Project: Cherry Vanity For Guest Bath (COMPLETED)

[Jim Becker]

I was blessed with a few hours in the shop today, so I got back on the vanity project...specifically working on the two doors. Earlier in the week, I had a meeting in the DC area with a, umm..."government agency"...and due to certain family things, I elected to drive. On the way home, I took a little detour from I-95 over to Hearne Hardwoods and picked up a nice piece of cherry crotch to use for the door panels. I wanted something that would contrast with the straight-grained rift material I set aside for the rails and stiles and thought that a nice book-matched crotch would work well for that. I think I was right, as you'll see in a bit.

So here is the starting point...one small cherry crotch board. ($45...which is the only material I have bought for this project outside of what was already on-hand from previous projects and "inventory") Has a nasty bit of cracking on one end and a knot, but the portion I need for re-sawing will be just fine.

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Just to make the board easier to deal with, I first jointed a straight edge on one side.

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It was then off to the table saw to rip a parallel edge and get rid of a little of some yucky stuff I know will not be needed. (Both edges will need to be re-jointed slightly after the board is flat and of even thickness...not doing so would make re-sawing it accurately a real problem)

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Back to the jointer to flatten the face of the board.

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And this is the preliminary result...ready for thicknessing.

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[Jim Becker]

So quite obviously...it's time to make the other face parallel. By the time all was done, I was left with a 3/4" thick blank for re-sawing...just right for two 1/4" thick flat panels.

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Now, I didn't want to re-saw something of an uneven shape, so I cross cut off what was not needed, leaving a blank to re-saw that was a few inches longer than the finished panel. That gave me some breathing room when doing final sizing of the panels later.

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And here is the panel blank ready for re-sawing after a quick return to the jointer to make sure the edges were perpendicular to the faces.

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I put the 1" TriMaster (carbide tipped blade) back on the MM16 to insure I would get the cleanest and most accurate cut I was able to. I also installed the magnetic feather boards to act as some extra hands, keeping the board against the fence. A slow cut made for two panels, ever so slightly different in thickness. No biggie...that's what we have other tools for!

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Both panels were returned to the thickness planer to clean up the sawn faces and get them to 1/4" thick. Honestly, there was almost a nasty accident that could have rendered one of the panels useless...a piece of the knot tore off during planing and it was not pretty. Fortunately, the damage was confined to an area that wouldn't affect the finished panel. Sheesh! And here is a quick look at one of the oversize panels with a little alcohol to highlight the figure.

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[Jim Becker]

I really like working with "story sticks" when fitting things to projects. I created one for these doors to plot out the exact width of the cabinet opening so I could size the rails & stiles while accounting for planned gaps. The front side lays out the total opening and the back has the projected lengths of both the rails and stiles for consistant transfer.

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One important task is to decide the best combination of component material for the stiles and the rails of each door so they look unified. Here, I'm comparing grain and coloration...as you can see, the one on the right is a little darker. Flipping it over solved the problem. I had inadvertantly reversed that one on the bench. (I actually cut these out of the board in matched pairings and marked them. Silly me missed the mark on that one on the end when I plopped them on the bench) Once that was done, they could be marked and cut for length.

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While I marked each component with the story stick, I also used stops at the TS when crosscutting them to length to insure that all the stiles and all the rails were exactly the same length. Here, you can see a stop clamped to the saw table that lets me set up each stile on the miter gauge before pushing through the cut. This is more accurate than just going by a line on the edge of the wood.

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And the same procedure is used with the rails, except the stop is clamped to the auxiliary fence on the miter guage since these components are short enough to do that with.

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With everything cut, I layed them out on the bench to have a look-see...

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[Jim Becker]

Since I decided to assemble the doors with pocket screws (why not?), I opted to use the router table to groove the rails and stiles for the panels. Here's one of the rails being processed...just a straight cut down the length.

