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Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
Mike's ext'n & renovation (solar panels)
- Thread starter Mike G
- Start date
kirkpoore1
Old Oak
Mike G":1ut8dnxc said:kirkpoore1":1ut8dnxc said:
I'm going to have to get a narrow chisel like that just to elongate fastener holes.
Kirk
Get the chisel anyway, Kirk (I've found it really useful), but I quickly swapped to just countersinking those holes.
Living in an area with wide seasonal temperature and humidity swings I need to be able to elongate holes to allow for wood movement. A chisel like that would have enough meat on it to let me do that while still being narrow enough.
Kirk
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I had a pile of offcuts left over from making stairs and doors:
There was a lot more than that! I thought I would do a job which has been rising up the list for a little while. It's the panels in the background, at the bottom:
What you can see there now is the back of the panels on the kitchen side. Anyway, I did some sawing and (machine) planing, and ended up with a pile of smaller pieces of wood:
Starting randomly on a raised panel, which will be the focus, I routed a rebate then a cove together, then attacked the raised edges with a blockplane and shaped scraper. And a bit of sandpaper:
It's very rare indeed that I use two blockplanes, but here I set one for deep cuts to hog off to shape, and then a finer one for finishing.
Then I made lots of half lap joints, using a combination of handtools and the radial arm saw:
Then I glued them together:
My little upstand shelf at the rear of the bench can provide a useful little stop sometimes. Here I have a couple of stops set, and I'm just cleaning up the face of the frames with a hand plane:
Next, to the router table. I need some rebates in which to sit my panels:
Dust control was an issue. Well, not so much dust as chippings/ shavings. It piled up, and there was no way of attaching a hose anywhere near, so it was just a question of blowing a lot, and using a hand brush.
There's a thread here somewhere asking about the back of stuff. Well, if it was furniture I wouldn't tolerate anything like this:
But this is the back of panel work, and I am using up scraps. So long as you work from a reference face, there is no difficulty in having decent joinery with varying thickness timber. Next, obviously, I needed some funny little pieces from MDF:
Do you know what it is yet?
Most stuff I make has chamfers, and I despise chamfers just stopped with a blurry burnt machine cut, so........:
Hot melt gluing them in place turned out to be a mistake. It would have been much better to pin them. Anyway, they're obviously there to guide the router chamfer cutter gently in and out of the cut. The one on the right has been done (there are three panels in total):
I cleaned those up a little with a scraper and some sandpaper. Then it was time to shape and glue in the flat panels. These vary in thickness from 3 or 4mm to 8 or 9mm. As I said....using up scraps. I left a little message from history for anyone foolish enough to take this lot apart:
Right, three days later, time to get on with the real work: a bit of carving:
I glued them in place (the other was still in clamps as I took this photo):
Then spent a couple of hours getting them to fit in the holes:
I've since removed them and coated them with a water based lacquer. They'll get fixed in permanently this afternoon.
There was a lot more than that! I thought I would do a job which has been rising up the list for a little while. It's the panels in the background, at the bottom:
What you can see there now is the back of the panels on the kitchen side. Anyway, I did some sawing and (machine) planing, and ended up with a pile of smaller pieces of wood:
Starting randomly on a raised panel, which will be the focus, I routed a rebate then a cove together, then attacked the raised edges with a blockplane and shaped scraper. And a bit of sandpaper:
It's very rare indeed that I use two blockplanes, but here I set one for deep cuts to hog off to shape, and then a finer one for finishing.
Then I made lots of half lap joints, using a combination of handtools and the radial arm saw:
Then I glued them together:
My little upstand shelf at the rear of the bench can provide a useful little stop sometimes. Here I have a couple of stops set, and I'm just cleaning up the face of the frames with a hand plane:
Next, to the router table. I need some rebates in which to sit my panels:
Dust control was an issue. Well, not so much dust as chippings/ shavings. It piled up, and there was no way of attaching a hose anywhere near, so it was just a question of blowing a lot, and using a hand brush.
There's a thread here somewhere asking about the back of stuff. Well, if it was furniture I wouldn't tolerate anything like this:
But this is the back of panel work, and I am using up scraps. So long as you work from a reference face, there is no difficulty in having decent joinery with varying thickness timber. Next, obviously, I needed some funny little pieces from MDF:
Do you know what it is yet?
