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Thread: Let's Build Something Together

  1. #46

    Cabinet Build Part 16


    I have chosen an astragal as the base molding. I am using a Sargent 1080 with a wide beading iron to make a bead a little in from the edge. This helps to guide the cut straight. As with any plane of this type (plow, dado, bead), it helps to start the cut at the end of the board and make the first few passes gradually longer until you are planing the full length of the board.


    Here's what the board looks like when the bead has been finished. Make enough to get all your pieces from one length if you can. Also, make sure you have enough to discard about 6-8" from each end as the ends usually have some dings from starting and stopping the planing stroke. Now I need to separate the bead from the rest of the board. I could rip it off with a saw but......


    Using the smallest plow iron you have actually works much better than sawing. Simply plow a groove from both side that meets in the middle. Once the molding is separated from the main board, you can clean up the plowed edge with a few simple swipes of a plane.


    Then use a chisel to pare the extra wood off the fillets of the astragal leaving only the bead standing proud. It will surprise you haw smooth a surface you can get just using the chisel. There will be some small facets left when you are done but I like this look. You don't really see it until you look real close or feel the molding, but it gives a nice hand made touch that doesn't look or feel like it came out of a machine.


    Once you have the long length of molding done, miter one end of the front piece and gauge it's final length off the front of the case.


    Then fit the side moldings the same way. They are trimmed to length at the back after the miter fits well.


    Finally, attach the moldings with nails. Add some glue at the miters to keep them from separating.

  2. #47
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Stone ham, Ma
    Posts
    5

    nice tutorial

    Robert, I was just wondering if you ever leave haunches on your rails when doing face frame work. It is something I do on cabinet doors and the like but I guess that is due to the fact that they are not fastened to anything except themselves. Do you know if face frame joinery is traditionally done in the fashion you have documented? Also, love the hand tools. Is that skewed fillester a contemporary maker or antique? thanks, ben

  3. #48
    Ben, I do use haunches for other applications but I do not typically do so for face frames. I have read that it was done both was so I do not think one way or the other was universal. Since the face frames are attached to the case, the haunces don't really seem necessary to me.

    In contemporary cabinetry, haunches are done on cabinet doors because they are done with cope & stick router bits. In traditional doors, like the one I'm building for this cabinet, the front of the plowed groove is cut away to allow for mitering or coping of the sticking that is traditionally on the inside of the frame so there would be no haunch. I think haunches are more appropriate & necessary for heavier, longer tenons like apron to leg joints on tables, lower case sides on highboys, lowboys, etc. where a wide piece could cup/twist much more severely. On the relatively narrow pieces of a face frame, I don't think it is as much of an issue.

    Thanks for the compliment on the tools. Almost all of mine are antique, including the moving filletster plane. I have new chisels and carving tools because putting together an antique set proved to time consuming and too much work to bother with. My planes are all antique. My saws are mostly antique (2 were new). Tools that wear out like rasps & files are new. I would love to have new Clark & Williams planes and new Wenzloff saws but they are not nor will they likely ever be in the budget. For that kind of coin, I'd rather buy an old tool and spend the rest on wood.

  4. #49

    Cabinet Build Part 17

    The door frame for this cabinet is the most complex part of the entire project. The joinery is not difficult to make, as we've done most of it already for the face frame assembly. What is tricky is the layout. It may be helpful to draw out the joint prior to layout in order to have a clear guide of the final joint layout.

    Rough cut the rails and stiles long to leave waste at the ends that will be cut away later. The rails and stiles are the same width as the face frame rails and stiles. Once the pieces are cut to rough length, plough a groove for the raised panel.


    My groove is about 3/8" deep and it is not centered on the edge. The groove is slightly offset toward the inside face of the door as the raised panel needs room in the front and there will also be a molded edge on the front inside edge of the frame parts. I use a plow iron the same width as the mortise chisel I will use to make the through mortises, in this case, 1/4". The groove helps guide the mortise chisel straight. Make sure you reference the fence of the plow off of the reference face of the piece. This way your grooves are sure to line up when the frame is assembled.

    Again, make the stiles extra long to leave a horn to protect the mortise ends. Make the final length of the rails just a hair longer than the width of the door opening. Since the door frame will have through tenons, the final length of the rails is the finished width of the door. Leaving them slightly long ensures that the door will be a little too wide when the frame is assembled. This leaves material for final trimming and fitting of the door to the opening. You don't want a door that has a large gap around it.


