Ouch!

My last couple of weeks have been very busy. I glued up the carcass of the cabinet and started to build the drawer. The drawer construction requires Half-Lap Dovetails on the front and Through Dovetails on the back. Hand cut Dovetails can be quite intimidating. This joint is very durable; it stands the test of time. Visually appealing to the eye as well. If it is done sloppy, the eye can easily pick up faults. Taking the time to get a good fit is important. Luckily the process I was shown to cut them made the task seem a lot easier to do.

The dovetails were going well, I was pleased with the result for my first attempt at them. However while I was paring one of my tails, I made a big mistake and I ended up cutting myself very badly with a chisel.



This is a special spear headed chisel that is used to get into tight corners to clean out the Dovetail. I also use it to make minor adjustments to the tails to get a good fit of the joint. I was taking a shaving that was a little bit thicker than I should have with this specific chisel. I had to use a bit of pressure to make the cut. This is the point where I mad a bad decision. The chisel slipped and I pushed it into my hand that was holding my work. I made a very large gash on my thumb. I ended up having to get seven stitches. I was very lucky, I did not damage any of my tendons. My hand will be limited but I will be able to work normally in a few days.



The picture I have here is not my best. There are some shadow lines that make my dovetails look like they have large gaps. There are a few imperfections with my dovetails that I should be able to fix with a few tricks. For the most part I am happy with my first attempt at them.

The next step is to flush the sides of my drawer and then start fitting them to the Cabinet. From there I will install the door and the project should be complete.



Even Hand Tools can Bite!

Shaping

Shaping is one of the funnest aspects of building a cabinet. I finally get to leave the loud Machine Room and head to my bench and use my hand tools. My door is concave; looking from the outside. Which means when I place my door against the sides, the edge of the door does not match with the side of the cabinet. Pictured above is a line running down the side of the cabinet. I plane that portion off and let it taper so the back of the cabinet does not change in width. The sides now follow the curve of my door.
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Here is the top of my Cabinet. You can see that I have put a curve on the edge. I did this with my little brass Block Plane.



The front face of the top has been cut to follow the curve of the door. It is shaped with the same curve as the sides. I shape and smoothed out the face with a little spoke shave. It is a wonderful tool to work with. When it is tuned up just right it shapes the curve effortlessly. The spoke shave makes such fine shavings, that your finished edge feels like silk.

The shaping of the cabinet has taught me a lot. I have a better understanding of how to use my hand tools. I can now detect when my edges are dulling better than before. A quick sharpening, improves the performance of my tools, as well my work. There is still a lot more work. I am still shaping the top of the cabinet, cause I am not completely happy with the shape. I am working towards getting my cabinet to a finished surface and glued up. From there I will start building the dovetailed drawer.

Case Construction

Today just flew by! Everyone in class was working hard getting the case of their cabinet ready. The machine room was busy. Not too much to explain; I took my rough stock and cut them to size. Once I had completed that, I made a jig for the dowels that will hold the cabinet together. The purpose of the jig is to align all the dowel holes so my cabinet is not crooked. The dowels now complete the cabinet is starting to take shape.

Waiting for my Boards to Settle

With the coopered door complete it is time to start milling up the other pieces of my cabinet. I have to cut out stock for the top, bottom and sides of the cabinet. Careful detail is taken into account to ensure that the cabinet will hold up to wood movement and at the same time look beautiful (Grain Graphics are very important). This was done by cutting out some simple templates that are a rough shape of the cabinet and placing them over the stock, to align them with the grain. Once I had that laid out, I cut the pieces and I will let them settle for a day before I make more cuts. The boards must settle because I have exposed the edge. This edge was not exposed to the air. Depending on the climate this board is now either taking in moisture or losing it. This can cause dimension changes to the board. As well depending on the grain the board could be under tension and that can cause it to move. By allowing the board to settle it will make it much more stable to work with.

It is now 2:00 and I have three more hours of shop time. What to do?????

I'm gonna make some tools! I have decided to make another Jointer Plane and a Chisel. I get a blank of Mesquite wood and start milling my new Jointer. I have to let that settle too! Instead of buying an Iron for my plane, I have decided to take an old file and turn it into a plane iron and use the rest for my chisel. First off I need to soften the steel from the file. I take the old file and heat it up with a plumbers torch until it is cherry red. Once that is done I have to let it cool on it's own. I can't dump it in a bucket of water to cool it off; that will only ruin it. Once again I must wait but that's okay, I have to start my daily clean up.

I am looking forward to the next few days, along with the progression of my cabinet I also have a couple of tools to finish. It is gonna be a busy week but I will be rewarded with a Turkey dinner at the end of it... So I can't complain.

Coopered Door

Over the weekend I finished my coopered door. The door has a little curve to it and the thickness of the door also has a slight taper. This exercise was very enjoyable but frustrating throughout. I took a wide board and cut them into strips (staves). I added a bevel to the edge of the staves, with my jointer plane. This creates the primary shape of the coopered door.

Setting up the jointer plane and proper pressure is key when jointing an edge. Proper passes with the plane must then be done to close up low spots on the joint. An uneven pass can make the joint look worse. There where many times when I did not have my iron tuned right or did not have the right technique. This made completing my joint a very time consuming process. In fact after I glued up a joint I had completed, I realized that it was not perfect. BACK to the Bandsaw to cut the board and do the joint again. Expectations in class are to have our joints tight and of fine quality. It was very frustrating to have to do this but it all makes up for it in the end when you have a board with tight joints that are not visible. There is great satisfaction knowing that this was achieved with a hand tool. A simple tool used properly and with attention accomplished better results than and machine tool. I am truly elated by the precision and fine control of this tool.