Most stuff I make has chamfers, and I despise chamfers just stopped with a blurry burnt machine cut, so........:
Hot melt gluing them in place turned out to be a mistake. It would have been much better to pin them. Anyway, they're obviously there to guide the router chamfer cutter gently in and out of the cut. The one on the right has been done (there are three panels in total):
I cleaned those up a little with a scraper and some sandpaper. Then it was time to shape and glue in the flat panels. These vary in thickness from 3 or 4mm to 8 or 9mm. As I said....using up scraps. I left a little message from history for anyone foolish enough to take this lot apart:
Right, three days later, time to get on with the real work: a bit of carving:
I glued them in place (the other was still in clamps as I took this photo):
Then spent a couple of hours getting them to fit in the holes:
I've since removed them and coated them with a water based lacquer. They'll get fixed in permanently this afternoon.
Bloody beautiful!
:eusa-clap:
bscene-drinkingcheers:
:eusa-clap:
bscene-drinkingcheers:
kirkpoore1
Old Oak
Great job on the frames & panels, Mike. Did you put the date on there with the warning?
The roses look really clean. I generally hand draw mine, other than the circles, so they don't come out as uniform.
BTW, I ordered an eighth inch Narex mortising chisel from Lee Valley after your discussion above. I think it will cut down on frustration.
Kirk
The roses look really clean. I generally hand draw mine, other than the circles, so they don't come out as uniform.
BTW, I ordered an eighth inch Narex mortising chisel from Lee Valley after your discussion above. I think it will cut down on frustration.
Kirk
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Thanks guys. Because these are the first I've done, Kirk, I didn't really understand them until I had drawn them properly........and having drawn them properly it was quicker and easier just to press "print". I think you're right, though....a little variation would help. I'll see if I'm brave enough when I come to do the next ones on the back of the carvers for the dining suite I'll get around to one of these days.
And yes, my little message to the future was signed and dated.
And yes, my little message to the future was signed and dated.
MY63
Old Oak
Nice ! come on Malcolm :lol: WOW Mike this is fantastic work
fiveeyes
Sapling
top job Mike bscene-drinkingcheers:
Malc does have a way with words....
bscene-drinkingcheers: Malc does have a way with words....
I can only echo what’s already been said.
What’s with those two bolt holes in the left hand oak post? Will they get plugged?
What’s with those two bolt holes in the left hand oak post? Will they get plugged?
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Andyp":1gerbf9m said:
There are two posts there, side by side. One is a structural post, and the other is just a door post, and the latter bowed quite a lot. I hauled it up to the structural post with clamps and used some socking great coach screws to hold them together. I couldn't do that until I had made the door because I needed to know the width of the door so that I'd know the door stop location, because the door stop will cover the holes, just. The holes had to be that big to fit the socket spanner.
RogerM
Nordic Pine
Fabulous job Mike. I'm blown away by the shear scale of this project!
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I did some gardening this morning, but got bored. Back to the workshop! The next item on the agenda is a bathroom cabinet to sit on the flat shelf created by the stairwell. A couple of manky bits of contiboard cover the space at the moment:
I pondered for hours and then drew up an in depth design in 3D with cutting list and every joint illustrated:
When I took the old stairs out of the house 5 or so years ago, I set the parana pine aside knowing I'd use it one day. I've worked my way through it, but this is what is left:
Looks great, hey?
It took quite a while getting all the steel out of it:
And any that got broken off got marked:
Now, the basic idea is to do a rustic thing and wash it over with a watery paint that I'll rub straight off. I wanted to show sawn faces, not planed, so after much experimenting with spacers and different saws, I set about "kerfing" the boards in pairs:
It was such a fiddle, and exhausting, that I quickly realised it wasn't going to work. Time for a change of plan. I decided to scrub plane the boards, and leave those marks in:
My number 6 has my most cambered iron, so that's the one I used. The paint was a really nasty obstacle, and I took to using an unrestored saw as a toother scraper to break up the worst of it. Mask on, as this is obviously lead paint (the stairs date from the 50s or 60s). I soon swapped to doing one board at a time, rather than two, and after a couple of hours I had all the stock done:
You can just about see the diagonal tool marks if you look carefully. That is my final surface. Hopefully the undulations will pick up the light nicely when it in situ.
