Thanks Christopher! Lucky enough young Henry seems to enjoy the soothing sounds of saws, chisels and planes, so the more woodwork the better....hehe or so I say to my wife.
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Thanks Christopher! Lucky enough young Henry seems to enjoy the soothing sounds of saws, chisels and planes, so the more woodwork the better....hehe or so I say to my wife.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...pszvyttz9z.jpg
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This panel is for the bottom of the case, and so I'm doing half blind dovetails and spanning a good distance between the tails which gets wider as it goes toward the edge.
The span in the center is so that these dovetails will cover my joinery for the battens which will be above the panel inside the case and this probably wont make a whole lot of sense until it starts coming together.
I decided to make the base with those massive tenons because it will pass through the panel and through the batterns, then they will be wedged. I decided to take this approach over using screws on the inside of the case. I'm going through all of this extra effort because I plan to have a false back on this cabinet and so the back will not contribute to the rigidity of the case as much as it would otherwise.
Jez Brian a sport coat really!? Lol
Love seeing your WIP keep em coming.
LOL, that's a good catch, but actually a robe. I put in some time before getting ready for the day and usually I'm too lazy to change.
Nice Brian! We have a few of the same tools, including iPad covers. Nice woods too.
Brian, I have really been enjoying tagging along on this one. Thanks for taking the time to show so many of your steps. I'm with you on the early morning shop time. I hit the shop on the alternate mornings of my workouts. I enjoy the shop mornings more ;-)
Finished dovetailing the bottom. I installed it as a test fit to make sure that I'm within a good tolerance for dimensions and squareness. The bottom was mildly out of square prior to assembly and test fitting the bottom brought that back in line with the top. Now the cabinet itself is a bit like a spinal cord with all of these free floating dovetailed frames.
This installment is not as picture intense, sometimes, being in the heat of the moment I do not always reach for the camera.
I started by trimming the bottoms to proper length and squareness. These are 5/8" thick panels, so I've taken to clamping them to the bench with holdfasts and a spacer on both sides and using the bench as a big shooting board as shown previously. It works beautifully on thin stock (not preferred on heavy stuff). Using a 45 degree pitch #7 plane for this.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psnjgjmihl.jpg
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Next I marked the panels then cut them. For these I used heavy overcuts in the areas which will remain unseen. This looks gappy, it will be cleaned up in the final assembly.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psbntsjjni.jpg
Mitered the inside sill to accept the bottom sill. What you may not see here, but is part of this, that bottom lip falls into a dadoed groove in the bottom of the panel. You can possibly make out the groove, but it's a rather tight fit. I used one of Terry's planes for that, what a wonderful device.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psz8jeibjr.jpg
Last I made the bottom sill and mitered the corners.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...ps1am4rw9a.jpg
These will be laminated in, but not quite yet.
Here is an updated look at the cabinet as it sits.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psirbgcmwt.jpg
Brian Your joinery work is really something great. The rest of your work is the same. It gives me something to work towards. The photography is excellent also. Keep it coming I'm watching and learning.
jim
Oh thank goodness. For a moment there I thought you were doing this exquisite work in your immaculate shop whilst wearing a suit and tie per your avatar. The quality of your work and cleanliness of your shop is about all I can stand. A coat would have finished me off.
Really enjoying this thread.
Not that it matters, any maybe I missed it, but what is going INTO the cabinet?
Thanks Fellas!
Mike, I have a couple lab coats in the shop for day to day.....just kidding :p
Phil, the top drawers are for jewelry, so I plan to line those. The bottom drawers are for delicates. I am planning it in a way where I expect it will be easy to repurpose if the plan changes, so the top drawers will be without small dividers. Instead I will probably just divide them into two or three sections.
Today I built the major crossmembers to support the bottom of the case and top of the legs. The reason for this is mainly to support the base. I have plans to cut a housing into the bottom panel to accept the base, and so I wasn't confident that the remaining 1/2" of material would be strong enough to support what will eventually be a very heavy cabinet.
All I had in the pile that I was willing to sacrifice and willing to work was hard maple and white oak....and so I chose the hard maple.
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I can usually saw well enough to dimension with the jointer and without needing to bother will using anything else. I have my jointer set with an aggressive chip breaker setting (.010"~) and so most straight grained wood looks gorgeous and doesn't need follow up with a finish plane.
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Cut to length, cut square then cut tapered dovetails on either end with heavy shoulders.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psx60z1po0.jpg
I forgot to photograph the housing, so I may do so when everything comes back apart for the wedged through tenons on the base.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psrstks1qv.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psrxx83uqg.jpg
Cut tenons, squared them and paring the baseline here;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psnjgxezxo.jpg
i had some heavy paring to do, and cutting on a skew while taking small bites moved through the work quickly.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psgxoiufeo.jpg
it was pretty square off of my block but needed a little tweaking;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psutrqulfc.jpg
Same with these half laps, I want these to wind up very similar to one another before I cut the stretcher.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psiv0s3yrk.jpg
Now on to layout and initial cutting of the mortises on the bottom panel and subsequent crossmembers;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psmcfvs8ec.jpg
started by drilling just shy 3/4 holes with a brace and bit which allows me to cut clean holes and also maintain perpendicularity.
This is the underside and it came through clean.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psalzi879z.jpg
I chop waste into the hole when cutting mortises and this works quite quickly on large mortises;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...pshxexnjm9.jpg
I then spin the chisel and cut back toward the line again;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...pszvv71kmh.jpg
i see mention of mortise chisels not being a priority for sharpness, mine are sharp enough to pare with and I maintain them with a strop while I cut.
Needs a slight tweeting but it is mostly there;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psqkmv3xxq.jpg
three more of these then cut housings, then onto the cross member;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psqxkgnn0c.jpg
these are much tougher since the hole is 1" wide and 1.5" deep. So I will work from both sides and pare the finish, then return to the top to cut for wedges;
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psqssu9ioa.jpg
i used to really dread mortise cutting, but practice makes a hell of a change along with a 675g hammer and paring sharp mortise chisels. I still take small bites and that helped tremendously to improve my results.
Nice chisel work Brian! 675g hammer is about 1 1/2 lbs/ 24 oz. I believe. The 4 lb Wilton hand sledge I use for splitting and convincing tractor attachments might be a little too much then, but the 375g barrel, Japanese chisel is too small? I have often wondered about what might be a good metal hammer size for driving Japanese mortise chisels. TFWW offers a 570g, Tools from Japan offers 670g hammers. I suspect Brian's is from a Gennou maker he mentioned in another thread. I suspect a metal hammer of that size would drive a mortise chisel with more authority and probably precision than a lighter hammer. Yes, Brian I am offering you the opportunity to just go ahead and wax poetically about chisel hammers. Just get it off your chest Brian, some of us are definitely interested in hearing your thoughts.