Sapele Music Cabinet

[h3nry]

On 3/31/2024 at 8:01 AM, wtnhighlander said:

Looking great, @h3nry! Did you modify the scraper yourself, or is that commercially available?

The scraper came from Lee Valley ... I'm getting good use out of my curved scrapers on this project.

[h3nry]

Today was just a lot of sanding, then a big milestone ... glueing up the carcase.

However, I now realise that I intended to drill the holes to hold the top on before I did the glue-up. Oh well, that's now a headache for another day.

[Coop]

Beautifully done! 

[h3nry]

Now that the carcase is glued up, it's time to fair up the serpentine front.

First make sure all the dividers are flush to the curve  ... because the curve on the edge of the dividers is so subtle, I just used the plane, and sandpaper will take care if the curve.

Then the corners need cutting back ... 

First of all doing as much as possible with the block plane.

And finally to fair it right down to the joints, I got a bit done with the spokeshave, but the scraper was the best tool.

Finally after a bit of sanding, we can finally see the full shape of the serpentine front for the first time.

[wtnhighlander]

Looking really good!

[Chet]

This is really looking nice. 

[h3nry]

Milling the wood for the drawer bodies ... This is precisely why I bought the bandsaw ... all that re-sawing!

Each piece gets a groove for the drawer bottom ...

And the drawer fronts also need the same groove ... but they're not flat. The plough-plane can still be used on the convex curves, but it misses on the concave part in the middle ...

So, mark the missing groove with the mortising gauge, scoring nice and deep...

And finish off the groove with the small router plane. I haven't had this little router plane very long, but I use it a lot. My only complaint is that the blade sometimes twists in the body when it's only done up finger tight, so I often tigten it with a pair of pliers, which gouges the brass knob.

[Mark J]

12 hours ago, h3nry said:

My only complaint is that the blade sometimes twists in the body when it's only done up finger tight,

I see the shaft of the blade is round.  I wonder if a drop of Loctite (thread locker) might be enough to hold the shaft when finger tight?  Not sure how you would periodically clean the residue on the shaft though?

[gee-dub]

I am lovin' this thread.  My router plane also has a square shaft that locks into a diamond shaped hole.  I am reminded of the older Delta 14" bandsaws that had a hex shaft for the upper guides.  Newer saws use round stock to their devaluation IMHO.

[h3nry]

On 4/5/2024 at 9:16 AM, Mark J said:

I see the shaft of the blade is round.  I wonder if a drop of Loctite (thread locker) might be enough to hold the shaft when finger tight?  Not sure how you would periodically clean the residue on the shaft though?

I don't think that would work ... it cuts to depth one shaving at a time ... it can be a fairly thick shaving, but still just a shaving ... so even for a 3/16 deep groove like this, it has to be adjusted maybe a dozen times getting progressively deeper.

[Mark J]

Of course!  Silly me.

[h3nry]

Cutting dovetails for the drawers ... getting in some practise on the small drawers before tackling the drawers with the serpentine front.

Nothing special about these dovetails ... I'm sure you've all seen dovetails cut before, but for entertainment purposes I'll run through the steps anyway ...

SInce the endgrain forms a visible part of the joint, all edges get a final squaring at the shooting board before starting anything

The mark out the thicknesses of the components on each board, making sure to measure each part, since they may not all be the same thickness.

Then lay out the tails. There are two main skills needed when cutting dovetails: sawing to a line, and laying out the cuts ... since sawing accurately to a line in the wrong place is useless ... layout is the most important part to get right. At this stage it isn't crirical, just mark on the tails where you want them.

Then saw out the sides of the tails. It isn't critical that the angle of the line is followed exactly, since whatever angle I do cut will be transferred to the pin-board. What is important is to keep the cut square across the top. I think one of the reasons I like cutting tails first is because I am better at cutting a the plumb lines on the pins accurately to match the tails, than to accurately cut the sloping lines of the tails, and whichever one you do second needs the better accuracy.

Then saw off the shoulders

and then using the coping saw quickly remove the bulk of the waste between the tails. It doesn't have to be right up against the line, just close enough that a single chop with a chisel will remove what is left.

Then using a small chisel from both sides chop out the small amount of remaining waste ... and the tails are done.

 

For the pins ... start by laying the already cut tails onto the pin-board, and with a knike scribe the angles that the tails were actually cut at, which may be slightly different than the angle originally drawn.

These lines can very hard to see on the end-grain, so it helps to pencil them in ... then add the square lines down to the scribed line ...

