Wall Cabinet

[mouppe]

I'm building this wall cabinet using some new techniques. If it turns out well, it will go in the office or the house, if not, welcome to the workshop my walnut friend! It has a dovetailed carcass and a chamfered face frame which I learnt from Garrett Hack in Fine Woodworking. Essentially, you leave a small vertical rabbet and chamfer it away leaving a seamless joint. I may also add a small moulding down the side to accomplish the same thing and to lighten the heaviness of the walnut. The frame extends past the drawer sides removing the need for stopped dadoes. Not everything is cut to finished length yet.

It is made from walnut with birdseye maple door panels. I used the same plank for all the stiles to give the piece grain continuity. You can see this most easily by looking at the two door stiles in the centre of the cabinet. Walnut and maple is a great colour combination.

I also modified the dimensions as I was building it. I have never done this before, but as I was laying out the pieces it seemed as if the stiles were too thick for the cabinet so I narrowed them down. Also I thickened the rails to make the panels less long. I was trying to get closer to the golden ratio. The finished cabinet will have a cove moulding on the top. This will reduce the boxy look it is too easy to get with these types of cabinets.

TS55, OF1400, RO125 but no Domino this time. What, no Domino? No, unnecessary this time. I really went to town with the hand plane and the block plane. On a piece of furniture this small, it is so much "faster, easier and smarter" to mill the lumber close to final dimension with the power tools, and then get a precise fit for the last couple of millimetres with the hand tools. Because the piece is so small, the fit of the joints has to be that much more exact to stand up to scrutiny.

I actually found the much-maligned Parallel guide (491469) to be very useful when cutting the thin stiles and rails. Because the guide rail was not clamped to the wood that was being cut but another piece of the same thickness behind it, the parallel guide kept the wood from wandering away from the guide rail.

I also have to give a special mention to my 36" Veritas straight edge and my new Woodpeckers precision square. The square is one of the best tools I have ever bought. It is accurate, solid, easy to read, and a pleasure to use. $80 very well spent.

I thought it would be a little different to show some in-progress photos for a change. I should have the finished piece ready in a few more days. Maybe I will present it to my wife for her impending 40th birthday to show her where all my time and money is being spent!

 

[mouppe]

Today, I put the doors together. One thing I learned on a course recently is that it is better to fit the doors to the frame than aim for a square door, because things are never entirely square. This is especially true with facing doors like on this cabinet, because any gap between the doors will be easily visible. Here, the door on the right is square, but the rail on the left door is 2mm longer then the bottom rail. Unnoticeable by eye but it would be if both doors were square.

I was fooling around for ages to get the right size reveal on the panels and frame- I went for a small one because the doors are narrow. Tomorrow, it will be time to sand the maple down and hand plane the walnut. I tried planing the birdseye maple but found it impossible to avoid tearout. I will pre-finish the doors before assembling them. One other thing I was careful to do was to leave a much smaller gap than normal for panel expansion because it is summertime. I made the mistake last summer of leaving too big a gap on my workbench during construction and regretted it big time come wintertime.

P.S. MFT coming next week so no more rickety guide rail clamped to the workbench scenario as in the background!

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[peter halle]

Richard,

I have no idea how I missed your original post on this.  I love your melding of hand and power tool results.

Great pics  [thumbs up].

Please post more!

 

[Brice Burrell]

Great looking cabinet!

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Love your work Richard!  That is a great cabinet!

I have to ask, in one of the pics, to the left of the "off green" miter saw, there's a board with several sticks fixed at different angles.  What is that???  Looks like a really interesting jig.

 

[mouppe]

Jesse,

It's a sled to make my planer act like a jointer. It works pretty well if you need to joint a really wide board or as in my case, you don't own a jointer! The ribs move up and down to support the board in the high and low spots so you can joint the top side. Here is a video from fine woodworking about it.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=5245

Brice, Peter, thanks for the compliments.

Richard.

 

[honeydoman]

Beautiful cabinet and I love the doors in the 2 tone. Great job [thumbs up]

 

[mouppe]

All power to the Rotex 125. Good tools like this make woodworking a real pleasure. I could stick this in the review section, but there is already loads of material on the rotex there. I thought it would useful to show the rotex being used as part of a project and then when I apply the finish it will place the video in context.

Sorry about the shakiness at times, I guess I had not clamped the camera (iphone!) firmly enough. Also, sorry about the upside-down camera at the end!

