Sideboard

[Chet]

11 hours ago, Chestnut said:

Because poplar is super boring i'll be giving these a spray of dye before the final top coat.

Or you could paint them to match the wedding colors. 

[Chestnut]

21 minutes ago, Chet said:

Or you could paint them to match the wedding colors. 

I could but painting won't really go with the room. The walls and ceiling of the room are wood paneling and the room has a very much natural look to it.

2nd reason is I'm not touching a paintbrush again for at LEAST 5 years. To say i HATE painting would be an understatement. This has nothing to do with any opinions on painting wood either. Spraying with the HVLP is fun though.

[Chestnut]

I had a good weekend of work. After assembly of the case, I worked on the bottom shelf and prepping material for the doors. For the bottom shelf I wanted to use walnut but had some less than optimal material to use.

It's kinda hard to see in the picture but it's very obvious in person. I used some boards that were very very light in color. They were probably victims of over steaming to blend heartwood and sapwood. The small board on top is the color of the rest of the external material. I glued 2 wide boards together with a narrow board in the middle, it just worked out visually the best this way at least to my eyes. There was one portion that needed some epoxy to fix a knot hole. This should add a bit of character to the bottom.

With epoxy taking so long to fully cure I started working on prepping material for the doors. I still have a substantial amount of shorts that i got from a craig's list score. One would think that the shorts would be full of unsuitable material but the opposite is the case. The shorts had great color and contained a lot of rift sawn material that will work perfectly for door rails and stiles.

The material is very rough though which makes it difficult to determine grain and color. After jointing one face and planing the opposite paralle. I found that one piece that i thought would work out great ended up having really wild grain and sub optimal color.

Luckily i had another piece that could fill it that matched quite well. When selecting material for the rails I wanted to have some continuity in grain. I couldn't get a continuous piece all the way across the top and bottom, but I was able to get 3 pieces that had a flow that almost made it look continuous. After I had everything cleaned up so i could see the grain I selected parts that worked well and assigned every part a position on the door. I have more milling to do so I marked them all on the end grain to ensure I could keep everything strait.

 

[gee-dub]

Moving along and looking good ;-)

[pkinneb]

Looks great! Definitely some squirrely grain/color in that one piece

[Coop]

This sure is looking good Nut! 

I’m often surprised at how mismatched colors of the same species seem to blend together better than I thought, after applying a finish to them. I think I can handle that better than wonky grain mis-alignment . 

[Chestnut]

9 hours ago, Coop said:

I’m often surprised at how mismatched colors of the same species seem to blend together better than I thought, after applying a finish to them. I think I can handle that better than wonky grain mis-alignment . 

Defiantly true. I think i may have mentioned it in the post but the pictures do not to the color difference justice. It'd have looked off even with finish. I sometimes check with denatured alcohol or mineral spirits just to see what the finish will do for that reason.

[Chestnut]

So i left of trying to pick out material for the doors. I had the panel material set aside from the begging of the project but getting strait grain fro the rails and stiles was the trick. I think I managed to get it all figured out. almost all of the material is rift to quarter sawn stock. This was accomplished by taking the edges from wider thicker stock and milling to size.

After all the stock was selected and locations were assigned. I took the pieces to the table saw and cut everything to length. I used a miter gauge for this as it's so far my most accurate way to get cross cuts. I recently made a new zero clearance insert and it's reduced my tear out to zero which is nice. Before i made a new insert i was getting small amounts of tear out or is it blow out?

After cutting to length, it's time to cut the groove for the panel to make a frame and panel door. My favorite way to do this by far is at the router table with a slot cutting bit. I did the grooves on the sides with a strait bit and it was awful. My ears are still ringing months later. The slot cutter makes staring and stopping a bit less desirable, either you have to go further and run into the M&T, go strait through and then have to cut a full tongue, or do what I do and chisel out the corners. I'll cover why later.

With that done it's time to work on the panels that will fill in the doors. Like I said earlier in the post I've had this material set aside since the beginning of the project. I like to set aside my figured material and use it for door panels and drawer fronts. I typically resaw it to make it go further as well. I really like to try and use simple strait material for the structural parts and figured for panels. I just feel that doing that harmonizes better in a piece.

