Mike builds a teardrop (cedar detail)

[Mike G]

I hope the cause of the feint can be satisfactorily explained, must have been scary for the family too.
Glad to hear you’re on the mend.

Diarrhea and vomiting left me totally "empty", and I then slept for 3 or 4 hours in the afternoon, so hadn't drunk anything for a while. It was simply low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia). Sweet tea got me up.

 

[AndyP]

So long as there no other underlying causes. Will you see your GP for a check up?

 

[Mike G]

So long as there no other underlying causes. Will you see your GP for a check up?

I went for a full MOT a couple of weeks ago. I'm as right as rain.

 

[Cabinetman]

Take it easy....

You think your back to strength nut half an hour in the workshop and you feel it.

I had a trip to a+e too, infection in my hand and arm on Saturday ooh GP appointment and antibiotics prescribed. (Mild flu like symptoms and redness tracking up my arm)

Nice day yesterday thought I might walk to hebden bridge for lunch and back got 3 miles in and though stuff this! Turned round and walked home!

Sounds like blood poisoning, good job you got it sorted. A lot of my customers in a former life were filleters and it was common to get it from fish bones puncturing the skin. Next symptom would have been your hand and arm swelling up enormously.

 

[Lons]

Sounds like blood poisoning, good job you got it sorted. A lot of my customers in a former life were filleters and it was common to get it from fish bones puncturing the skin. Next symptom would have been your hand and arm swelling up enormously.

My mother in law was in her eighties and stabbed her hand with a biro, we didn't know until a few days later while visiting my wife noticed her arm was swollen and showed a lot of blue veining. Straight into A&E where she stayed for a week and the docs said she was a lucky woman as it was serious.

 

[Mike G]

I've had a bit of workshop-time. I think we left things at the face frame, so next job is the doors. This one was made, and here is a dry fit for marking out the outer edge:





At that point, I decided to experiment. I decided to glue up the simplest door. Now, this was a big decision, and something of a gamble, because it meant feeding the panelling into position AFTER the frame was finished, and that's not how you usually do a panel door! The right hand door of these two was the easy door:



So, I glued up the bridles, and the following day cut out the shape, rounded-over the inside edges, and ran a 2mm groove around:



Because my panelling, as you've seen, is rattan, and it's flexible. I took a pattern, cut the rattan, and injected some glue into one section, then started the frustrating job of feeding the rattan into the slot. It was a bit of a chore, with bits sticking up here and there, and then whole sections pulling out of the slot where they'd been left previously. In the heat of battle, working against the open time of the glue, I just fiddled away with a scraper, a coule of knives, bits of cardboard, and whatever else worked, and eventually, I got the whole thing in:





In the calm light of day, I think I can be a bit more efficient next time, and I also reaslised that trying to glue the rattan into place at the same time as gluing up the panel frame would be an utter nightmare. So, I glued up the next door:



Whilst that was drying, I adjusted the bridles for the remaining door, and did the M&Ts for the diagonal;





I cheated. I had help:



The following day, the other frame was de-clamped, cleaned up, fitted into the opening, and then offered up to a couple of cutters on the router table:



It took ages to sand out the burn marks:



Woops, sorry!



Hindsight...........I'd have preferred if the "Y" in the middle had been a smidgeon to the right. Off camera, I had glued up the other frame earlier in the day, and was able to de-clamp at close of play to get this photo:



It all looks a bit flat in a photo, but in reality the big round-over around the panel makes it feel very 3D and contoured.

 

[Cabinetman]

I like that a lot, my only comment is that I would probably have done it exactly as you have but in hindsight perhaps the M&T’s might have been the other way around to match the surround?
I thought at first you would put the hinges at the top or bottom of the doors- difficult on a curve, but they would be in the way of the cooking at the bottom and you would need to bob down to see in if they were at the top, then I noticed the flat sides, nice.

 

[Mike G]

I like that a lot, my only comment is that I would probably have done it exactly as you have but in hindsight perhaps the M&T’s might have been the other way around to match the surround?

I did think about that, but the difficulty would be in getting them to line up exactly, given that there are no reference edges anywhere. It would have looked awful if one or two of them had ended up close, but say 5mm out of line. Besides, I wanted as much of the stile as possible available for the hinges, given that the curved corners could potentially push the hinges a bit further inboard than ideal.

I thought at first you would put the hinges at the top or bottom of the doors- difficult on a curve, but they would be in the way of the cooking at the bottom and you would need to bob down to see in if they were at the top, then I noticed the flat sides, nice.

Well spotted. Yes, it was a bit of a difficulty having 3 straight vertical edges out of 4 stiles/ muntins, and hiding the incongruity.

