I am planning on using just ripped 2×4 for the face frame, ill eventually add doors too.

Obviously I need a lot of practice…but I realize I need a lot more clamps than what I have.

I was able to get a crosscut sled done for the project as well.

I already am thinking of ways to improve it. And will do so on the next project…I only used 1/2” mdf for the bottom. I did use a detachable fence that was made of 2 laminated birch plywood sheets. I tried using tnuts to secure it to the bottom, but next time ill go from the bottom with then t-nuts countersunk, or use threaded inserts. that will give me the ability to get it in parallell with the bolts then put a couple screws in for added stiffness. I am also planning on putting a layer of hardboard on top before I do the fences so that I can change out part of it as a no clearance insert.

Well the boss has tasked me with a different project than the bedroom. Last year we put laminate flooring down in the dining room and our office in preparation for putting builtins in the office. Nothing has been mentioned of them lately, until I started designing the bedroom furniture.

Originally we were going to use kraftmaid cabinets to do the rooms, and I had a pretty nice setup…

But I wasnt really happy with all my options and things we had to do ‘sort of’....

so I have taken my plans and started designing my furniture for it in sketchup. I usually do this to first get an estimate of how much wood and the expense…then I start refining it for actual dimensioning and such.

This is the base of the cabinet on the left side of the room as you look at this picture. I would be on the right wall as you enter the room. It will NOT take up the whole wall as the window is kind of close to the wall on that side, plus I have some network patching over there that is still in use as well as some other things that wont be moved.

So as before is the sketchup file. I am looking for criticisms on the design of the furniture. Not really how I could make it prettier in sketchup or anything…Things that I may be missing(other than the drawers :) ) or ways I could do it different. I will be adding shelving to the top of this piece. But that will be in a later blog.

I would like some critique on my design so far. This is going to be the base unit of my cabinet design for an entire wall unit. My initial design goal with this is just to get the drawer height set and comfortable with that. I have tried to add the faceframe elements, but am having trouble deciding on a method to attack that. I am probably over thinking it.

This is the initial unit layout for the Wall. Like I said above I am working on the base units for now, which will house drawers. The top units will probably have shelves, but could have more drawers…The center square is the bed

Please let me know what you think, and those who are able please feel free to comment or give me some pointers of my Sketchup model.

These are the initial designs for 2 Hope chest for my daughters for this christmas. Main wood will be walnut, highlights are either bloodwood or purpleheart depending on the daughter.

This is taken from a design from Woodsmith #32. You can see a finished version finished by strube1369

A couple key differences that I am going to be doing different. I will be mitering the corners of the box, and using dovetail keys of the contrasting wood(it is not shown in the design). I also plan on making wooden drawer pulls out of the contrasting wood as well. I am going to try and post the sketchup file to share with you all as soon as I find a host.

The sketchup files can be found here.

I have always had issues cutting faces in sketchup, I have followed several tutorials and just never seem to get the grip…Today I have found a simple way to do this, that I have not seen before, but Maybe DaveR has already talked about….

Many of the tutorials I have seen involve trying to draw a new plane and getting it lined up with the axes that you want to cut and all that rigor moral….I have found an easier way with the simple line tool.

First using the protractor tool draw your angle of attack…this is the angle that you are trying to cut(or miter) on your object. This will create a guideline directly on your object. Now if you were to use the pencil tool on this, it would become a part of your object, which we dont want.

Select the move tool and press the ctrl key to switch to copy mode. Click on your guide line, then push the up arrow key on your keyboard. This will lock it to vertical axes movement only. Raise the line an arbitrary amount.

Now using the pen tool Select a point on the new guideline outside of the object, and following the guideline move to a point along the guideline on the opposite side of your object and click. This will set your first line, you will notice that if you move your pen, another line is already attached. Push your up arrow to lock it in again and move to a point outside the dimensions of your object again. Push the esc button to stop drawing. Click on your top line, where you dont have a line extending down, and once again push your up arrow key to lock in movement. Now move your pen tool to the bottom of your other vetical line and Sketchup will create a line at your original point that will match the height of this line. click to lock that line in place then move your pointer just a little and you will see another line meeting your final point to form a square. Click on that point and voila you have your cutting plane.

Select the entire object you are cutting and the cutting plane(this is easier if you only have them visible and choose ctrl-a) right click and choose intersect with selection.

The object is now cut along your cutting surface and all that is left for you to do is carefully delete the parts you dont need. any longer…

I will try and add picture later…but I wanted to get this all down before I forget. DaveR if you havent done it this way before(which I doubt) your welcome to take this and clean it up for your needs if you want to use it.

Of course, it could absolutely be operator error as well. It doesn’t appear that the pivot has been damaged, I would think if part had broken off it would be really obvious because it wouldn’t have broken straight. I looked online for some schematics but i could only find some really small pictures that couldn’t be enlarged.

How tight should the cap iron be? I realize that it should be tight enough that there isn’t really any play, but should it actually be a bit tighter?

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Resolution

it appears that the bolt that was with the plane is not correct. I tested it this morning knowing what I was looking for and its true that it is too tall and hits the back of the frog and doesnt allow the blade/chipbreaker to rest fully against the frog.

Thanks to everyone who took the time in the forums to help me out you guys rock!

As you can see, I dont have it “shined up”. But in think what you are seeing is what I keep seeing referred to as patina..but I really dont know.

Here you can see the patent numbers, but also you can see that a good bit of the japanning is still intact. I currently have it coated in WD40 so that it wont rerust on me until I can figure out what I need to cover it with.

Comparison from before.

I dont think the blade is original. It has no stanley markings, and it feels pretty cheap. So Ill probably take it out and replace it with a hock blade and chip breaker…

Well now is the beginning of my Journey…..I guess I am going to get some evaporust and get started. Ill windup getting a hock blade and frog more than likely….

I got it for $2.50…..along with a 220 block plane for another 2.50….

This is my initial design after about 5 attempts at a start. The point about pythagorias is that all the dimensions of the openings are based on the golden mean. The boards themselves are sized as appropriate to allow for the reaching of that mean. Its not exact as I did round to the nearest whole numbers. So the dimensions used are as follows.

29,18,11,7,4,2. And to really make this work well, the dimensions had to be based on the center of the board. I think it turned out pretty nice so far. I havent started the notches yet, thats my next task. I also have to figure out how I am going to hang it. I am going to make it out of 1/2” mdf and paint it white.