Since the drawer fronts will have half-blind dovetails only a diagonal half of each cut can be made with a saw ... making sure to cut on the waste side of the line.

The rest has to be chopped out with a chisel

Then after a little bit of finessing to match the pins to the tails ... it's easier to err on the side of making the pins to big and paring them down, than to make any adjustments to the tails ... the dovetails all fit

Yes ... I know they are asymmetrical ... that was actually deliberate. The bottom tail is positioned to cover the groove for the drawer bottom, so it can't go any higher up. But I still have to plane off the bottom of the drawer front to add the cock-beading, which will make the bottom pin quite thin, and I don't know how much strength it will actually have. Since there are only two tails, and the bottom one is potentially weak, I decided to give the top one a little more wood in the top pin.

I'll probably try to make the main drawers symmetrical since they will be much more visible than these little drawers. But they will also have more than two tails.

Now I have to repeat this for the back of the drawers ... except they don't need to be blind, so should be a lillte quicker.

[h3nry]

Trimming the drawer fronts to take the cock-beading seemed a bit like undoing all the work I did to make the half-blind dovetails...

But it should all come back together with the beading on ... which makes me wonder whether I've gone about this backwards. Perhaps I should add the cock-beading first, then cut the dovetails ... I'll have to think about that for the main drawers.

I had a hard time holding these little bits of beading onto my 45° block to pare the mitres ... I really ought to make one wuth a little rabbet to push the bead against.

Eventually all the beads are trimmed to size and glued up.

And the set of little drawers is done, ready for glue up.

Now to do the same on the main drawers ... However I'm expecting the serpentine curve to create a few extra difficulties with the joinery.

[Mark J]

10 hours ago, h3nry said:

Perhaps I should add the cock-beading first, then cut the dovetails ... I'll have to think about that for the main drawers.

Certainly seems like you should at least trim/cut the drawer fronts to accept the cock bead before chiseling out the pins.

[h3nry]

The serpentine front doesn't add any extra complication to cutting the tails ... 

[gee-dub]

On 4/7/2024 at 9:18 PM, h3nry said:

The serpentine front doesn't add any extra complication to cutting the tails ...

So you've got that going for you.  Enjoying the ride @h3nry

[h3nry]

The first problem with the curved drawer fronts is ... they're curved. So I cut a rabbet on the back to take the side pieces and give me something flat and square to cut the pins in. It then needed another rabbet on the front for the beading. This was a tricky one to start with the saw on the curved surface without damaging the veneer.

The main difficulties all along with this step was in workholding. I had to get creative at times to make sure the drawer front was being held in the orientation I wanted

I decided to add the cockbeading to the long sides before cutting the pins, and have the rabbet already cut for the bead on the short side, but only install the short bead after the pins were cut.

Then sawing and chiselling out the pins.

However, the curve on the front means that there is very little long grain in the ridge forming the blind part of the pin. This left it weak, and more than once I split the wood trying to chisel right down to the line ... CA glue to the rescue.

With the front and sides assembled, I could measure the drawer sides for length ... because of the asymmetric front, the two sides are different lengths. Then the back was dovetailed into the sides, and a floor made from plywood

And finally a dry assembly...

Next I have to do the same for the big drawer below.

[wtnhighlander]

I can safely say, you have more patience than I, @h3nry!  This is going to be one beautiful piece of furniture.

[Mark J]

@h3nry, have you made any musical instruments?

[h3nry]

Got the large drawer mostly completed today

[Coop]

Quiet the contrast with a bow saw and slices of tree trunks in the background and something this intricate front and center! Beautiful work! 

[h3nry]

Time for some carving ... a decorative carving is going to be applied to the cirner posts ...

Twi blanks cut out at the bandsaw, and brought to final shape with the spokeshave and rasp.

Tracing the design onto the blanks ...

Ready for carving

My carving is pretty poor, and like my veneering it's likely to be a bit rough ... but as long as it ends up "good enough" I don't have to rival Grinling Gibbons.

... one side pretty much done ... no to repeat that 3 more times on the other sides.

[Mark J]

Looking at that carving I would have guessed that had taken you a few days.

[h3nry]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:53 AM, Mark J said:

@h3nry, have you made any musical instruments?

No ... one day it would be fun to give it a go ... but lutherie scares me, it's so unforgiving of imperfections. Abd then there's all the soecialised tools and clamps and templates that I don't have. Furthermore, I already have the instruments I want to play ... However it would be pretty darn cool to be playing one I built myself ... one day.

[h3nry]

Got the second face of the corner posts carved ... when put next to the case, we can now see a glimpse of the look it's going to give.