Oak wall cabinet

[Ben Ellenberger]

It’s pretty exciting to find this forum and a bunch of active discussions about working with hand tools. I just do small projects in my garage for fun and I find this style of working is really satisfying. Here’s a picture of my shop set-up as it is now.

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I’m making an oak wall cabinet to go over the blue cabinet that I keep my tools in. It will hold back saws, bench planes, and joinery planes. It will be about twelve inches deep, 22 inches wide, and 26 inches high. The body is out of one board that has some interesting swirling grain. I think it will look good, but it made prepping the stock more work than I expected. The grain reversed in several places in each board, so I had to take pretty fine cuts when planing them and had to re-sharpen my planes several times throughout the process.

I’ll put a frame and panel in the back, and since there will be a bit of weight I decided to set the back in a pretty deep rabbet. I used a plow plane to define the back edge of each rabbet, then tried two different approaches to remove the rest of the waste. The first one I chopped out most of the waste with a chisel, then used a block plane to clean it up. For the other three I used a ryoba saw to cut most of the waste. I then cleaned it up with a router plane. I think I preferred the second approach, but I may get myself a rabbet plane before too long.

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So, all the pieces for the case are prepped, tomorrow I’ll lay out and cut the dovetails for them. The rabbets mean that the back will have a little quirk with the layout, but I decided to do it this way instead of mitering the very back to hide them.

[Stew Denton]

Ben,

Welcome to the creek!

It looks like a great project, and I am looking forward to seeing the progress.

Again, welcome!

Regards,

Stew

[David Eisenhauer]

Hello and welcome Ben. I noticed the stones laid out, ready for use so you must be a player! There are probably a couple of planes that would work for that rebate, but don't forget that a simple, no-fence, no-depth stop wood rebate plane either with a straight or skewed blade is a very handy, easy and versatile plane to have in the toolbox. Like Stew, I am looking forward to the next steps in the project.

[Phil Mueller]

Welcome Ben! Glad you found us. I think you’ll find there are a number of ways to get things done and we all find our favorite. No right or wrong, just what works for you. Also look forward to seeing the progress.

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Ben and welcome to the Creek.

What part of the world do you call home?

jtk

[Ben Ellenberger]

Thanks for the welcome! I live in Santa Barbara.

[ken hatch]

Hello and welcome Ben. I noticed the stones laid out, ready for use so you must be a player! There are probably a couple of planes that would work for that rebate, but don't forget that a simple, no-fence, no-depth stop wood rebate plane either with a straight or skewed blade is a very handy, easy and versatile plane to have in the toolbox. Like Stew, I am looking forward to the next steps in the project.

Welcome Ben, I agree with David, with a little practice a no fence rebate plane will do a better job than a fenced one. Well maybe not "better" but is easier to correct mistakes with.

ken

[Frederick Skelly]

Welcome Ben. Glad you've joined us! This is a great site full of knowlegable, helpful people.

[Ben Ellenberger]

Got sidetracked the other day, but I’ve got all the tails cut and one set of pins cut and fitted. It was slow going chopping the waste on the tails, but eventually I got more comfortable being aggressive. I don’t usually saw out the waste, but I decided to go that route for the pins and was pretty happy with how that went. I’m not yet willing to try to saw real close to the line with a coping saw, but I’ll probably cut a little closer on the rest of the joints.

i meant to use a half-tail at the back to hide the rabbet, and then I’d have a funny stepped pin on the top and bottom of the cabinet where it wouldn’t be noticeable. So of course when I was laying out I went on autopilot and laid it out with a half tail at the back. It will work fine but I’ll have to be careful to get that part of the joint to come together cleanly.

‘With 8 tails on each joint and hard wood, they really have to be precise to come together with no gaps. I had to do quite a bit of fine tuning to get thus first one together, and I was holding my breath as I hammered it together that it wouldn’t split. But, I’ll be pretty happy if I can get the other three to look like this.

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[David Eisenhauer]

Great start Ben. Looking good from here. Go ahead and saw that waste right next to the line for quicker waste cleaning.

