Secretaire campaign chest - now finished

[gasman]

A close shave but it is OK I think
I ended up taking about 1.2mm off the whole surface and then with a bit of card-scraping over the offending area it was all OK
That would have been an absolute nightmare to redo / patch - don't think I'll be doing much sanding of that!
Cheers
Mark

 

[jimmyhenson]

That top looks stunning, great work, i'm really enjoying this post.

 

[Baldhead]

That is one very nice top.

One question, how the **** do you cut your mitres? Mine are nowhere near as good as yours!

Baldhead

 

[gasman]

I'll take some photos later - but I made a shooting board from the LN website here http://www.lie-nielsen.com/content/documents/instructions/L-N_51_Shooting_Board_Info.pdf and then added a much bigger donkeys ear and it is absolutely great - wish I had made it years ago as it gives perfect mitres every time. It took a bit of fettling with a digital angle gauge to get the angles right but now done it is a permanent fixture on my bench

 

[gasman]

I had another day off work today so got another 6 hours done
First here's the shooting board I use with the 2 attachments

And here with the donkey's ear in place for these chunky mitres

Here is where I started the day

I had bought some end-milling small router bits and they are a real find - quite cheap too off eBay

Mounted in the router with a 1/8" mounting collet inside another 1/4" collet inside the 1/2" router collet! Not ideal but it worked great
The pencil marked are to tell me when to start and stop the router pass

So I cut inlay grooves 12mm from the edge all round of the 2 matching pieces which will form the sides, one of which is lockable to keep the cabinet secure

- the 1.6mm ebony stringing fits really well in the 1.6mm grove which I had made about 1.2mm deep. I use a 5ml syringe containing TB3 together with a big 18G blunt needle (I work in the operating theatres) - here is the first of those 2 side pieces finished

Then I did the base and the top in the same way - 12mm in all round

Finished by glueing the left hand piece in place

 

[Baldhead]

Thanks for the link for the shooting board, the ebony stringing looks really nice, enjoying this WIP.

Baldhead

 

[gasman]

I started thinking about the fall flap again this morning. I still have not got it sorted out in my head. the hinges arrived which are for a drop down table as we discussed. I am thinking of remaking the fall front without the 45 degree edges - in the Joyce reference you sent me Peter, there is what he describes as a 'rabbeted / rebated' mating surface for the flap - do you know if there is a router cutter which will cut that? I have looked on Wealden and can't see anything suitable and I am racking my brains to see how I can cut that by hand??
Got to work today :-(
More later
Cheers Mark

 

[Peter Sefton]

Hi Mark
I don't know of a specific router cutter for the joint, I would take out to the square shoulder with a router rebate cutter or on the spindle, if neither of those were to hand I would use the biscuit jointer to cut a shallow groove. The slope could be hand planed with a shoulder or rebate plane after hogging out with one of the methods above. I would do it all on the spindle moulder in two cuts first the square rebate, and then tilting the rebate block over for the slope.
If I was state side I would do it over the top of the table saw with the blade canted with a thick shaw guard for protection, but I couldn't recommend it in the UK as it would be outside the Regs.
Depending on where the centre of pivot is, you may need the cut a shallow curve in the top of the drawer rail below the flap so it doesn't foul, if I remember you sensibly did this before assembly but if you need to tweak it I would do it with a scratch stock or cabinet scraper.
Hope it goes well today Peter

 

[gasman]

Thanks Peter for the ideas... my sad face about working is that I am at proper work - not woodworking!
I will ponder some more. The shallow groove is all cut and is fine I think
Thanks again
Mark

 

[gasman]

I got a lot done today - all the dovetails for the 5 main drawers are cut and ready - plus I made a cover for the secret compartment in the base and added a rebate which it sits in. Haven't decided yet what mechanism to open it - maybe a spring loaded button at the back

I have some snaps of the dovetailing
Sorry didm;t get any photos of cutting the pins

scoring the width of the sides on the back of the front piece - thanks Adam for this I absolutely treasure it (Secret Santa 2013)

Marking out the dovetails with a scalpel - in my Moxon vice - not a lovely one like Jimi's etc but it is functional

Cutting the right side of the line!