    Set your pieces on the bench top and lay out the position of the rails on the edge of the stiles like we did for the face frame. If the molding is in the way and prevents gauging directly from the case like it is for my cabinet, cut a scrap stick to the dimension of the height of the door and use it to transfer the height to a stile. Add a little bit so the final door is a little long. Again, this leaves material to trim and fit the door to the opening later. Use the upper and lower rails to gauge the positions and widths of the rails on the stiles. Gauge the depth of the groove.


    The depth of the groove is then transferred to the stile insde of the rail edge and becomes the inside mortise edge. The outside mortise edge is placed arbitrarily by eye.


    Once the mortise length is layed out on the reference edge (the edge with the groove), transfer it down the reference face (the front face).


    Then transfer the mortise length from the reference face to the outside (non-reference) edge.


    Gauge the mortise width from the groove, which is the same width as your mortise chisel.


    Finally, mark the mortise width on the non-reference edge.


    Chop the mortise half way through from the grooved edge. Then flip the piece over and chop through from the other edge and meet in the middle.

  5. #50

    Cabinet Build Part 18


    Now we come to the slightly more complex tenon layout. We will be molding the front edge of the groove on this frame, and coping the joint at the inside corners so we will need to layout offset tenon shoulders. The reason for this will become evident shortly, but suffice it to say that we will be cutting away the front edge of the groove on the stile to make the cope later so we need a tenon with two different shoulder distances. Using your marking gauge, scribe the rear shoulder to be the width of the stile. Then reset your gauge to scribe the front shoulder to the width of the stile MINUS the depth of the groove. Gauge both of these measurements directly from the stile. Finally, scribe the height of the tenon from the stile like we did before (remember the inside of the tenon is the bottom of the groove so that side will not need to be cut away in this case).


    After making all of your tenon cuts, your finished tenon will look like this. The edge closest to me is the non-reference or outside edge.


    Here's the finished tenon viewed from the other edge. Note how the groove creates the edge of the tenon on this side. Once you are at this point, do all your dry fitting of your tenons. Your front shoulder should fit tight against the edge of the stile. At this point your rear shoulder will not. It should be away from the stile by a gap equal to the depth of the groove. I apologize for not taking a picture of this as I now realize how helpful it would have been to do so.

  6. #51
    What a great thread. Thanks for taking the time to document your build, and it is really inspiring to see how much one can do with hand tools. I hope to improve my skills enough to be able to create a thread like this.

  7. #52

    Cabinet Build Part 19


    Once the dry fitting of your tenons is complete, you can create the molded thumbnail profile on the edge of the groove. Begin by making a rabbet. The width of the rabbet should be equal to the depth of the groove. When the rabbet is finished, its shoulder should align directly above the bottom of the groove when viewed from the end. The depth of the rabbet should be very shallow. You are just trying to create a small shoulder for the thumbnail, not a structural joint. I set my depth gauge to it's shallowest setting and took only about 6 passes to cut each rabbet.


    After the rabbet is planed, create the thumbnail profile. I used a small hollow molding plane but a block plane or a scratch stock can be used as well if you do not have a hollow. Take light cuts and check the profile often.


    Here is where the reason for the offset shoulders on the tenon should become apparent. In order to cope the molded profile at the corners, we need to remove a portion of the sticking on the stiles. Remove the molded edge up to the bottom of the mortise, to the depth of the groove. Only remove the front molded edge, do not remove the back edge.


    The next step is to cope the rail molding around the stile molding. This joint can also be mitered, however, mitered joints tend to separate with seasonal movement and they are more difficult to make due to the precise 45 degree angle required to have a tight fitting miter. Coping is much easier to do than mitering and solves the problem of miters opening up with seasonal movement. The cope will not show a gap. Also, unlike with cope & stick joinery done with a power router and high priced bit set, when done by hand, only the molded portion gets coped, not the entire shoulder. This is a traditional method of making frame & panel doors.

