In the weekend accomplishments thread last week, I posted a few pictures of the panels being prepared for the armoire project that's been on "my list" for some time now. Our primary guest room is in the 250+ year old portion of our home and back then they didn't do closets. Hence, when guests, such as the 'rents, spend time here, there isn't any hanging space for clothes that prefer to be kept that way. This project should aleviate that problem.
The design of the piece is straight from Thos Moser's book, Measured Drawings for Shop Furniture with some modification for size. The unit, as originally described is too tall and too wide for the space that it needs to fit. The older portion of the house on the second floor has a very low ceiling and the roof gable is part of that surface. So the project has been scaled from 78" tall and 44" wide to 75" tall and 36" wide without causing any problems with internal space.
This weekend, the project continues with preparing the casework for basic assembly, including some blind dados and...through dovetails at the top of the unit for strength. BTW, the material is poplar from off the property. It's a bit knotty, but that will look perfect on this piece once it's dyed to complement the wide pumpkin pine flooring.
I could have done the through dovetails with my Leigh jig by fixing up some method for perching it on top of the MM16 bandsaw, but decided to try the "original methodology" for this joint...hand cutting them. While I had done this on one previous project (a CD rack that hangs in our great room) this operation would be a little more challenging and time consuming. Fortunately, I have the correct tools this time around with the Adria dovetail saw I picked up a couple months ago from Tools for Working Wood in NYC and the Ashley Iles chisels I bought this past week from the same vendor. Sharp chisels are an amazing thing... At any rate, here are a few pictures of today's work.
Pics:
- Making the first cuts for the pins using a shop-built guide to keep my cut line straight and at a consistant 8º angle
- Removing much of the waste with a coping saw prior to chisel work
- Chopping out the rest of the waste between the pins
- Completed first set of pins on the left side piece
- Completed tails on the top to mate with the left side pins