Setting out the necessary angle for the face of the cabinet, which is like a corner cupboard. Precisely like a corner cupboard, because that's what this is:
I then started ripping:
The offcut was then flipped over to make the desired angle. All edges were planed of course:
I ripped some more to produce some 70mm and some 50mm bits, and marked up the shoulders:
Having decided on a 10mm tenon I marked up:
Then cut the shoulders:
Then chiseled off the cheeks, using Mike's Rule of Halves:
Now, the thing is, the narrower boards are also thinner, by quite a lot. This isn't going to cause too many issues, but when setting out the joints I should really have worked it out on the thinner stock, not the thicker stuff. There's not much meat left around this mortise:
Fearing breaking out the sidewall whilst chopping the mortise, I took an unusual approach. I have a saw with about 10TPI, rip cut, which is perfect for cutting along the grain in these situations:
The rest was hacking out the waste with a 1/4" chisel then carefully paring. Very much NOT my normal approach to a mortise:
That's 3.6mm. Probably just slightly less than ideal........
Anyway, the joints worked out OK:
.......despite the differing timber thicknesses:
I'd never normally chisel in the vice, but with an angled face behind, I had no choice:
I just had time to glue up the frame before coming in to cook:
I pondered for hours and then drew up an in depth design in 3D with cutting list and every joint illustrated:
When I took the old stairs out of the house 5 or so years ago, I set the parana pine aside knowing I'd use it one day. I've worked my way through it, but this is what is left:
Looks great, hey?
It took quite a while getting all the steel out of it:
And any that got broken off got marked:
Now, the basic idea is to do a rustic thing and wash it over with a watery paint that I'll rub straight off. I wanted to show sawn faces, not planed, so after much experimenting with spacers and different saws, I set about "kerfing" the boards in pairs:
It was such a fiddle, and exhausting, that I quickly realised it wasn't going to work. Time for a change of plan. I decided to scrub plane the boards, and leave those marks in:
My number 6 has my most cambered iron, so that's the one I used. The paint was a really nasty obstacle, and I took to using an unrestored saw as a toother scraper to break up the worst of it. Mask on, as this is obviously lead paint (the stairs date from the 50s or 60s). I soon swapped to doing one board at a time, rather than two, and after a couple of hours I had all the stock done:
You can just about see the diagonal tool marks if you look carefully. That is my final surface. Hopefully the undulations will pick up the light nicely when it in situ.
Setting out the necessary angle for the face of the cabinet, which is like a corner cupboard. Precisely like a corner cupboard, because that's what this is:
I then started ripping:
The offcut was then flipped over to make the desired angle. All edges were planed of course:
I ripped some more to produce some 70mm and some 50mm bits, and marked up the shoulders:
Having decided on a 10mm tenon I marked up:
Then cut the shoulders:
Then chiseled off the cheeks, using Mike's Rule of Halves:
Now, the thing is, the narrower boards are also thinner, by quite a lot. This isn't going to cause too many issues, but when setting out the joints I should really have worked it out on the thinner stock, not the thicker stuff. There's not much meat left around this mortise:
Fearing breaking out the sidewall whilst chopping the mortise, I took an unusual approach. I have a saw with about 10TPI, rip cut, which is perfect for cutting along the grain in these situations:
The rest was hacking out the waste with a 1/4" chisel then carefully paring. Very much NOT my normal approach to a mortise:
That's 3.6mm. Probably just slightly less than ideal........
Anyway, the joints worked out OK:
.......despite the differing timber thicknesses:
I'd never normally chisel in the vice, but with an angled face behind, I had no choice:
I just had time to glue up the frame before coming in to cook:
Phil
Old Oak
Looking good!
I envy your speed of work and final product.
Hat off to you.
I envy your speed of work and final product.
Hat off to you.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Deeply unmotivated today. Tardy start, easily distracted, gave up early........
.......but at least I started with a tidy bench:
After popping the clamps off the frame I ran a groove with my Stanley #50 in the bottom member to take a shelf:
Once I worked my way back to the back edge it just seemed quicker and easier to do the cross grain stuff with a couple of saw cuts. The nickers work well, but this is quicker:
I cut the side pieces to length and cleaned them up:
Yes!! That is a hardpoint plastic handled saw. I make no apologies. My crosscut needs sharpening, and the set is off, pulling the cut to one side. I just couldn't be bothered today. Anyway, on with the door:
It's going to be a boarded door with sliding dovetail battens/ ledges. I can't remember when I last cut one of these joints. Anyway, some more ripping and planing:
The ledges will be on the show face of the door (ie outside), so I clamped them in position, then screwed through from the other side to hold everything true for the next phase:
Using the sloped edge of the batten as a guide I cut carefully across the full width of the door. The only saw I could use was the gents saw, because the handles of all the others fouled the batten. I used a highly sophisticated depth stop:
When all the sawing was done I set too with a chisel to hog out the bulk of the waste:
Before finishing with my router plane (unfinished):
The little pointed blade was remarkably quick and effective. It seemed like less hard work than the straight fronted blades I am used to:
Time to try in the battens:
#-o #-o #-o #-o Damnation.