Unfortunately one of the pieces I had earmarked was a bit too narrow. It'll fit the opening but there isn't enough width to fully engage the groove on either side. Luckily Cremona covered this in his project because he had the same issue. So i grabbed some material and glued it on the sides. This material will never be seen, as it will be hidden in the groove. If it is seen I picked some strait grain stock that matches the stiles so it shouldn't be noticeable.

After the panel stock was jointed and planed to an even thickness resawing was completed. After resawing a couple hours went by feeding the pieces through the drum sander. Super boring process but resulted in this....

Pre-finishing panels is underway.

[pkinneb]

Those panels look awesome!

[Mark J]

Thought just popped into my head, Chestnut,  if you're still planning to have your wedding guests sign the inside of the door you might want to pick up an archival ink pen for the purpose.  That's what a lot of turners use to sign their pieces.  Hobby Lobby and Dick Blick have them.  By the way, I usually put the ink on the bare wood, then apply the surface coatings.  I've never had a problem with my varnish, but you'll want to test what works with the coatings you use.  

[Chestnut]

58 minutes ago, Mark J said:

Thought just popped into my head, Chestnut,  if you're still planning to have your wedding guests sign the inside of the door you might want to pick up an archival ink pen for the purpose.  That's what a lot of turners use to sign their pieces.  Hobby Lobby and Dick Blick have them.  By the way, I usually put the ink on the bare wood, then apply the surface coatings.  I've never had a problem with my varnish, but you'll want to test what works with the coatings you use.  

Ya gotta wake up earlier than now to beat Megan. She already discussed marker options and had me buy some and complete some tests. We decided on these. Most of the colors work great on walnut but there are some that don't show up. We just won't bring the colors that don't work as well along.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DPLQJVN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I intend to let people do what ever they wish. If they want to use colors and paint a picture I'll invite them to be as detailed as they wish. I am struggling with being optimistic about this though. As the day draws near it feels like less and less people will be able to be at the wedding. I'd love to have everyone I know sign these things so in 50 years when i open these doors the signatures/doodles can be there as a reminder. I hope the ink won't fade much, i expect it will some, but these will be close 99.9% of the time. I will be putting a coat of finish over top.

[gee-dub]

Coming right along.  that book-matched panel material looks great.

[Mark J]

I have heard that not everything that is "permanent" is actually so.  I don't know what the truth is, but the wood art collector/maker crowd get their shorts knotted up about this.  That's why I bought "archival ink" pens to mark my pieces --just in case I become famous one day and it matters.  Since these signatures are inside the cabinet and not exposed to light there may not be an issue, but just thought I'd share the thought.  

Not at all thorough, but here's a couple of web pages:  

https://sciencing.com/contained-permanent-marker-5070622.html

https://blog.penvibe.com/sharpies-fade/

[Chestnut]

6 minutes ago, Mark J said:

I have heard that not everything that is "permanent" is actually so.  I don't know what the truth is, but the wood art collector/maker crowd get their shorts knotted up about this.  That's why I bought "archival ink" pens to mark my pieces --just in case I become famous one day and it matters.  Since these signatures are inside the cabinet and not exposed to light there may not be an issue, but just thought I'd share the thought.  

Not at all thorough, but here's a couple of web pages:  

https://sciencing.com/contained-permanent-marker-5070622.html

https://blog.penvibe.com/sharpies-fade/

Meh it'll stick around long enough for my purposes. In 100 years i doubt anyone will be able to determine who the signatures belonged to, let alone care if they are faded. Will they fade to nothing ... idk I probably won't be around. In 4 billion years the sun is going to burn the earth away to nothing any way so all is helpless.... .

[drzaius]

24 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

In 4 billion years the sun is going to burn the earth away to nothing any way so all is helpless.... .

Nihilism at its finest.

[Bmac]

15 hours ago, Mark J said:

I have heard that not everything that is "permanent" is actually so.  I don't know what the truth is, but the wood art collector/maker crowd get their shorts knotted up about this.  That's why I bought "archival ink" pens to mark my pieces --just in case I become famous one day and it matters.  Since these signatures are inside the cabinet and not exposed to light there may not be an issue, but just thought I'd share the thought.  

