My wife likes to arrange flowers (she’s creative and artistic that way) and occasionally uses my shop for that purpose. Turns out flower arranging requires its own set of tools/equipment. She started appropriating my portable toolbox to store her flower tools. We all know that’s not gonna fly – so I built this small cabinet for her out of “Whitewood” (I think White Pine).
This is a pretty casual project, built of inexpensive materials which gave me a chance to play with some of my favorite hand tool techniques. Below is probably too many pictures of the build process I thought I would share with my fellow Neander’s who are interested in following along:
Dimensioning stock with my grandfather’s Disston #7, 10 PPI crosscut saw. Those are his initials scratch the plate.
Jointing a reference edge with what was a horribly dilapidated beach jointer plane I found hidden in my Dad’s shop. After a little TLC it’s become a favorite. I don’t know why some of these old irons just seem to take a great edge?
Carcass sides are molded frame and raised panel construction with four panels per side. I admit to running the quarter round molding for the frame with an electric router. For me hand plane moldings with hollows and rounds are a lot of work that I tend to reserve for “show” moldings with more visual impact. After cutting/shooting to length, next step is to remove/miter moldings where the bridle joints will be. I like Japanese saws for these delicate , small cuts. I try to take my time with this process as gaps are pretty obvious and I’ve certainly created my share of those! Better to leave moldings a little “fat” and trim them to a final fit when fitting frame joinery.
With moldings trimmed, time to saw the bridle joints. Over time this has become a fun exercise for me. With good technique you can go fairly quickly and results are immediate.