Stickly / Shaker hybrid display cabinet

[wtnhighlander]

Tackled one of the more pucker-inducing steps of the project, sliding dovetails to join the frame & panel sides with the web frames.

I used gauge blocks to repeatably align my edge guide to the slot center.

I used some othe 'gauge blocks' to set the bit depth. First a 1/4" straight bit to open the way, then a DT bit. The sliver of wood seen here sets the straight bit a hair shy of final depth.

After routing the DT slots, I used a scrap from the web frame stock to set my router table fence for a perfect fitting dovetail. Then I proceded to cut the tails on the end pieces of the web frames. The giant push block lets me safely run these skinny pieces tight to the fence.

... and of course, they all came out too tight. Argh! I spent my remaining time fettling the first frame into a smooth fit. Sliding DTs sure are a pain to fit, but really nice, once they do.

For other unfortunates that may fall into this particular problem, I found the quickest way to shave the tails to size was with the corner of a chisel. Tilted back on the upper edge, and forward at the handle, it was easy to match the DT angle and keep the 'safe' side of the chisel against the shoulder.

[wtnhighlander]

Scrape, sand test. 

Rinse and repeat.

At last, the dovetails fit.

Going in ...

... and standing up.

An observation to absolve myself of excusing my lack of skills on cheap tools. I mentioned earlier that the DTs didn't fit, although my test piece did. All the web frame stock was from offcuts / scraps I had on hand, and all milled together. However, one frame (and the test piece) was of oak, where the others were walnut. The oak test piece, and the oak frame, fit right off the machines. The walnut frames, made on the exact same setup, came out oversized, somehow. 

I guess now we can blame the species??   Anyone else observed this?

[treeslayer]

13 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

I guess now we can blame the species??   Anyone else observed this?

all the time ! looking great Ross

[Mark J]

My guess is that while being cut, the wood fibers also compress and then relax.  This will be different for different species.   

[wtnhighlander]

After taking down the last of the Christmas decor, I spent a little time fitting the middle divider.

The dividers are rabbeted into the sides, and the frames are in sliding dovetails. Opposing tension & compression holds it in shape without glue. Next step is a face frame. Back to the salt mines tommorrow, so shop time will be drastically reduced. 

[wtnhighlander]

Spent some time milling face frame stock this morning. Being jointerless, I rely on planes (both electric and meat powered) to establish a straight edge and flat-ish face. I use an aluminum straight edge to test the edges, but just use the mark-one eyeball gauge for the faces. To give you an idea of what'm up against with this gnarly walnut, here is the eyeball view of a 5-ish foot long stick, before planing.

And here it is after:

The battery powered plane gets a lot of grief from "real" woodworkers, but it sure is great for hogging away the excess material. I still rely on my Bailey #7 for the last few strokes, though. Then it goes to the big yellow scream machine for thicknessing. I now have the frame stock ready to cut joinery...

[Mark J]

Kudos to you.  I think straightening that curve would even have been a challenge for floor standing jointer.   And you managed to preserve the board's thickness. 

[wtnhighlander]

@Mark J, hand planes (electric or not) really shine in this case, because it is simple the sight along the board and mark the spots to hit. A jointer machine is more difficult to use this way, but not impossible. But folks generally remove stock from only one side until it is flat when using a jointer, so more stock is lost in the end.

[wtnhighlander]

Worked on the face frame stiles today. I cut slots & splines to keep them aligned when glue time comes.

The look a bit too wide, probably going to rip off a little more before cutting the rails to fit.

[wtnhighlander]

It's been a month ... I almost forgot what I needed to do next. Anyway, I had some shop time this morning, and used it to add floating tenon joints to the face frame.

I use this guide bushing and a very simple jig to route the mortices.

The 'jig' has cross-hairs to align to the center of the mortice. Once the width is centered, I screwed a fence to the bottom of the platform, so only the long dimension is adjustable. A clamp holds the fence against the reference face of the workpiece. The results are like so:

Now I needed some tenon stock. Good thing I keep the tiniest off-cuts until the project is complete! There were several pieces of 3/8" thick scrap to match the routed mortise. Most of my workbench and tablesaw was covered by the dry-assembled carcase, so I started marking and cutting parts by hand. Setup blocks made a perfect 1" quick jig to mark by.

... but then I realized, "You have a bandsaw, doofus!"  So I cut them on the bandsaw, and sanded the edges round.

The assembked face frame (still dry) made the case rigid enough to maneuver off the work surfaces and onto the floor.

Still needs a couple clamps to hold it together, but now I have freedom / space to start building the back panel. LOML wants a vertical grooved "texture", and a lighter color to brighten the inside. Probably going to use some white oak at my disposal, but on the fence about doing a straight-up T&G panel of pretty narrow boards, or laminating the strips to a plywood backer.

Any thoughts?

[Mark J]

11 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

It's been a month ... I almost forgot what I needed to do next.

Happens to me, too.  Sometimes I actually leave myself a note as to what to do next. 

11 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

a lighter color to brighten the inside. Probably going to use some white oak at my disposal,

Full disclosure, oak has never been one of my favorite woods.  But I'm wondering if its strong grain pattern might look busy in a display cabinet?  Of course, you can't beat the price on "already paid for" oak.

