Pekka Huhta
Established Member
I have built a small toilet below the stairs, and thought I could share the WIP photos of a small bookshelf/cabinet I built there. Earlier I posted some photos about the parquet I built to the toiet.
my-first-try-on-parquet-flooring-t49326.html
I wrote the story originally in Finnish and was very lazy on the translation, so please feel free to ask if I have forgotten to explain something.
I had made dozens of CAD drawings when I designed the cabinet, but fortunately my CAD version changed and for some reason I could not get the drawings opened any more. So the 1:1 drawing below was the only drawing I had to uild the shelf, rest of it was just made by eye.
I started from two avout 70 cm wide 50 mm oak planks. I re-sawed and planed them and then took them home. It took me two days to match the boards for each use: bookmatched pairs for doors etc. Only after I had chosen these I returned to the workshop and planed the boards to right thickness.
It all began by dovetailing the frame together. It had been ages since I last made a decent dovetail, so I had to practice first.
The shelves are just dadoed in the frame. On the frame it was easy to plane the dado all the way through, but the dados on the divider between bookshelf and cabinet had to be stopped on one end.
The joint between the vertical divider and the lowest shelf was a bit more challenging.
Next I glued the doors from just two bookmatched boards for each door. I thought of adding some horizontal supports behind the door, but then just added a tongue-and-groove joint in the middle, as the boards are just perfectly quartersawn stuff and it's unlikely that they would twist.
The facade of the cabinet was fixed with "loose tongues", so that I planed a groove both to the frame and the back of the (wassitsname, the "facade") and used a batten as the loose tongue.
Finally was time for the final assembly of the frame
Secret behind the odd holes on the pocture above was that I wanted some sort of a contrast to the oak cabinet. Just forged iron nails would have been a bit too rustic, so I decorated the joints with oak pegs, stained black with vinegar+iron stain.
When the frame was ready, it was time to build the back wall to the cabinet. I would usually settle for birch plywood, but with this piece I definitely had to have something nicer. I had 12 mm thick pine boards from my boatbuilding years. I sawed the "fat" out from the edges, planed tongues and grooves on the edges, added a small V in the joints to hide any signs of movement and then pegged the boards to the frame with thin wooden egs. These were used so that the boards would not split, pegs allow more movement than naills.
Then it was time for the small cabinet door. Pretty straightforward, only problem was making the groove for the glass door in the curved surface.
As you can see, the parts for the door were oversized and cut to length only after assembly.
To be continued...
Pekka
my-first-try-on-parquet-flooring-t49326.html
I wrote the story originally in Finnish and was very lazy on the translation, so please feel free to ask if I have forgotten to explain something.
I had made dozens of CAD drawings when I designed the cabinet, but fortunately my CAD version changed and for some reason I could not get the drawings opened any more. So the 1:1 drawing below was the only drawing I had to uild the shelf, rest of it was just made by eye.
I started from two avout 70 cm wide 50 mm oak planks. I re-sawed and planed them and then took them home. It took me two days to match the boards for each use: bookmatched pairs for doors etc. Only after I had chosen these I returned to the workshop and planed the boards to right thickness.
It all began by dovetailing the frame together. It had been ages since I last made a decent dovetail, so I had to practice first.
The shelves are just dadoed in the frame. On the frame it was easy to plane the dado all the way through, but the dados on the divider between bookshelf and cabinet had to be stopped on one end.
The joint between the vertical divider and the lowest shelf was a bit more challenging.
Next I glued the doors from just two bookmatched boards for each door. I thought of adding some horizontal supports behind the door, but then just added a tongue-and-groove joint in the middle, as the boards are just perfectly quartersawn stuff and it's unlikely that they would twist.
The facade of the cabinet was fixed with "loose tongues", so that I planed a groove both to the frame and the back of the (wassitsname, the "facade") and used a batten as the loose tongue.
Finally was time for the final assembly of the frame
Secret behind the odd holes on the pocture above was that I wanted some sort of a contrast to the oak cabinet. Just forged iron nails would have been a bit too rustic, so I decorated the joints with oak pegs, stained black with vinegar+iron stain.
When the frame was ready, it was time to build the back wall to the cabinet. I would usually settle for birch plywood, but with this piece I definitely had to have something nicer. I had 12 mm thick pine boards from my boatbuilding years. I sawed the "fat" out from the edges, planed tongues and grooves on the edges, added a small V in the joints to hide any signs of movement and then pegged the boards to the frame with thin wooden egs. These were used so that the boards would not split, pegs allow more movement than naills.
Then it was time for the small cabinet door. Pretty straightforward, only problem was making the groove for the glass door in the curved surface.
As you can see, the parts for the door were oversized and cut to length only after assembly.
To be continued...
Pekka
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