Coopering a cabinet

[Howard Pollack]

Hi - I'm thinking of making a cabinet with coopered sides. I understand how to work the outside smooth, but how does one work the inside to get it smooth and parallel to the outside? Or does one leave it faceted? Thanks. -Howard

[Ryan Baker]

There are a variety of ways you could approach it. Travisher. Inshave. Radiused-sole plane (reshape a woody). Scrapers (If you don't have to remove too much.). Etc. Or you could leave it faceted if you want. It's probably easier to rough shape the staves before you assemble them, so you don't have so much work to do after it's together. It depends on what you have available to work with, and how much of it you want to do (you may not want to make/adapt/buy a tool to do it only once). If you have to do much of it, I would make a woodie plane with an appropriately curved sole. (Be sure to align the grain of the staves the same way before hand so that you don't run into grain direction problems at this stage.)

[steven c newman]

Really, it's is up to you about the finish on the inside, but, IF you want to smooth thing out, a spokeshave with the rounded sole will work. I think even Stanley made a #100 block plane ( I think, might have been the next number up) with the rounded bottom. Could even find a wood bodied plane like barrel makers use.


Maybe just leave the Facets alone??? ( IF you do have a tablesaw, a few c clamps two straight boards, one COULD saw a matching cove on each board before the glue-up. After they are out of the clamps, fine tuning)

[Ryan Baker]

Yeah, a curved spokeshave would be good too, and inexpensive. The #100 is flat. The #100 1/2 is the curved sole version. But that's pretty small for a cabinet. A flat-bottom plane that is narrow enough (compared to the cabinet radius) would do it too.

[Jim Ritter]

The sole of the plane does not need to be radiused. I have a block plane that had a wide mouth opening so a cambered the blade to a pretty small radius. Depending how much blade is exposed controls the radius it planes. The two sides of the plane and the blade define the three points of the radius. I use it for hollowing the backs of boat planks to match the curve of the ribs. I can photograph it tomorrow if anyone would like.
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

I have a block plane that had a wide mouth opening so a cambered the blade to a pretty small radius.

Neat, a block scrub plane.

Everybody likes pictures. :D

jtk

[steven c newman]

246674246675246676246677My $9 scrub plane just might work on that cabinet??? Might get a second one ( or two) just to try different cambers out. Lot easier to hold than a block plane, as well... ( first picture shows the iron before I added an 8" radius camber)


Ps: Someone on Ebay is trying to sell a few of these Windsor#33 planes @ $28.00 each with the box. Same plane can be bought a H-F @ $9.99 without a coupon. Oh well...

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Howard


The inside of a door is not always done. Many just leave the the panels. I have done some that way.


There were several methods used in this build ...


Scrapers .. really slow going. This Karri is Hard wood!


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Andnowforsomethingcompletelydifferent_html_mb0afc9 e.jpg


Next I attempted to use a large Round (or is it a Hollow?) plane. This was better than the scraper, but left channels without faring the shape, per se.


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Andnowforsomethingcompletelydifferent_html_44535f7 a.jpg


What I needed was a small, curved scrub plane such as the Veritas modeller’s (Squirrel Tail Palm) plane.


Here it is working diagonally across the grain …


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Andnowforsomethingcompletelydifferent_html_2672d10 5.jpg


Don’t the shavings remind you of miniature scrub plane chips?


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Andnowforsomethingcompletelydifferent_html_4b8dc3d 4.jpg


Now the scraper came out to smooth off the surface.


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Andnowforsomethingcompletelydifferent_html_m619a92 36.jpg


The coopered boards ended up here ..


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/TheEndFinisAbsolutelDone_html_mee964cb.jpg http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/TheEndFinisAbsolutelDone_html_35ff8a39.jpg


links on my website to pictorials: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Sideboard-EntertainmentCentre.html


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Andnowforsomethingcompletelydifferent.html


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Jim Ritter]

Well here you go. This is the little plane that I use for backing out the planks. Just a little yard sale plane, I think I've got about three of them so I wasn't too bothered about grinding the iron.
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/ebf101fc88a25cac85dccb783702ff6a.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/c0c84f0ea2f76daa32bd4407a77b4bc7.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/b0ebbc94b5fdcbadf891f5226d189bc0.jpg
This last pic is the result of using the plane as it was photographed. Just cutting until it no longer cut. It will always be a perfect radius. Less blade projecting is a larger radius more blade smaller radius. Just don't plane all the way to the edge it needs that flat to support the edge of the plane. It's always best to start with just a small blade projecting. If you tried to start with the blade too long it will just jam.
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/78c2f79d8056eb17e2dea661cf564fdd.jpg

[Sean D Evans]

I really like that table Derrick. Interesting design plus I also like to add drawers to my tables.