Display Cubby - WIP to completion

[rafezetter]

I was asked to make a display cubby, the ones with lots of spaces for various knick-knacks, but was otherwise given free range on the design.

I have a lot of slats of reclaimed cedar that used to be cladding on some dormer windows, so decided that would be a good use for some of it - I removed the paint with a heatgun then rough sanded it to get the reminder off (sorry no pics of that) - I was amazed at how little rot it had, only the T&G had any real signs of it. Once roughly cleaned I then measured and marked approx sections I'd need:

To thickness them all to the same dimensions I hotglued them to a makeshift sled and ran each batch through to 11mm, going down from 15mm in increments, then once all of them had been taken to 11mm, I ran each lot again to 10mm without moving the blade height, so they were all pretty much identical - the pine sections are to prevent thicknesser snipe - I should have left the lengths uncut and ran them whole, learned for next time :

I then collected all the bits and edge jointed them all at once, I used more pine blocks and screwed on a pine support rail (on the left) also jointed to 90deg to the base and sides to make sure they came out at 90 deg too, the finish was surprisingly good:

Once I'd cut the divider pieces to the lengths I needed on a friends ultra accurate and square mitre saw (no pics sorry), I then started the glueup. I did the bottom side first and used the actual main slats as the spacers:

Then glued up the top the same way:

Now I had the top and bottom with slats done, I used that to mark the side height accurately:

Now to the joints..... *deep breath*... My first ever attempt at box joints, many will say it's pretty stupid to not even make a few practise runs, and they are right, but I thought if I was slow and methodical I'd get where I wanted to be, and I was anxious to crack on... so I marked up:

Cut, then marked the second part:

And the result? Better than I had hoped; there is a bit of slop still, but if you look at the bottom shoulder you can see that they don't meet, a bit more cleanup and they went together as good as I could hope for:

3 more like that and I dry fit the frame using v handy 90deg clamps:

ran out of attachments....

 

[marcros]

could we see another picture of that clamp?

 

[rafezetter]

Continued...

Another dry fit pic:

That all sorted, joints fettled best as I could it was time for glueup, I used resintite glue to give me lots of open time and I added some dye to it to darken the colour, acrylic paint:

Once dry I took the clamps off and had a look... it was only then I noticed a disaster! - I had made the box joints with very rough measurements so each corner was slightly different, but by absolute chance the joints top and bottom of one side were so close that I was able to put it into position back to front; so it was rear side showing and not notice anything (even though it was marked... #-o ). The problem was I had done the glueup of the dividers with the front as a reference and there were dividers now sitting slightly proud at the front - which I had intended to plane off flush - no problem I thought, but with the rear of one side now frontmost, the proud at the front became a gap at the back (now front) - resizing the pic has lost most of the detail but the gaps is a couple of mm's:

Ok nothing to be done, so onwards! I now used the frame to fettle the slats so they were a tight fit, with the grain running widthways I had little to worry about leaving space for expansion:

I did the same for the other direction then started on the halflap joints. I was getting into the swing of things now so forgot to take pics until I came to do themarking for the horizontal slats:

The very sharp eyed of you might notice something here - unfortunately, I didn't until later:

"Oh dear"... is the politest I can repeat here... Can't see it? A closer look:

It was at that point; on top of having to fix 3 slats that broke during dry fit all in the same place, here's one of them:

That I didn't quite lose the plot but did get quite disheartened and just wanted to get it done.

To fix that v stupid joint alignment pinapple kumquat up, I worked out it was only the very middle one that was the issue. So I cut the 2 offending vertical slats at the middle joints very carefully with a very fine (plastic modellers) saw I have with no set, which left a less than 1mm thick kerf to deal with. I then glued in the top 1/3rd coming in from the back and the bottom 1/3rd coming in from the front. Once they were set I could slip in the middle bit and glue that in too - I used epoxy resin glue mixed with very fine dust from the wood to colour it a bit. I had previously had no intention of gluing anything in, but with the cuts I had no choice, time will tell if that was a fatal error or not.

cont...

 

[rafezetter]

Darn it.... site made me log back in and lose all that I had written for the conclusion.... NOT HAPPY!!!