Chopping out the waste - this is a 19mm japanese mortice chisel and it gives a serious clout!

Here it is after tidying up -

I used Racers's beautiful fishtail chisel (Secret Santa 2012) - it needed sharpening at this point as the walnut is quite hard on the edge tools

Purists look away now - I then decided - due to the fact that the back pieces of the 2 largest drawers were annoyingly several mm too short to make it full width with through dovetails - just to square the backs off and fit them into rebates in the sides - but also I will drill some contrasting dowels once it is glued up. I have done this before and it looks nice - but not the full through dovetails I was planning. Actually it saved me such a lot of time as I had cut already 28 dovetails today by hand.
I finished by planing all the faces of the drawers inside and out with a finely set LA plane set at 35 degrees which trial and error-wise works for me with this timber to give a shiny surface
Anyway here are the 5 drawers all finished and waiting for the groove for the drawer bottom to be fitted - think I am going to use some fairly plain plywood as there will be a baize lining to the drawers

Long day but it was a good weekend - total time now is at 49 hours
Mark

 

[xy mosian]

Another master class in the finer points of cabinet making. I am always delighted by the effect of a thin string line inlay. They, the inlays, lift the very good to something in a higher plain. Thank you for sharing this Mark.
xy

 

[gasman]

A little update as I got home early so have done 2 hours tonight - total now 51 hours
The drawers are ready to glue up - all the 6mm grooves etc cut for the bases on the router table and the bases cut from 6mm plywood
Here is the smallest drawer pieces - but the others are all at the same stage

And I cut the grooves and inlaid the ebony in this one drawer just to see if it looked OK. The stringing is 12mmm from the edge all round - except for the right hand end - because the locking side piece takes up 27mm of the edge of the drawer to prevent it opening without unlocking the side piece which means at the right hand end of all the drawers there will be 39mm to the start of the string inlay. Does that make sense? Anyway that's why it is lopsided. I do not think it matters that it is lopsided like this as it will look symmetrical until you unlock and open that side piece. The 2 drawer pulls will also be slightly lopsided in the same way

Detail of the string inlay

I am happy with it all now except for that blasted fall-front - but even that is looking a bit clearer in my mind and I have a plan I think.
That's all till the weekend I think!
Cheers
Mark

 

[gasman]

I got 5 hours done yesterday might and today - total I think 56 hours now
I am delighted to have solved the fall front problem. Some backslap hinges I got for a couple of quid off ebay are more than man enough and not even sure if I need the quadrant stays
So I started with the bit the fall front is hinged to as this is most easily replaceable in case I got it wrong. Cut out for the hinges, drilled a 2.5mm hole and a 3/4" no 6 brass screw gave me such a good hold I was convinced there and then that it would all be alright. This is the half which the other 2 screw holes will be very shallow because of the 45 degree bevelled edge - so I will cut 2 screws very short and use CA glue to help fix it - but it is very solid

Cut the other hinge in

Then I just went ahead and cut hinges into the fall front as well and put one screw in each side so I could see how it looked

Here I have clamped it as if it was in place and the fall front is 'up'. You can also see where I started inlaying the ebony stringing on the fall front

The rest of the stringing took a little while - but just fiddly nothing too dramatic

Then glued up the first drawer

After cleaning the drawer up I trial fitted it. It needs a bit of fiddling with but fits OK

Finally I clamped the fall front pieces in place and had a little look to see how it opens - and again it needs some fiddling with but I think will be fine. The curved cutout bit is good - but the position it is clamped is crucial so I will l get everything else ready first before doing that

Almost feel I am on the home run - the only tricky bit left is the body of drawers inside the fall front - either in cherry or sycamore
Thanks again for all your help - has been invaluable
Cheers
mark

 

[Peter Sefton]

All looking good, it will be interesting to see which timber you choose for your pigeon holes, the clean contrasting Sycamore or the warm tones of the Walnut and Cherry.

 

[the_g_ster]

This is a great post, lovely to see the time and care to plan the piece but also take the time out to post on here.

