| Blog series by Smitty_Cabinetshop | updated 118 days ago | 21 parts | 28464 reads | 560 comments total |
Part 1: This is going to happen, right?
At one point in another forum post here on LJs, I offered a tool cabinet would be worked using the raw materials salvaged from this old Hoosier cabinet topper. Including the beat up piece of tambour door. Some fine grit ROS work on the tambouR got it to look presentable; here it is sitting on top of the now-disassembled topper. Not sure where this is headed, evidenced by the foot-dragging on the project so far. But, I did build a headboard in the meantime, so it’...
Part 2: What Comes from Old Hoosiers?
The first act was to deconstruct the old topper, as noted in Installment #1. But thinking the whole thing was made of oak was a mistake. Here are a couple of pics of side boards, post-glue-up to address splitting that had taken place over the years. This piece was totally abused (mostly in outbuildings) and has been separated from it’s base for decades: But for the tambour door slats, these sides are the only solid oak pieces of the cabinet. The major partitions as well as th...
Part 3: Jointing the carcase stock
Used the #8 to get one good edge, ‘cause the boards needed help: Measured set (max) width to repeat on each board, 10 7/8”, tranferred it to the panel panel gauge, and marked the other edges of each board… Fasten the stuff to the bench and joint it for staight and width to the scored line. #5 jack goes to town. NOW we’re good to move forward… From jointing to joinery!
Part 4: Some Carcase Joinery
Top joins the sides with half-blinds, so let’s clamp up and get started. Mark and cut the tails. No dovetail jigs… It’s for strength, doesn’t have to be perfect as a shop joint. Chop the waste. Gauge setting for the ‘inset’ of the pinboard, then balance the tail board to tranfer tail lines: I did place a straightedge alongside the setup to ensure the layoit ot the two pieces stayed ‘square.’ Sawing pins...
Part 5: What's In a Partition?
The Inspiration Piece features a couple of partions with great curves that I want to replicate in my cabinet, so I pulled out paper, pencil and scissors and set about tracing one of them. The original: Put on paper: I did the glue-up of the panel last week, and planed it true and smooth. The orig is 21” and that means the pattern is not ‘to scale’... But a photocopier came to rescue… I Shaded the profiled edge of the pattern a...
Part 6: Some More Carcase Joinery
So there’s a bit more that has to be done before finishing the overall carcase of this wall hung tool cabinet to be, and it’s all about dados and stopped dados. Quite simply, the cabinet will be divided into two distinct parts: a lower section that has a tambor door and storage for two jack planes (cambered #5 and #62), then an upper section that has a pair of doors with ‘depth’ storage inside. So the first thing to do is create the joints for the divider as well as...
Part 7: And Some More, Yes, Carcase Joinery
Top and bottom of the cabinet have been defined, but not the space for the jack planes and tambor door. Because there a plenty of pics of the dado process, here’s what the defined spaces look like in dry-fit mode. And the plane partition has been shaped to match similar pieces in the inspiration piece. The interior of door’d section then got some attention, again driven by something I saw (and posted) a couple of weeks ago. This shot of the interior of a craftsman-ma...
Part 8: Back Panel Rabbets, Galoot Style
A short update…. I’ve decided the back will be 1/2” thick, and to set the backing material into the carcase means rabbets. The two side pieces get stopped rabbets; we’ll do those after getting the process down on the top piece. Disassembled the cabinet (in dry fit mode since last installment) and headed to the bench. Set the 1/2” measurement to the fence and the depth stop of the #78, applied wax to the sole and fence surfaces and made quick work of the cut...
Part 9: Carcase Glue-up!
Oh, yeah, it’s time to stop cutting bait and ‘fish’ for a next-level assembly with this project. In other words, this carcase has been apart and together a bunch of times for marking, cutting, and fitting rabbets and dados. All of those shelves and partitions are at the ready; there’s nothing more do do with the carcase apart that can’t just as well be done while it’s together. In the meantime, I have T&G back-cabinet material as well as face framing th...
Part 10: Backside of a Carcase
Whatever was selected for the backing material of this cabinet needed to add strength, look good and be 1/2” thick. Plywood meets two out of three of those requirements, but I just can’t fall in love with the idea of plywood in my tool till. Biggest hurdle with any other material is the work I might have to do to get it to that 1/2” thickness. I checked the remaining inventory of poplar (says Don W, and he should know) boards salvaged from somewhere, some time ago. This s...