[Ben Ellenberger]

The box is done and everything went together with some vigorous malleting. I’m pretty happy with how the joints came out. One or two little gaps that should be fine after I glue it up and plane everything flush. It’s within a sixteenth of square. Next step is to make the internal dividers for the saw till and shelves.

there’s going to be a fair bit of planing and scraping to clean up the tear out, but I think this will look pretty good when it is done.

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[Christopher Charles]

Hi Ben,

Welcome to the Creek. Looks like a good space you have and you've made impressive progress in the past week. Will look forward to following along.

Best,
Chris

[Ben Ellenberger]

I had a good jack plane session to get the internal dividers thinned down from 4/4 stock. Then I made a few mistakes and got aggravated, so I set this project aside for a few days. First, when I was sawing the first dado for one of the dividers I went too far. So, I’ve got a little saw kerf I’ll need to fill with sawdust and glue. It is cross-grain so I think that will be less noticeable than trying to cut and fit a patch. Then I knocked one of the side panels off the bench and chipped a corner off it. I’ll need to flatten that, glue on a small piece, then get the patch flushed. Since it is on an angle it will be a little tricky to get the grain to match.

i got the internal dividers fitted and installed. There was a little back and forth sneaking up on the fit. The vertical panels are still causing a slight bow to the top and bottom of the case, so I’ll have a little fine tuning to do before I glue it up. My plan is to glue up the carcass then slide in the internal dividers after the glue is dry. Everything fits snug so I don’t even think I need to glue them.

i was originally planning to put another vertical divider in the bottom middle compartment, but now I’m thinking I’ll leave that open. That is where my plow plane and router plane will go, and I don’t think the vertical divider will be necessary. The long skinny space on the right is for a hand plane. I cut back the vertical divider to make it easier to get at, but after playing with it, I may cut that divider back some more. It is still a little awkward getting your hand in there.

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[George Bokros]

Welcome Ben. You have made good progress and very nice work. Looking forward to seeing what the completion.

[Bob Jones 5443]

The box is done and everything went together with some vigorous malleting. I’m pretty happy with how the joints came out. One or two little gaps that should be fine after I glue it up and plane everything flush. It’s within a sixteenth of square. Next step is to make the internal dividers for the saw till and shelves.

there’s going to be a fair bit of planing and scraping to clean up the tear out, but I think this will look pretty good when it is done.

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Ben, nice set of dovetails. I'm traipsing along behind you and hope to be there myself in a few weeks or months.

I've been Creeking for about six months, and I agree with you this forum is a priceless resource.

[William Fretwell]

Welcome Ben, that cabinet is a great idea, saves a lot of bending down, much easier on the back!

[Ben Ellenberger]

Got the carcass glued up. When I did the dry run everything seated nicely, but when I glued up a couple joints didn’t go all the way together. I didn’t catch them until the glue was dry and I was taking the clamps off. They are pretty small gaps and I think I can hide them as I do the final sanding/finishing.

i tweaked the internal divider and shelf to make tall vertical space on the right easier to access. I wanted to have room for a long jointer plane. Right now the longest plane I have is a no 5, but I expect I’ll either buy a metal plane or make my own wooden one fairly soon. I sketched out some curves with a compass, made some stop cuts, then shaped the curves with a chisel, spokeshave, and rasp.

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I had rough cut the rails and stiles a couple days ago, then I got a reference face and edge and let them sit overnight, then after getting them close to final thickness and width I double-checked everything and corrected for any movement. The door will be about 22”x24”, which is the biggest I’ve ever done, so I need to be pretty precise for it to come out straight.

ive got the grooves plowed and I’m starting on the mortises. I’m curious if anyone uses guides to help them chop straight. I’ve made a couple wooden guides before, but I’ve felt pretty good about my results doing it by eye. I take my time clamping the stile to keep it square to the bench, then have a square next to it as I chop for reference. I stand at the end of the bench so I can sight down the stile and check myself as I go.

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[Christopher Charles]

Hi Ben,

Cabinet is looking good. I use a similar set of techniques for chopping mortises. Keep the posts coming.

Best,
Chris

[Ben Ellenberger]

Got the frame of the door together and one pair of panels resawn. The door came out perfectly square and it will just take a little planing to smooth up the faces. Next I have to resaw the second pair of panels and glue them up. I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll book match each panel or have all four be symmetric around the center stile.

it turns out re-sawing a 5 1/2” piece of hard maple is a lot of work. I’m using a 26” rip saw with 7 ppi. I’m going to sharpen it before doing the second pair of panels. I’ve been putting off re-sharpening because I’ve been meaning to make a nice saw vide first, but I’ll make do with a couple of battens clamped in the vice for now.

