# Competition part 2 entry. WIP with pics.



## mr (15 Jun 2007)

Having just re read the entry guidelines to make sure that my part 2 doesn't have to match my part 1 I just noticed that the guidelines say we can make any number of entries so I may have another go at something else as well. Perhaps my Part 1 design who knows - anyway... Apologies in advance for the poor quality of some of the pics which were taken on a mobile phone when I had forgotten to take the proper camera with me. 

The design is for a cabinet on legs with fused and bonded glass panel doors. The glass having its own design and will come later, first I have to get the bits and pieces of the cabinet together. It all started life as a pile of ash I brought home from the last "open day" held at Yandles. Some of you may remember me trying to stuff it all into the back of the car.

The ash was mostly an inch thick and planked about 9 to 10 inches wide. First job was to cut the panel pieces and legs to rough size. Then, in time honoured tradition one side made flat, followed by one edge 







Panels were flipped over and then thicknessed from roughly an inch down to 20mm (apologies for the mixed measures).






This was done with a wee wooden scrub with a narrow but aggressive blade. It leaves quite a scalloped texture as with most scrubs as you can see here 






I didn't have enough of the wide boards to get four sides of the cabinet out so the base is two boards edge laminated. 






Boards were sized,






shot square and trimmed to final dimension.






The low angle jack gives an incredible level of finish on the shooting board. Imagine what it would be like if I could sharpen it properly  Those tracks are indicative of a "not totally sharp" or otherwise imperfectly prepped blade I think.






Jointed (excuse my ugly mug creeping into shot). 






Leaving quite a nice finish I thought. 






Smoothed and in most cases scraped






While all this was going on and in between times the pieces were stored in stick on the rack. 







Then the legs. Four of them cut to rough length and jointed and smoothed as with the cabinet panels. I found the legs harder to plane than the boards. I found the tendency was that any error that crept in was chased around the four faces. But eventually I got four flat surfaces at right angles to each other. Legs were marked with a triangle and numbered, hopefully I wont stick mortises in the wrong place. 






Speaking of mortises 






There are eight to do in the legs, two each. chopped out with an LN mortise chisel. Stretchers and rails were cut and tenons formed on the ends. Sorry no pics of the tenons, they were chewed out of the wood with a nasty B&Q back saw and then planed into shape with a shoulder plane. 

Et voila - the base. I just need to trim the legs to length and tidy up the legs a bit. 






Next step rebate at the back for the back panel to fit into. I've only done the two side pieces of the cabinet section as yet, hoping for a big splurge over the weekend. The rebates at the side are straight through. Top and bottom boards of course have to be stopped (any advice on the stoppy bit anyone)?
The rebates were formed initially with a Record 405 which came from the bay and then tidied up with a shoulder plane. The biggest problem I had was not having some kind of holddown to keep the board flat on the bench. Because the board had to overhang the edge of the bench so avoid fouling the fence it had a tendency to flip up. I knocked up a threaded bar and offcut affair as a hold down. Ill add a better picture of that later. 






Rebates tidied up with the Phillyplane (TM)











That's as far as Ive got at the moment. More soon. 

Cheers Mike


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## DomValente (15 Jun 2007)

Looking good mr, good skills.

Dom


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## Philly (15 Jun 2007)

Wow! Go Mike!
Great to see you in action,
Philly


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## Paul Chapman (15 Jun 2007)

Looking very nice, Mike. Good to see all that hand-tool work :wink: Yes, Rob and I did wonder whether you managed to get all that wood into your car at Yandles  

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## Waka (15 Jun 2007)

Mike

Very impressive so far, if only I had time for a competition piece.


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## Chris Knight (15 Jun 2007)

Waka":8y2cn8wb said:


> Mike
> 
> Very impressive so far, if only I had time for a competition piece.



From the only Woodkateer who's retired, that's a bit rich! :lol:


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## Alf (15 Jun 2007)

Mike, great WIP pics - keep 'em coming 

Cheers, Alf


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## Waka (15 Jun 2007)

waterhead37":1j6z7wdv said:


> Waka":1j6z7wdv said:
> 
> 
> > Mike
> ...



Yeh but I'm in decorating mode :lol:


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## Evergreen (15 Jun 2007)

Mike

Excellent workmanship and the WIPs are pretty good too. I can guess just how much time it must all be taking. Well done.

Regards.


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## bobscarle (15 Jun 2007)

Great work, Mike. Love the pictures. I love to see people working with hand tools, skills I am just starting to have a go at. Lots more WIP's please.



> Top and bottom boards of course have to be stopped (any advice on the stoppy bit anyone)?