So I made some new battens, a little bit wider than the old ones:
.....and they worked perfectly:
I hacked off a bit of the excess with a draw knife, then stuck them in the airing cupboard to shrink as much as I can get them to shrink in a couple of days:
I wandered off into the garden to see if there was anything else I could stuff up before the close of play, and spent some time making tool racks for the garden shed. Annoyingly, everything worked perfectly in there.........
.......but at least I started with a tidy bench:
After popping the clamps off the frame I ran a groove with my Stanley #50 in the bottom member to take a shelf:
Once I worked my way back to the back edge it just seemed quicker and easier to do the cross grain stuff with a couple of saw cuts. The nickers work well, but this is quicker:
I cut the side pieces to length and cleaned them up:
Yes!! That is a hardpoint plastic handled saw. I make no apologies. My crosscut needs sharpening, and the set is off, pulling the cut to one side. I just couldn't be bothered today. Anyway, on with the door:
It's going to be a boarded door with sliding dovetail battens/ ledges. I can't remember when I last cut one of these joints. Anyway, some more ripping and planing:
The ledges will be on the show face of the door (ie outside), so I clamped them in position, then screwed through from the other side to hold everything true for the next phase:
Using the sloped edge of the batten as a guide I cut carefully across the full width of the door. The only saw I could use was the gents saw, because the handles of all the others fouled the batten. I used a highly sophisticated depth stop:
When all the sawing was done I set too with a chisel to hog out the bulk of the waste:
Before finishing with my router plane (unfinished):
The little pointed blade was remarkably quick and effective. It seemed like less hard work than the straight fronted blades I am used to:
Time to try in the battens:
#-o #-o #-o #-o Damnation.
So I made some new battens, a little bit wider than the old ones:
.....and they worked perfectly:
I hacked off a bit of the excess with a draw knife, then stuck them in the airing cupboard to shrink as much as I can get them to shrink in a couple of days:
I wandered off into the garden to see if there was anything else I could stuff up before the close of play, and spent some time making tool racks for the garden shed. Annoyingly, everything worked perfectly in there.........
Alasdair
Sapling
Apologies for jumping into this post 5 years late. however, I've only just come across it and felt compelled to comment.
I've used Allan Brothers windows on a lot of projects (double hung sash window) and they are fantastic quality.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Sorry, I missed you post Alasdair. You're dead right, they're excellent. Welcome to the forum.
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I had a few hours in the workshop this afternoon, and achieved a little. Odd day, though, as you'll see. I started by quickly mocking up the shape of the cabinet so I could take some rough measurements:
Previously, off camera, I had glued up a couple of panels:
Now, I needed to flatten them then do some rebates:
I don't have enough parana pine to do everything I need to do for these cupboards, so I grabbed an old pine shelf I'd made decades earlier. I knew it would come in handy one day. I then marked it up reasonably accurately to form the lowest shelf, and the thing which holds the whole cabinet in shape:
It wasn't quite wide enough, so I glued and pinned the extra bit on:
Now, pay close attention. Note the grain direction in the shelf I have just made. Now, note (photo below) the grain direction in the board below it, which I need to get 2 shelves out of. Are you following me so far? Right, so you see the problem: the two floating shelves will have grain running at 45 degrees to that which they need. They will sag and eventually break if I don't do something about that.
I decided to plant on a substantial front edge to hold the whole thing together. I also decided that this should be connected to the shelf with a tongue and groove joint, which meant that I had to renovate these, unused since I acquired the combination plane a couple of years ago:
I cleaned them up on the diamond plates, and sharpened them:
Then stropped them:
Bit of a fiddle, that, with them being so small. Anyway, they were now razor sharp, so I did a trial with the tongue-making blade:
Again, note the grain direction. With the planing only being able to be done with the grain, I couldn't necessarily use the top face of the board as a reference for the guide on the plane. And I developed an annoying clogging problem:
That was with redwood. Let's see how parana pine does:
It was an absolute dream. I had expectations of this going horribly wrong, but it cut the cleanest tongues you could ever imagine. That was the hard part out of the way, right?