Not at all thorough, but here's a couple of web pages:  

https://sciencing.com/contained-permanent-marker-5070622.html

https://blog.penvibe.com/sharpies-fade/

Interesting, I've noticed sharpies do not hold up and have been burning my signatures lately. What "archival pen" are you using.

[Mark J]

3 hours ago, Bmac said:

Interesting, I've noticed sharpies do not hold up and have been burning my signatures lately. What "archival pen" are you using.

I guess the brand is Pigma.  I've seen them at Hobby Lobby and Blick's.  Here's a picture:

A lot of people prefer to burn their signatures and that's probably best.  My name is long and my hand writting is crap so I came up with a hallmark and had a branding iron made.  I use the archival pen to put a number and date on the piece.

[Chestnut]

19 hours ago, Mark J said:

I have heard that not everything that is "permanent" is actually so.  I don't know what the truth is, but the wood art collector/maker crowd get their shorts knotted up about this.  That's why I bought "archival ink" pens to mark my pieces --just in case I become famous one day and it matters.  Since these signatures are inside the cabinet and not exposed to light there may not be an issue, but just thought I'd share the thought.  

Not at all thorough, but here's a couple of web pages:  

https://sciencing.com/contained-permanent-marker-5070622.html

https://blog.penvibe.com/sharpies-fade/

Ok I guess i do care. I've spent probably 4 hours researching markers now. From what I can tell there are metallic particles in the sharpie markers so the metallic ones should be somewhat light fast BUT it's uncertain. What I'm going to do is mark on a board that's been sealed and set it outside in direct sunlight for a week or 2 and see what happens. I'll put painters tape over part of the marks so i have a baseline, I"ll also mark another piece and keep that inside.

I bought a set of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072KDJ9PL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 after finding a recommendation on an art website.

[Mark J]

1 minute ago, Chestnut said:

I've spent probably 4 hours researching markers now.

I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to do that to you.  

[pkinneb]

Drew what are you using for door hinges on this project?

 

[Chestnut]

So I've been chugging along on this. I got the door panels pre-finished and the doors assembled. This was very uneventful and i'll share pictures of the finished doors when i get to hanging them in the openings. For the last 12 days I've been working on drawers. It really has only been about 4 days of shop time. With summer i get easily distracted with outside projects.

Drawers stated with milling down some of the Birch i bought a year ago. It's dried to 13/16" and has some twist and bow so once it gets jointed and planed even smaller parts are down to 5/8" which is perfect for drawers.

I took the drawers a bit further and mine ended up near 1/2" but i never measured so lets just call it .5683" thick. After drawers were cut to thickness I cut them to rough length and then cut a groove for the drawer bottom. I did the groove with the table saw and a regular blade and just made 3 passes for a groove that was like 0.3769" wide. I'll make bottoms to fit perfectly and can't be bothered with exact dimensions.

After grooving I squared 1 end and cut all the drawer sides to exact length. My drawers are going to be 16" wide and 15.25" deep and the sides are 5.25" tall. I'm going to have to do some sort of stacked insert in the drawers as they will be too tall to be fully usable. I think fancy silverware trays with handles to lift in and out would be nice and leave a couple inches underneath for random storage... I'm getting ahead of myself here.

After drawer sides were cut the fronts were trimmed to fit the openings. This was done with a miter gauge and some paper to nail the exact angles. The openings aren't square so I'm not making the drawers square. I just make each one to fit. I then cut drawer backs to 15 15/16" which is exactly 1/16" shorter than the fronts. This creates a tapered drawer that is guaranteed to not stick in the opening. Huh exact cut fronts sides and rear pats ... must be dovetails involved... .

So I'm doing "handcut" dovetails but I'm using my band saw and table saw really just to remove waste instead of a handsaw. I've never been good with a handsaw and frankly don't have the patients for it. Not sure why it's just not my thing. I have a 1:8 jig for my band saw that makes real easy work of the tails. I did some rough layout and just went to town sawing out tails.

I use the fence to set the saw line, then sliding the jig and the work piece in you get that good dovetail angle. I had scribed the thickness of the material on all the parts so I knew how far to cut. Then you flip the jig over and make another cut, flip end for end 3rd cut, flip over 4th cut. Rinse and repeat until all the drawer sides have tails cut. I used the saw to nibble out most of the waste in the middle and then cleaned up to the scribe line with a chisel. When you lay out make sure that the groove is captured in a tail.