I wouldn't fancy trying to get this on a camel or a ship, as I thought campaign furniture was able to go in a case etc to be transported.

 

[gasman]

My apologies for the delay in the next instalment. Have had this week off so got quite a bit done - total hours now is up to 72
The fall front took quite a while to get to fit properly - the slightest bit out and it rubbed when opened or closed. After a couple of hours fiddling with it I finally got it to work perfectly - here it is closed - it protrudes about 0.25mm which I will take off with a final planing

And here it is open - I have added 3 screws from below to secure it at the moment - and I may never glue it - not sure yet

I turned to the inside drawers - and immediately chose the warm cherry over the sycamore as I think it will match the walnut better
I got some 12mm plywood and cut the sides of the 'box' that the drawers will sit in. This box will be very useful as it will hide some of the bits I need to hide!
Then I glued some 12mm thick, 30mm wide cherry onto each piece of plywood so that it was 'lipped' with cherry for the front. I used PU glue for this - then when it was dry used a card scraper to get rid of the surplus glue

I also cut up some 6mm ply and lipped that in the same way to act as the drawer dividers
The it was just a question of carefully and painstakingly routing out grooves for the drawers in the sides, top and bottom of this box to fit all the dividers so that the drawer heights were 75, 70 and 65mm. Here are all the pieces ready for the glue up

Then there was a slightly stressful moment as all the joints had to be glued at the same time

Unclamped it looked good and fitted well inside the main cabinet

Finally I started the drawers - had some lovely stock left for the drawer fronts without any of that brownish streaking which cherry sometimes has - so here's a stack of the fronts, sides and backs of the 3 pairs of drawers

Should get all the drawers fitted today
Cheers
Mark

 

[paul saunders]

Looking good, can't wait to see it finished.

sent from my Xperia Z

 

[gasman]

Last day of my weeks holiday today
I got all the small cherry drawers finished
Using the Moxon vice I set it up with all the usual chisels etc - a mortice chisel, 1/2" japanese chisel and 2 fishtail chisels etc

Cut all the tails first and then chopped out the mortices one by one. I have cut a lot of dovetails - 78 I think in total!

I did the same trick as before for the backs of the drawers - just a rebate. Then routed a 6mm groove all round and cut some more plywood for the base
Clamped up one by one

Until I had 6 drawers all glued up

The one by one I planed them down to fit the box - had briefly forgotten how tricky cherry can be - lots of tear out - even more than the walnut
I ended up using the QS low angle BU jack plane with a 46 degree blade and the mouth closed.

Eventually they were all finished - quite tight fitting but smooth to open and shut

I am getting there - albeit slower than I hoped. Total time now is 81 hours
All I have left to do is the secret compartment in the top and I know how I am doing that, finish fitting the main drawers, fit the handles to the drawers, find some small brass handles for the small drawers, and then the finishing. Should be under 100 hours which is the upper limit of what I told the client it would take
Cheers
Mark

 

[Paul Chapman]

Looking really good, Mark.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[gasman]

I have had a couple of frustrating days - things not working out or silly mistakes
However progress albeit slow has been made
For the first time I assembled everything I have done so far to see how it all looks:

And here with the fall front opened showing the cherry drawers inside

I got some lovely little brass handles in antique brass finish but I thought they looked much better polished

Meanwhile I made an MDF jig to cut the 37.5mm holes for the brass military pull handles - consisting of a 40mm hole in a piece of MDF - then an 8mm router bit in the Leigh 11mm guide bush cuts the 37.5mm hole exactly -
I practiced first on this piece

Then for the actual drawer front, I centred the jig using 'cross-hairs' drawn in pencil

Here are the 2 handles cut in for the top drawer (the smallest - so if I c**k it up it is the easiest to replace!)

Finally for now I have made a little walnut box which is going to sit in the upper of the 2 secret compartments - will take photos to show that next time. The top has pieces from my piece of crotch walnut quarters into it to mirror the top of the main cabinet

It has an insert to keep fountain pens made on the router table using a cove cutter in an unidentified South African wood - which I think gets called stinkwood because of the smell
Anyway it polished up beautifully

Thanks all for nice comments
Mark