| Blog series by Gene47 | updated 1396 days ago | 11 parts | 10709 reads | 26 comments total |
Part 1: Getting Started
After getting my Murphy bed installed it is time to turn my attention to the side cabinets. I am going to use the basic plans that came with the Murphy bed hardware kit but will be needing to make some modifications. One of the major changes will be adapting the upper part of the cabinet to use an antique leaded glass door that my SO retrieved from an old house when she lived in northern Ohio. The other challenge will be modifying the right cabinet to account for a heat/ac vent that...
Part 2: Sanding Leaded Glass Doors
Well after a few days of not doing anything I got back in the shop today and did some clean up work. After that I started working on the leaded glass doors that I will be using in the side cabinets that will fit up next to the Murphy Bed I just finished. My first thought was to run the doors thru my 16-32 drum sander but after studying on that for a while I decided that since these doors are to our best guess around 100 yrs old it would not be good to take any chance of bumping or stressin...
Part 3: Side Pieces Cut - Shelves & Dividers
Yesterday I cut the side verticals of both the left and right cabinets. I then matched them up as to what sides I wanted for the inside and outside of each cabinet and routed 1/4×3/8 rabbits on each piece for the backs. Then I cut all of the dividers and shelves to width and length. Since I am making some alterations to the plans to accommodate my antique doors I wanted to see how things were going to look. These cabinets are too narrow to use a double door and too wide for jus...
Part 4: Leaded Glass Doors with new picture frame trim
It has been a while since I have been in the shop. Once the rain stopped I need to spend several days catching up with all the outside work that needed to be done. Today I was able to get in the shop and mill up some stock to build my picture frame trim that will go around both of the leaded glass doors to make them 3 inches larger and not loose and proportions. By doing this I will have one door for each side cabinet and will be able to use a normal face frame and maximize the interior sp...
Part 5: Leaded Glass Doors - Cabinet Work
Today I took both doors out of the clamps and ran them through the drum sander to get them smooth and flat. I am very pleased with the way these doors turned out. Once they were sanded smooth it was pretty difficult to even see where I had added the new rails and stiles to increase the length and width. Here are the doors after the sanding and laying side by side. After that I put the cabinet top and bottom shelf in and temporarily screwed them in place. I then made a mock up of a f...
Part 6: Construction Delay - Shop Upgrade and Outside activities.
It has been a few days since I have been able to work on the cabinets. I did some shopping for drawer material and in the process found some wood that will look like mahogany when stained and did not cost an arm and a leg. I am going to use it for the upper face frame as well as the false fronts for the drawers. Since I am an ex-truck driver and live in a rural area I have a friend that farms and about this time of year I help out hauling his grain to the elevator so that has started and I...
Part 7: Long Time Away From Shop
Well it has been been over 15 days since I last had a chance to work in the shop. In that time I have hauled 47,000 bu of wheat for a Farmer friend of mine over to the grain elevator in Memphis Tn. With a few days early on of some rain that kept him out of the field he was able to harvest enough ahead to keep me busy running the trucks on those days. I was anxious to get back out tomorrow and start to get my bearings again and make some saw dust when I hit a door jam with a bare foot th...
Part 8: Design Changes and Progress
Well after a long absense from the shop, every now and then life gets in the way of what we really want to do, I got back in the shop and for about the 3rd or 4th time modified the design of the side cabinets. Originally I had planned on 3 drawers, one pull out writing desk type drawer, one open shelf and 2 upper shelves behind a door made from a very old leaded glass door. I did decide to make the drawers out of pre-finished and pre-cut plywood blanks and after purchasing the material ...
Part 9: Drawer Fronts and Drawers Completed
Well I am making some progress abeit that it is slow. I was in limbo wondering what I was going to do for the false drawer front material. I am trying to keep my cost down and really didn’t want to purchase mahogany to make the fronts out of. I was browsing around one of the hardwood stores that I purchaase from over in Memphis and got to talking to one of the sales reps and told him what I was trying to do and he put me on a species of wood that I had never used before and said that...
Part 10: Side Cabinets Ready to Prep for Finish
Today was a good day. I managed to get the side cabinets for the murphy bed fiinished and all I need to do now is but some edge banding on the adjustable shelves sand and prep for finishing. I know that at the moment it looks like a hodge podge of material but the face frame and drawer fronts are made of Obeechee and upon the suggestion of a man at the lumber supply place I was told that this wood would stain up and look like Mahogany. I did stain a test piece and it looked like it was...
Part 11: Finished all but the Molding
Hooray, just in the nick of time I got these cabinets finished and in the room. Tomorrow is the start of rice harvest and I am going to be tied up for quite some time frist with hauling rice then it will be soybeans so will not have much shop time for the next 6 to 8 weeks. At frist there wasn’t much need to worry about when I got them finished but it seems that our granddaughter is going to be staying and going to school here for the next coupe of years. So all of a sudden we nee...