Well......
The necessary 1/4" blade (nearest the camera) was a rogue, from another set and a different type of plane! So, I swapped out of woodworking mode and into metal working mode:
It seemed to work OK:
But the proof of any pudding is in the eating:
That'll do.
Just time to glue up before finishing up for the day:
That's all of the principal pieces made, so there isn't an awful lot to do prior to assembly.......coming up next time. Oh, and the door is still cooking in the airing cupboard, for those of you who were anxious about that.
-
I had a few hours in the workshop this afternoon, and achieved a little. Odd day, though, as you'll see. I started by quickly mocking up the shape of the cabinet so I could take some rough measurements:
Previously, off camera, I had glued up a couple of panels:
Now, I needed to flatten them then do some rebates:
I don't have enough parana pine to do everything I need to do for these cupboards, so I grabbed an old pine shelf I'd made decades earlier. I knew it would come in handy one day. I then marked it up reasonably accurately to form the lowest shelf, and the thing which holds the whole cabinet in shape:
It wasn't quite wide enough, so I glued and pinned the extra bit on:
Now, pay close attention.
Note the grain direction in the shelf I have just made. Now, note (photo below) the grain direction in the board below it, which I need to get 2 shelves out of. Are you following me so far? Right, so you see the problem: the two floating shelves will have grain running at 45 degrees to that which they need. They will sag and eventually break if I don't do something about that.I decided to plant on a substantial front edge to hold the whole thing together. I also decided that this should be connected to the shelf with a tongue and groove joint, which meant that I had to renovate these, unused since I acquired the combination plane a couple of years ago:
I cleaned them up on the diamond plates, and sharpened them:
Then stropped them:
Bit of a fiddle, that, with them being so small. Anyway, they were now razor sharp, so I did a trial with the tongue-making blade:
Again, note the grain direction. With the planing only being able to be done with the grain, I couldn't necessarily use the top face of the board as a reference for the guide on the plane. And I developed an annoying clogging problem:
That was with redwood. Let's see how parana pine does:
It was an absolute dream. I had expectations of this going horribly wrong, but it cut the cleanest tongues you could ever imagine. That was the hard part out of the way, right?
Well......
The necessary 1/4" blade (nearest the camera) was a rogue, from another set and a different type of plane! So, I swapped out of woodworking mode and into metal working mode:
It seemed to work OK:
But the proof of any pudding is in the eating:
That'll do.
Just time to glue up before finishing up for the day:
That's all of the principal pieces made, so there isn't an awful lot to do prior to assembly.......coming up next time. Oh, and the door is still cooking in the airing cupboard, for those of you who were anxious about that.
Alasdair
Sapling
Mike, having stumbled ongoing this forum only 2-3 weeks ago I have sat and read through this whole project. It has taken me back at times to my apprenticeship and at times to when my dad and I would rebuild old whin built houses, farms and cottages sometimes digging the buildings out of decades of rotten timber, cow muck and general dirt. Thank you for bringing back many memories (especially the foundation builds). It's just unfortunate that here in the west of Scotland Green Oak was never a material of choice. I'm now off back to P119 to catch up to where you are now.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Unfortunately, I don't own a hand-drill which can take a half inch bit, so I'm afraid I had to disturb a few electrons in this hand-tool build, and drill these holes on the pillar drill. They're to take short dowels as shelf supports:
After a trial fit it was time to glue up. Those places which needed nails had them pre-started:
It was a difficult glue up because with the 135 degree thing, there was little opportunity to use clamps:
When that had dried I found a nice bit of board for the back:
I cleaned it up as best as I could, but luckily, we're painting this, so I didn't sweat too much over it. I cut it to size and glued and pinned it in:
On to the doors. I retrieved all the parts from the airing cupboard, and whacked them all together with a hammer:
Compare that to last time, pre-airing cupboard:
You can see it was definitely worth doing. Unfortunately, as well as shrinking, one of the boards had twisted a bit, so the door no longer sat perfectly flat. If this wasn't Fred Flintstones-type furniture that would have been a real hassle. I pressed on regardless, cutting and shaping the cross members:
The doors hold together entirely by friction. There are no fixings or glued involved.
