# Shaker Inspired Drinks Cabinet



## Jelly (12 Mar 2013)

I suppose I should put a post up about this, I have been asked to make a drinks cabinet round an existing small fridge, I presented my friend with a couple of options, and they decided that this design matched their existing furniture best.







I sourced the timber locally, Douglas Fir for the Top and the paneling and surprisingly (to me at least) Western Red Cedar for the framework. Having aquired it as 4m waney edged boards, I had to get it on the trestles and cut off a sufficient length (8ft) to cut a complete set of components, then take that smaller board and first establish a reference edge, then rip it down into the appropriate widths (1¾"*1¾" for the framework, 1"*11.5" for the table top segments) and cut the individual components to length. This was only achieved once I'd finished modifying the fence of the outfeed table on my RAS, and re-aliging the RAS blade square and true after the saw initially began pinching as it started to cut.

The rough sawn segments are now waiting to go to my friends house to acclimate (my house is much smaller, warmer and drier than his, unfortunately). hopefully after a week or two I'll be able to start planing them up.

I'll try to get some pictures of both the unsawn boards and cut components tomorrow.

I also have to drive over to Blanaeu Ffestiniog to collect a piece of slate riven specifically for the top at some point.


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## Jelly (14 Mar 2013)

Ok, the unsawn material (or actually, the remainder of the now-sawn board and the unsawn board side by side on a trestle) 






Needless to say handling them on my own was a real sod... I should have recruited an assistant, my back told me as much when I woke up the next morning.


I planed a little bit of the sawn board to get a look at the timber properly (thus discovering that all of my woodies have swollen too much to adjust the iron, so they're currently on cork mats on the dining table, I hope a few days of warmth will shrink the wedges a little.) It looks rather nice, though I'm starting to question my initial identification as Cedar... It may well be a particularly reddish section of Douglas Fir, the grain is somewhat irregular and the spacing of the annular rings varies, showing sections consistent with both varieties of timber; I'll have to plane the end smooth(ish) and take a look with the hand-lens*







And this is all the remaining timber stickered up on the trestles;






Believe it or not the whole lot was just £20; To get it at that price, I merely had to hand sort through 9 full packs in a clearing in the middle of forest until I had what I wanted and carry it back to the car. Well worth the physical effort for a bargain and a complementary cuppa!

*Identifying timber, other than redwood, whitewood and the more frequently encountered hardwoods, is not my strong-point... and I've rarely handled either of these species before. If it's obvious to you please put me out of my misery!  .


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## bobscarle (14 Mar 2013)

That timber looks really good, nice grain pattern on the big piece on the left. I could do with getting a bargain like that. Does the £20 give you enough wood to complete the project? I assume that the piece of slate will fit in the rectangle shown on the top?


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## Jelly (14 Mar 2013)

bobscarle":u7fo0t9e said:


> That timber looks really good, nice grain pattern on the big piece on the left. I could do with getting a bargain like that. Does the £20 give you enough wood to complete the project? I assume that the piece of slate will fit in the rectangle shown on the top?



That £20 has given me a little more of the frame material than I'll need, I need to see about having the thinner plank resawn by a local joinery firm for the panels, if they can get 2*11mm out of the 25mm I'm in business, if not, I may need to get a second piece and end up with 8m of 8-9ish mm material spare. I was taken with the timber as it's both good quality and locally grown! My only concern is that it's been seasoned and stored exposed so has a relatively high MC, but with any luck it shouldn't experience too much movement.

The rebate is indeed for the slate cutting surface.

I hope to get some proper WIP pics up as soon as everything has dried out enough to get started in earnest.


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## Jelly (19 Mar 2013)

Just been to see my friend tonight, the 1"*12" boards for the table top have cupped quite badly, however, the side which was stored open to the elements is still quite damp, I'm rather hoping that once the moisture equalises on both sides of the boards the amount of cupping will decrease somewhat.