Put your mind to this: those stiles/ muntins will hide the leading edge of dividers between the 3 cupboards. The right hand one is bog standard, but have a little think about the complications arising from the left hand one, particularly how you organise adjustable shelves.

 

[Cabinetman]

Yes I see your point, so perhaps either a sloping vertical divide, or perhaps a stepped one as in Rob’s bookcase?

 

[NickM]

This looks great. Very cool!

 

[Lons]

Hi Mike

Am I right in picking up that you intend to hinge each door seperately? I'd assumed that the doors were decorative and the whole panel hinged from the top to be swung upwards.
That would concern me as the doors being inset will likely stick imo. The van will flex and move wihile being towed and possibly even distort if levelling isn't great on site, not always possible. Yours are much more substantial so should minimise it hopefully.

There's a reason caravan and motorhome doors are always face fixed and it isn't just about being cheaper to make and fit.

 

[Mike G]

Interesting, Bob, thanks. I'll keep that in mind. I'll open up the gaps a little now, but if they stick later on I'll re-adjust. If they become an absolute pain, I'll just remove the whole face frame and have another go, but with face fixed doors.

The teardrop will always be level, because I've got the leveling jacks in the corners

 

[Malc2098]

You'll be making musical instruments next!

 

[Lons]

Interesting, Bob, thanks. I'll keep that in mind. I'll open up the gaps a little now, but if they stick later on I'll re-adjust. If they become an absolute pain, I'll just remove the whole face frame and have another go, but with face fixed doors.

The teardrop will always be level, because I've got the leveling jacks in the corners

What's in your favour is that the length and width of the frame is small and looks as if the chassis is strong. people would be shocked at how much the frames can flex or be distorted by over vigorous use of the corner staedies. You'll be ok, just pack a block plane in your toolkit..

 

[Mike G]

Also, this cupboard is fixed to a bulkhead which is as strong as the walls, so is in the place in the teardrop least likely to suffer from flex. But yes, point taken.

 

[Mike G]

I finished the other couple of doors, ready for the rattan:



With the experience of the first door behind me, I cut some really thin (0.5mm) aluminium sheet, which I could insert in the slot and which then guided the edge of the rattan into place:



I had to be careful to keep the rattan properly aligned. There is only one reference edge on the whole screen, so that's what I used:



Here's the job done:







I've ordered the hinges, and I'll turn some knobs, but in the meantime, I better find something else to do.

 

[Malc2098]

Nice.

 

[Lons]

Very nice and certainly unique.

 

[Cabinetman]

Marvellous.
What was the original use for the Ratan?

 

[Mike G]

...What was the original use for the Ratan?

I bought it in, new.

 

[Cabinetman]

I bought it in, new.

Haha, no sorry bad question, I meant what is normally used for, its not something I’ve seen for sale and wondered what other uses it may be put to.

 

[Phil]

Looking very smart Mike!

The ratan - as a kid we had dining room chairs where the back was ratan.
Not great as it tends to get damaged pulling and pushing the chairs.

 

[Mike G]

.....Not great as it tends to get damaged pulling and pushing the chairs.

Yes, and it was probably stiffer than this stuff to start with. It's very floppy, and is cut easily with scissors. However, in a cupboard door it shouldn't ever be touched, and as well as looking nice (to me, anyway!), it is light, and allows air to circulate. These doors are going to be shut 99% of their life, and mustiness/ mould etc are the big danger with leisure vehicles left idle most of the time.

 

[Mike G]

...... I meant what is normally used for......

I grew up with my parents having a 1950s radiogram, and that had a rattan panel over, presumably, the speaker. We also had rattan panels in some of our chairs.....again, much stiffer than the stuff I've got. My dislike of mid-century furniture goes back a long way!

 

[Woodbloke]

I bought it in, new.

I saw an exquisite chair with a rattan seat (not upholstered) in this place at Easter, almost identical to one shown but made in Rosewood. It was so delicate I was afraid to touch it, let alone sit in the thing. I have no idea what it would have cost, but it would have been 'tidy' - Rob

 

[Mike G]

I saw an exquisite chair with a rattan seat (not upholstered) in this place at Easter, almost identical to one shown but made in Rosewood. It was so delicate I was afraid to touch it, let alone sit in the thing. I have no idea what it would have cost, but it would have been 'tidy' - Rob

If you look at the edge detail of that rattan, Rob, it's clearly a much higher quality product than I'm using. To have an exposed edge like that on rattan means someone has had to do something to strengthen the weave.....and it's not straight (and sewn), but beautifully finished in a wave-form.

