Sapele Music Cabinet

[wtnhighlander]

Nice work on those curves! Have you considered stringing through the miters? The one pictured might be fine with a sawdust & glue fill,but weren't you going to string between the inner field and the border, anyway?

[Mark J]

Gap or not, it's still a fantastic job.

[Tom King]

To me, this is the best of woodworking!  You don't have to have the best of everything available in tools.

I think Windsor Castle has an empty spot somewhere.

[h3nry]

The last major thing to do, is the feet ...

For the front feet I wanted 16/4, but the only piece of 16/4 that was in stock was 0only 3-1/2" wide, so I had to glue on a little extra to get full width. AFter shaping there is so little of this extra remaining, but the 14/4 board just wasn't wide enough.

I first shaped the feet in one direction with the bandsaw. Then since the front feet are at 45° They need to be mitred where they will attach to the under frame.

Then the frame can be made, using dovetails to hold it together. Because of the grain orientation, the pins in the feet don't have much strength, and they are all mainly for alignment, and lightly holding things together while working.

Then the frame has to be placed under the case. I used a few dowels to keep everything aligned. I could then trace out the shape of the serpentine front, and corners, so that I knew what shape I was working with.

The front and corners could then be shaped vertically.

Then it all needed carving. The frame just got reduced to a bead, with a little curl at each end. The feet were carved in the same way as the corner posts.

And finally using all my long clamps ... it all gets glued together.

Just a few minor things to do now, before I can start finishing the case.

[Mark J]

I do not cease to be amazed.

[curlyoak]

wow

p.s. !

[h3nry]

ANd finally it has finish on it ... I used "Tried and True" danish oil, which I like, but I'm a bit disappointed with the colour of the bubinga veneer ... The project I made with this flitch of veneer before it has a richer reddy-brown colour. However I like how the sapele finished.

The top worked out ok too ... just enough figure in the sapele to give it some interest, but not too much.

I used simple magnetic catches for the door catches. The centre door has no visible hinges or handle, so I added a small lever behind the right door, which moves a cam the other side of the divider, which pushes a small brass pin that pushes open the central door.

The drawers behind can't really be called secret drawers, since it is so obvious that there should be something behind the panel, so I guess "hidden drawers" is a better description.

The big drawer I am planning on installing a fabric lined support for the violin and bows etc ... but I don't have enough fabric on hand. SO this will have to wait.

ANd when the acoustic violin is packed away and I want to play electric ... the amplifier is stored behind the left door ... just open up and switch on ...

Thanks again to all of you who followed along, giving encouragement, advice etc. This was certainly a challenging build, woth lots of difficulties along the way ... but I think it can be called a success

[pkinneb]

I'd say! That's a beatiful piece!!

[wtnhighlander]

I am quite envious. That is absolutely gorgeous!

[Tom King]

It will be cherished for generations!  Signed and dated I hope.

[Coop]

That is really amazing! Beautifully done! 

[curlyoak]

On 5/7/2024 at 12:42 PM, h3nry said:

but I think it can be called a success

Way beyond that! I hope you signed and dated the work. The piece easily qualifies as an heirloom! Beautiful!

What kind of music do you play?

[Mark J]

Just fantastic!

[Von]

Amazing work! Thanks for sharing the process.

[Botch]

What a fantastic project.

And so cool to see a fellow electric violinist on this forum!  

[Chestnut]

Wow beautiful.

[h3nry]

Thanks again everyone ... after having it in the house for a few days, I can confirm as expected, that I am really pleased with it.

It was a really fun build, despite all the challenges ... now I have to start scheming what I want to build next ...

[curlyoak]

h3nry, Amazing work. You did it fast considering mostly hand tools. Is this what you do for a living? How did you learn these great skills. Is it a family thing?

Art should be signed. 

I'm glad you shared this journey with us. I'll be watching for your next work!

[gee-dub]

@h3nry - I am late in catching up.  That is just a wonderful piece.  I love the way the small amp fits inside.  What a great niche for your music "stuff".  Truly an inspiration.  Folks like you are why I enjoy this craft so much.