As far as the "stoppy" bit in a rebate, isn't it normal to drill holes either end with a forstner bit, then plane between them. I may be totaly wrong with that, if so please ignore it

Bob


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## Paul Chapman (15 Jun 2007)

mr":7smz6afp said:


> The biggest problem I had was not having some kind of holddown to keep the board flat on the bench. Because the board had to overhang the edge of the bench so avoid fouling the fence it had a tendency to flip up. I knocked up a threaded bar and offcut affair as a hold down. Ill add a better picture of that later.



Mike,

Jake Darvall came up with the best idea I've ever seen for dealing with this type of problem, with his "fish scaler" clamping device. Have a look here http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au ... hp?t=38354

Hope this helps.

Cheers :wink: 

Paul

PS If you scroll down Jake's thread a bit, there are some better pictures.


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## mr (15 Jun 2007)

Thanks all for your encouragement. 
So far all hand tooling, I have very few powered assistants and the ones I do have want to spend their time drinking tea and smoking fags, I have little use for them. 

As with anything hand tool based it has taken a while to get to this point. The project got underway in earnest pretty much the same time as the comp guidelines (version 1) were announced and it had been planned prior to that). The planning was pretty much all in my head as usual. I tend to visualise the plan and the steps required to get to the end, there is very little on paper and in fact I don't think I have measurements written down anywhere, though the doors have been drawn to scale for the purposes of cutting the glass. As a result it might all end up a complete dogs dinner  I can see the bits I have left to do and hope to make inroads this weekend in which case more pics will be forthcoming. 
Paul thanks for the link to Jake Davalls Fish Scaler I haven't seen that before so I'll have a look through there, my initial reaction was one of "ooer metal work" but I could be wrong. 
Bob the "stoppy bits" I think will be done pretty much as you say, holes drilled - I'm thinking I might chop a mortise at each end and then remove the waste between somehow. It's my job for the morning. Hopefully a pictorial update tomorrow evening. Thanks again all for the feedback and encouragement. 
Cheers Mike


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## Paul Chapman (16 Jun 2007)

mr":7as5a79h said:


> Paul thanks for the link to Jake Davalls Fish Scaler I haven't seen that before so I'll have a look through there, my initial reaction was one of "ooer metal work" but I could be wrong.



Yes, metal work but not complicated stuff. Jake welded on a butchered G cramp but if you are not into welding you could, perhaps, use one of those fretwork cramps, cut off the end bit that you don't need, drill the other bit and fit it on with small nuts and bolts. The rest is just bending and filing out some teeth.

Good luck,

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## stewart (16 Jun 2007)

Looking really nice, Mike. Keep the pictures coming.


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## OPJ (16 Jun 2007)

Nice work, Mike. I still find it astonishing to think you can do all this work by hand only. I am a little surprised to see a pillar drill in the background though...

You mentioned that you have trouble sharpening your planes properly? Well, in that case, you do stunning work with blunt tools!

Although I'd like to one day have a go at doing something with hand tools only, I've taught myself to rely on my planer thicknesser far too much... Then again, it's not working right now - so, who knows! :wink: 

Keep it up please! And don't worry about your ugly mug - we've seen enough of that in Good Wood! :wink:


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## Paul.J (16 Jun 2007)

Nice work here too Mike.  
Great hand skills  
Paul.J.


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## mr (20 Jun 2007)

We last left our hero contemplating stopped rebates...

These were done differently from the sides because they were supposed to be stopped rebates. As it turns out they dont stop and I'm looking for a work around. The problem was that the stop broke out at one end of the base panel and then same again at the top. I could have just ploughed them out after all. 

They were marked up, chopped and then routered to destruction. 
















Note the offcut screwed to the base of the router to act as a "skate" of sorts and give the router a bit more stability. I'm not sure at the minute where I went wrong. Perhaps I didnt get the blade sharp enough, it's an awkward thing to sharpen, but I didnt really get the base of the rebate cleaned out as I would have liked and then a slip of the router and I managed to knock the stop out in anycase. As with everything it's a case of practice I guess. We'll see how I recover from this later . Then I moved on to the back. It's going to be a frame and panel arrangement. So out came the Record 405 again and soon after I had the frame grooved. 






The frame will eventually be joined with bridle joints. That's top of the list for tomorrow. Onto the panel. A suitable piece of ash was marked out 






and sawn to size and then marked for resawing.






I need more gauges I think. I have three but it's nice to set them and leave them set for the duration of a project, I've had to reuse mine a couple of times, though I try to keep offcuts of the gauged sizes to hand as quick indicators of sizes. After marking up the cut the board is clamped up firmly in the bench vice at an angle and the corners are cut.