If not I'll rip them in half at a slight bevel, flip one half and glue them back up... it's not an ideal solution but it rather decreases the amount of material lost in bringing the surface of the boards to flat.

The frame material is thankfully drying uniformly and I should be in a position to start in earnest next week!


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## Modernist (19 Mar 2013)

If that is DF with the red tinge it will be hard. I am very concerned that you are expecting 2" stock to season in a few weeks to a point where it can be used for indoor furniture. Unless your friend lives in an unheated barn then you are going to get a lot of movement.

Surely it is going to need a year or two indoors if it is not to be kilned?


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## Jelly (19 Mar 2013)

It's already been seasoned for (the seller reckons) 9 years, but the surface fibers (especially on one of the two sides) were saturated from being stored in the elements, when I initially cut it, you could see a layer of moist fibres a couple of mm deep above otherwise dry material, this is what I believe is causing it to cup...

I'm thinking that the boards for the top will need to wait at least another 3 weeks before I start on them, but the frame material was from the middle of a pack, and wasn't wet, so pending an oven test (I deliberately left a little extra material on the end of a couple of pieces so I could take a sample to do a loss in mass determination of MC) should be good to go soon.


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## Modernist (19 Mar 2013)

Nevertheless I would proceed with caution if I were you.


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## Jelly (20 Mar 2013)

I rearranged the ventilation for the boards to gve the wet faces the greatest airflow, and it has reduced the severity of the cupping from ⅜" to a little over a sixteenth, hopefully with another week they'll come back almost flat.


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## LJM (21 Mar 2013)

Nice timber... Though isn't a Shaker drinks cabinet and oxymoron??


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## barkwindjammer (21 Mar 2013)

LJM":2qal2e9v said:


> Nice timber... Though isn't a Shaker drinks cabinet and oxymoron??



I agree, best make that opening for the slate top the exact same size as a router plate


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## Jelly (2 Apr 2013)

Right, I've started in earnest, but no photo's today.

Planed all the framework to 38mm and the Top to 18mm; The mortice and tenon joints for the framework are marked up and the top is on a flat piece of MDF in clamps gluing up.

Once I've got the top glued I'll take a couple of light passes with the coffin smoother to remove a few spots with marks from the P/T (the slow feed speed isn't slow enough to get glass-smooth results on resinous spots in the timber) and that can go to one side in my office/guest bedroom.

I'll chop the mortices in the legs and cut the tenons for the rails and put those to one side too.

Next step (hopefully tomorrow) is to pop over to a local joinery firm and have some of the 50mm material cut on their wide band resaw (ideally I want to get one 2M board cut into two 380*24mm boards and the other 2.4M board cut into five 335*8MM boards). That can then sit in my friends house to acclimate whilst I go home for to see my family just after easter.

Once I know the finished sizes of the boards (given that there's likely to be a ±1mm tolerence resawing) I can cut the grooves for the side paneling with the wide grooving plane and mark out the birdsmouth joints in the legs for the for the shelves & the draw-support and in the front and rear rails for the two panels which form the central cupboard for the fridge, those two panels will be marked with stopped housings for the other side of the shelves.

I'll try to get pics tomorrow once the joints are cut.


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## Jelly (2 Apr 2013)

The small firm couldn't fit me in, but i managed to bend the ear of a bloke at a planing mill 20 mins away, who's progammed me in next week between big jobs.

Got all the L-shaped mortices chopped, using my _Shanks's pattern solid chisel morticer_*

They'll need a little more tidying durig the fitting of the joints, and a pass or two with the plane to take the layout marks off, but considering how concerned I was about splitting, they've turned out marvelously.





















*AKA a big chisel and some elbow grease.


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## Jelly (13 Apr 2013)

Got the top glued up and the dovetails for the draw cut. Taking the timber in to havethe panels resawn on monday, and if my hangover permits I'll be cutting the shelves and gluing up the cupboard sides out tomorrow.





The key is held there for scale, it was a bit of a fiddly job.















Thats all the major components cut, and ready for dry fitting and final finishing. Just doors, and internal carcase work to prepare.


