Cabinet build

[John Schtrumpf]

I'm guilty of sometimes taking the plane shaving out of the plane and putting them directly into a paper bag. .....

I put my shavings in a bag too, less to clean up off the rug

P.S. I can't wait for the next installment!

[Brian Holcombe]

A little OCD goes a long way .

May be a bit, need to finish the bed first, which will take me about two months.

[Brian Holcombe]

Had some time to make progress on the cabinet.

I finished up the back panel, along with it's surrounding frame;




I'm not sure just yet how I'm going to hold the panel in place, right now it's just friction. I have been debating outside pegs and inside sliding wedges.



You may notice the upper most drawer slot is taller than the rest by 1/2", or you may not. I made a stop for the upper portion of that slot, and will follow up at another point with upper rails.

Now that the majority of the casework is complete I'm moving along to the doors before I complete the drawers. Reason being is primarily a selfish one, being that I want to see how the cabinet looks before making the drawers.



Burled wood door panels

Trimming frame members to length, these were prepped a long while ago and I touched them up to ensure they are flat and without wind.


Because these are so tall and thin I've decided to make them integral with the door panel and possibly (though I havent decided 100% yet) make a door liner which seats them on the inside moldings and this will double as a necklace holder.



Grooving the door frame parts


And finally the door panels out of the press



I plan to upholster the inside of the door panels in leather, so a batten system will double as a frame for holding the upholstered panel. Hoping that I have enough material left over to upholster all that I need to upholster, so I may be searching for another hide soon, maybe I'll do natural leather behind the doors and black in the drawers or something to that effect.

I have some lamb suede....maybe that will be nice behind the doors....just thinking out loud.

[Brian Holcombe]

[Brian Holcombe]

A very satisfying update for me, though still a long road ahead. I have not decided 100% what to do for handles, but if I have ebony stock long enough I will use that....otherwise maybe rosewood. As much as I would love to use ebony...this project is getting a little on the deep end for a pro-bono project....so it will likely be rosewood, hah.

I'm planning standard butt hinges, probably Brusso....and onto drawers soon.

I've shelved my other work for a few weeks so I can make some real headway on this cabinet. If I'm going to have this finished for christmas I'm going to need to really get moving on this one. I'll be confident in the completion date a little more so when the drawers are assembled.

I'll resume my normal practice of documenting the work at this point, however I was thinking the mortise and tenoning was getting a little redundant. I have had some requests to document my approach to applying the upholstered panel in the back, and I will do so. As I move into the drawers I will do the same.

Turns out I have enough leather for the back panels, but I will have to source something else for the drawer liners....likely it will be lamb suede which is very easy to work with because it's very thin.

[Chris Hachet]

Amazingly nice work, Sir!

[Prashun Patel]

Your back must be sore from all the slapping. Take another: Great design and crafstmanship.

Your bookmatch looks like the face of a bull. My devious side wants you to put ring pulls near it's nose.

That or long tab pulls along the inner edges.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thank you both!

Prashun, that is hilarious and I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing images in burled wood. I have that cabinet in my study and I'm convinced that the burls look like a samurai helmet, but my wife thinks I'm insane.

Speaking of pull tabs, that has been on my mind recently. I have a slice of macassar ebony basically devoted to this part of the cabinet, but it's about 36" long....which is about 2" shy of the door's height. So I've been debating if I should put them on the inside edges or centered on the stiles. Not sure what the final thickness will be, it depends on where I place them to some extent. It will probably be 1" x 3/8" with a full length finger groove.

[Mike Allen1010]

Great build Brian! Now that I've read Prashtun's post, I too see the bulls face on the veneered panels. I really admire how you balance aesthetic design with outstanding technical execution. Thanks for posting!
Cheers, Mike

[Brian Holcombe]

Three of us can see it now...so we can't possibly be crazy

Thank you, kind sir!

[Christopher Charles]

The three of you are crazy. It is clearly a mad goat, not a bull.

Brian, looks great, bet you can't wait to see it with a finish coat. I may have missed it, but what did you use as a substrate for the door panels?

Cheers,
C

[James Pallas]

Brian your cabinet looks great. I really like to see the wood and I don't care much for hardware showing or contrasting wood for hardware. If you could find some small pieces of wood that match to put tabs where the "bulls" nostrils are and possibly use Soss hinges the beauty of the panels would get full attention. Just suggesting. I'm sure whatever you choose will look great. Those panels are really going to pop when you put the polish to them, can't wait to see that.
Jim

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks gents!

Christopher, I can't wait! But, a long road ahead with the drawers. I have settled on drawer slips and lining the drawer bottoms with either leather, suede or shagreen.

The substrate for the door panels and back panel are both 1/2" baltic birch ply.

James, thank you for the suggestions. I've been debating a few of these things. I may even get a few sets and mock them up. My only worry with the Soss hinges is that they protrude back into the case about 1/4"…. if the drawers wind up super tight side-to-side it won't be a problem, so I plan to make the drawers first.

Good ideas on the handles, I may be over-reaching by adding a contrasting wood, I don't want the make the face overly complicated. I want to stick with full length handles, but maybe walnut is a better choice than ebony or rosewood. These handles won't be overly heavy and won't be the least bit ornate.

[James Pallas]

Brian, Soss hinges can be done with hand tools. I understand there is an electric router jig for them but I have only done them with hand tools. You are correct in the fact that they could be a problem with the drawers.
Jim

[Brian Holcombe]

Jim,

If you don't mind me asking, what is your procedure for these?