QSWO Bathroom cabinet -- finished

[ear3]

For as long as I can remember, there has been this rectangular, boxy pine cabinet in the main bathroom in my house.  Not sure if my Dad made it way back when, or whether it goes back even further to my grandfather.  In any case, I've decided to remove it and use the space as an opportunity to build a small cabinet.

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You see the peculiar space constraints.  The heavy metal sink to the right, and the shower door to the left, which we gave up a long time ago ever needing to open all the way (all the fixtures and the salmon colored tile in the bathroom go back to when the house was built in the late 30s).  So I decided to take advantage of the peculiarities of the space to do a design challenge for myself of making a trapezoidal/angled cabinet.  I didn't have any particular model in mind, other than that it would be made largely out of QSWO and be vaguely arts and crafts/mission life.  I made a stool last year that reproduces the basic frame:

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but never something like this which will have three pull out drawers on the top and hinged doors that open on a taller shelf on the bottom.

So I picked up a mix of 8/4 and 4/4 QSWO at Boards and Beams in New Jersey the other week, and got down to planing the lumber

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Not wanting to break the bank on the 8/4, I decided to just buy a short 3 ft piece they had there, and then use up some 8/4 scraps I had left over from the mitre saw cart I built last year.  Even then, I found I was one piece short, and so I ended up laminating one of the posts, which, as you can see even close up, is barely distinguishable (and will be in the back anyway):

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I dominoed the interior panel for the sides and glued it up to the posts

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Then I began doing the mortises for the front and back cross pieces to connect the sides.  I thought I could get away with plunging close the edge on the tops, but broke through the top on the first try:

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So I ended up shortening the 6mm dominoes somewhat

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Here's what it looked like after the initial fit

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Then went to work on the bottom shelf.  To conserve the QSWO, I decided to use plain white oak for the bottom shelf -- turns out this was unnecessary, as I still have enough QSWO at this point, but oh well -- I figured that it wouldn't be visible from the outside anyway.  I only had 1x6s, and the shelf needed to be around 10", so I edge jointed two pieces of 1x6 white oak, fitting the boards using the split kerf method

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After gluing it up, so that it would fit snug on the inside post and frame assembly, I notched the corners of the shelf using the Carvex, and then cleaning it up with chisels

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I then dominoed the shelf, along with the bottom cross pieces -- but to cut down on all the glue messiness (and honestly, to speed things up a bit), I pocket holed the bottom, and so the dominoes served simply for alignment purposes

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After looking at the bottom shelf assembly, I realized that it might look better to add a curve to the bottom front support, so I made an MDF template, attached it to the shelf with double sided tape, and ran the 1400 with a flush trim bit:

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Next up, the shelves...

 

[ear3]

After gluing up the frame, I was still a bit uncertain how I wanted to do the drawer supports.  Since they would be made out of 1x stock laying on the flat, attaching them via dominoes would require a perfect placement of the mortises on both sides.  I suppose I could have made a jig for it,  but I decided instead that I would simply use pocket screws in the bottom.  So I cut and glued up the support frames, and pocket holed them -- in another perhaps misguided effort at conservation, I substituted some red oak scraps for the pieces that would not be visible.  I realize now that if I want to do a Stickley ammonia finish, those pieces will not take on the same color as the white oak.  But I still far from the finishing stage so we'll see. 

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I haven't fully settled on how I'm going to do the back, but it will probably be a 1/4" veneered plywood panel that will be inset on the frame through a rabbet.  Since I can cut this later, I cut down the shelf supports on the table saw to sit 7/32" short of the back

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Moving on to actually attaching the supports, to make sure I was placing them level to the bottom shelf, and also to prevent the support from shifting while screwing it in, I cut up some support pieces of the exact same size (using combination of stops on the kapex or ripping a single piece into identically sized strips on the table saw), which I then clamped to the frame to keep the supports in place:

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So here's where I'm at now -- moving on to working on the drawers.

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I realize the middle rail of the bottom drawer support is slightly off center -- mismeasurement on my part.  But fortunately it's not so off that it will prevent putting in a thin drawer runner to keep the drawer opening straight back and forth.

I do have a question though about how I should configure the hardware on the section where there will be two doors.  Since the frame is at a 7 degree angle, won't this create problems with any sort of traditional hinge, since after mortising the hinge bolt will be skewed at the same angle?  Are there other hardware solutions for this, or is 7 degrees not enough to really affect the swing of the doors?

 

[copcarcollector]

That is looking very nice! Looking forward to seeing the final piece. [smile]

Side note, it looks like you have a possible electrical hazard in the bathroom, that light to the left of the sink, are those exposed wires and/or wire nuts I see..?

 

[rvieceli]

Looking good Edward. Love the vintage bathroom.

 

[ear3]

Extension cord.

That is looking very nice! Looking forward to seeing the final piece. [smile]

Side note, it looks like you have a possible electrical hazard in the bathroom, that light to the left of the sink, are those exposed wires and/or wire nuts I see..?

