Key Cabinet: Back Mockup

Here is a mockup of the cabinet, with pine frame for the back. I was originally thinking something darker for the back, but I think I will stick with pine, or maybe ash for these components. I will be keeping the Bamboo plywood panel and shelf I think.

Concerning the Craft

Books are an important thing to us, we have the opportunity to spread ideas and learn new things. Whether they are techniques books, essays, plans, or accounts they let us listen to dead or far flung voices.

Right now I'm reading two books on the craftsman as a figure and way or thinking. They are, Richard Sennett's The Craftsman, and Matthen Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft. Both of them are really good book thus far.

I want to get a bit further into them before writing some reviews, but I just couldn't wait to say how wonderful it is to hear someone else (in the mass media) speaking passionately about the value of manual work. 

Key Cabinet: Rabbeted Carcass

I've done a bit more work on the cabinet, the through and stopped rabbets for the frame and panel back are done. Now I'm just waiting on a McMaster order for some 1/4" delrin rods. These will be to dry fit the carcass together and work on it, whilst still being able to disassemble it easily. I had an issue using only 2 dowel pegs per side/end, three of the 8 peds broke during disassembly and I had to nervously drill out the waste... I don't want that to happen again and can't use a waxed peg because it's to be a glue joint.  

These dados, including the stopped ones were cut on the tablesaw with a 6" dado stack. The stopped dado required the use of stops and was pretty simple to do. A bit of chisel work finished the corners. The gap you see is the result ov some cupping in the top and bottom boards. I'll have to plane this little hollow out before much more can happen.

I'm still happy with it and cant wait to start on the back, I'm still not sure whether I should use walnut, QS white oak, or birch for the frame. Bamboo will still be the panel I think.

Key Cabinet: Carcass Dry Fit

The time has finally come, today I made the drilling jig needed to bore the holes for dowels and get the case together. I'm really excited.

Next up, rabbeting the back, cutting the back and door frame components and starting the fitting. I'm still debating about a shelf/drawer. Thoughts on that? 

Key Cabinet Progress

I spent some time in the shop today gluing up a shooting board for my new jointer, which works better than I could have expected on end grain. I also spent some time edge jointing and smoothing the inside faces of the walnut boards for the key cabinet. Here's the pictures from this morning.

I'm very happy with this jointer, I've planed a number of woods walnut, pine, cherry, Brazilian cherry, sapele, beech, red and white oak. The only problem I ran into was on the beech, it is some very tough stuff.   

Krenovian Jointer Plane

After browsing through every page of the Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking website, I discovered several things...

-I love the Krenovian style and methodology
-Dowels don't seem as icky as I once believed
-I want to make some knife hinges and wall hangers
-Grain "graphics" as they call them, and rift sawn wood are incredible
-I'm building a small jointer plane, I must have this for shooting small long grain pieces and other trimming tasks.

That let me to browse some of my wood collection (don't worry I use it) located in my office. At the end of my workday Monday I snatched up a piece of beech I've had for some months and ripped it into a body and sides, I did the rest of the work at home. The iron is a Lee Valley replacement blade for a Stanley #60 1/2. in O1 steel. I have another identical iron, destined for a small smoother or gutter plane for coopered doors etc.

The pins, wedge and cross pin are made from East Indian Rosewood, turning stock from eBay. The pins are split and whittled to shape. The finish is orange wax, with High Gloss Formby's finish on the wedge. The mouth is super tight and even, I love the colors and contrast. I've gotten some great test shavings and surfaces, but I still need some time in the shop with it before another review. Enough yap, here's the proof.

   
The color is significantly more orange, and the rosewood is richer in person. I'll fiddle with the lighting during the workshop use photoshoot. All in all, I'm extremely excited about the first Krenov plane I've built.

Continuing Work on the Key Cabinet

The basement in my housemates shop is finally cleared a bit, I have some room to work now. I don't have all my tools in the new space, but I have enough for this small project. This post is mostly to keep me writing and working, as I've written very little in the last few months.

This first picture I'm almost embarrassed about, it's not fine furniture, nor really complicated. Just little 4mm X 14mm X 60mm strips, six of them, two each in mahoganies of different vintages. They are samples for an instrument maker to test harmonics/vibration durability of the different ages of mahogany. They were fun, and allowed me to practice working to tight tolerances, most of the measurements are within .02mm, for those of you like me who only work in inches, or to scribed components that equates to about .0008" or a little less than half the thickness of a sheet of common computer paper).    

Nextly, here is a shot of the lumber cut and resting for the key cabinet (Blk. Walnut) and a pair of Krenovian shop bents (sawhorses, Ash). The little junk on top of the left hand pile is an assortment of sticker stock I cut out of the scrap ash from the bents. More to come, today I resawed some pine to mock up the door and muntins when the time comes.