    Use a small gouge with a sweep close to the profile of your thumbnail to cope the molding on the rail. I have a 1/4" #7 sweep that was almost a perfect match. This is where in-cannel gouges really shine if you have them. With an incannel gouge you can make a vertical plunge cut to do the cope. If you don't have incannel gouges (and I don't), you can use a regular outcannel carving gouge but be careful to keep the coped wall vertical. The bottom of the cope will be approximately the depth of the rear shoulder but go slow and check the fit often. It's easy to take more material off if the joint doesn't close tight at the shoulders but if you take too much off you will have an irreparible gap at the cope. DAMHIKT. I apologize that this picture isn't clearer. I think I need a new camera.


    When finished, the coped joint should look like this. Take your time and this seemingly complex assembly of joints and molding is really not that difficult to do. Next, we raise and fit the door panel.

  8. #53
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    South Carolina
    Posts
    1,429
    Robert,
    Please tell me those tenons are not straight from the saw. Seriously, great job. I find sawing tenons to be more difficult, i.e., a steeper learning curve than sawing dovetails. Mine look like that only after a few minutes with a router plane or chisels to tweak the fit. Did four of them yesterday for a door...got the last one down to about 30 minutes.

    Mark

  9. #54
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Stutz View Post
    Robert,
    Please tell me those tenons are not straight from the saw. Seriously, great job. I find sawing tenons to be more difficult, i.e., a steeper learning curve than sawing dovetails. Mine look like that only after a few minutes with a router plane or chisels to tweak the fit. Did four of them yesterday for a door...got the last one down to about 30 minutes.

    Mark
    Mark,
    Yes, these particular ones and the ones on the face frame are straight from the saw. I do need to pare a too tight fit on occasion (and maybe even shim a loos fit, shhhh) but I also get it right on occasion too . Pine is easier as it will compress some. Hardwoods are more difficult as the tolerances are tighter. Going straight from the saw is a benefit of making deep scribes with the knife and marking/mortising gauge. When you make a deep scribe and then start your saw close to the scribe line, the saw will jump into position as you begin your cut. It's still up to you to track it straight down both scribes until you have a straight kerf established but the deep scribe marks make starting in the correct position much easier.

    I agree that learning mortise and tenon by hand is harder than dovetails, but the mechanics are similar. They are both about sawing a straight line. Working only by hand, I get to do a lot of sawing. This is actually a benefit as I get a lot of practice sawing straight. If you want to learn to saw a straight line, put down the dovetail and tenon saws and pick up a rip saw. Then use your dividers to divide up a wide board into equal strips (like face frame or door frame parts ) and rip them from the wide board by hand rather than using the table saw or band saw. Stop and check your form often. You will quickly improve your ability to saw a straight line in just a few cuts. It's all about form and feel. In my opinion, this is why a lot of folks who like to do the "grunt" work by machine and the joinery by hand have difficulty learning to cut these joints by hand. They have no practice sawing a straight line.

    Even if you like to use your table saw/band saw to do the majority of the grunt work, I strongly recommend practicing your sawing by ripping some boards by hand. Maybe try on some secondary pieces for a project you are currently working on (drawer sides or back boards are a good place to practice). Use pine, it's soft and easy to rip. I can rip a 6' pine board in half in just a minute or two. And the straighter you saw, the easier the cleanup.

    30 minutes to saw and fit 1 tenon ? How big was this door. I think it took me less than 15 minutes to saw and fit all the tenons for this door (not including layout). Just kidding you Mark . It doesn't matter how long it takes as long as you enjoy doing it. Unless your being paid by the tenon . Practice ripping some pine and I gaurantee you will see this time come down and find yourself using the router plane and chisel less.

  10. #55
    Any updates Robert? I need to make a small cabinet for my bathroom and was thinking of using this thread as a model.

  11. #56
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Gulfport MS
    Posts
    130
    Shoot! I thought Part 20 (is it part 20?) had been posted. Outstanding thread, like taking a class for me. Thanks again for taking the time to put this togeather!

    g
    We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.

    W. H. Auden

  12. #57

    Sorry for the delay

    Sorry it has taken so long to get back to this thread. We've been quite busy around our house the last couple of weeks. However, the good news is that the cabinet was completed yesterday (except for the finish) and I'll be posting the last few parts later this morning, so stay tuned !

  13. #58
    very beautiful ...brilliant pictures and nice detailing...you are very hard worker...I wish u make CNC router out of MDF and release ur self from such hard work...
    Keep up posting..

  14. #59

    Cabinet Build Part 20

    Without further ado!