 

[Cabinetman]

Mid century modern, yes me too, I think about the only good thing to come out of the 50’s was all of us lol.

 

[AJB Temple]

Always good to have an expert helper. I have the T shirt on that!

 

[Mike G]

I'm doing the internals of the kitchen cupboards, the roof of which is curved. So, time for some spiling! I decided to use a tick stick:



You stick a bit of scrap in the location, and mark up the position of the tick stick with its end egainst the curve....then transfer those markings to your work-piece. There might be a piccie of that later.

Here's a fiddle being made for the edge of a shelf (stops stuff falling off when in transit):





.......and just to show that I know how to make mitres:





I'm not sure why there isn't an in situ photo of that lot.......but there will be shortly.

Here's the wine rack under construction, starting with the face:





That's a number 78 rebate plane followed by a number 79 side rebate plane to trim to the exact depth to take the 6mm ply. The next bit was something of a pig. I didn't have a hole cutter of the right size, so I worked out that with a smaller one and a rebate cutter in the router, I could achieve the diameter I wanted. I sharpened the hole cutter, and attempted to cut a hole:



It burnt, and then seized up completely (despite being newly-sharpened, and waxed), and didn't achieve more than about 4 or 5mm depth of cut. I patiently did this on both sides all around, to mark the holes and give me a reference. I then roughly cut out the bulk of the waste with first, a coping saw, and then with a jig saw:



Given that I had 4 or 5mm to play with, I used a trimming bit to take this all the way through:



I could then move to the other router table (yes, Mike, who hates using a router, has TWO router tables!), and use the bearing-guided rebate cutter to enlarge the hole by 20mm:



Obviously, with the bearing being at the top, I couldn't go all the way through........so back to the other table to finish off:



Then, a guided chamfer bit put a little chamfer on both the inside and out:



That's enough routing for a while. Like, until August.....

There are some internet points at stake to anyone who can work out what this little cut out is for. It's the real reason for the wine rack, being as it holds approximately my annual consumption:



The following is another product of spiling. It is the side of the wine rack, and here I am starting to work out the layout and construction:



Transfering markings from one side to the other:



........and then (another missing photo) after gluing and pinning some bottle-bearers into place I did a trial dry fit:



.....before moving to the teardrop:

 

[duke]

Wine rack to go along with the beer cooler, that's my idea of camping.

 

[Cabinetman]

I think you’ve got me with that dovetail cutout Mike, and it’s down behind the raised mahogany trim, about the only use I can think of is to secure the wine rack to a matching dt which is screwed from below? But why have it visible? No can’t think.

 

[Mike G]

I think you’ve got me with that dovetail cutout Mike, and it’s down behind the raised mahogany trim, about the only use I can think of is to secure the wine rack to a matching dt which is screwed from below? But why have it visible? No can’t think.

It's not a dovetail, it's a simple rectangle. It's not structural. But you're right, the semi-hidden location is important.

 

[AndyT]

It can't be anything illegal now you've told the millions of people who read this forum

 

[Mike G]

If I add a further clue...

.....the ply of the bottom of the cupboard, which houses into the face frame, overhangs the facia below it by about 31mm. The current splashback behind the worktop won't always be visible.

 

[thetyreman]

this reminds of of a mesa boogie mk1 guitar amp, sorry can't help it mike, looks good so far.

 

[NickM]

Is it for a bottle opener?

(Lovely work by the way)

 

[Cabinetman]

Just remembered Mike, a few years ago I made a wine rack and after checking a fair few bottles it became obvious that there isn’t a standard size, in fact some were 6-7mm larger in diameter than smaller ones. Might be worth checking the hole size now?
Maybe the cutout is where the door catch goes?

 

[Mike G]

Just remembered Mike, a few years ago I made a wine rack and after checking a fair few bottles it became obvious that there isn’t a standard size, in fact some were 6-7mm larger in diameter than smaller ones. Might be worth checking the hole size now?
Maybe the cutout is where the door catch goes?

Yeah, I've had that experience. I made a wine rack for my BIL......200 bottles.......and maybe 10% of what he buys doesn't fit! Embarassing. I took the biggest bottle off our rack and used that. If something doesn't fit, though, it'll have to stay at home.

 

[Cabinetman]

Oh hell, how annoying, well he certainly makes up for you! 3 bottles a year is a little on the light side even for me.

 

[Mike G]

Is it for a bottle opener

No, it's much more prosaic than that. It's a route for electric cables. Quite a number of them will be coming up from behind a false panel at the back of the worktop and up into the top of the cupboard, via the wine rack, some of which will then run on into the bedroom and many will go into the back door (hatch).