I screwed on the hinges, cut the shelves to size and planed the edges, cut some little dowel shelf supports, and carted the whole lot inside to try it in place:
Amazingly, at this point the design team site meeting came to the conclusion that the cupboard was best left exactly like this.......naked, unfinished. I was somewhat surprised, considering how often I've heard that we've got too much wood in the house. It was agreed that we'd live with it for a while and could always do our paint-wash thing with it at a later date if we wanted to.
I took a few measurements of the adjoining space (where the plant is), because that's where we focus next:
After a trial fit it was time to glue up. Those places which needed nails had them pre-started:
It was a difficult glue up because with the 135 degree thing, there was little opportunity to use clamps:
When that had dried I found a nice bit of board for the back:
I cleaned it up as best as I could, but luckily, we're painting this, so I didn't sweat too much over it. I cut it to size and glued and pinned it in:
On to the doors. I retrieved all the parts from the airing cupboard, and whacked them all together with a hammer:
Compare that to last time, pre-airing cupboard:
You can see it was definitely worth doing. Unfortunately, as well as shrinking, one of the boards had twisted a bit, so the door no longer sat perfectly flat. If this wasn't Fred Flintstones-type furniture that would have been a real hassle. I pressed on regardless, cutting and shaping the cross members:
The doors hold together entirely by friction. There are no fixings or glued involved.
I screwed on the hinges, cut the shelves to size and planed the edges, cut some little dowel shelf supports, and carted the whole lot inside to try it in place:
Amazingly, at this point the design team site meeting came to the conclusion that the cupboard was best left exactly like this.......naked, unfinished. I was somewhat surprised, considering how often I've heard that we've got too much wood in the house. It was agreed that we'd live with it for a while and could always do our paint-wash thing with it at a later date if we wanted to.
I took a few measurements of the adjoining space (where the plant is), because that's where we focus next:
Pinch
Old Oak
Brilliant thread Mike and proper work matey!
Love the bathroom cabinet and such an excellent WIP report.
I do like the framing of your houndie too - nicely done.
:text-bravo:
Love the bathroom cabinet and such an excellent WIP report.
I do like the framing of your houndie too - nicely done.
:text-bravo:
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Thanks Paul. Here's a bit more......
Moving on slowly (overcome with disinterest today, I'm afraid)...... I did lots of ripping and planing, and measuring and re-measuring, trying to eek out my small pile of remaining wood. You'll see how marginal it all was later. Here's one of the pieces:
I used the scraper in the bottom of the dip where the two downhills overlap and the spokeshave got a bit chattery.
There's quite a lot of work in getting a simple little pile like this together:
As always, set out your side pieces first:
A bit of chiseling:
Then a bit of router planing:
I glued and pinned that lot together, deliberately leaving the top cross-piece housing-out unfinished:
It was then a good moment to offer it up and just check I'd got the basic principles right:
All's good, so back out to the workshop, and a bit of fiddling about with the top crosspiece:
The shallower part of the housing is to take the top shelf. It's the absolute maximum I could squeeze from a board cut. There will be little upstands on the sides of the shelf to deal with the gaps to the wall and corner cupboard. The little piece I put in today is just to make the front look the same as the two cross-pieces below. Don't worry, it will be obvious tomorrow.
Just time to glue in the plinth:
Moving on slowly (overcome with disinterest today, I'm afraid)...... I did lots of ripping and planing, and measuring and re-measuring, trying to eek out my small pile of remaining wood. You'll see how marginal it all was later. Here's one of the pieces:
I used the scraper in the bottom of the dip where the two downhills overlap and the spokeshave got a bit chattery.
There's quite a lot of work in getting a simple little pile like this together:
As always, set out your side pieces first:
A bit of chiseling:
Then a bit of router planing:
I glued and pinned that lot together, deliberately leaving the top cross-piece housing-out unfinished:
It was then a good moment to offer it up and just check I'd got the basic principles right:
All's good, so back out to the workshop, and a bit of fiddling about with the top crosspiece:
The shallower part of the housing is to take the top shelf. It's the absolute maximum I could squeeze from a board cut. There will be little upstands on the sides of the shelf to deal with the gaps to the wall and corner cupboard. The little piece I put in today is just to make the front look the same as the two cross-pieces below. Don't worry, it will be obvious tomorrow.
