This is part two of a mostly neander Chippendale lowboy I’m building in cherry from Franklin Gottschall’s book “Masterpiece Furniture”.
I always enjoy the hand tool build pictures and descriptions my fellow Neanders share here on theCreek and that’s my motivation for this post. I make absolutely no pretense that I have any talent/ability/knowledge, or that this is the “right”way to do things. There’s nothing special or unique here – just how I do things as primarily a hand tool woodworker based on trial and lots of error! If you enjoy the picss and happened to pick up a little tip that makes things more fun for you – so much the better - I will have “paid forward” a tiny fraction of everything I’ve learned here from my fellow Neanders on the Creek.
Side panels of the carcass – the grain runs horizontally to match the drawers that are the primary focal point on the front of the piece. I like to surface plane glued up panelsb efore final dimensioning so that any spelching that happens when planing cross grain can be cut off.
For layout, I tryto do as little measuring as possible and just index tools from reference surfaces. I put an “R” on the reference face and reference edge because my biggest screw ups come when I index a tool from the non-reference surface. Because the face and long grain edge surfaces usually get planed couple times (erasing the “R”), I also put little arrows on the end grain because these tend to hang around longer in the build process.
These are a couple shop built layout tools I use regularly. The reference face on the panel gauge is only about 8” long – one of my next project will be to build one with a longer face and a beam with a triangular cross-section so that the cutter is more likely to stay true to the reference edge and not follow the grain.
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First step in final dimensioning is crosscutting to final width. This is a picture of my sawbench and most importantly the light directly overhead. The sawing errors I make are almost always related to not being able to see the layout line, which as gotten increasingly more difficult over the years. Putting a work light directly over the saw bench makes sure the layout line is always clearly illuminated without shadows (provided I don’t get my fat head in the way) and I don’t have to set up a work light for every cut. I can’t see the line from the marking knife anymore so I use a black felt pen and saw so the layout line remains visible for final trimming with the plane.
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For planing end grain on wide panels like this I prefer to mount the stock in my face vice/deadman – lets me put my weight behind the plane a little easier than on a shooting board. My LV BU Jack is my favorite plane for end grain, primarily because it’s fast and easy to remove the blade for sharpening and set up is pretty much fool proof. I don’t worry about any spelching because I’m going to saw that off when cutting to final width.
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It’s always nice when matching parts turn out to be the same size
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Here’s the template and carbon paper for tracing the bottom profile on the carcass sides.I always just try and center these in the middle, mostly because I suck atmath.
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