The never ending story part one (carcasses)

[stoatyboy]

Hi Guys - some of you may have seen my questions about this over the last 10 months or so but i'm now at a point where I might be able to finish so thought I'd start posting progress

Before I do though I must say I couldn't have done it without the help from this forum so a big thanks.

A long time ago I thought I ought to do something about this which I am embarrassed to even post here

Couldn't think what to do though (apart from burn it) till Chems built this and kindly said I could copy it a bit

which gave me this (ok there may be a slight resemblance)

so - to the build. I bought three of those pine boards and a packet of 44x44mm par cut it up a bit and put a rebate on the edge of the board with my (Ahem) router table

Then I cut a 6mm channel in the 44mm stuff with the same tool to accept the boards. I had to screw that bit of wood to the left to stop the router pushing the piece out - sort of a super sturdy feather board - I have a feeling I was doing something wrong there, but I got away with whatever it was

and they all slid together - hurrah!

I then routed a curve on the bottom with my bearing guided template router cutter

I then glued the panels to the square bits while I fiddled about with the drawer runners

Which I stupidly decided to make much thinner which was a problem as the pine board had bowed and the thinner drawer runners wern't man enough to pull it back flat - which I didn't notice till it was too late

anyway then this incredibly handsome guy turned up and started fixing on the runners

and now I remember I fixed the runners then glued it up - oops

next - because of some shoddy design work - I had to cut a lump out of the front cross rails drawer runner things

and used my joint genie to dowel them all together - which again was a pain as I had to joint one on the drawer runner and one on the 44mm vertical piece - you see why this has taken since January to make? But boy have I learnt a lot

so I glued it all up with my new clamps (reviewed by me elsewhere on this wonderful forum)

and then did it all again for the second one - ok I did them at the same time but it still took twice as long - carcasses finished and a faint smug tingle between the ears

hope that wasn't too many photo's for you - my key learning point from that was (I think) that you're meant to make the drawer runners frame thing first and then fit the sides to it - avoiding all the silly bitty dowelling in strange places.

to be honest I'd got bored with sketchup and not done that bit of the design so maybe i'd have spotted it if i'd done the design properly - anyway I got round it.

Next installment is I think the flamed oak inserts!!

 

[Chems]

I think that looks really good. Remember if you can make nice pine furniture you'll make beautiful hardwood stuff as its actually a lot harder in the soft pine.

Don't worry about the boards bowing, mine always bow after cutting them but they even out and go back to been straight once they've been in place for a few days.

 

[OPJ]

Looking good so far.

Only thing I might add is that your panels (being solid wood) will want to expand and contract (only by a small amount) with seasonal changes in the weather (and, even the move from your workshop to its resting place in your home).

I'm a little concerned that the way in which you've attached the runners may prevent the panels from moving as they'll want to, which could cause them to split or crack, at the very worst...

The central screws aren't doing any harm. It's the outer ones (front and back) that I'd be a little concerned with. If possible, it would be advisable to take these screws out and to 'elongate' the holes a little, perhaps only an extra 2mm each way. But, I guess you may not be able to get your drill in there, now?

 

[Chems]

I did the same with mine, that was nearly a year ago now and the chest of drawers has moved homes 3 times since. There's been no adverse effects. The laminated pine panels are really very stable, they are made using quite narrow strips which I think helps. I wouldn't do it with solid panels I'd made myself though.

 

[studders]

.......I have a feeling I was doing something wrong there, but I got away with whatever it was...

Is that shot after you've fed the wood through or as you're about to feed it through?
If the latter then it's the wrong direction of feed (climb cutting) which would explain the wood moving away from the fence.

 

[Chems]

Yeah you should have been feeding against the cutter spin. So right to left on a table router. Left to right if your hand held routing.

 

[OPJ]

I don't think it would be too bad routing in this direction if you're only cutting a groove, where material is being removed equally all round the cutter (don't quote me on that!!). A set of hold-downs or featherboards make the operation much safer. But, if you look at the cutter from overhead, it's spinning in an anti-clockwise direction - therefore, there is a slight tendency for the work to be pushed away from the fence at the start of a cut or, if it isn't held securely against the table and fence.

In future, you might also find that slot cutters are more efficient for cutting grooves. You can often make a full-depth cut in a single pass with one of those and, since they're running 'horizontally', chip clearance is that much more efficient. They're also much quieter than a screaming straight cutter.

 

[stoatyboy]

Cheers guys all good stuff - I'm going to have to live with the screws and hope we're ok my client (her indoors) wants another one now and I was going to glue the runners into a dado slot as it wouldn't need screws then which feels more 'proper'. maybe I won't

as for the router I tried it both ways and each was rubbish - operator error I reckon! now I know the right way I can get the feel and hopefully progress my technique.

And OPJ thanks for the excuse to buy a new cutter!!

Cheers

 

[Chems]

I use a biscuit cutter for mine, it then means I can do biscuits as well! Not that I need to anymore with the domino but that was the original plan.