Frame & Panel Cabinet Build Pics

[Mike Allen1010]

I had some white oak leftover from recent project and thought building a frame and panel file cabinet would use it up and give me chance to work on the planes I have the most trouble with: rabbit, plow and molding planes.
Here’s the molding plane I plan to use for putting a thumbnail molding around the inside of the frames that make up most of the cabinet.
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I enjoy using hand tools but am not fanatic about it. I’ve always struggled trying to make moldings with hand planes – takes a long time and profiles are pretty rough on my previous attempts so I usually resort to an electric router. I spent an inordinate amount time tuning up my wooden molding planes – this one work much better once I filled the gap in the mouth with some epoxy.
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First step is a simple rabbit – I love my Veritas rabbit plane with the skewed blade - works much better for me than the Stanley 78 I had for years. Next is rounding over the edge of the rabbit with a Jack plane.
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Finally it only took a couple passes with the molding plane to get the desired profile.

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Next step was plowing the groove in the frames to accept the panels. I still struggle with my Marples plow, seems to dig in even after much fettling, but got the job done here.


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[Mike Allen1010]

To figure out the dimensions for frame and panel construction, especially with molded edges that will be removed for the joinery, I have to do a full size drawing – I’ve definitely screwed the math up before and it up with frames and/or panels that are too small because they didn’t account for the molding to be removed.
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Here’s cutting the Tennons for the rails. I like to leave these cheek and shoulder cuts a little short and finish them off if necessary with a small Dozuki.
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I mitered the moldings of the rails and stiles where they will meet with a simple jig that guides the chisel to 45° angle. Once the rails are done, duplicated the process for the mating stiles.

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[Mike Allen1010]

Once the rails are done, duplicated the process for the mating stiles.

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Now it’s time to raised panels. I start with the plow plane to establish the raised central field. Then hog off most of the waste with a Jack plane.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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Finally cleaned up the edges of the panel – card scraper is great for this.
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Here’s the assembled frame and panel cabinet side.

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[Mike Allen1010]

Once the frames are glued up, I clean up the mating edges of the moulding miters (because the profile of the molding isn’t perfectly consistent) with the chisel and scrapers.
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The horizontal dividers/drawer blades attached to the carcass sides with small sliding dovetails. I pare a taper on the back of the sliding DT for what is hopefully a snug fit when it’s fully assembled.
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Here is DTing the drawers in ½” poplar. I really have to build more projects with poplar, it’s really a joy to work with hand tools. Too bad I don’t know how to finish it to look decent.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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I have a shop made 16 PPI dovetail saw with .015” thick blade. Here it is next to a Lee Nielsen. Mine is a couple inches longer, which I really like for both speed and accuracy.
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I’m trying to learn to speed up my dovetailing and so chopped the tails ganging the drawer parts together. Did save time, but I did chop through in a few places and made some marks on that drawer side underneath. Probably won’t do this for show surfaces.
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[Mike Allen1010]

This is my attempt at a baseboard molding with hollows and rounds. I think the shape I’m trying to make here is called a Cyma curve. Matt Bickford’s book is super helpful for explaining how to layout and plane a wide range of moldings.
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First step is to establish the rabbits with the plow plane. Next I plane a chamfer on the top rabbit to accept the hollow molding plane.
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Here is my collection of dingy old bargain-basement molding planes – some of which work and others not even remotely. I use the #6 hollow, but didn’t have the corresponding round so used #7.
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Here is planing the upper convex curve with the hollow.