That saw is truly unpleasant to use. This provides a guide for the re-saw to cut down though it's still a case of taking time and being careful. This saw is even more unpleasant to use, mainly because the pieces are all square section, it might be better if I take a rasp to it one day - or save up for a bandsaw, but then theres all the dust to deal with and so on. This saw is a 6 tpi bow saw blade, it cuts in both directions but has to be under huge tension to work well. My ugly mug again...






The bit sticking up is a wedge holding the kerf open behind the blade. Don't want any of that nasty kickback thing happening.  This is what I end up with






Some quite heavy marking from the sawing but nothing to frighten my jointer / jack combo. I had to add a couple of helpers to the bench to hold the boards for planing as they were too thin for my regular planing stop.






You'll notice how their cunning design allows them to be fully adjusted to suit the thickness of the workpiece.  So... bookmatched (after a fashion)






matchplaned 






and glued up. 






Next installment fitting the rear frame and back together and then I can start on the doors. The end is in sight. I'll report back soon. 

Cheers Mike


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## Alf (20 Jun 2007)

mr":2rshj761 said:


> The bit sticking up is a wedge holding the kerf open behind the blade. Don't want any of that nasty kickback thing happening.


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## woodbloke (20 Jun 2007)

Mike - not wishing to get into the egg sucking area, it can be a help when doing a stopped rebate (like wot the one you're doing) to _deeply_ cut the edge of the board with a cutting gauge, this helps to prevent tear out when you get close to the line with the router. Doing it this way with a hand held router is quite tricky, the job becomes much easier with a 'leccy machine tho' you would still need to score the edge. Hope of some help - Rob


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## mr (20 Jun 2007)

Thanks Rob I marked out the rebate with pencil which was clearly part of my mistake. One of these days Ill get round to making a marking knife and then there'll be no excuses. Knowing that the leccy router was the easiest way to achieve a stopped rebate and knowing that people would look at me funny if I continue building this with hand tools only, I did actually try a leccy router. I ended up having to make a new top panel as I ended up routing my rebate half accross the panel as well as along the edge. I knew there was a reason the thing rarely comes out of its box.  I may have been better off putting the carcass together and trying to do all four sides at once as I suspect you did with the back of your Elm cabinet - next time perhaps... 

Cheers Mike


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## Paul Chapman (20 Jun 2007)

mr":ujr3wql7 said:


> I need more gauges I think. I have three but it's nice to set them and leave them set for the duration of a project, I've had to reuse mine a couple of times,



Mike,

Have you tried making your own? Don't know whether you saw these pictures which I posted previously, but they are of a gauge I made based on some Rob (Woodbloke) made. In fact Rob let me have some of the wood already laminated.

















The Body of the gauge is laminated because chopping the hole for the stem and wedge would be quite difficult. The pin is a masonry nail ground to whatever shape you need. The saddle and wedge arrangement works really well - locks solidly but releases easily.

They are quickly made from off-cuts so cost nothing and work really well.

The project is looking really good.

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## mr (20 Jun 2007)

Hi Paul 
I did make the panel gauge in one of the earlier pics but I haven't made any marking gauges - it's on my list (with a million other things). I saw your post a while back and saw Robs in the flesh at Yandles. One of the problems I had with the panel gauge was that I chopped the mortise out of the block which although usable was a bit of a mess so I think laminating is definitely the way to go. As I say I have three but I think I need at least another three judging by the number of times I'm resetting the ones Ive got. 
Cheers Mike


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## DomValente (20 Jun 2007)

Very nice Mike.
Hand skills demonstrated in the true sense.

Dom


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## woodbloke (20 Jun 2007)

mr":1k2l8z0d said:


> Hi Paul
> I did make the panel gauge in one of the earlier pics but I haven't made any marking gauges - it's on my list (with a million other things). I saw your post a while back and saw Robs in the flesh at Yandles. One of the problems I had with the panel gauge was that I chopped the mortise out of the block which although usable was a bit of a mess so I think laminating is definitely the way to go. As I say I have three but I think I need at least another three judging by the number of times I'm resetting the ones Ive got.
> Cheers Mike



Mike - the beauty of making these gauges is that they're quick and easy...I now have 5 marking gauges (some modified bought gauges) and a large panel gauge. Chopping the narrow mortice for the wedge is doable but _very_ hard going, laminating the whole thing makes life much simpler and I like to keep things simple :roll: - Rob


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## engineer one (21 Jun 2007)

mike now i understand i have to work up the courage to cut all my 32 mortices, and ensure i get them in the right place. :roll: 

think i will machine saw the tenons though, then plane up for the differences. :? 

paul :wink:


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## mr (21 Jun 2007)

engineer one":28jqh4hc said:


> mike now i understand i have to work up the courage to cut all my 32 mortices, and ensure i get them in the right place. :roll:
> 
> think i will machine saw the tenons though, then plane up for the differences. :?
> 
> paul :wink:



Thats a lot of mortises but then once you get going it'll take no time at all. As long as you have them in the right place  But then if they're in the wrong place it doesn't matter how you do them they're still wrong. Call me strange but I quite enjoy chopping them out. The right chisel and a bit of care and attention and the result is quite satisfying. 