[wtnhighlander]

@Mark J, I think you will be surprised. This is clear white oak, not red, so the texture of the grain is much smoother. Also, I ripped 2 4/4 boards (13" wide and 8" wide) into 5/8" thick strips. Turned edge to edge, this gives me almost 34" of panel, and a very uniform vertical grain. Crappy photo, but maybe you can tell through the burn marks.

In person, the grain is much like the riibon-stripe of quarter-sawn sepele, but lighter in color.

Now I need to clean my saw blade again... 

 

[Chet]

I don't know what the left side looks like but appears that the right side, side panels are going to have some real impressive grain once there is finish on them.

[Mark J]

That's a good look, and definitely better than cathedral grain oak (which is what I was envisioning).

[Chestnut]

I really like the white oak strip idea. White oak and walnut complement each other pretty nicely, espically if the oak isn't stained and just left natural.

This build is looking good. I agree with chet that side panel is going to look awesome with finish on.

[wtnhighlander]

A little more progress this weekend. After running the strips through the planer to smooth all 4 sides, I played with arrangement of the parts to find the most pleasing grain.

Next, I cobbled up a jig to hold the strips securely so I could groove the edges to accept splines. Setup / 1-2-3 blocks for the win, once again:

Sorry, that last pic is rotated 180.

In the end, the strips will be joined as if tongue & groove. 

I still need to chamfer the corners, so the complete panel will have the visible grooves that LOML requested.

[Coop]

Ross, I’m impressed with the spline idea! You said you ran all of the strips thru the planer and the strips are 5/8” thick. Did you batch several together to plane the edges? 

[wtnhighlander]

Yes, Ken. Three to 5 at a time, on edge. Some of the strips have a bit of bow, so jointing one edge would have removed too much width. They are flexible enough to clamp straight, so I just used the planer to get them smooth and uniform.

[wtnhighlander]

Sorry, pic is upside-down.

I found this bit in my collection, which cuts a chamfer more like 60* than 45*. 

A test of the setup, just right. Now it is obvious why more than a butt joint is needed. Sorry, I forgot to photograph the short fence I cobbled up to deal with the bow some of the slats have.

Since my saw and bench are all the available assembly space, a box of cheap kitchen cling wrap protects them from glue. This promises to be a messy one!

Even with the bench / saw table as cauls, and 2 sticks of angle iron to distribute the clamping force, I still need to tackle small sections at a time, lest it fold up like an accordion. That's all for today.

Please, dear reader - don't take this as a recommended approach to producing a beaded panel. This is more of me making lemonade from the 'lemons' of material on hand. Slow, tedious, messy lemonade that stands a good chance of catastrophic failure....

[Coop]

Looks like you pretty much have it under control! But should it not, think roll top desk as your next project!

[wtnhighlander]

Spring yard work got rained out, so I spent a little time in the shop.

After adding the last couple of slats to the back panel, I broke nown the carcase to prep and pre-finish the interior before final assembly. One last step before sanding was to add shelf pin holes.

Arranging the side panels like a book match ensures the holes are aligned properly. I used the T-square and a couple of setup blocks to mark them at 2" spacing, 1.5" from the edges. I just put a couple of holes above and below center of each cabinet space, to allow minor adjustment of a floating shelf in each compartment.

Blue tape, a brad-point bit, and a scrap block to set the Hole depth and keep it straight. All contribute to a clean hole.

Final touch is to lightly chamfer the edge of the hole. This counter-sink is intended for metal work. Mounted in an un-attached drill chuck, I just give it a couple turns by hand. Too much can make the shelf pin wobbly.

[wtnhighlander]

I spent a little time on the cabinet today, cutting a rabbet / rebate for the back panel to fit in. An unfortunate router bit slippage left a gouge.

It will be really had to see inside the finished piece, I'll probably just glue in a patch. However, distrust of the machine forced me to complete the task with chisels and router planes.

Now for an argument against dragging a project out as ling as this one: I stacked the rabbeted case on top of the back panel so I could scribe the panel for trimming. Much to my surprise, rather than being about an inch wider than the case as planned, the panel was a full slat too narrow! Somewhere in the downtime between shop sessions, I managed to lose track of the measurement. The rest of my shop time today went toward milling, shaping, and gluing 2 more slats to the panel to ensure enough width.

Argh.

[wtnhighlander]

After the glue on th added slats dried, I had to start leveling the panel. All the clamps and cauls at my disposal failed to keep the slats from shifting around.

Fortunately, the electric hand plane excels at bulk stock removal.

The back side has no grooves, and was facing down during glue-up. Lots more squeeze-out to remove, and offset edges to smooth out. The electic plane leaves tracks, so I followed it with a smoothing plane, and in some spots, another tool.

The spokeshave: it isn't just for spindles anymore.

[wtnhighlander]

Glued the face frame to the carcase today. Used every long clamp I had, and needed a few more. 

No photos, the carnage is just too horrible...

[wtnhighlander]

Well, I knew the glue-up didn't go smoothly, but I wasn't prepared for this. Somehow, the already-glued carcase was pulled out of square during my struggle to get the face frame pieces into place. I only noticed while I was measuring for the inset door frames.  

There is a strong 3/8" difference in the diagonals now, and no way is it going to rack back into shape. I'm considering my options for going forward.

1. Build the doors to fit the rhomboid openings. The scale of the case makes it all but impossible to see the corners aren't 90*.

2. Trim the face frame to produce a square opening for the doors.

3. Split the difference to avoid the frame pieces being too crooked at any one spot.

4. BBQ.

Any suggestions from the collective?