| Blog series by mpmitche | updated 946 days ago | 10 parts | 11561 reads | 23 comments total |
Part 1: Roughing out
I had some time today where I couldn’t work on the baby craddle so I decided to get started roughing out the bathroom vanity. I’ve had a chunk of oak in the garage for years that fit the bill perfectly. It was all hand cut with my two old jackson backsaws and a cheap harbor frieght panel say that I recut the teeth on for ripping. (if anyone wants to send me a nice panel saw it would not go amiss ;)). Here is the design I came up with Here are the pieces cut and here is ...
Part 2: Frustration
I finished planing all the pieces for my bathroom vanity tonight. I am anxious to get started on the mortise and tennon work. I ordered a set of mortise chisels last week and expected them by now. I checked the tracking number and the post office claims they delivered them on Monday. I double checked my mailbox and no luck. I’m kind of hung up on the project until they show so I hope they come in soon. I guess I’ll have to call the post office tomorrow and see what is going on.
Part 3: Cutting the Mortise
Two of my three new chisels showed up yesterday and after about an hour on the water stones I had the 6mm chisel honed. I flattened the back and sharpened the face. My honing guide would not hold these chisels because they are too deep. Because of this I just sharpened it at the factory angle and did not put a micro bevel on as I had intended. Here is a shot of the chisels. Tonight I got started cutting the first mortise. This is my first attempt at cutting a mortise by hand but i...
Part 4: On to the Tenon
Today I finished choping the first mortise. Thanks to all those who pitched in with advise. I also cut the tenon After trimming the tenon with a rabbet plane and undercutting the shoulder I got a pretty good fit This is officially my first mortise and tennon. It was done completely with hand tools. (chisel, saw, plane) I know it’s not as good as it should be but I hope to get better at them as I go, and faster as well. Probably took an hour or better all told.
Part 5: Chopping Mortises
Tonight I finished off my mortises. I have been away from the project for quite a while and watched one of David Charlesworths’ DVD’s from Lie-Nielsen in the downtime. The DVD was about working with chisels and he chops a mortise in there somewhere. After watching the video I tweaked my approach a little and it helped immensley. The first mortise I did took about 40 min. Some in the middle were a little quicker. Tonight I got a more accurate job and it took about fifteen min...
Part 6: Joints Finished (almost)
I finished trimming and fitting the mortise and tenons tonight. A few were out of square slightly but I was able to adjust them. Now those are a touch loose. I hope the drawboring will snug them back up but we’ll see when I get there. Now on to cutting the rabbit’s for the mirror to fit into. I’ll try to get some pictures of it soon.
Part 7: Cutting rabbet's for the mirror
Now that the frame is has the morise and tenon’s complete I want to cut the rabbet’s before I permanently assemble it. I am just using my rabbet plane with a batten to keep me straight and at 90 degree. I noticed that as I worked down the rabbet slowly worked away from the batten. The next one I do i’m going to set the nicher down and see if it helps keep things on track better. Any tips on this would help. here is a photo of cutting the rabbet. and here is a shot of...
Part 8: Glass cutting is a pain
So apparently I’m not very good at cutting a mirror. I had an old bathroom mirror that I wanted to cut down and use for this project. I tried cutting it today and both cuts I made did not stay straight on the ends. The first error was cut out by the second one but the second error is going to hang into the part of the mirror that shows. I don’t want to order new glass or rebuild my frame. I’m trying to come up with a way to cover the error. If anyone has some idea̵...
Part 9: Drawboring
I am so glad I read Chris Schwarz’s article Drawboring Resurected. I used that technique to assemble my mortise and tennon mirror frame today. I started out by making a doweling plate from scrap I had laying around. It has a large hole in the center that was already there and four new holes 1/2”, 3/8”, 1/4”, and 3/16”. After this I think I will add a 7/16” hole. I widdled some rough pegs and then drove them through the 1/2” followed by the 3/8...
Part 10: Done
It’s been quite some time since I worked on the vanity mirror but with my wife’s insistnace I finished it up this week and it is hung on the bathroom wall finally. I finished it with an oil based poly that I hand rubbed on finished with past wax. The finish came out very nice and the true test of success is that my wife has been bragging to her friends that I made it.