 

[GarryMartin]

I like the look and am looking forward to the continuing build photos.

I don't think 7 degrees will give you too much trouble although you may need to chamfer the inside edge of the doors.

 

[ear3]

That will hopefully work, thanks.

I like the look and am looking forward to the continuing build photos.

I don't think 7 degrees will give you too much trouble although you may need to chamfer the inside edge of the doors.

 

[ear3]

Cut the drawer faces:

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I'm wondering what's appropriate for this style as far as what to do with the edges of the drawer faces.  A slight roundover?  A slight chamfer?

I'm going to use some drawer pulls taken from a Japanese tansu, sort of like this (I would post a picture of mine, but they are someplace in a box somewhere in the house):

so I'm not really worried about making the drawer faces too fancy.  But something has to be done to break up a bit the smooth plane of the face

 

[WastedP]

I'd vote for a notched edge on the drawer faces.

 

[tjbnwi]

I'd break the edges, nothing more.

Tom

 

[RKA]

Lovely work Edward!  Thank you for putting together the blow by blow.  I love watching people that improvise along the way...mostly because I can't! 

 

[nclemmons]

That looks really nice. 

I agree with Tom on just slightly breaking the drawer front edges.  You could do a stopped chamfer on the outside of the four legs which I think would look nice.  But the rest I think I'd leave with a slight break with sandpaper or a hand plane.

What are you doing for the top?

 

[ear3]

Started doing the drawer pieces, and just thought I'd make a clamping observation given the recent thread about this subject.  I planed the boards down to a bit under 5/8". This means that the festool clamping elements sit above the board, thus putting up an obstacle to sanding.  But fortunately some time ago I got the veritas bench blades, which sit less than 1/4" above the table surface. I hardly ever use them, though, because the head has so little travel, and so either the board has to line up closely with your dog hole pattern, or you have to shim the board. I ended up doing the latter.  Anyway, I thought it was a good lesson on how with certain things, like clam0s, it occasionally helps to buy before need.

 

[ear3]

Thanks neil. Yeah, I think I'm going to break the outside corner of the legs as well.

Not quite sure on top yet. I edge joined two boards in preparation -- it can only come forward maybe half or 3/4 inch past the front due to the shower door. I will probably extend it a few inches left and right though. I imagine I will use one of the large table edge profiling bits I have on hand- not too complex a shape (like a dbl fillet ogee, or whatever that profile is called), but I would like there to be a noticeable profile.

That looks really nice. 

I agree with Tom on just slightly breaking the drawer front edges.  You could do a stopped chamfer on the outside of the four legs which I think would look nice.  But the rest I think I'd leave with a slight break with sandpaper or a hand plane.

What are you doing for the top?

 

[copcarcollector]

Do you have a plan yet for a finish? Anything special to consider with the moisture and humidity in a bathroom..?

 

[ear3]

Not yet.  I had been kicking around trying to do the Stickley ammonia fuming method to enhance the color.  I built another cabinet for the wall almost two years ago, on which I used Osmo Polyx oil, and that finish has held up really well so far in that environment.  I'm still a ways away from that point, so we'll see.

Do you have a plan yet for a finish? Anything special to consider with the moisture and humidity in a bathroom..?

 

[bobfog]

Looks really good. My only observation that's remotely negative is those drawers look a little tight on the frame and being Oak in a humid bathroom environment might become stiff/stuck.

 

[tjbnwi]

Looks really good. My only observation that's remotely negative is those drawers look a little tight on the frame and being Oak in a humid bathroom environment might become stiff/stuck.

QSWO expands in thickness, it expands very minimally (if at all with these sizes) in length and width.

Tom

 

[bobfog]

Looks really good. My only observation that's remotely negative is those drawers look a little tight on the frame and being Oak in a humid bathroom environment might become stiff/stuck.

QSWO expands in thickness, it expands very minimally (if at all with these sizes) in length and width.

Tom

Yes, but it is in a very humid environment of a bathroom which will cause some expansion and so even minimal expansion of the drawer fronts might be an issue, but more so the legs/frame will also expand (as you say in thickness) so the two will converge together. Just my opinion, but if it were me I'd knock an extra half millimetre off each side to be sure.

 

[ear3]

Point taken, thanks.  I actually cut them a bit tight to account for the material loss when I sand it fully.  But I'll make sure to leave a sufficient gap for clearance and expansion.

Looks really good. My only observation that's remotely negative is those drawers look a little tight on the frame and being Oak in a humid bathroom environment might become stiff/stuck.

QSWO expands in thickness, it expands very minimally (if at all with these sizes) in length and width.

Tom

Yes, but it is in a very humid environment of a bathroom which will cause some expansion and so even minimal expansion of the drawer fronts might be an issue, but more so the legs/frame will also expand (as you say in thickness) so the two will converge together. Just my opinion, but if it were me I'd knock an extra half millimetre off each side to be sure.