I'm often asked.. I'm sometimes asked... Someone asked me once...
Do you know you wait ages for projects involving framed doors to come along and now you get three at once. Obviously I am not competing with MikeG’s televison cabinet, and I was politely nudged off AndyT’s cabinet thread. I possess neither the energy of the former, nor the knowledge of tools of the latter. Or the ability of either. Very much that last sentence.
So. I am making a larder. It will fit in a press cupboard that is in an internal angle of a Z plan house, surrounded by lots of masonry, and maintaining a pretty constant (low) temperature.
With apologies for the photograph in ‘fuzz-o-rama’ vision this I what I have to work with:
The eagle eyed amongst you will note (back right hand corner) the use by a previous occupier of blutak as a building material. No doubt that too now forms part of the Listing, and I will have to preserve it.
Whilst it was used by my predecessors as a food cupboard, it was still fitted out as a linen cupboard: 1” by 2” gapped slats. Totally useless for storing jars, bottles and tins. However, it yielded some poor quality but at least dry wood, of which more later.
So here (now being exhibited on the laser display screen) is my CAD layout. And for those at home, here is the mystery voice:
The top of the lower portion will be a slab of marble I picked up somewhere. I am hoping to get the rest out of the slats removed or stuff I have otherwise, ahem, recovered.
So I need a face frame (I think that is what it is called) and doors to fit within it.
Some skirting recovered from a skip in the New Town was the base material for the frame. It had a moulding along the top, but a simple half round too large for what I wanted. So, in the words of Edwyn Collins, rip it up and start again.
I wanted a bead on the inside of the frame – better than a square edge if it gets bashed when things are being put into the cupboard. I tried running it in a single piece with the sides. Even did a trial joint.
Didn't help myself by estimating the mitre by hand.
But, in my hands at least, the Stanley 50 is a capricious beast. And I didn’t have that much wood to work with. So I did the beading separately.
Haunched through tenons, thusly.
Glued up.
And trimmed.
The separate beading.
Dry fitted.
And now onto the doors. I had got hold of some doors from a defunct IKEA wardrobe or something. Coated in a black lacquer that was vile in the extreme to remove. This sort of thing.
Already grooved, and the panels were actually solid (albeit staved if that is the right word) wood. In the spirit of optimists every, how had could it be to cut those down to suit. Well, dearly beloved, it would have been much easier not to start from there.
First of all, get rid of the black laquer stuff. Ugh. You can’t even burn the shavings. Then, of course, the groove isn’t any size of chisel or plane iron I have. Then, and I think I have alluded to this earlier, the grooves ain’t symmetrical. So, re-mark everything you have done up to that point.
Through tenons as for the frame, haunched. Hacked out with a 4mm Narex mortice chisel – too small of course, but a 6mm was too wide. Given you are working a bit unsighted within the groove (Get into the groove, boy you've got to prove… Sorry, 80s flash back. Happens.) I actually drilled out much of the waste with this natty little thing someone bought me.
Oh, yeah, and the tenons. Another gift. Goodness gracious. It really does make it much simpler. Weight of the brass back? Rip cut teeth? Just better? Dunno, but even I looked like I knew what I was doing. OK, that’s maybe a stretch too far.
Trimming – sort of AndyT’s idea of using other parts to support the router plane, but I used the relevant stiles (oh, I hope I’ve got that the right way round and it’s not a rail) so you’re always referencing off the correct component and correct edge. You can do it this way either on the long side or the short side. Mmm, not sure that is clear, maybe I'll take a photo' later.
So here we are. Kit of parts.
And that is where we came in. A final photograph to show AndyT we are at the same stage.
And breathe.
:lol: :eusa-clap:
