Build threads like this are always interesting...and IMHO, they shouldn't be "succinct" because the details are important! Keep it coming...
Build threads like this are always interesting...and IMHO, they shouldn't be "succinct" because the details are important! Keep it coming...
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Patrick,
What Jim said...build threads are also my favorite. Good to see you making some progress on you shop too! Your bench looks great in the action shots!
Also, how are you liking your paring chisels, they’re real beauts if I recalll.
Thanks for taking the time to share your work.
Best
Chris
Nice work and great thread! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for saying so.
And your welcome.
I also enjoy build threads. I’m not sure I would consider this a build thread but?
I have learnt most of what i know if not all looking over my shoulder on a job site or through build threads books and then just getting to it.
The internet has changed everything.
So I did not get as much shop time as I thought I would this past week. I spend quite. A bit of time doing other tasks in need of doing. Be it moving cabinets in need of installation, lumber yard runs and or a myriad of other things that just pulled me away from building.
Anyway I really got back to it today. I figured I’d have the carcass together but no dice. Tomorrow or I’m in big trouble with the boss. This thing is supposed to be in a spray booth first thing Tuesday morning. Clearly that is not going to happen.
Couple days ago I got to cleaning the corners of the mortise of the interior panels and then running the tenon of sorts on both sides of the solid wood cherry top. I chose to use the sliding table of my shaper for this. There’s a million ways I coulda done this including my nifty HNT moving fillister but the sliding table on the shaper seemed the most intuitive to me.
The tables on my my shaper sag a bit in the center thus creating slightly uneven cuts depending on the size and shape of the workpiece and operation. In the case of a top like this I was having discrepancies in cut from one end of the tenon to the other. In the end I brought everything into uniformity with the moving fillister. I couldn’t help but think I shoulda just used the fillister in the first place. I consider this route initially but the machine woodworker in me didn’t trust the handtool approach would reward me with a perfect clean tear out free cut. In the end the hand tool saved my butt and or made quick work of cleaning up the inaccuracies of my piece of junk shaper. I really do need to get a better shaper. The Felder is good enough and quite nice in some ways. But any machine with the slightest inaccuracy that can’t be tuned out I just assume put on the curb.
648776FF-E59D-41E7-BB49-376D3B8BA1EA.jpg
88FF7B46-A0A4-41C1-8B68-BC03C11BCBD7.jpg
9D9C20C2-FF43-4061-9FFC-2F7446223BFD.jpg
I then dry fitted all my carcass pieces together including the desk top just to see how things were coming together and fettle out any potential issses prior to glue and “screw” up. Yes I’ll be using lots of screws to hold this piece of mdf crap together.
77ED96F5-B8AB-45AC-98E6-9FB891570101.jpg
CDFC4004-B54E-4430-B260-6D75E7B4BF39.jpg
F091928E-9153-4E44-B3A2-15FCB50F4C11.jpg
A picture showing the joinery of the solid wood top into the mortise of the interior side carcass panels. Also showing off a handle I made for one of my Japanese genno from a left over scrap of the tiger maple desk I made a couple months ago now.
The desk top rides in a 1/4 x 1” dado. The front is haunched and run about .5 short of the dado to allow for cross grain wood movement. The desk top will not be glued but screwed. I will secure it on one end with a screw on either side. Sequential screw will be put in elongated holes running front to back. The front edge of the desk top is set back 1” form the front edge of the side panels so as it moves seasonly none should be the wiser.
05E58F2E-71AD-4BED-9A6F-7EBD7EF23746.jpg
05E58F2E-71AD-4BED-9A6F-7EBD7EF23746.jpg
3EE22E5B-341D-441A-B73C-74AE482E5EB6.jpg
My back panels go me to thinking about the Chippendale thread.
What a mess ehy. I’m prettty horrified myself but this is a box cabinet after all and destined to be torn out and thrown in a dumpster the next time the property sells.
When I was veneering up the panels I used veneer backer as to resist the panels for warping when in the bag.
I knew they would be thicker than the .5” dados I ran as a result. I figured I had two options at the time. I could run a slightly larger dado. I had put the dados in using a festoon router on a rail. I have taken this approach before and decided the slightest discrepancy would lead to unsightly gaps between panels.
As you can see I opted to time save or wide belt the panels back to the appropriate thickness. Not wanting to lug all the carcass parts back to the shop we’re the widebelt lives I opted to measure with a pair of calipers. I also ran a dado with the .5 in a scrap and brought that with me.
In the end the panels still ended up a bit to tight to put together and take apart repeatedly without potentially damaging my veneer panels.
I nearly packed the panels back in the truck and head back to the shop to use the widebelt. Needing to just get this thing done at this point and knowing after the drive to the shop and back and being Sunday I would never want to get back to work I reached for the moving fillister again.