Just time to glue in the plinth:
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I've never glued a shelf together in situ before, but that was what I was forced into by the undersize-shelf-and-full-width-edging scenario. Weird, but it worked:
So, on to the drawers. First job was to make the drawer fronts fit the openings:
I then scrabbled about in my wood store / loft, and found some pine from a project that never happened. It was flat and straight, but looked awfully soft:
I ripped it and planed a straight edge:
There are some hinge housings I'll have to work around, but ho hum.......
Before I got into the drawers too much I really should have some runners etc to offer them into. I found a length of 2x1 PAR, and cut it up, then cut some shoulders for some half laps:
I'm not sure anyone else here does this routinely, but I always chisel my tenon cheeks unless there is some wild grain or a knot in the way:
I'm absolutely certain it is quicker and more accurate than sawing, but more than that, it's a lot less effort. Anyway, after sloshing half a pint of glue onto my bench I managed to get some of it onto the joints, which I pinned and clamped:
They dropped straight into place a few hours later , and a couple of legs ensured the spacing stayed even:
Dovetails. You've seen this a thousand times before. Firstly, mark every junction carefully:
I cut out all the tails together:
Then a bit of chisel work, and cleaning up with the marking knife:
I'd like to introduce you to one of the wonderful and exotic tools in my collection. It's especially designed to extend the saw cuts of half-blind dovetail sockets downwards. Here's the saw cut, which obviously is diagonal and tapers to nothing:
And here is my wonderous tool. Bone handled, square ended, reasonably sharp, and just a tad thinner than a saw kerf ( a bit of wax helps get it out afterwards):
Persuade it into place with your favourite hammer, and you now have clean chiseling fun to look forward to, without quite such a fight in the back corners of the socket:
And here's the current state of play. Just the grooves to do before gluing up, then a final fit and clean up, handles on, then inside....
So, on to the drawers. First job was to make the drawer fronts fit the openings:
I then scrabbled about in my wood store / loft, and found some pine from a project that never happened. It was flat and straight, but looked awfully soft:
I ripped it and planed a straight edge:
There are some hinge housings I'll have to work around, but ho hum.......
Before I got into the drawers too much I really should have some runners etc to offer them into. I found a length of 2x1 PAR, and cut it up, then cut some shoulders for some half laps:
I'm not sure anyone else here does this routinely, but I always chisel my tenon cheeks unless there is some wild grain or a knot in the way:
I'm absolutely certain it is quicker and more accurate than sawing, but more than that, it's a lot less effort. Anyway, after sloshing half a pint of glue onto my bench I managed to get some of it onto the joints, which I pinned and clamped:
They dropped straight into place a few hours later , and a couple of legs ensured the spacing stayed even:
Dovetails. You've seen this a thousand times before. Firstly, mark every junction carefully:
I cut out all the tails together:
Then a bit of chisel work, and cleaning up with the marking knife:
I'd like to introduce you to one of the wonderful and exotic tools in my collection. It's especially designed to extend the saw cuts of half-blind dovetail sockets downwards. Here's the saw cut, which obviously is diagonal and tapers to nothing:
And here is my wonderous tool. Bone handled, square ended, reasonably sharp, and just a tad thinner than a saw kerf ( a bit of wax helps get it out afterwards):
Persuade it into place with your favourite hammer, and you now have clean chiseling fun to look forward to, without quite such a fight in the back corners of the socket:
And here's the current state of play. Just the grooves to do before gluing up, then a final fit and clean up, handles on, then inside....
fiveeyes
Sapling
Mike...you are the Energizer Bunny.
I am enjoying all of it, too.
I am enjoying all of it, too.
RogerM
Nordic Pine
I like that knife idea. Consider that nicked! looking really good.
MattS
Nordic Pine
Enjoying this cabinet build and the use of what materials you have. Should look like it’s been there years. :eusa-clap:
Mike G
Petrified Pine
MattS":31lsrohm said:
Tune in tomorrow when I use some truly appalling wood! Hopefully it will be finished and fully installed then, with only a little painting to do.
Thanks for the nice comments, guys.
kirkpoore1
Old Oak
Mike G":m77kxue3 said:
All your hand work seems to go so quickly, too. Practice, practice, practice.