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[Ben Ellenberger]

I got the front door finished and fit. I’m really happy with how the door came out, zero twist and the panels look good to me. I’ve got it 3/32 shorter than the opening. I think that is a little too tight so I’ll probably plane it down a little more to give myself 1/16” clearance top and bottom. But, I’ve set it aside for now To do the back and fit out the interior before I hang the door.

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i just used whatever scrap pieces I had laying around for the back, so the frame has a couple of different grains and colors in it. The stiles have a bit of a bow to them, but I think the panels will help straighten them and the whole thing will be glued and screwed to the back of the case. I re-sawed a couple pieces of poplar and ship-lapped them for the back panel. I left the back pretty rough where it will be against the wall. Oh, and I also cut the panels with an extra 1/4” on each side for the laps and the rabbets that would go into the frames, but forgot that I would only lose 1/2 of that where two panels overlapped each other. So, on my first dry fit my panels were too wide and I had to go back and re-cut the laps and plane them down by about a 1/4” each.

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I’m really glad I did a couple dry runs before gluing up the back. After re-sizing the panels I made shims to space the panels, and on the first run I snapped one off, so I realized they needed to have the grain running in the right direction so I could pull them out after everything was glued. I normally glue up a panel by clamping a stile in my vise, fitting everything with the assembly in the vise, then taking it out to put it in clamps to tighten up the joints and check for square. The shims kept falling out when I tried it that way, so I ended up doing the whole glue-up with the parts laying flat on my bench. I also cut tapers on a couple shims so I could wedge the panels up and down to get the gap consistent on the top and bottom. After the dry runs the actual glue up went really smooth.

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[Ben Ellenberger]

So I got the hinges on the door. The brass screws that came with them were slightly long, so I cut them short with pliers. That worked great, I used a square awl to start the holes, ran a steel screw in first, then the clipped brass screws went in great. I used 3x5 cards to measure the gap at the top and bottom of the door. The total gap Between the door and the case was 12 cards, so I spaced it up 5 cards from the bottom to mark where the hinges needed to be. I got the mortises cut and then realized I had the case upside down. I cut the mortises on the wrong side of the cabinet!

i didn’t throw anything across the garage or cuss, so I’ll say I handled it pretty well, but I decided that was it for the day. I’ll need to cut filler pieces and try to match the color and grain the best I can, then hang the door on the correct side of the case. The bottom rail is wider than the top rail so it just won’t look right if I hang the door upside down on the wrong side of the case. I had been moving the case back and forth as I’d been fitting out the inside and fitting the door, and I flipped it upside down. I didn’t catch the mistake until I was almost done.

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[Ben Ellenberger]

All right, I’m going to call this 99% done. I got the mortises patched and the door re-hung (right side up this time!). I finished it with blo and paste wax. I’m really glad I used a ledger strip to mount this. It made it easy to do by myself. I started the screws in the case, then balanced the case on the ledger strip and pressed the case against the wall. The screw tips marked where I needed to pre-drill. I checked with a stud finder before drilling to make sure I would catch the studs. I used 3 1/2” decking screws and it feels very secure. The ledger strip Is the width of the case minus the width of the side panels, so i could just prop the case on the strip and sight down the line of the dovetails to make sure the case was centered in the strip.

I’m still getting the hang of door hanging. I made my mortises in the case a little too deep. There is a little contact that makes the door want to swing open. I think I’ll need to take the door off and put a shim in the mortise to space the door out just a little.

overall, I’m pretty happy with how this came out. There were a few mistakes, a few almost-disasters, and it isn’t perfect. But, I’ll call this pretty good for a shop cabinet. I felt like I learned a lot doing it. I got better at planing and scraping difficult wood, got more precise at laying out, and got more experience at planning and working through a multi-step project.

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[Mike Manning]

Nice job Ben and welcome to SMC! Thanks for sharing.

[David Eisenhauer]

Nice work Ben. The doors look very good for anywhere, never mind the shop . Thanks for the photos.