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The stiles need the grooves to be stopped, so I marked the fence so I could drop the stile onto the cutter and pull it off at the appropriate points.

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This is the end result after routing...

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Each rail then received four pocket screw holes...two on each end

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Before committing to the "good material" for the panel, I calculated the proper size and cut a sample out of 1/4" MDF to insure that everything fit together properly. It did...

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[Jim Becker]

Given the succesful dry fit, I took the oversize panel blanks to the table saw and cut them to the proper dimensions. "Measure twice...cut once..." is an important thing here. One misread of the fence scale could be very costly!

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And another full dry fit with the crotch panels. (One stile needed adjustment of the groove length...the table was still setup for it, so that was a quick step) Oh, these things are going to look nice!

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In case I'm not clear about the grooves being full length on the rails and stopped on the stiles, here's a picture that shows things clearly.

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The panels need to go through part of the finishing process before assembling the doors. That starts with sanding them to remove any machining marks. These were sanded up through 180. (The rails and stiles will also be sanded before assembly, especially the inside surfaces that would be hard to sand once the panel is in place)

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Just before the end of the shop session, I applied some BLO (which is my first finishing step for cherry and other species I like to work with) I only used a thin coat so I would be able to get some de-waxed shellac on the panel tomorrow sometime. I did this with my recent Tiger Maple Candle Stand project and was pleased with the results.

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[Jim Becker]

Ok...I needed one more post to show the oiled panels. And here they are...

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Now, I have to say, if I were going to be doing a lot of these doors, I'd use veneer. Resawing this kind of touchy material is really time consuming and, umm...stressful.

Assuming I get some shop time tomorrow, I'll deal with sanding the rails and stiles, shellacking the panels and assembling the doors. Maybe I'll get to the drawer boxes. Maybe not.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Looks like a very productive day in the shop. The cherry looks perfect for this application. Real nice eye in getting this piece. Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to seeing it done... and so is my wife - not that she needs any ideas.

[jonathan snyder]

Jim,
Those cherry panels are beautiful! Great work.

Jonathan

[David Rose]

Uh, Jim... QUICK! Go back up to selecting rails and styles for the panels. It is not that the right one is darker. The third one is LIGHTER. Oh, don't glue it up yet! Well, if you have, you can start over on these pieces.

David

[Jim Becker]

So...I got out to the shop a little earlier than normal (I'm not a morning person...) since I knew I had to stop by about 2:15p...we were headed out to a holiday concert and had to leave by 3pm to get there on time.

The day started with getting the book-matched panels coated with some shellac. Prefinishing panels part of the way makes things easier later as there will be no tell-tale bare edges should the panel shrink seasonally. I pre-warmed the shellac as it was a very cool evening the night before...a water bath did the trick.

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Another important step after thoroughly sanding the carcass was to give it a good wipe down with mineral spirits to remove any dust and abrasive grit. It was also an opportunity to spy any stray glue so it could be dealt with appropriately.

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I mentioned earlier that it was a little chilly out so while I was working on a few other things, I warmed up some BLO so I could get a thin coat on with ease. Yes, that is a water bath and the heat is on low...

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The combination of yesterday's thin application of BLO and today's quick "coat and a half" of de-waxed shellac made for two really pretty door panels.

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And once the shellac was dealt with, the carcass got its own little oil massage...

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[Jim Becker]

I mentioned earlier that I intended to use pocket screws to assemble the doors and it was "that time" once the shellac was dry. Here I get to work assembling the first panel at the bench.

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One of the things I really like about this method is that you get a strong joint that is spot-on true with relative ease...and no fancy calculations to account for the length of tenons, etc. Your rails are exactly the length of the space between the stiles. On the downside, you do have the pocket holes on the back side of the door and have to decide if you care about them or if you want to plug them. On this project, I'm leaving them. This is for a low-use bathroom and the doors will not be open much at all.

And here's how the first door looks after applying the screws...no clamps; perfectly square.

