fact. Some really hold hard to that dream. She'll forgive you

[Chet]

45 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

my normally very intelligent and grounded daughter is so emotionally tied to this dang wedding its unbelievable. 

I know it has to be different in today's situation but when our daughter was going through this we found that the safest and sanest thing to do was stand back out of the way and just sign the checks.