Record Cabinet

[bradpotts]

1 hour ago, wtnhighlander said:

Veneering seems like painstaking work, but the results are undeniable!

Yeah it is a lot more work, but the choices in woods makes it worth the trouble. 

[bradpotts]

For the rabbets that I am cutting around the panels, I use this rabbeting bit set from Whiteside. It has come in very handy over the years. The rabbets are 3/16x3/16. 

Before I cut the rabbits, on the crossgrain, I like to score the veneer with a knife before I cut them. This eliminates the tear out. 

Rabbets cut and anything extra cleaned up with a shoulder plane. 

There were some little pieces that were missing that broke off before glue up. I thought this would be a perfect time to address them. The most noticeable one. 

I used a chisel to get rid of any underlying glue. Then I took a piece of packing tape and traced around the missing piece. 

I found a similar grain color and direction and cut the piece out. 

Glued it in using super glue. 

Then trimmed the excess off. 

Then I moved on to cutting the shelves down to size and getting them ready for the edging. 

Then I cut the edging out of a holly board that I had, making them just over 3/16x3/16

 

[gee-dub]

This is a great ride-a-long.  Thanks for sharing your process.  +1 on the Whiteside rabbet set being handy.

[treeslayer]

I agree, what a great ride, beautiful work !

[bradpotts]

I got started adding the edging. I mitered the edges and glued it down. I just used tape as clamps to hold it down. 

After removing the tape.

Same process for the shelves. 

Here is a little trick when doing miters like this. If you try and glue the piece down while fitting your miters, they always have a tendency to move on you. What I do for this is use titebond quick and thick and glue the edging together making it one piece. Then glue the whole piece into place. 

Finally got an idea of what this is going to look like. 

 

[bradpotts]

I got the backs veneered and the dividers. 

I am now on the painstaking work of trimming up the edging. This gets tricky because I do not want to burn through the veneer. I am using a hand plane and scraper to clean them up. 

 

[BillyJack]

Good work.... Be careful with the finishing. I've seen a lot of good work turn ugly on the finishing..

[bradpotts]

On 5/4/2021 at 8:15 AM, BillyJack said:

Good work.... Be careful with the finishing. I've seen a lot of good work turn ugly on the finishing..

Ha ha no pressure. 

[Coop]

Looking dang good! Wish I had that much patience and skill!

[bradpotts]

On 5/5/2021 at 8:05 PM, Coop said:

Looking dang good! Wish I had that much patience and skill!

ha ha I think the patience is the skill! 

[Chet]

3 hours ago, bradpotts said:

ha ha I think the patience is the skill! 

I think this skill is the biggest thing that differentiates fine woodworking from woodworking.

[bradpotts]

I was finally able to get some of my other projects under control and start to focus on this again. I cut the dominos in the sides and the shelves. I probably went a little crazy but better to be safe than sorry. 

I am still waiting on the backer veneer for the back of the backs. So I turned my focus to the feet. First thing I did was to make a template and make sure that I liked the size on the cabinet. Then glued up some blocks of poplar and got to cutting. I used the my miter saw to cut the ten degree angles on all of them. 

After I had them all cut, I trimmed all of them down to the same size. I did this with my crosscut sled, scrap piece cut to 10 degrees and a clamp. 

Today I will work on veneering all of them. 

[bradpotts]

Here is what I came up with to glue the veneer onto the legs. I just took an extra piece of the 10 degree off cut and glued it to the mdf cauls. Sometimes I had to used another clamp holding the caul and the leg down to keep it from sliding up after applying the glue. I used 15 min epoxy to glue it down. It seems like this isn't as slippery as veneer glue. 

[bradpotts]

I put the edging on the sides of the legs. I used the rabbiting bit showed earlier in the thread. I set the bit with this jig. It is super easy to make and has come in extremely handy. It is just a harbor freight caliper held into a piece of mdf by a bolt. 

After I cut all the rabbits, I cut the edging. It was leftover from the offcuts from the other edging. 

I taped all of the edging on similar to what I did in previous steps. Cleaned everything up with a scraper. 

There are a couple reasons to put the edging on the veneers. 1st it protects the corners of the veneer. 2nd it helps with sanding through the edges and it also adds some detail. 3rd it helps with any chip out that might have happened when trimming the veneer. 

[Mick S]

Really exceptional work, Brad! Loving this build.

[wtnhighlander]

That's cool, Brad! I jave one of those calipers, but can't seem to keep batteries in it. Does yours drain them quickly?

[pkinneb]

2 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

That's cool, Brad! I jave one of those calipers, but can't seem to keep batteries in it. Does yours drain them quickly?

I had the same issue and ended up going back to a non battery version

[Mark J]

15 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

That's cool, Brad! I jave one of those calipers, but can't seem to keep batteries in it. Does yours drain them quickly?