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It was then time to sand the doors. The backs and fronts were power sanded with the ROS.

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The edges were hand-sanded and the corners knocked down with 220 grit at the same time to insure finish adhesion. (sharp corners are a problem for that)

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The edges of the doors that "meet in the middle" had to be beveled slightly to insure that they swing on their hinges without interfering with each other. About a minute with the block plane took care of each edge.

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[Jim Becker]

So when it was time to turn off the heat and lights, the carcass was oiled and the doors completed. You can see the doors in this picture with the rails and stiles oiled up, too. These really are very nice...I almost have to do this same design for the master bath!! (But will likely use veneer for the panels...as I mentioned before, re-sawing that stuff is a bit stressful)

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Next weekend it's time to build the drawer boxes, fit the drawer fronts and proceed with the final finishing if there is time. And I also need to think about where I'm going to put all this stuff I'm building for the addition...it will not be needed for about 8-9 months probably. 'May have to build some doors on the outside of the shop upstairs 'cause the shop isn't big enough and there is no room in the house. Sheesh!

[John Daugherty]

Jim,

Great looking doors. I really like the look!

[Lars Thomas]

Jim, it's coming along great. Nice job on the panels. Lars

[Jim Becker]

I managed a few hours in the shop today working on this enjoyable vanity project. One of the things I'm enjoying about this one is the alternative methods and materials I chose to explore, knowing that I have a lot of additional cabinetry work on my card over the next 9 months or so. Today brought a few of them "to the table"...the assembly table, that is!

Once I got home from taking Alesya to dance class, stopping to see if the fellow I'm going to order my trailer...err...lumber hauler...from was in (not...) and a quick hello at Creeker Robert Tarr's house at the request of the same daughter, it was time to get into the shop and back to work. The first job of the day was to put the Rockler 35mm hinge drilling jig together. I'm using Blum Euro Hinges for this project (a first for me) and it was a good excuse for a new tool. That didn't take too long at all.

Next, I made a new drilling jig for the cabinet side of the hinge. The Rockler "Jig-It" is designed for straight Euro cabinets and although it accommodates inset doors, it was not designed for the 1/8" reveal provided by the doors and other components that are stepped back from the face of the corner posts. Using the existing jig as a guide, I manufactured a new one with the desired 1/8" offset from some 1/8" Lexan and scrap 1/4" MDF.

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Like many of the previous measuring tasks with this project, I made a story stick to allow marking of both the cabinet and the doors for the hinge drilling. There is a planned 1/16" gap top and bottom and the hinges are mounted 3" down and up, respectively. One things to remember for this kind of thing...always mark the top so you use it to measure in the exact same orientation every time. This is important in case you make minor boo-boos when you are marking the stick...you at least need the hinge parts to match exactly on the cabinet and the door stile!

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Here I use the new jig to mark the cabinet for the hinge components that are installed in that area. You can see that I had to block out the front of the cabinet side flush with the corner post to work with these hinges properly. The jog between the corner post and the cabinet side was too far back to treat things as a face frame installation...so I planed a piece of cherry to 5/8" to bring things out flush. It's glued in the front to the post and side and has screws in the back in oversized holes to allow that piece of solid wood to move seasonally. The MDF core veneer under it will not move.

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Obviously, the next step is to drill pilot holes at the marked positions. I should note that I'm taking full advantage of my Adjust-A-Bench...it's at the lowest setting and makes all this fitting work very comfortable. I don't have to sit on the cold floor, nor reach overhead as I would with a normal height bench.

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Before I attack my beautiful doors with a big, fat, 35mm drill bit, I want to make sure that 1) I understand the drilling procedure, 2) that the jig is set up properly and 3) that the hinges will actually work correctly in my cabinet. Remember, I haven't used this hardware in the past. So I cut a sacrificial "stile" out of some scrap identical in length and width to those in the doors, marked and drilled them.

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