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## No skills (16 Apr 2013)

Good progress so far, I like the way you say 'just' doors and carcase to go  


Ps is you signature quote from kelly's heros? (oddball)


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## riclepp (17 Apr 2013)

No skills":u3lxp0cf said:


> Good progress so far, I like the way you say 'just' doors and carcase to go
> 
> 
> Ps is you signature quote from kelly's heros? (oddball)



Trying not to hijack, but where the feek is little poland in essex????


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## Jelly (17 Apr 2013)

No skills":10f7psjf said:


> Good progress so far, I like the way you say 'just' doors and carcase to go



Hahahaha, the real issue is finding time to go get the thin paneling material sawn!

I would hope to be able to have both the doors done in two or three of hours of hard work... 
The carcass is a bit more awkward as it's going to require an awful lot of glueing to turn 10" wide boards into 24" wide panels, I'm thinking it might be an idea to break out my router and cut matched rebates into each set of boards for alignment; I could probably use the RAS in rip configuration to cut tongues to suit one of my grooving planes... But it would be a lot fiddlier for the same result (must get some tonguing planes that match the grooving planes!).

Well that and finishing, I've been experimenting with a traditional varnish based on linseed oil and rosin... I've been testing it on an offcut, and trying a variety of complex metal salts and some oil-soluble urethane resin as adjuvants to the traditional mix; the results are actually pretty promising so far, but it's still 2-3 days to dry each coat*... 

*I want to have a play with some of initiators used for commercial bio-polymers which proceed along similar reaction pathways as the linseed drying reaction, but I no longer share an office/lab space with that research group to ask if I can just have a little vial.

Oh, and yes, that is from Oddball... It's a catch all piece of advice for dealing with the stresses and strains of using the internet; much like "Don't Panic" can be lifted from the Trilogy of Five as an important day-to-day maxim.


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## No skills (17 Apr 2013)

I do belive those blessed with large good quality bandsaws are lucky folk, re-saw by hand is a game for the young and enthusiastic. Good luck with getting the panels cut, and yes you lost me with the finishing.. 


riclepp

Little Poland seems to exist in the thurrock/west thurrock/grays area. Cant comment much beyond that as I dont get much further on an average day.


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## Jelly (17 Apr 2013)

No skills":od3kwd37 said:


> I do belive those blessed with large good quality bandsaws are lucky folk, re-saw by hand is a game for the young and enthusiastic. Good luck with getting the panels cut, and yes you lost me with the finishing..



Too Right! I'm young and enthusiastic, but I'm not resawing 10" timbers for 16 linear meters... that's a job for two men and a framesaw (something I'm in the process of building and most likely will be for some time to come).

I have located a company who will re-saw it for me (though they charge £60 p/h, so I'm hoping that they don't mess about and it only takes the 10-15 mins or so I'd expect it to take on a band re-saw.) I just haven't had the time to saw it to a uniform width and sensible lengths (10mm * 250mm * 4.4m boards would not travel well by roofrack) and take it in to them.

I chose the finishing technique mainly because it's simple, cheap and resistant to the effects of spilled high-proof alcohol... I didn't really think about the convenience having someone else make the varnish though.


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## Jelly (20 Apr 2013)

Got the components for the interior carcass cut to size and planed... Next step is cutting the housings and then cutting matching notches in the framework them with notches. I'm tempted to do the housings on the RAS with a series of stops on the fence, so it's repeatable and quick, but It's probably easier to cut them with a carcass saw, chisel and router plane, by the time I've faffed about getting the saw set up and working out how far I can bring the blade across when cutting a stopped housing.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I may have made an error when transferring marks to the shelves, leaving them just a little shorter than ideal. I'm going to check tomorrow, but if I have, then I'll have to put blocks or battens underneath where they meet the outside of the cabinet for increased security.

Final "structural" pieces need doing now, which is the bearers which form the bottom of the cupboard to provide adequate support for the fridge, whilst leaving it as open as possible for ventilation.