Part 11: Reclaiming a Tambour Door
If you’ve been following along, the space at the bottom left of the cabinet is reserved for install of a tambour (roll-up) door salvaged from the donor Hoosier cabinet. Not certain what will ultimately live in that cubby re: tools, but it’s inspired by a tambour’d cabinet Stanley sold in the 30s. New, red oak tambour doors (15”x17”) cost more than $80 per. Wow, didn’t know what a treasure I had back when I reduced the donor cabinet to a stack of component p...
Part 12: Painting the Carcase
Yes, painting it, so it matches the Inspiration piece. Filler of holes, sanding, oil-based primer then oil-based paint. Quick set of phots, with another to come first thing tomorrow AM, when the paInt’s dry. Here’s the brown shell with the Inspiration piece in the background. Bottom line is, I want these two tool cabInets to appear to be from the same ‘set’ when this build is done…
Part 13: Making Boards and Sourcing Inside Drawer Parts
A quick and dirty update with pictures of progress made (if I can call it that) since the last installment. And progress has been painful because the lunchbox planer shot craps. Why is that a problem for a galoot like me? Well, the cherry I’d like to use for the front of this cabinet is substantially cupped and ‘the electron way’ was going to help me move past those flaws. Not to be, so I’ve been making boards the hard way. In no real order, here’s proof. Usin...
Part 14: Milling Cherry for the Cabinet Face
Pictures tonight, but precious little dialogue. Lunchbox planer was out with a bad switch, but it came back this weekend. So the boards went through multiple passes then were each given the #4 smoother treatment. I did move to the #4 1/2 after awhile, and the mass was very welcome. I ripped a thicker board then did the re-saw of those boards on the old Craftsman bandsaw. When the night was over, the cabinet was covered with the fruits of the evening’s labor. Let ...
Part 15: Material Prep for Panel Doors - With #48 Video
When we left off yesterday, I had a pile of cherry needing attention. So tonight The plan was to joint whatever I had to in support of the next step in this cabinet build: assembly and glue-up of the upper panel doors. The panel boards ended up just a hair less than 1/2” according to the measure on the planer, and I arranged them into a pattern that’d look good across both doors (three pieces per door). But some work is needed before I can do the glue up. I brought the p...
Part 16: The Gang of Three (Drawers)
Wow, long time between installments here (about four months, give or take) so I must get all four of you on-lookers up to speed. :-) The last solid activity on The Wall Hung centered on the two large, upper cabinet door panels along with the grooving of the door frame pieces. There was even a video produced that featured the #48 T&G plane in action, the height of frivolity. From those heady days, there began a long period of malaise regarding the Wall Hung. I had to re-shingle a hous...
Part 17: Tambour Door Install w/ Video
The wall hung has suffered from extreme neglect, but some progress was made over the Holiday Break. So, an installment! Here’s the cabinet in raw form: No doors, no drawers, no tambour. Here’s the door to be installed to slide and close the lower left corner opening. It’s been patiently waiting for me to give it any attention, and finally the time came. I saved the radius turns from the original Hoosier top, and those were used to trace top radius corners as we...
Part 18: This Installment is Not About the Tambour...
Wasn’t long ago that progress got me a tambour and static display of what would someday be… See the lower right corner of the picture above? Well, that’s what needs to be done next, I think. It’s been started… Take close look and you’ll see two pieces joined together. Improperly. The stile needs to be full length, not dead-ended into the rail. And then there are the horizontal (H) pieces, circled and marked as 1 and 2 in the close-up below. Wh...
Part 19: Getting the Face on the Base
There’s been more progress in the last several days than in the several months previous, so here goes another installment… When we spoke last, the Venerable Wall Hung Hung Tool Cabinet was where it has been for nearly ten months: on it’s back, on top of my assembly bench. The tambour has been fitted, and the sliding plane till door is in working order, albeit bounded by f-clamps and a certain, left-most stile. Oh, the stile. Here it is, and without any detail (sorr...
Part 20: M&T Work on Panel Doors, with Video
Began work on the upper doors of the Wall Hung towards the end of Episode 19 by creating a bead detail on the right door while telling you of a rebate needed at the left door. No pics cutting the rabbet, but the center stiles come together just fine. All four stiles for the upper doors were cut to rough length and grooved for floating panels ‘too long ago’ to remember… The rail boards were measured and marked for their rough cuts; those are the pieces t...
Part 21: Hinges and Hardware - Cabinet Complete
When we left subject cabinet, the last part of the build was done, as the upper door pieces were cut and fit and glued up. Stiles ran long on the doors, as Lysdexic correctly pointed out, to prevent spitting of the entire stile while the mortises were cut. So we know the doors needed a trim length wise. What I didn’t realize is how close I had made it re: the rails. You can see in the pics below I had to preserve all of the rail material… Whew… There was ve...
