Thread: Frilly nickers cabinet

Both sides of cabinet made. Here is one of them.
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Note rebate in frame into which doors will be fitted.
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And what we have here is a clamp farm ...
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Waiting for someone to have a sale of 3 and 4 ft clamps ... those 5 to 6 footers are not easy to wrangle into place when your only helper is a dog.

I see you had the last word in the argument! Looking good.

Originally Posted by tea lady

I see you had the last word in the argument! Looking good.

Oh no Tea Lady ... you misunderstand. We never argue.

Veni, vidi, obedistis.

The doors will be the tricky part ... never laminated doors before and hope the platern keeps everything flat in the vacuum press I have yet to make.

...love a good work in progress with cartoons init

..is that really your wifey

Have you thought about how to allow the large side panels to contract or expand?

Originally Posted by wolften

..is that really your wifey

Of course!

Originally Posted by Wongo

Have you thought about how to allow the large side panels to contract or expand?

Wongo,

They will move a bit, but because the timber is cedar, it is minimal. There are no framing timbers running across the grain at the end of the panel and the grain in the internal sections all runs in the same direction as the panels (except for the frame at the base which has breadboard ends), so they should tend to move together ... I hope.

Until you and Ian et al commenced my education about wood movement (for which am grateful) I did some pretty terrible things like make solid timber doors with a frame glued around the edges, or table tops made the same way. The only pieces I had trouble with were made of Vic Ash, and that was solved by cutting up the doors to make laminated (over MDF) doors. The cedar doors are fine, 10 years later. So too are the NG Rosewood doors/tops. I think I just got lucky as these timbers have low movement, unlike Vic Ash. The top of my wifes work bench is 1 m X 1.8 M X 25 mm thick Surian cedar. It is solid boards with breadboard ends. After 7 years it is fine, and that amazes me, so too do the doors which are solid timber with a frame glued all the way around.

Something that has bothered me ever since you, Ian and a few others started my education about wood movement is timber drawer runners. The grain of the runners runs across the grain of the panel and they are glued, screwed and sometimes biscuited/dowelled to the panel. However, even in Vic Ash units I have seen no problems with movement there. The same applies to internal frames in cabinets, where the end of the frame has grain running in the same direction as the door runners. It seems to me that this should give the same problems as a frame glued across the end of the panel, but so far it has not. Can you help me understand why? Is there a better way?

Having overcome the disappointment of discovering my wood movement sins, and returned from a couple of trips where it was necessary to do real work, I'm back in the shed. Legs are on the cabinet. Designed several potential candidates for legs and Her Indoors choose the simplest of them all. Drawers are close to finished.

Only a little more work required on them before I start with making a bigger vacuum press so the doors can be made up.

Pic taken with camera phone, so colours are not right ... the colour is actually quite uniform all round ... the camera phone does lie.

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looking pretty good so far

so how did you make and shape the feet?

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Originally Posted by ian

looking pretty good so far

so how did you make and shape the feet?

Pretty simple, Ian.

Made three templates of different shapes with 3 mm MDF. SWMBO chose one. Then this template was used to mark out the shape on square, dressed timber which was cut on the band saw. Initial sanding done on a shop made sanding drum in the drill press, then hand sanded. Job done. I'm surprised you asked, but only because I am still a novice and find it difficult to imagine another way of doing that job.

Cheerio!

John

I thought you might have used a rasp or three after band-sawing the basic shape

I seldom use rasps, mainly because they result in more hand sanding to finish off.

Also, because one side of the piece can be kept firm against a horizontal reference surface (table) as the piece is guided against the sanding wheel of the linisher or the drum in the press, the job stays close to perfectly square. Because I make lots of curved surfaces this way I was very keen to sort out dust collection on the linisher wheel and drill press. The curves at the top of the leg in the pic is exactly the same radius of the linisher wheel. The curves at the ankle were done on a sanding drum in the press.

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Used this leg as the template to make a sled. Now such legs are cut on the band saw and shaped on the spindle moulder using the sled in the next pic. Makes it easy to get four legs all the same size and shape before they are rounded off.
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Please remember I am a plumber by training, and I need all the help I can get to achieve a decent finish. Doing fine work with hand tools is not my long suit, (I needed to learn from scratch how to sharpen and use a hand plane, and am still not great at that) although I am slowly improving.