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Here’s the progress on the corresponding concave curve (which is larger). Although it took me a long time to get these hollows and rounds in working condition, they actually worked really pretty well. For me the key was matching the profile of the iron to the sole and getting it really sharp. It still would have been waaaay faster to use a router, but the planes leave a nice surface.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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Finally I used a beading tool to scrape a ¼” diameter bead on the upper edge of the moldings. It still took me four hours to make these moldings, but I think with some more practice it will get easier/faster.
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Finally here are the panels for the drawer fronts - I broke down bought some quarter sawn White Oak (there goes my rationale for “using up” left over wood in the shop!), and had enough left over for the cabinet top.
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The only real construction left is moldings for the top – which will depend on which of my molding planes actually work. My biggest remaining challenge is the side hung, metal, ball bearing drawer slides. I’m not really sure how to install these so that the flush fit drawer fronts end up where their supposed to be. Also drawer glides are ½” wide, which is about 1/8” smaller than the interior of the cabinet. I don’t know if the drawer glides will flex enough to run smoothly like this, or if I will have to shim them out from the cabinet sides – maybe a couple washers under the screws?

Thanks for looking.

All the best, Mike

[James Pallas]

Nice job Mike. QSWO is not the easiest wood to work with hand tools. If the tools are sharp it makes for crisp edges. It does still take a little extra power to push the tools. You may be OK with a sixteenth on each side for you guides. If not just shim them with sheet metal. You may find standard washers to be a little too thick. Soda cans or shim stock works good in some cases.
Jim

[Brian Holcombe]

Awesome work Mike!

I would shim the glides on the case side, they may run coarsely otherwise. Shim on the case side so that you don't see the shims.

[Charles Murray Ohio]

Mike,

Let me start by saying you are doing a great job. I've always believed the best way to learn a skill is by doing it. Over the years I have found that working wood by hand requires you select the wood for the direction of cut as you can't clime cut as you can with a router or shaper. That looks like what you've done.

A few things to look for in in woodies are a straight body and a tight mouth (a lot of them have a bow in them). As for the Plow plane make shure you have very little projection of the bit from the skate. This assures a light cut. The other day I had to make some replacement sashes for a historic home. I used a Stanley 55 and ground a blade to match the profile. On this profile I had to use all 3 skates. Every thing was cutting smoothly until the outside skate started to retract on it's own (rough, choppy cut). As it turns out I had not tighten the outside skate enough (I was to lazy to find a pin punch and had only finger tighten it). After resetting it and properly tightening it life was good.

Again great work,
Charles

[Mark Stutz]

Great thread, great job, and great instruction! Thanks for taking the time to do this. Making raised panels has been one of the most satisfying tasks I have done with hand tools! I've not yet tackled the profiled stiles and rails.

I agree that time spent fussing with a molding plane is tedious, but results in nice smooth operation, and a beautiful finished surface.

[Mark Almeidus]

Beautifull work, and pictures all in all. I rarely come across to see mouldings in use.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Way cool build documentary.

I have to go back through it a couple times to absorb.

Thanks for taking the time to shoot it, and post/annotate.

Regards...........

[Mike Allen1010]

Thanks guys I appreciate the advice and feedback , Mark especially all the way from Macedonia!

Brian and Jim, thanks for your tips about shimming the drawer guides (or whatever their called ). I guess we all have our comfort zones, for me wood drawers that sit on runners and kickers are fun-just plane them till they fit. I know finish carpenters probably hang tons of drawers faster than I can imagine, and these side hung metal runners are a piece of cake. I'm going to be shimming and hanging drawers tomorrow PM and I can envision lots of iterations (which I hate), before they fit-hopefully!

Charles thanks for the advice about the plow plane. You're my hero, grinding an iron to fit a molding profile is waaay over my head. My 30 year old Marples(maybe Record?) plow has a separate attachable skate and a depth stop - neither of which I have any idea how I'm supposed to attach / use. I'm sure it's really more about my ignorance than the tool.

I used my molding planes to put what I think is an ovolo profile on the cabinet top. Using the #10 round plane on the end grain of the cabinet top was a handful, but I think it came out OK. I'm becoming a believer that H&R molding planes can actually work fairly efficiently, I guess time will tell. If I hit hit the lottery, Matt Bickford will be my first call- his planes are sweet!


Best, Mike