Thread: It started out innocently enough.

You do yourself an in justice, you have created what you want, done your way and as you said, it tells a storey and your introduction to the photos is a worthy tale.

Very interesting approach and result - many benefits to a bit of modular stuff when you decide to change your mind. Too flash for my shed - would look right out of place.

I've found the best finish for NSW Rosewood is Kunos Oil. It doesn't go gluggy like Danish and gives a very nice finish in 3 or 4 coats (using the manufacturers recommendations). If the Rosewood bleeds down the track a bit, a light swipe with a cabinet scraper removes the resin and then another coat of Kunos and it will see us both out!

Waaaaay too flash for my shed too!

I’m interested in how you cut the base and crown mouldings and fluted the corners. If I was copying your design I think I would have to use a scratchstock for the flutes as I can’t see how you could squeeze anything with a fluting blade between the lambstongues. How did you make the mouldings?

Oh ya!! To add to the total failure of execution of design... Who the $%^& puts leather pulls on a George III Tallboy!!! I do LOL. I like them actually. The first 8, on the two bottom units, were cut out of an old tool belt I had kicking around. I only put them on because I measured wrong, and it was the only way the original saw drawer cabinet would fit in the metal cabinet and able to close the doors...

Went back in the shop tonight for some reason and there it was, sitting there... I walk over and lean against my bench with my hand across my mouth in contemplative ponderance thinking: Everything about it is wrong. It's truly horrible. But I like it, none the less.

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Waaaaay too flash for my shed too!

I’m interested in how you cut the base and crown mouldings and fluted the corners. If I was copying your design I think I would have to use a scratchstock for the flutes as I can’t see how you could squeeze anything with a fluting blade between the lambstongues. How did you make the mouldings?

The canted fluted corners are cut on the bandsaw as close as possible and then finished off with spokeshave and chisels. The flutes are carved with a gouge. Then all sanded to finished state...

Mouldings are done with hollows and rounds, and rebate planes. Use a rebate plane to plane down to the flat sections in the mouldings. This gives you the reference points for the hollows and rounds to plane up to. Then make a negative sanding blocks and sand to a consistent profile...

Did not think of using a gouge… but then I don’t own any beyond turning tools.

Was the blank for the crown moulding built up from pieces or did you shape it from one solid plank?

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Did not think of using a gouge… but then I don’t own any beyond turning tools.

Was the blank for the crown moulding built up from pieces or did you shape it from one solid plank?

It was out of a 2x3 piece. I've got stock from 1x3 to 4x4 and everything in between. I'd prefer not to use a 2x3 but the profile didn't allow for it to work within the constraints of a 1x3 or 4. I could have stacked it in retrospect, but it would have been three times the effort and I have to deal with glue lines, which don't look good in mouldings.

It appears the tallboy is going to find a new home and purpose. A fine lady thought it would make the perfect cabinet for her to store her Xmas decorations and bought it!!!

It'll need a bit of a modification to the doors. The panels will be cut out and glass put in, so the more precious ornaments can be on display throughout the year.

The price was right, and I didn't tell her I think it's my worst design (re. no design) in 45 years, and it leaves me with a bit of a dilemma - I don't have a tool cabinet and I'm kinda sad to see it go.

Well now that you know the design works in principle you can redo it with all the changes you noted during the build!

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Well now that you know the design works in principle you can redo it with all the changes you noted during the build!

This is the first time I've assembled all the parts... I had to put it all together in the house as my one car garage, where I work out of, is too small and the risk of damage is huge... My suggestions for glass doors have been shelved, new owner doesn't think it needs them, BONUS!

Now that it's for the most part done I can stand back and have a look at it and figure out what actually works and what doesn't.

