Next on the agenda was an airing cupboard on the landing, which had looked like this for 3 or 4 years:
That's with a 3x1 frame all around, already in position. Simple half-lap joints, and all scribed to the wonky walls. I had to get the frame in place before starting work on the doors, because I needed the exact size of the opening, obviously. The doors are going to be a mix of softwood frames and MDF panelling. I don't normally work in MDF, but airing cupboard doors are prone to movement because of the heat and occasional damp, and MDF is very stable in those circumstances. It's all going to be painted. The softwood element is ex 32mm thick (finishes about 27 or 28mm), so plenty of room for some decent joints:
I've described many times how I prefer chiselling tenon cheeks, rather than sawing:
No such option, though, for the female side of the bridle joint:
That saw is quite coarse (9 or 10 TPI, and rip cut) so ideal for these big but accurate long-grain cuts. Note also the angle of the wood in the vice, enabling me to follow both the long grain and the end grain marks at the same time. You then flip the wood over to follow down the other face. The bridle joint, for me, is the most difficult of the standard joints....far harder than dovetails, for instance. The idea is to make the joint fit well directly from the saw, without any paring:
I then ran a groove around all of the pieces, carefully stopping on the tenons. This groove was carefully located the exact depth of the MDF down from the face of the frame:
Dry fit:
OK, they're boring doors! I pulled all that lot apart, and then got to work with the chamfering bit, before gluing up. The central pseudo-muntin is just planted on the face of the panel, and weighted down as the glue dried:
Stop chamfers take a little thinking about, but I've done a few in my time and managed not to make any cock ups this time:
Now, I doubt many pros working with MDF would use a shooting board, but it still strikes me as the easiest and quickest way to make the necessary minor adjustments to make everything fit:
I couldn't easily clamp those little horizontal pieces in place, so I just screwed them, removing the screws when the glue had dried:
I have no idea what I am doing with MDF, frankly. Machine chamfered edges were a bit rough, so I sanded them by hand, then sealed everything up with sanding sealer. I don't normally use the stuff, as I've always thought of it as just for turners, but I happened to have this tin of the stuff from a friend's garage clearance a while back:
After the glue dried, it was into my door stand thingies for a quick clean up of the edges:
I chopped in 3 three inch hinges per door:
Then headed in and hung them:
I still need to find some handles and catches, and make a core or grill for the air vents at the top. Then I can hand the job over to the painting team, and move on to the next exciting instalment.