Somebody or other...":m77kxue3 said:
Kirk
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Next job was to groove out for the bottom board of the drawers. The Stanley #50 got another outing, and I took the opportunity to sharpen and clean up all the remaining un-restored blades:
Classy material for the drawer bottoms:
All glued up and square. Note the dovetails all round, which always causes an issue with drawer stops:
Whilst the drawer boxes were drying I moved on to the "worktop" that the cabinet sits on. I had some really manky worm-eaten old floorboards pulled up from one of the bedroom floors:
Mitres! I loath them:
I need a sticky-outy bit, and a dovetailed half-lap seemed like an idea:
Here's my workholding method for that particular joint, which had to resist my router plane:
First glue-up:
Just so that everyone understands that I'll put my money where my mouth is regarding woodworm, here is a closeup of the timber I'm using:
I glued on a strip to the underside of the edge to thicken it up:
I glued the final piece of the worktop in place:
.......and whilst that was drying I cleaned up the drawers:
Now........drawer stops. If you do them the standard way, like this:
.....and you have a full height rear piece to the drawer, rather than having the floor extend out under the back, then you can't get the drawer in the hole. You then have to do this to the back of the drawer to be able to waggle them into place over the stops:
I put some little side pieces on the runners:
....and nailed the handles on:
Those handles aren't handles. Or at least, they are now, but I bought them as something else. Five notional internet pence to the first person to come up with their original use.
Anyway, that's the drawer unit finished:
Time to focus on the worktop. A bit of bodywork on the worm-holes:
Then it was on to painting. This is going to be satin painted, but with a water-based Bedec paint. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the primer undercoat, the Bedec line wasn't answering, and the people in the paintshop didn't know the answer to my question.......could I use Bedec Barn Paint as a primer undercoat? So I cracked on and did it anyway. This is what the mist coat looked like:
I only post that because that illustrates what I was expecting the entire cabinet to look like.......a washed-off watered-down finish.
Watching paint dry:
Then it was just a question of fitting everything, and filling in the gap at the top:
Note the changing size of the gap!!
Here's a bit of fun:
I refer you back to my drawing, right at the start of this project:
"Tortoise 70 high". Now you can see why that was important!
Anyway, that was a fun little project. All pretty easy stuff, and entirely hand-tools except for some drilling, just for the hell of it and for a bit of practise.
Classy material for the drawer bottoms:
All glued up and square. Note the dovetails all round, which always causes an issue with drawer stops:
Whilst the drawer boxes were drying I moved on to the "worktop" that the cabinet sits on. I had some really manky worm-eaten old floorboards pulled up from one of the bedroom floors:
Mitres! I loath them:
I need a sticky-outy bit, and a dovetailed half-lap seemed like an idea:
Here's my workholding method for that particular joint, which had to resist my router plane:
First glue-up:
Just so that everyone understands that I'll put my money where my mouth is regarding woodworm, here is a closeup of the timber I'm using:
I glued on a strip to the underside of the edge to thicken it up:
I glued the final piece of the worktop in place:
.......and whilst that was drying I cleaned up the drawers:
Now........drawer stops. If you do them the standard way, like this:
.....and you have a full height rear piece to the drawer, rather than having the floor extend out under the back, then you can't get the drawer in the hole. You then have to do this to the back of the drawer to be able to waggle them into place over the stops:
I put some little side pieces on the runners:
....and nailed the handles on:
Those handles aren't handles. Or at least, they are now, but I bought them as something else. Five notional internet pence to the first person to come up with their original use.
Anyway, that's the drawer unit finished:
Time to focus on the worktop. A bit of bodywork on the worm-holes:
Then it was on to painting. This is going to be satin painted, but with a water-based Bedec paint. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the primer undercoat, the Bedec line wasn't answering, and the people in the paintshop didn't know the answer to my question.......could I use Bedec Barn Paint as a primer undercoat? So I cracked on and did it anyway. This is what the mist coat looked like:
I only post that because that illustrates what I was expecting the entire cabinet to look like.......a washed-off watered-down finish.
Watching paint dry:
Then it was just a question of fitting everything, and filling in the gap at the top:
Note the changing size of the gap!!
Here's a bit of fun:
I refer you back to my drawing, right at the start of this project:
"Tortoise 70 high". Now you can see why that was important!
Anyway, that was a fun little project. All pretty easy stuff, and entirely hand-tools except for some drilling, just for the hell of it and for a bit of practise.
kirkpoore1
Old Oak
Damn, Mike, talk about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear...
Kirk
Kirk