What worked:
One thing for sure. What the camera captures doesn't remotely do justice to the wood - it's spectacular. My top 5 in the world, probably top 3 to be honest... Mahogany has nothing on NSW Rosewood. Bathing it in Danish oil first and then French polishing it, the grain and colour are so effin rich. Just need to refine the process a bit. I did a sample with only shellac and then one with oil and shellac and the difference was eye opening. It's like looking into crystal clear water with the noon sun - it's so deep.

The top unit is perfect in proportion and design - very happy with that 20240419_105728.jpg. Well not entirely perfect. The style and rail of the doors could have been 10 to 15mm narrower. I was tempted to carve a dentil profile into the crown moulding, but am glad now that I didn't. Would have been too much for the overall cabinet.

The bracket feet worked surprisingly well 20240419_172104.jpg20240419_171813.jpg. I've been obsessed with antique furniture since I was 12 (48 years) and have never liked this style of bracket feet - ever. They've always looked too leggy and out of place. I've always been drawn to the ogee or serpentine styles. But I fluked on these feet. I built myself into a corner in that I couldn't do anything else, they had to be the straight style. But I was also confronted with the dilemma that the cabinet was already too tall. So they are a departure from traditional in that they are about 1 to 1 1/2" shorter than usually made, and damn if they don't look good. I only saw that once the cabinet was fully assembled.

It's quirky - to a fault. It's clearly a haphazard build. I think it would look perfect in an old English pub (or an eccentric womans Christmas cabinet) where the patron can wrest their elbow on the top ledge (it's the perfect height to lean on, though not planned) while gas bagging and sucking back a pint or 3... 20240419_105739.jpgsignal-2024-04-19-195349_002.jpeg.

The pullout. 20240420_134157.jpg It is so far from what's traditionally seen in literally every other such cabinet, but it works quite well. It was an afterthought that I wasn't willing to modify the other units to accommodate, so the top unit had to be where it went. I mulled how I could incorporate pulls, but it doesn't need them - in fact I think pulls would detract from its subtlety.

The leather pulls. Talk about deviating from traditional style!! But they work very well. The chocolate brown leather and copper really works well with NSW Rosewood. Brass, especially polished, would've looked cheap by comparison.

What didn't work:

When one stands back and looks at the entire piece nothing works 20240419_105739.jpg. The proportions are so out of whack it's a failure beyond comparison. None of the drawers and dovetails are consistent in size and alignment. The polishing is in places patchy (though I will fix that). But its "ugliness" lends itself to its quirkiness that in the right setting makes it work exceptionally well. It definitely doesn't fit any category of traditional furniture. Loaded to overflowing with Xmas decorations and such will make it that much better.

I was being quite the miser with the wood. There's a lot of glue lines that shouldn't be there. 20240420_173315.jpg20240420_173307.jpg20240420_173244.jpg20240419_172104.jpg But we live in the era of the gouge. Everyone selling is in rip off mode with bulls^&* prices for literally everything. And studies on all continents have come to the same conclusion - price rises are not justified... I've seen sellers demanding 60/metre for Rosewood on market place... This %^&* is like gold so I used up all the scraps I could. I wasn't going to waste anything if possible. Ten years ago I wouldn't have thought twice about chucking the scraps and using a solid piece but not now - no way. I have a finite supply and I need to stretch it... I have some really nice wide boards but I'm saving them. This cabinet has depleted all the narrow 75mm boards.

One things for sure. It was a stupid idea to make a tool cabinet out of this wood. But to my defence, it started out as a simply saw drawer that got out of hand. Thankfully it's no longer going to live in the garage. I still need to make a cabinet v2, but it'll be out of something more realistic. I'm probably gonna have to settle for something like camphor laurel - that I effin hate.

Overall:
It was a departure from everything else I've built in the last 45 years. The entire cabinet comes apart - literally. The crown moulding, bracket feet, top unit, top units base mouldings, each section of the drawers... They all come apart. The Ikea (TM) of period furniture reproduction.

They're giving me the stink eye now, since they've been evicted from their new digs. Back to the cold rattly steel jail...