Sanding Birdseye Maple with a Festool Rotex 125

 

[mouppe]

Almost done. Just the back and the finish. I thought about extending the banding along the top but it looks better without. I am going to experiment with some finishes but I am sure shellac will come first.

Richard.

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[tjbnwi]

Not certain what your finishing experience is, you need to use dewaxed shellac. The waxed shellac my cause problems with the subsequent finishes.

This is the product I use (this supplier had the best picture and explanation of the product);

http://www.dilegnosupply.com/Finishing/zinsser_sealcoat.htm

Tom

 

[mouppe]

Absolutely dewaxed shellac every time. I use the dry flakes, and mix them with ethyl hydrate (same as denatured alcohol more or less). Then after a few coats I can see whether I need to apply a gel stain- which may be the case here as I have some gray areas- and then a top coat.

I am really excited about seeing the maple pop out.

 

[TJ Cornish]

Nice Seamaster!

 

[Kevin D.]

I really like it Richard.  Nice work.

I like that magnifier/loupe you have.  Where does one buy decent ones would you say?  You mentioned it is a 10X, would you suggest that magnification only if being used solely in the shop?

 

[mouppe]

I really like it Richard.  Nice work.

I like that magnifier/loupe you have.  Where does one buy decent ones would you say?  You mentioned it is a 10X, would you suggest that magnification only if being used solely in the shop?

Kevin,

It was $9 from a local camera shop! Nothing special at all but it is useful. I also like to use it to look at plane blades to see if there are any nicks on them. There were no other magnification options available but 10x seems the right number to me.

I would rather buy cheap ones and replace them if they get too badly scratched than a really expensive one that gets knocked around the workshop. Mine is a simple plastic one that looks like something you get from a dollar store!

Richard.

 

[mouppe]

Let the finishing begin. After sanding to 400 grit with Monsieur Rotex, I spent yesterday trying out several finishes on walnut and maple samples. I have settled for a simple shellac finish on the walnut to start, with no stain. I am undecided about the maple, but am leaning towards danish oil. Shellac yellows the maple a bit too much and I want to maintain the contrast with the dark walnut.

The photo is after two coats of shellac, with the maple untouched. Actually, keeping the shellac off the maple is the hardest part.

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[mouppe]

Here we are after 6 coats of shellac on the maple, 2 per day with gentle sanding with steel wool after every other coat. I think I am done and will now add some paste wax and buff it up.

The birdseye maple has one very thin coat of Danish oil from Lee Valley- I only mention that it is from Lee Valley because the application method is different to normal Danish oil. Instead of flooding the wood and then wiping off the excess such as with Watco, you apply a very thin coat and then wipe off. Obviously the flooding method wouldn't work here with my panels already glued in. To be honest, I think I prefer the Lee Valley oil's results compared to my test piece of maple with Watco. It is less messy and more economical too. The birdseye has really popped out and is really glowing.

I used to dread the finishing stage but now that I have found finishes that are easy to apply and give good results, I actually look forward to seeing the wood come to life.

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[mouppe]

OK, I finally finished the cabinet. 6 coats of shellac on the walnut and 1 coat of Danish oil on the maple, followed by 2 coats of buffing wax with the rotex and sheepskin pad. I got just the finish I wanted, smooth to the touch, deep in colour and satin rather than glossy. The shellac has darkened the walnut a little and evened out the colour where there was sapwood. I was careful to avoid getting shellac on the inlay to avoid yellowing it.

Hopefully you can see from the photos in the preceding posts and this one how the finish changed over time. I thought it would be useful to document this.

I turned the knobs on the lathe- it's about all I use it for these days. Note: when looking for examples of doorknobs doing a google search for "ebony knob" can give you some unexpected and child-unfriendly results!  [eek]

The knobs are just touching each other so the friction keeps the doors closed, which was a complete fluke and a real bonus. Now I don't have to mess about with magnets. I didn't plan it that way but it worked out.

Hope you like it,
Richard.

Festools used: TS55, Rotex 125, OF1400, MFT/3, CT22.

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[nclemmons]

Really nice job.  Thanks for all the photos.

neil

 

[dltflt]

I love the contrast between the walnut and maple.  The quilted maple center is gorgeous.  Very nice job.

 

[mouppe]

Here is a photo of the finished inside of the cabinet. Five walnut panels make up the back, with overlapping rabbets to allow for wood expansion. To camouflage the lines, I routed small grooves parallel to them. This is a little trick I picked up recently. You have to look pretty closely to see that the back is made up of more than one panel.

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This should hold it for now!

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