Cheers Mike


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## mr (28 Jun 2007)

Some progress has been made but not as much as I would have liked. 

After gluing up the back panel I have moved on to the frame. This is to be bridle joints all round and the panel itself will float in the frame. 
The frame pieces were marked up for the bridle joints and cut out. I marked out with a scratch awl and mortise gauge and then deepened the tenon shoulder lines with a chisel. 






The saw sat nicely in the deeper cut and gave me nice neat shoulders. 






Sawing the cheeks was amusing. It all started well enough 






Does this justify a new saw? 






Back to the bench hook to cut off the waste and then I used a chisel to take out the rest of the cheek which as it had already been sawn at the shoulder came away cleanly. 

The mortise part of the joint was a little more complex. First I drilled out the innermost end of the mortise on the bench drill (which is of course powered by hamsters) and then sawed out the waste in the same way as for the tenons. The only picture I have of this is one showing that the calibration ring of the drill table is inaccurate. 

So with the frame all cut out I retrieved the panel from the clamps and gave it a final flattening with the jointer though I was pleased to see it wasn't too far off. Once it was all flat and smooth I beveled the edges slightly by eye. 






I tested to make sure the beveled edge fittend the frame with an offcut of the frame. 






The panel is lose enough to be moved in the frame by hand but there isnt enough slop for it to rattle about.

The end result was quite pleasing I thought. 






After all that the panel was slotted into the frame and the frame glued up. The finished assembly looks like this. 






Next step is to join the carcass together drop the panel in the back and move on to the doors. 

Cheers Mike


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## woodbloke (28 Jun 2007)

Mike - looking good so far. In answer to your question about the saw.....yes. I have a similar one and it's truly dreadful to use, I keep it just for rough stuff around the house now - Rob


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## Paul Chapman (28 Jun 2007)

Looking nice, Mike :wink: Is that Stanley saw one of the hardpoint ones? I had one and when it was getting blunt I bought a new one, only to find that it wasn't as sharp as my blunt one :? :? I know Stanley tools aren't what they used to be, but I thought that was taking the p**s  

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## mr (28 Jun 2007)

It is a hardpoint stanley, I think the good lady bought it for desecrating the trees in the garden with originally. I'm not sure if it's getting a bit blunt or not but its very slow to cut. Having said that it does cut to the line - doesn't wander at all if only it were a bit more aggressive and a lot more comfy in the hand. I've got a couple of donor blades from some old S&J hand saws with cracked and broken handles which I keep meaning to have a go at re handling but then the blades themselves are blunt and I haven't ever tried sharpening. It's a bit intimidating really I mean to try it out on the big Diston rip saw Ive got first. At least I can see the teeth on that though I imagine some might quake at the potential havoc I could cause trying to sharpen it. The other route is to send that nice Mr W a mail and a fistful of $ s but then I'd still have to learn to sharpen. Looks inevitable really. 
Cheers Mike


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## Paul Chapman (28 Jun 2007)

mr":3tajiqp1 said:


> It's a bit intimidating really



I know what you mean. On a plane blade there's only one edge to worry about but a saw has so many teeth :shock: :lol: During our recent MiniBash, Newt let me try a couple of old saws that he had sharpened - wow, did they cut well. He's even experimented with different angles so one starts easy but cuts slowly, the other is more difficult to start but cuts really fast. Quite impressive stuff. It's convinced me that if you make the effort and do it methodically, you can get excellent results. Now, where are those files.......  

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## engineer one (28 Jun 2007)

mike so how much allowance have you made for expansion in this frame and panel construction???

paul :wink:


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## mr (28 Jun 2007)

Paul (Engineer Paul) theres roughly 2 - 3 mm in the frame rebates on the sides (each side)for expansion, so somewhere round 5 mm total, and less at top at bottom though I'm not expecting the panel to move over it's height if you see what I mean. The panel itself is (from memory) 260 mm wide. Hopefully that will be enough - fingers crossed.

Paul C - those saw teeth, they're so small as well! 

Cheers Mike


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## engineer one (28 Jun 2007)

thanks mike, just thinking about what i am trying to make.

lets hope it doesn't explode :lol: 

paul :wink:


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