It worked a charm and in all honesty I shoulda just used it in the first place over the widebelt. Next time I will. I know your thinking a ebony HNT moving fillister cutting rebates in plywood and through cardboard veneer backer. This guy clearly has no idea what he is doing that’s not how box cabinet builders make cabinets. Oh well lol....
9A236D91-6958-46C9-8EFB-F4CB841F4F4A.jpg
With the top back and side panel fit together I needed to still tend to cutting the pieces that comprise the cases top. This piece will sadly just be screwed and glued. The whole piece has a finished 2.5” farce frame of sorts or finished profile. You will see as the project progresses how I plan to do this without a face frame.
I got lazy and opted for dominoes to join these two pieces. Often we would just order wrap a joint like this with zero joinery. With all the mdf being used on this piece. It’s sheer size and lack of what I would consider joinery I felt I had to do something. The domino kept things moving along. It was a compromise. This joint also needs to never open up as the face and sides of this will all being veneered after the carcass is constructed.
I was also able to finally use a absolutely beautiful bevel set I that arrived in the mail a bit over a month ago. Man just look at those tools. Works of art themself and perfection in craftsmanship. Both things I greatly respect and strive to one day obtain as a craftsman myself.
71D83F32-53CA-47A0-AEA0-59C5F40EE00C.jpg
F8CEC95D-A114-4AD1-94D7-4B5283E573EF.jpg
62B82A95-7584-430E-9506-299391782CE2.jpg
953B26D9-A7DC-402A-A3BD-B68CAE75A8C9.jpg
AA52EDF6-8F19-4E08-9601-727C3482407A.jpg
Here I used a couple scraps to check my angles before I cut them into my previously veneered panels. Don’t need to mess something up at this stage. Well actually I can’t mess up at any stage as I have zero extra veneer. The veneers we ordered are supposed to be butt matched thus allowing me to get a perfect continuous grain wrap. As you can see from the back panels I clearly didn’t get butt matched sheets. Pretty annoying at like $300 a sheet.
I’m really just showing off my toys in this pick
F8CEC95D-A114-4AD1-94D7-4B5283E573EF.jpg
96BAFBA4-B82F-4549-A0A4-5A6461A54C5A.jpg
With that done I had to mill up and make the front apron that runs just under the desk top.
Why the architect did not opt for some kind of drawer here I don’t know. I asked and was told no drawer. This apron is a pretty major component of the desks structure imop. I know, I know that tiny little tennon and into mdf are you kidding me! Nope I’m not kidding. My boss would had told me to just make a butt joint and glue and screw it. It will still get glue and screws. I’ll also run a groove down the back side of it and back some oak buttons to aa]ttach it together with the top.
A drill and a chisel makes surprisingly quick work of a couple mortise in cardboard. If only wood actually worked with such easy. Wait, no I don’t actually want that.
I was thinking again about the chipendale thread as I was cutting mortise in MDF. My thought was something like this. What is the point of all this except to make sure the piece does not implode on its way form my shop to the spray booth and then from the spray booth to its final resting place. Anyway the thought was that there is no way any of this IKEA or mdf crap will be around in 2-300 years as even if someone does think oh don’t throw grandpas QS cherry desk away just put it in the basement or the garage. Anyway. It’s gonna get whet and when it does it’s gonna turn into a giant pile of garbage and in short order a landfill.
I put a haunch in the lower part of the tenon to hide any potential mess made in the cardboard mortise.
Can you tell I hate mdf and plywood.
85DC7A45-0870-45E4-B03A-6156F1A8F0C9.jpg
74B3002F-7335-412B-832D-789C544821BA.jpg
1351FB69-B4C1-45DA-9178-573F9C808E69.jpg
C9FF1C2E-78D6-4A98-A95E-C87F640C4396.jpg
FEFB9C91-8430-48CA-AC62-A58010493349.jpg
4DD39CF3-7F09-4EA6-949F-53E41171F731.jpg
Forgot to add a picture of the dominoed together top panel and face frame return.
F3985F64-7DBC-4C4B-AA95-8CA65DE0C97F.jpg
And then one of my best shop buddy and probably why I can work back to back 60 plus hour weeks months on end.
9BA154F2-27C7-4DD6-9C14-A7E4430AEFCC.jpg
Tomorrow this thing has got to get glued screwded and the build out that creates the 2.5” finished face profile along with exterior side panels on.
I actually need to get a couple pieces of the veneer on tomorrow also if I’m gonna get this thing in a spray booth Wednesday. Remember it is supposed to be in the booth Tuesday. As all can see that is just not gonna happen.
Anyway hope you enjoyed. Time for ice cream cookies and the news. As you can see I’m really living la Vida Loca!
Yup. It's a great build thread and an even better cool toys thread! Really enjoyable. Please keep 'em coming!