Plane Till Completion Pictures

[Dan Moening]

Way back in this thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=23986&highlight=plane+till) I began the details of my construction of my plane till.

Well, I've finally finished the doors and gotten around to hanging it!

I'll not bother you will all the details but a few pictures of completion are in order.
This was my second attempt at veneering and required a judicious amount of clamping cauls, cursing, and scraping:

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-veneer-glueup-m.jpg

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-veneer-scrape-m.jpg

After assembly, I masked off the veneer and applied a coat of Colonial Maple stain to the rails/stiles:

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-door-mask-m.jpg

Once dry, I applied the first of three coats of a witches brew (tung oil, BLO, turpentine, and spar varnish).
I used this for 3 reasons, I like the way it looks (used it on my chessboard), I had it on hand, and I ran out of shellac flakes :grin:

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-door-1stcoat-m.jpg

I struggled with the design of these doors for some time. As the veneer sheets I had were only 5 1/2" wide at their narrowest, and 22" long, I was challanged to fit them into the 8 panel areas.
Even though the design, based on an approximate golden rectangle, allows for enough width to cover the span of the panels I opted to install Muhama {Berengia Discolora IIRC} "moldings" to surround the upper panel.
I thought this would set off the Tiger Eucylptus veneer nicely from the similiarly colored Poplar. As I found I didn't have enough veneer to cover all the panels, I had to scrounge for a contrasting wood species for the bottom...Cherry fit the bill.

Continued...

[Dan Moening]

Anyway, here she is:

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-doors1.jpg

The left tool tray was supposed to be for speciality planes {routers, shaves, etc} but seem to be filling up with others:

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-doors-open-m.jpg


http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-doors-open-hingesup-m.jpg


Here's a detail of the handle I "designed". What do ya think? :grin:

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-doors-handle2-m.jpg

As you can tell I have a little work to do yet: the right hand tray needed some tweaking to sit properly, and the door hardware needs some work.
All in all, a rather enjoyable project. And now my planes are safely away from harm and dust.

Thanks for looking!

[Karl Laustrup]

WOW!

That is a great looking cabinet. :) I'm just wondering if you possibly made it too small? :eek: :D

Karl

[Steve Wargo]

Are the door pulls bade from old plane totes? I like the door pulls. Very cool. This is an aspect I always struggle with and the pulls really look cool. Nice collection...er... tools as well.

[Mike Scoggins]

Dan,

Great job! I really like the till. It's appealing to the eye and you've maximized the space very nicely. I too, like the handles/door pulls. I didn't recognize that they were a portion of a tote until I saw the clos- up. I like the angle/placement you chose for them.

Very nice!

Mike

[tod evans]

nice job dan! handles are cool. tod

[Dan Forman]

Nice job!!! I too really like the pulls, though probably never would have figured out their origin if not pointed out. Very efficient use of space, and the veneer turned out great, in spite of, or pehaps because of all of the cursing and gnashing of teeth.

The other Dan

[Bill Simmeth]

Very nice! The doors turned out beautifully.

[Mario Brissette]

Dan, you plane till is very hot ! :eek:

I think it could be a good friend in my shop for my tool chest (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=25092). :D

Since I've seen yours, I'm obliged to build my own ... I don't have the choice ! You are expensive for me :p

[Mario Brissette]

Dan, I just notice that your door handles seem to be like the upper part of the rear handle of a plane. Am I right ?

[Chris Barton]

Very "Krenovian" and absolutely fantastic!

[Tyler Howell]

Too cool Dan, Way too cool!

[Steve Clardy]

Looks great Dan. I've been following your threads on it.
Love the storage area behind the planes. Notice you have some extra knobs, totes stashed in there.
Also think the door pulls are fantastic!!

[Paul Comi]

Dan that is really beautiful and a clever idea to use hinged inner "doors" to enable storing specialty planes within. I've been looking at a lot of plane storage ideas from others including that amazing Studley tool chest and the only thing that you might want to consider is installing those piston style springs that they use on the trunk lids of hatchback cars to prevent the doors from slamming down. I don't know if they make them small enough but I'd hate to think of a batch of planes coming down hard because your hand slipped while raising or lowering one of those doors. Great job on the veneering.

[Mark Stutz]

Great job, Dan. The only problem I see is the same one that I experienced. You didn't build it big enough!:D :eek:

[Dan Moening]

Gentlemen, Thank you for all the kind words!

[/URL]You should know that the design is not entirely my own. I stole the general design from an open style built by Dave Anderson that [URL="http://www.chestertoolworks.com/images/Finished4.jpg"]you can see here. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=4048&highlight=plane+till) I simply extended the depth to account for the totes of the planes on the trays, and enclosed the sides, top, and added doors.

The door handles are not made from spare plane totes, but were designed to look like them. I traced an old Type 13 tote and tried to use different portions to create a pleasing shape, including a couple using the negative space. Here is the process:

http://dpmoening.home.comcast.net/images/pt-doorhandle-design.jpg


Fear not lads, there is plenty of storage for future acquisitions! :D

Mario, how did I miss your post about your tool chest? You're right it would be an excellent companion piece to my plane till, send it right along; I'll even pay for shipping. :D

Paul, I've seen gas springs used before but at the moment the price makes them elusive. So currently I store very little under the tray with all the iron on it.

[Roy Wall]

Dan,

Outstanding work on the till......thanks for showing us the whole enchilada!!

Great cabinet - the doors look beautiful!!

[Mario Brissette]

Just one question Dan. What are general dimension of this till ? Width, height ...

Thanks !

[Dave Anderson NH]

Fantastic job Dan!!!! I'm glad to see that you got it completed. Mark is right in spite of your protestations though, 6 months to a year down the road it won't be big enough. Mine has been full since it was completed and the overflow is stashed in several other places.

Your choice of contrasting woods on the doors and the tote segment handles is truly artistic. Much more "high style" than my efforts. Ya dun good!!!!!

[Dan Moening]

Mario,

I wrestled with the dimensions for some time. My shop is in a single car garage bay so space is an issue, even for wall mounted cabinets.

I really don't have the vertical space for several rows of cubbies because this till sits above my workbench. And I didn't want too much depth either. By placing a plane on a board and raising/lowering the board angle I could measure the vertical where the tote stuck out and that determined the depth. Adding 3" for an small upper shelf where the trays hinged I came up with an approx 17" depth.

The width was determined by lining up the jointing planes and the jack planes I wanted to store on one tray, multiplying by two and adding the width of the trim and carcass sides. Tweaking that measurement with 3" cubbies and their 3/16" dividers I came up with ~33" wide.

Most of the height was deteremined from the tray angle during the depth measurement. I added ~6" for the cubbie height, and another 6" above the trays for room to lift the trays. This came out to around 35".

To be fair its early in the morning and the width and height measurements may be reversed, but you get the genereal idea.

[Mark Singer]

Beautiful cabinet...great work!