That seems to be par for the course with these types of tools.  I have taken to storing them with the battery compartments ajar, so the batteries are disconnected.  

[gee-dub]

On 5/14/2021 at 5:44 PM, wtnhighlander said:

That's cool, Brad! I jave one of those calipers, but can't seem to keep batteries in it. Does yours drain them quickly?

I primarily use non-battery calipers. I cannibalized this iGaging thing for a height gauge similar to Brad's.  I can't remember the last time I swapped batteries.  Probably a year? 

In contrast I tried an iGaging tilt box and the thing ate a battery a week before being returned.

[bradpotts]

On 5/14/2021 at 6:44 PM, wtnhighlander said:

That's cool, Brad! I jave one of those calipers, but can't seem to keep batteries in it. Does yours drain them quickly?

Yeah mine does drain the batteries quick. I think it is because on these types if you move the caliper at all it turns on. Maybe it wouldn't be such an issue if it only turned on or off with the button. I usually just keep a bunch of batteries laying around. I usually have to change them about every 3-4 months. 

[bradpotts]

I started on the inlay banding for the top. When using veneer or cutting veneered plywood, its important to not chip out the veneer on the end grain. To avoid this, I first start by taking an exacto knife and a square to scoring a line where my spiral downcut but is going to run. Then I place the bit on the line. I spin the bit by hand with it touching the veneer. I use the outside of the bit mark to adjust my square. Then I score another line on the opposite side. This will keep your veneer from chipping out. 

Then go ahead and cut the veneer. I cut mine 3/16 wide by 1/8 deep. I use a bosch router with a bosch edge guide. Then cleaned up the corners with a chisel. 

Made all of the holly banding. Cut it with a little miter gauge jig and pull saw. Then adjusted the fit with a shooting plane on a 45. Cleaned it up with a plane and card scraper. 

 

[Chet]

18 hours ago, gee-dub said:

In contrast I tried an iGaging tilt box and the thing ate a battery a week

Thats interesting, I have one that is 17 months old and still works on the factory battery. (I did run out to the shop and check before posting this.) 

[Chestnut]

I have a Mitutoyo and have had the same battery in it for the last 6 years. I have seen online reviews that the more budget calipers use electronics that have very high current draws even 10 fold that of the Mitutoyo even off, which results in the battery dying quickly even when not used. Knockoffs are highly prevalent in this field as well and the knockoff tools have poor performance.

Though at the price difference you can buy a LOT of batteries... and woodworkign doesn't really need any additional precision that may or may not be offered.

[bradpotts]

I worked on the back of the backs today. I decided this is an expensive piece of furniture let's try something that I have never done before.  I decided to get paperbacked veneer and attach it with contact cement. I started off by cutting the veneer down. I bought two pieces that came 2'x8'. 

 

Then I sanded both the mdf and the veneer sheet with 80 grit sand paper until they were no longer shiny. Then I applied the contact cement to both the mdf and veneer. I first tried to apply it with a glue roller. This left too much glue. I then used a squeegee. This was way better at spreading the glue evenly.  Here is the contact cement that I used. 

I let the glue dry until it was shiny and didn't look like there was glue on there. It took about 35 minutes. Then I just put the two pieces together trying to keep them straight. This was a little difficult because you pretty much only get one shot. Once they are together, I used a flattening tool to get a good bond. I started in the center and worked my way to the ends. Then moved up and down the veneer starting at the center every time. Here is the tool I used. 

They turned out well. 

Although this was a good learning experience, I don't think I will use this method very often. There are a couple things that I don't like about this approach. 1st the glue doesn't every dry hard. Because this piece is recessed into dados, it is not a big deal. However it doesn't feel like it will hold up as well as using veneer glue. 2nd, It's a mess. This stuff is hard to clean off of things. 3rd, you have pretty much one shot at putting the veneer on the panel the way you want it. 

I can see where this can come in handy though. If you needed to put veneer on something that you were unable to put into a vacuum bag or clamps, this would be the way to go. All in all, a great skill to have learned but it has a special place in the veneering world. 

 

[Chestnut]

49 minutes ago, bradpotts said:

I can see where this can come in handy though. If you needed to put veneer on something that you were unable to put into a vacuum bag or clamps, this would be the way to go. All in all, a great skill to have learned but it has a special place in the veneering world. 

The technique seems awfully similar to hammer veneering but with the drawbacks of not getting to adjust much. Have you thought about trying hammer veneering in situations like you outlined above? There is also the PVA iron on method that seems interesting and could have some promise in situations where possible edge peeling is limited.

For those that aren't familiar the PVA iron on method is as follows. Coat both the veneer back and substrate with pva glue 2-3 layers and let it dry. Shortly after it dries position the veneer and use a warm-hot iron to reactivate the glue and attach the veneer to the substrate.