I've realized that I'm going to have to do nearly all of the glue up in one go, which is going to be fun! The only plus side is that once its all seated, I can simply tension some straps round it to pull the joints together, obviating the need to use dozens of clamps.


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## Jelly (24 Apr 2013)

I had Huws Grey in Llangefni resaw the paneling for me, took about ten mins, then the best part of an hour with the P/T back here to get it nice and square. cutting the rebates tomorrow and I should be laughing!

Which brings me to the less pleasant realization, that once this project is done, I'm going to have to disassemble and pack up the saw-bench, pack all the hand tools back into boxes and start preparing to move back across to yorkshire, which will most likely involve placing the benches, RAS, P/T, & toolboards, into a storage unit (along with a complete kitchen's worth of white goods, and a spare gas cooker).


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## No skills (24 Apr 2013)

Sounds less than a pleasent experiance, if your storing in a shipping container long term get some of the anti condensation strips to hang up and cover everything with sheets.

Cant you just delay the project? :wink:


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## Jelly (24 Apr 2013)

Fitted all the joints and cut the rebates, I snapped my 3mm router bit after 7 rebates (two passes to define the sides and then clean up the middle with a chisel bevel down) and had to switch to a wider bit, which then preceded to tear up several live knots which were partially in the rebated area where the 3mm bit would have passed through, I'm personally irritated by that kind of imperfection even though it's almost entirely hidden, but my friend who commissioned it specifically said he liked the idea of that kind of imperfection adding a slight rustic feel so thankfully no harm done.

Next time I'm faced with cutting rebates for which I lack an appropriate plane, I'll make a jig to turn a chisel into a router plane of the required width or set up the RAS; I'm not sure why so many people have a love affair with routers, for fitting kitchens or cutting hinge rebates (or letting inlays into a workpiece freehand, what mine is intended for) they do a decent job, but for joinery work they're a poor substitute for either the correct plane or a spindle moulder.






Thats one of the sides dry assembled, I left the little piece of paneling out because its such a tight fit, i think i'll flip the second to bottom one to make the heartwood and sapwood segue togther more naturally.

As to packing up, I wish that extending the time taken to complete this piece would justify maintaining my tenancy here; I really don't want to leave Snowdonia, it's just too nice a place to live! In terms of storage I was going to oil/grease all cast iron surfaces and put a couple of caravan dehumidifiers (you know the boxes full of calcium chloride desiccant) in with the equipment; my hand tools should be able to find a home indoors where it's nice and dry.


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## Jelly (26 Apr 2013)

Right, I'm slowly getting it all glued up; Turns out that not only can one never have enough clamps, but you can never have enough flat surfaces either...


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## Jelly (28 Apr 2013)

To Illustrate my point about Insufficient clamping surfaces...






Also, the sides are now glued up nice and tight, just gluing little stops to the inside to support the the shelves (hence being on the bench covered in clamps above.











As you can see from the photo's (in fact until i took them, I hadn't seen :/ ) there's a lot of stuff that's fallen off the bench and collected under it; time for a good cleanup once I've sorted this out.


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## Jelly (30 Apr 2013)

All the interior stuff is coated with linseed oil now... I'm finally cutting the door frames tomorrow morning and that will be one step away from final assembly.


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## Jelly (27 May 2013)

I've had to postpone work on this for nearly a month as I've been sitting my finals, It's been gluing up this afternoon whilst I helped move my friend across the city. I'm now really up against it time wise as there's 2 days until the machines, bench, handtools etc have to leave the workshop (along with the contents of my house other than a fold down bed and microwave (I've still got another week here after that, but I've been able to borrow a 7.5t truck to move with, but only on that Wednesday, which my father has kindly booked off so that he can drive it [He's kept his Class C+E licence up to date]).

So, this is the glue up from the top:





And from the back:





(The sepia effect was the best way of dealing with the shadows in the photos, the lighting in there is awful for trying to get a decent picture).
I've had to put both side-panels on and only glue the right one, so that it would clamp up square, and will then be fitting the left-hand shelves, rear panel and the left side panel as stage 2 of the glue up this evening.