    I finally had to break down and buy a piece of lumber. I ran out of pieces big enough to continue with. Since I had to get lumber anyway, I bought a 1x12, which, as it turned out, was the perfect width for a single wide panel for the door. So no glueing or ripping, just cut to length and shoot the ends square. I love it when things work out like this. I did need to plane out a little minor cupping though as the panel needs to be as flat as you can get it.


    I'm using the full ¾" thickness of the board for the raised panel. No sense in thinning it out for no good reason. This means that I need a rabbet on the inside of the panel, though, so the front doesn't sit proud of the rails and stiles. Gauge the inside rabbet depth directly from the rails and stiles like we've done for other parts of the piece so far and transfer the depth to the panel ends and edges. Then use the moving filletster to plane the rabbet. Here is the cross grain rabbet, a.k.a. filletster. The skewed iron makes this cut very nice compared to a straight mouthed rabbet plane. I did score the shoulders with a knife though as the scoring iron on my moving filletster plane was less than razor sharp and needed some tuning. No, I didn't miss my mark, the line you see to the right of the filletster is the mark where the brass depth stop rubbed the panel.


    Plane the filletsters in the ends first, then plane the edges, that way, any tearout caused by the cross grain planing of the filletsters is removed by planing the long grain rabbets. When the inside rabbets and filletsters are done, we can move on to fielding and raising the panel on the outside.


    First, the field layout. Here, I've marked the width of the bevels, which defines the center part of the panel or field. I've also marked the final outer depth of the beveled portion. Note, this is not the depth of the field. I marked this as well but after I took this picture.


    My moving filletster plane is not wide enough to make the rabbets to define the center field so I'm using an unfenced, 2" wide skew rabbet plane. Because this plane has no fence or depth stop, I need to clamp a batten to the board to guide the plane against, and work to a scribed depth mark. Really not a big deal.


    Again, plane the filletsters on the ends first and then follow with the long grain rabbets. Once we are at this point, the panel is almost done. All that's left is to plane the bevels to depth.


    To plane the bevels, again start at the ends and follow with the edges. It's a simple matter of holding the plane at an angle and working to your scribed depth. It's not as hard as it sounds as you don't need to hold a precise angle. Just hold the plane at an approximate angle and take a few swipes. Check the angle and your scribed depth. Adjust your hold on the plane a take a few more swipes. Check again. Keep doing this, making passes and checking the angle and depth as you go. You can continue to adjust the angle of the bevel right up to the final pass. Just be careful as you get near final depth that the corner of your iron doesn't take a chip out of the edge of the field. Oops ! Leaving the batten on would help to prevent this, but I like the hand made character it gives .

  15. #60

    Cabinet Build Part 21


    Once you reach your scribed depth, on all the bevels, begin fitting the panel to the door frame. If it's too thick, adjust the bevels or back rabbets until it fits properly. It should not be loose, but it should not be too tight either. Leave room for expansion and contraction of the panel.


    Once the panel and door frame dry fit nicely, we can assemble the door. I begin by making saw kerfs in the tenons for the wedges. Some people start the splits for the wedges with a chisel, however, this method makes me nervous. The last thing I want to do after all this work on the most complex part of the project is to split off a tenon shoulder. I'll saw mine, thanks !


    To make the wedges, I take a piece of the thin stock left from resawing the back panels and saw some rectangular pieces from it. Then saw the rectangles diagonally into wedges. Finally, I clamp my jointer plane in my vise upside down and move the small pieces over it to clean up the wedges. Be careful not to plane your finger tips . I have done this before and it doesn't tickle . It does add a nice patina to your project though .


    Here are the final wedges. They are the same thickness as the tenons and were fit to the mortise to make sure they were not too thick before assembly. You don't want to find out the wedges are too thick after they are covered in glue.


    Heat up your glue pot again and assemble the door frame. Assemble the rails to one stile first. Then fit the panel without any glue. You want it to be able to move with the seasons. Finally, fit the other stile to the rails, adjust the assembly for square if necessary and then install the wedges with glue. As with the rest of this project, I did not use any clamps to do my assembly. This is a benefit of traditional joinery like dovetails and wedged or drawbored mortise and tenon. You don't need any clamps.


    After the glue has dried, saw off the wedges and clean up the edges of the door. Saw off the horns on the stiles and clean up the ends as well. Then begin fitting the door to the opening in the cabinet. Plane a little off each side and check the fit. You want a small, even gap all the way around the door.

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