SO, with those various issues behind me I put 2 of the faceframe parts on and gave it a sealcoat of dilute poly:

After that had become touch dry I then added added the other 2 parts of the face frame - I did it this way as it was much simpler to add the face frame sections then trim them flush with a router than cut to size and fiddle. They are fitted with more coloured epoxy and also a couple of bamboo nails both partly to help hold inplace while the glue goes off and to co-ordinate with the pins I used in the box joints Greene & Greene style. Once the glue was dry, I trimmed with router flush bit as mentioned then gave the whole thing another light coat of dilute poly. You can see I also added 4 extra dividers around the centre for a bit of extra detail and to have a place for smaller items :

On this one you can see the gods and the grain were not in my favor where the router trimming gave me some horrible tear out, which I did my best to sand out giving the whole faceframe edge a minor bevel; the router bit also managed to grab the box joint too and pull some of that out:

However this sort of played to my advantage because the look wanted was "shabby chic" so I gave the whole thing a coat of dilute white oil paint then ragged it all off, so some stayed in the nooks and crannies, as though it had once been painted white then stripped:

With all that done, I gave the whole thing a light sand with 000 wire wool then several coats of beeswax.

All in all I'm pleased with the result, there's a few things I would change like how I assembled the slats, and possibly a bit of contrasting stringing where the face frame and body meet, but the new owner is very happy with it, and I think it genuinely looks like an old but functional display cubby.

Here's also a picture of that clamp as requested, I bought 8 of them ages ago and they are definitely very helpful, and simpler than using a wood former and clamps:

 

[n0legs]

I like it Rafe, good work mate =D>

 

[rafezetter]

I've noticed it's had a lot of views, but only 1 reply - I'm not looking for praise, I'm sure some of you must have winced at my sloppy technique going by the standard of things I see here all the time; but I would genuinely like to hear peoples thoughts on this; was the W.I.P too long? Overly detailed? Can you give advice on construction, how to avoid that tear out with the router, anything you might think of you would have done differently, even if it seems obvious, I would appreciate.

 

[Racers]

Some fine problem recoverys there, some people wouldn't admit there mistakes.

You can avoid router tear out but using a plane :wink:

Pete

 

[memzey]

I thinks it's a great project. Well done on overcoming the difficulties you faced and thanks for sharing them rather than covering them up. Like you I am amazed at the quality of some people's work on this board and find it heartening to see others dealing with the kinds of quandaries I place before myself every time I pick up a piece of wood!!

 

[custard]

I've noticed it's had a lot of views, but only 1 reply - I'm not looking for praise, I'm sure some of you must have winced at my sloppy technique going by the standard of things I see here all the time; but I would genuinely like to hear peoples thoughts on this; was the W.I.P too long? Overly detailed? Can you give advice on construction, how to avoid that tear out with the router, anything you might think of you would have done differently, even if it seems obvious, I would appreciate.

What would I have done differently?

All the fundamentals that got beaten into me during an exacting apprenticeship in cabinet making, like drawing up a decent rod or plan, careful measurement, marking all the components so you know how they'll be assembled, dry glue ups, checking processes on off-cuts and scrap before performing the job on the final workpiece, etc, etc.

Most importantly of all I wouldn't rush to hit some non existent deadline or get on to the next stage, I'd just plod on doing the very best work i'm capable off until the job was finished, and that'll take as long as it takes.

Craftsmanship in wood is an occupation where the tortoise beats the hare every single time!

 

[rafezetter]

What would I have done differently?

All the fundamentals that got beaten into me during an exacting apprenticeship in cabinet making, like drawing up a decent rod or plan, careful measurement, marking all the components so you know how they'll be assembled, dry glue ups, checking processes on off-cuts and scrap before performing the job on the final workpiece, etc, etc.

Most importantly of all I wouldn't rush to hit some non existent deadline or get on to the next stage, I'd just plod on doing the very best work i'm capable off until the job was finished, and that'll take as long as it takes.

Craftsmanship in wood is an occupation where the tortoise beats the hare every single time!

Hehe well that's probably the politest way I've been told I bodged it, but I can't argue there. I did do some of those things, dry glue up and marking components (I just need to follow my own directions better!). I was sort of working to measurements, just needed a little give 'n' take a mm or two here and there. There was a birthday deadline however which I just managed to slide under by a day. I was also limited to not doing test pieces because I only cleaned up enough wood from the rough state it was in to do the item. Next time I'll do more for either test bits or emergencies.

I might very well go ahead and make a second one to prove I can do it properly! (sort of). It would be nice to have the time, shop and availability of material to be able to make a prototype like Norm Abram does but I'm pretty restricted to my WW activities and only have the wood my mate Dave brings home.