Thread: Frilly Knickers Cabinet

The carcass will be built with veneered MDF sides and web frames, just like the larger cabinet SWMBO has. This means there is no need to allow for seasonal movement. There will be five drawers and therefore seven web frames. The cabinet will be very strong with those frames attached to the sides with dominoes and screws.


In this case the cabinet sides will be veneered in cedar and the doors will be camphor laurel. Sides are lipped 16mm MDF and doors will be lipped 12 mm MDF.


Here are the sides in the vacuum press.

IMG20231030115113.jpg

Originally Posted by John Samuel

Here are the sides in the vacuum press.

IMG20231030115113.jpg

Nice work John. I have one of those vacuum presses. Pretty good they are however, I'm going to modify mine eventually so I don't have to use the sticky seal every time I need to use it.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Nice work John. I have one of those vacuum presses. Pretty good they are however, I'm going to modify mine eventually so I don't have to use the sticky seal every time I need to use it.

When you have a modification that works please give me a yell.

Well ... bugger!

The workshop idiot paid me another visit. After 7 web frames were made one was laid against the veneered side. They were about 30 mm too long. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. The ends were cut off, the frames shortened and then the ends were morticed with the domino and glued back on.

Waiting for the glue to dry. Let's hope that's his last visit for a while!

Originally Posted by John Samuel

Well ... bugger!

The workshop idiot paid me another visit.

Oh I know him, he's always messing with me aswell!. Needs a good kick in the old spuds if you ask me!.

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned how web frames are made in my shop these days, but it's working so well for me it's worth posting.

The frames are made a tad oversized. 5mm in both directions is plenty, and you can get away with a fair bit less. Once glued up I run them through the drum sander to flatten them. Then the front edge is sanded on the linisher. Next I use the sled to shave just a tad off the right hand side, at right angles to the front. This gives me two reference surfaces. Finally, these reference surfaces are run along the fence to trim the web frame to size.

Now I have seven web frames all close enough to identical, which makes assembly that much easier and helps with strength.

EagerBeaver71,

Oops, the web frames are already assembled into the carcass, so there'll be no pics of building the web frames this time.

If you can tell me what is not clear, I'll try to prepare a drawing or something that explains it.

But I assure you the method works. Makes assembly easy.

Carcass assembled.

carcass.jpg

I cheated ... again ...

The top and bottom web frames are fastened to the sides with floating tenons. The next day the remaining web frames were glued and screwed into place, one at a time. Because the web frames were all identical in size, this was easy. I glued both surfaces and they slid into place.

Originally Posted by John Samuel

EagerBeaver71,

Oops, the web frames are already assembled into the carcass, so there'll be no pics of building the web frames this time.

If you can tell me what is not clear, I'll try to prepare a drawing or something that explains it.

But I assure you the method works. Makes assembly easy.

Hi John,

Apologies if this is a very basic question. I'm not familiar with web frames, how is it different from other construction methods?.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Hi John,

Apologies if this is a very basic question. I'm not familiar with web frames, how is it different from other construction methods?.

The current cabinet has seven web frames, as noted in pic. The good thing about web frames is that they make for a very strong carcass. This cabinet is so strong it is not necessary to put a back on it. I will use a back, but not for strength. You could drop this carcass down a couple of flights of stairs and the joints will all hold. Timber might split, but otherwise the cabinet will stay in one piece.
carcass.jpg

Web frames that are glued into a single unit should be used only in those circumstances where it is not necessary to make allowances for seasonal movement (in this case, in the sides). Because the sides of this cabinet are veneered MDF, they are dimensionally stable. Therefore, it is safe to use web frames as a construction method.

Three years ago I made a chest of drawers. The sides are solid timber, so they will shrink and expand with the humidity. In this case web frames are not suitable because they will not shrink and expand with the sides and damage can follow. To overcome this I used the method you can see in the following pics.

Dry Assembly.jpgFirst dovetails.jpgIMG20200407172019.jpg


Because all the grain is running in one direction, the entire cabinet can shrink and expand together.

For such a cabinet often sliding dovetails or similar are used to hold in place the drawer runners. I am not that good a craftsman, so I used web frames only glued on one side, as noted in the pic below.

Web Frames Glue.jpg

The blue areas are glued. The red areas are not, so the frame is free to move as the sides shrink and grow. The web frames are tenoned into the sides at the front and back rails only ... the sides of the web frames are not fastened to the cabinet sides.

To return to the original post ... I used the method described earlier to make web frames because it gave me seven identical frames. There is not a pencil line thickness difference between them. This makes assembly easy.

Thank you for the thread, I will be following your build.

Legs cut and sanded square on the linisher. Then they are stood up to check for uniformity.

IMG20231103121555.jpg

Then the legs are rounded off on the linisher.

Next they get a rub with a small orbital sander.

Here they are, ready for hand sanding.

IMG20231103140507.jpg

Next step is likely the plinth on which the carcass sits. After the plinth is done the aprons can be made and fixed to the legs. In addition, drawers and doors need to be made.

Looking Great John!