I left you all in the lurch about fitting the door and making the handles.
You won't be surprised to know that I spent quite a while thinking about the arrangement for the door. I want it to slide on brass pins in the plastic lined slots on either side. These pins also work as a hinge, so the door can pivot down. They need to be in the right position. Also, the top edge needs to be rounded enough to clear the top, without making an ugly gap.
Time for an experiment with a bit of scrap.
This seemed to work ok, so I marked out and drilled the real thing.
It's easier to drill vertical holes if the wood is horizontal.
I chose a modern drill, bit and depth stop
then enlarged the holes to 3/16" inch with a nice new imperial sized bit. (Thanks Andy!)
To round off the top edge, I couldn't resist using this hollow plane.
It may look quite ordinary, but the flat chamfers and the maker's mark tell a different story.
It's by John Harris, earliest of the Bath planemakers, and probably dates back to the 1770s. I do rather like the idea of using a tool which could be 250 years old but still does the job it was made for. It's probably the oldest tool I have.
The fitting was a success. After trimming the bottom edge, it looked like this.
To support the door when open, I fitted two little wheels. They were cut off the stump of African blackwood left behind when I turned the drawer knob for my little walnut table - I find it hard to chuck out even tiny scraps of exotic woods when they can come in useful.
I then turned to the back panels. These just needed some holes to be drilled so they could be screwed into the rebate, with a tongue and groove holding them at the top.
I don't like using slender drill bits in a big heavy drill. So I used a little brass Archimedean drill. It's the sort of thing that fretworkers used to use to make little holes to thread sawblades through. For a job like this it has the advantage that it's easy to drill at an angle, so the screws dive down into the base properly.
This was to make pilot holes for the threaded part of the screws. To make clearance holes for the shanks, I used a much more conventional hand drill.
And then I countersunk for the screw heads. I really do prefer the wooden brace for this job and keep it ready with a countersink in it.
After that, there was no escaping it, I needed to decide on the handle. I came down in favour of something smaller, thinner and curved. (Your comments really did help on this.) A bit of marking out
Then I planed the grooves with a small round. Bog oak is really weird stuff to work on something like this - the shavings looked a lot like black polythene.
I cleaned up the groove with a round file, then planed the curves and shaped them with abrasive paper.
To sand the ends square I turned my bench hook over and used it as a sort of sanding shooting board.
Then I just needed some accurately placed screw holes
Nearly done!
A quick sanding was followed by finishing. I used Osmo Poly-X. One coat on the inside, two coats on the outside.
I'd made some little feet from the offcut of bog oak not used for the handle.
And here's a carefully posed photo of the last screw having its head carefully clocked - I didn't want complaints about that sort of thing!
And suddenly there it was, finished!
I'll give it a week or so for the finish to cure completely before it goes into use, but here is the old one - very rusty on the inside.
and the new one
I know it's taken a long time and I have doubtless agonised much more over the details than other people would have done, but this is what I like doing. Each project is an exploration of the possibilities and a chance to re-learn techniques I have forgotten or discover new ones. Thanks for coming along for the journey.
