Medicine Cabinets - Build thread

[Brian Holcombe]

And now for a more detailed follow up of the second cabinet;

Starts with a lot of sawing and resawing;





Four boards resawn




Then jointing and thicknessing, using the jack and try planes for this






Then finish planing





Two sides are set, now onto the reference side. I'm biasing the finished size toward the quarter sawn sections.




Transfer a line



Then on to side four



And then the evidence of the remaining sides



Prepped and ready for marking

[Brian Holcombe]

Onto the cutout;



I'm paring away the waste, what will be visible is the inside of the case so I'm paring from the inside.





I normally do not bother with paring blocks, but I made an exception here, I also changed the layout from miters at all corners to miters at the visible corners.








And that's where I have stopped for the day, I managed to tear the bolt out of my shoulder vise, so that's taking a few moments to fix.

[Stanley Covington]

Nice work!

How are the ebony handles on your chisels holding up?

Stan

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Stanley!

The Ebony and rosewood handles hold up really well, gumi handles are a little nicer to hammer on so I've been sticking to shitan for the Tsuki's and gumi for any new chisels for use with a hammer.

I love my rosewood Kikuhiromaru enough that they're mine for life, but everything with Ebony handles has been sold off (not due to the handles though).

[Stanley Covington]

Thanks Stanley!

The Ebony and rosewood handles hold up really well, gumi handles are a little nicer to hammer on so I've been sticking to shitan for the Tsuki's and gumi for any new chisels for use with a hammer.

I love my rosewood Kikuhiromaru enough that they're mine for life, but everything with Ebony handles has been sold off (not due to the handles though).

Brian:

I will have to give the Kikuhiromaru chisels a try sometime. I am glad to hear the handles are holding up well since kokutan (ebony) and shitan (rosewood) have a reputation (unconfirmed by me) for being brittle and transmitting lots of vibration to the hand when hit with a hammer.

I hope you will post pics of the completed installation. What brand of toothpaste do you prefer?

[Zuye Zheng]

Looks great! What kind of vise do you use to hold the boards for resawing?

[Brian Holcombe]

Stanley in my experience the Rosewood/ebony transfer slightly more vibrations to the hands, but it's not very noticeable to me, the sound is more sharp and I bet that is how they get that reputation. I bet if you were using these daily you would consume them slightly faster than gumi or white oak because they peen over easier than either of those, more on par with red oak.

Haha, I use Nature's gate... I'll certainly post up th finished result, complete with finished drywall work.

Thanks Zuye! I'm using a Lie Nielsen tail vise to clamp while resawing.

You guys will see an update to my shoulder vise soon as well....since it came apart on me yesterday.

[Brian Holcombe]

Continuing on, I've repaired my bench. The bolt which keeps the shoulder vise from twisting under pressure finally gave up the ghost, and so I replaced it with some quick work.


So far this is holding pretty well, nice and sturdy. We'll see how it does over time, this shoulder vise seems capable of putting out an incredible amount of force, so I try to keep it to 'just tight' and not more but it should still be able to function without self destructing, so we shall see.

Anyways, back onto work which should not self destruct over time;

Finished up the mitered edge dovetails and I'm pretty happy with the results, which do reveal the need for a slight bit of fine tuning but most of which will dissappear during the glue-up.



The inside is clean, that is very important. It does reveal that there is a bit more going on than just a plain miter.



And finally the outside, which I'm very happy with, but unfortunetly the work will be buried in the wall. I suppose it's reassuring enough to simply know that these were built as well as possible given my parameters.

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice work, Brian..Looks to me like an enjoyable day or two in the shop with no motors....Thanks

[David Eisenhauer]

Nice, fun work Brian. Question: When you re saw, it looks like you do not pre-kerf the cut line. Do you only use a pencil line? A scribed marking line? I have been thinking of trying out a kerf to follow, but have not figured out a "kerfer" yet.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks gents! I agree, this has been a really fun project.

David, I just scribe a line with a marking gauge. If you flip the board often and lead the cut with side you can see, then you will be fine. I think the most important aspect, aside from practice, is the saw. If the saw is well tuned and capable of clearing the dust then you will have very little trouble.

To give some perspective, I did that sawing and planing work in about 2 hours. Working at a moderate pace and taking a breather to check emails.

[Pat Barry]

Fantastic documentation in this thread - thanks Brian. Also looks like a good fix with your shoulder vise. You can develop a huge leverage torque on the shoulder with this configuration - was a lag bolt the main retainer for the vise arm? The fix you have should serve you well for a long time.

[Al Launier]

The woodworking talent you demonstrate is incredible. Like other elite woodworker on this forum you have taught us neophites much & have done a great service towards promoting this craft. Thank you.

[Sam Murdoch]

Very nice work - inspiring craftsmanship. May I suggest this type of a pull - http://www.cabinetparts.com/p/berens...u10RoCFzjw_wcB

Of course you could make up unique wood knob but the above, in the right finish, would compliment the scissors hinges.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Gents! Sam that is sort of where I am, but in a wooden version....similar I should say.

Pat, it was a 1/2" bolt and two bolts on the supporting member underneath, but really the 1/2" bolt was doing all of the work since that was the one in compression. Glad to see that it looks sturdy to your eye as well.

Cheers
Brian