Here's one of the doors, which have been sat in pieces until yesterday...




They're very slightly different, in that normally the stiles have the mortise/female bridle and the rails have the tenon, however I was round at a friend's house and they'd just had a new kitchen done in solid wood, with the same opposite arrangement and I quite liked it so gave it a go.


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## No skills (27 May 2013)

Good progress, best of luck with everything you have going on!


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## Jacob (27 May 2013)

Jelly":l8ktgyks said:


> They're very slightly different, in that normally the stiles have the mortise/female bridle and the rails have the tenon, ......


That's a St Jim detail. The bridle is also Jim's and never used normally except in very low grade work. :roll: Shakers would have hated it!
Inset stone - cheaper (and more interesting) to go out and find a free one (you see them on walls all over the place) and then adjust the design to fit. Visit St Davids cathedral for table with inset stone. Why look further afield when you have the rich vernacular of Welsh furniture? Sacrilege!
Hows the shrinkage going?
Glad you like Snowdonia! Wales is Britain's best kept secret IMHO. I lived there for 5 years and would still be there had it not been for circumstances. Mid Wales that was.


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## Jelly (28 May 2013)

Jacob":33vd0nfs said:


> Jelly":33vd0nfs said:
> 
> 
> > They're very slightly different, in that normally the stiles have the mortise/female bridle and the rails have the tenon, ......
> ...


That detail on the doors is oddly appropriate then, as the second stage of the glue up went horribly wrong (I needed another pair of hands and couldn't get hold of anyone to come help) the whole thing began to wrack as it was clamped up and I'm concerned I may have damaged some of the tenons... Until I get it unclamped tomorrow, I'm assuming that it _is_ now very low grade... shouldn't have rushed it. In hindsight the composite of carcase and frame construction was always going to be a more challenging proposition to assemble by myself than straight one or the other. I'm afraid the shakers would have abhorred it anyway, as it's far from necessary and only arguably useful.



> Inset stone - cheaper (and more interesting) to go out and find a free one (you see them on walls all over the place) and then adjust the design to fit. Visit St Davids cathedral for table with inset stone. Why look further afield when you have the rich vernacular of Welsh furniture? Sacrilege!


The stone was something that was specified by my friend... I don't really understand* why he requested it (and so specifically too), the merchant i spoke to is based at the quarry in Blaenau Festiniog, though I may see if i can get anything from the Pehnryn quarry just up the river from me (as much for convenience as being local)
In terms of furniture, I can appreciate your sentiments, there's a pub in Llanberis (The Heights), which is rammed with an eclectic assortment of surprisingly well preserved old welsh furniture, a veritable goldmine of inspiration. 



> Hows the shrinkage going?


Once it had acclimatised, not an issue... some of the thinner stock was through and through sawn sapwood which cupped rather more than I'd have liked, but nothing too awful really.



> Glad you like Snowdonia! Wales is Britain's best kept secret IMHO. I lived there for 5 years and would still be there had it not been for circumstances. Mid Wales that was.


Looking back 7 years to when I chose to come here, the rugged beauty of the mountains won out over "the city of the gleaming spires" in about 30 seconds flat... took a bit longer to explain turning down that particular opportunity to my parents! I'm gutted at having to leave, but I'm unlikely to end up finding a decent job here and there's no point throwing what little money I have left to the wall on rent just for the sake of being here, when I can move back to my parents house** whilst I'm seeking gainful employment.
I've never taken the time to fully appreciate mid-wales, it always seems pretty but ultimately empty when I pass through on the A470.

*Supposedly it's for chopping fruit for cocktails, only the person requesting it, is more of a lager drinker, who I've never known to drink a cocktail in all the time we've been friends

**Wales is very much home in my mind, so whilst conventionally I'd be said to be "moving back home", it feels like the exact opposite


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