Following cutting tails is cutting pins. I do the plane method to  raise the work piece up a bit.

The groove we cut earlier is going to come in handy and there is a reason it was cut first. I made a little piece that fits in the groove and allows you to set the front/back and side so the groove will perfectly line up. This allows you to cut perfect dove tails even if your sides aren't 100% identical size.

With the piece in the groove holding the side to side alignment. I get the board positioned perfectly to mark some pins. This also eliminates the blue tape method or #140 trick (aka rabbet trick). I've done those and they work but I like this one better.

After I mark the ends i use a square to extend the lines down the face. I drop a marking gauge in the knife line on the edge of the board and then slide the square up to the knife to make sure positioning is perfect.

I do cut a knife line on both front and back, it helps eliminate blow out but also helps the next step. After making the faces I cut the waste out with the band saw and table saw. I make the initial cut on the bad saw to establish the extents. This is necessary and you could skip it but I like the added assurance.

Then i take the piece to the table saw. I have the blade set to a hair under the thickness of the material I'm using. Then i make a bunch of passes with a miter gauge to nibble away the waste in between the pins. There are many ways to do this but this one works for me. If i could get an apprentice that worked for free that'd be my ideal way. Until that happens I'll use this or one of the many other ways.

After waste removed.

This leaves pins that need refinement. I like to do this with a backer board at the leg vise. I start by using my ~12mm dovetail chisel to sever the fibers along the base line from the face closet to me all the way to the back. These nice Japanese chisels have a very sharp corner and work great for this. The steel the are made from is also excellent and they pare end grain beautifully. In the picture below the stroke goes from bottom to top. you can see on the left the pins that are cleaned up. I'm trying to cut back to that angle.

After the fibers are severed I stand the chisel on it's side and pare back roughly following the sribed lined in the end gran.

I repeat severing the fibers and parking back twice before I go for the knife line. On the 3rd stroke I sever the base fibers again and then drop the knife in the vertical knife line and par back. I make sure the chisel is angled out so if something slips or splits I'm leaving material behind instead of diving into the good material. Rinse and repeat for 4 pins per end, or 16 pins per drawer, or 48 pins for the project.

On 8/29/2020 at 10:23 AM, pkinneb said:

Drew what are you using for door hinges on this project?

Horton Brass butt hinges in Dark Antique (https://www.horton-brasses.com/PB-409.asp) I also got some knobs for the drawers from Horton Brass in the same Dark Antique. I guess the knobs and hinges aren't lacquored so the finish wears off a bit with time giving it a nice antique look. I think it'll look great on this piece.

 

[Coop]

Drew, great instructional, verbal and pics. I remember building a guild project of Marc’s a few years ago where he used the jig for the tails on the bs and it worked great. I like the idea of the backer board when finessing the pins. Thanks for sharing. 

[wtnhighlander]

Very informative, Drew. Do you have a rule of thumb to go by for determining when the drawer width to depth ratio is like to cause racking problems?

Nice trick, tapering the depth to prevent sticking.

 

[Coop]

Sorry if you have already indicated but what type of glides will you be using or am I getting ahead of you? Gotta be wood tongue and groove as mechanical glides don’t support a non square application but don’t see a groove yet. 

[Chestnut]

9 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

Do you have a rule of thumb to go by for determining when the drawer width to depth ratio is like to cause racking problems?

Not particularly, The 8 Drawer Dresser in Walnut I made had drawers that were 32" x 22" and they have no problems. I'd keep it under 2:1 width to length.

I guess I'm not always sure what someone defines as a problem. By  no problems i mean the drawer slides in and out effortlessly. If you pull side to side on the knob the drawer will rack but doesn't stick.

I also am a STRONG opponent of 2 handled drawers. Had them on my childhood dresser and it's impossible to open the drawer or close the drawer 1 handed without it sticking.

9 hours ago, Coop said:

Sorry if you have already indicated but what type of glides will you be using or am I getting ahead of you? Gotta be wood tongue and groove as mechanical glides don’t support a non square application but don’t see a groove yet. 

I'll take some pictures for a future post but it's going to just be simple bottom edge supported with a runner and side constrained by a rail. Not doing grooves or anything super special like that. I should but i always forget to plan it out.