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 2/26/2024 at 11:30 AM, h3nry said:

Thanks for the compliment, but I don't really consider my work particularly high level, a close inspection of my furniture will reveal faults and flaws everywhere. Fortunately it's only me and a couple of other friends who also know their woodwork who ever notice. I take inspiration from people like @joe mendel who occasionally posts here, and blows me away every time with the quality of his work!

I started woodworking accidentally ... I wanted to buy a nice furniture-quality wooden music stand, but I just couldn't find one for sale. My googling turned up someone who custom made them (for what at the time I thought was an expensive price, but I now realise it was very reasonable for custom woodwork) and a photo of a beautiful piece on some site called "woodwhisperer", which I realised was home-made and not possible to buy. So I decided to try making my own too ... So I literally sat on the floor of the hardware store pulling out sticks from their paltry selection of hardwood trying to remember my junior-high woodwork classes, and putting a design together, I then bought the wood, a chisel saw and plane ... and gave it a go. It's not the music stand I'd build today if I were to make another one, but I was surprised at how good it turned out, and thought I should try making some more things ... and that was the start of the slippery slope.

My next project was also made out of S4S oak and plywood from the hardware store, but I also started watching you-tube and reading about woodwork ... came to the realisation that using predominantly hand-tools was what would work for me, so I started buying old tools on eBay..

I also started playing with sketchup to experiment with designs. And I think this is what helped me realise that even a complex piece of furniture is really just an assembly of simple components ... and even a complex component is just an assembly of simple cuts to a block of wood. My first real project made from rough lumber with proper joinery (rather than just butt joints) still turns heads as people enter the house ... but it is mostly just straight square pieces of wood joined together. However, the design has structural weaknesses that I'd avoid today, the mitres aren't tight, there's gaps in my veneering, the drawers aren't very square, and one of the legs has a big patch spliced in where I nearly destroyed it with my clueless incompetence ... but few people notice. It was an ambitious project that I suppose was meant to test whether woodwork was something I should persevere with or not ... but, most importantly, it did get built!

One big hurdle I had to get over was accepting that what I do is not perfect ... this is especially true with hand-tool work where learning to cut and plane straight and square takes time and practise (and I'm still not perfect) ... but "perfect" is the enemy of "good enough" ... and "good enough" is, well, good enough ... as long as people say "ooh that's nice" when they see it and it fulfils its job as functional furniture, then that's good enough.

I only make about one piece of furniture a year ... and always like to add something new if possible. The hall table looks kind of "boxy" ... so the use of beads, mouldings and tapers was what I looked at to enhance the shape of the next project. And with a little practise, I also got the confidence to add some string inlay too (although the piece would have been built without the inlay if the practise had been unsucsessful).

I've posted most of my projects here to share my progress, and equally learnt from what others also share here ... as I said, there's nearly always some new technique challenging me, there's always flaws in the design, there's always a few gaps in the joinery, there's always grain patterns that didn't match properly etc etc etc ... but that's just the experiences I use to learn ... so far, despite all their flaws and problems, each piece has been "good enough" ... and that's good enough for me.

I hope that this project will turn out to be no exception ... indeed the flaws are already creeping in, ... the M&T joints aren't perfect, so I've got a little tidying up to do to make sure the frames are flat and square before starting the joinery to assemble the carcasse.

This is the most humble self assessment by a highly skilled craftsman that I've ever read. 

I really appreciate reading this, as it makes me feel better about the myriad mistakes contained in my own work. 

This project, of course, it's beyond beautifully crafted and it's a joy to follow along through the build. 

Thank you for sharing and for your words, @h3nry!

[h3nry]

Finally got round to putting the finishing touch to this ... the "instrument case" insert for the large drawer.

Just a piece of 1/4 plywood for the top ...

Then a whole bunch of scrap pieces to form the sides. Although I put little pockets beside the neck, I eventually covered these over as too difficult to make nicely with the fabric lining ...

And finally cover the whole thing with fabric ... I chose a nice blue upholstery velvet ...

[wtnhighlander]

That is an awesome 'finishing touch', @h3nry!

[Mark J]

Oh, that is nice.