The Woodshop Shed

Campaign style desk finished

Furnished content.
(from WoodNet.net)


Finally finished a desk I've been making for my daughter. Campaign style (think British Military from late 18th and 19th century), allowing the furniture to collapse for transport. There are blocks on the underside to keep the side aprons from collapsing. The plan is from Chris Schwarz's book, but I added the sliding bolts to the base because 1) I had slight twist in the top and this helped stop that, 2) I know my daughters are going to move it around the room and will probably not remember to pick it up by the apron.

The base was definitely a bit of a challenge compared to a normal "M&T in each apron" kind of thing. Getting everything lined up well was tricky, and there is no "clamp across the diagonal" to square everything up. Mine is decently close, but not perfect. Definitely need to work some more on making M&T joints by hand. Slight errors were magnified with this desk.

Base is soft maple, top is purpleheart (daughter's favorite color). Finish is the Osmo UV-resistant finish.


  Desk RF.jpg (Size: 914.37 KB / Downloads: 36)

  Desk LF.jpg (Size: 904.05 KB / Downloads: 36)

  Base expanded.jpg (Size: 919.72 KB / Downloads: 35)

  Base partial.jpg (Size: 930.2 KB / Downloads: 35)

  Base collapsed.jpg (Size: 913.52 KB / Downloads: 34)

  Top underside - resize.jpg (Size: 370.17 KB / Downloads: 35)

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More Cheating

Furnished content.
(from WoodNet.net)


A friend is just starting the build of a Thorsen sideboard, shown in FWW 125, 126, and 127. It's quite a project. The author used classic drawer and guide/glide construction, but my friend is planning to use Blum undermounts. The author makes it pretty hard to ferret out the dimensions of all the parts, but my friend and I managed to figure it all out, and I drew it up in SketchUp for him.




The darker color represents plum pudding mahogany, of which he has a single large plank. Some will be cut into veneer, and some will be the parts that have to solid, like the breadboard ends of the top and doors. The lighter color is plain grained Africanmahogany.

The drawers have half blind dovetails to join the sides to the front. When I looked at them,I thought it would be a nice challenge to see if I can do them on my CNC.So yesterday I gave it a try with a generic design. Using the undermount slides adds another element to the joint. There needs to be a 5/16" rabbett on the back of the drawer front for the required clearance of the slides, when using 1/2" thick stock.

You can go about this a couple of ways on a CNC. If you want sharp corners then you use a DT bit. The problem with that is you are limited to the bits that are available, and not many can produce the look of a handcut one. If you can accept rounded corners then you can create any size and shape DT you want. I showed some through DT's I did on this little project a few months ago, from a project by Michael Pekovitch in FWW.



I was able to use a 1/16" bit in the corners of the tails,so the DT's are about as close as you can get to what Pekovitch did by hand. I had hoped to do the same with the drawers on the Thorsen cabinet, but the need for that rabbett complicates it because of how deep the cuts need to be to make the pins. A 5/16" deep rabbett plus a 1/2" drawer side means the bit has to be able to reach 13/16". That's no problem for a 1/8" bit but I don't have any 1/16" or similar sized bits that have that much reach. They may exist, however, so I'm still looking. But for this test I used a 1/8" bit, so the corners look machine made. There are a lot of mistakes in this, but it's still not bad for the first attempt. This isn't glued, just fit together.



The V's are out of place, but easily fixed. They are inlays and represent my friend's last name. I forgot to round over the outside corners of the pins when I did the CNC drawing, so I did those by hand.

If I can't find a small diameter endmill to get really sharp corners then I may consider using a different shape altogether, like the dog bone type, or another that purposely hasrounded corners.

John

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box store 'cabinet' plywood?

Furnished content.
(from WoodNet.net)


Have you ever used the box store hardwood cabinet plywoods for kitchen cabinet boxes? How did that turn out?

I remodeled my kitchen in my previous house back in 2018 using better grade hardwood cabinet plywood from places like Hyde Park Lumber and Paxton Lumber (both aroundCincinnati, OH).
Back then the cost per sheet (49x97) was a god $80 or so. Now that same stuff runs from about $115-200 per sheet depending on what you want.
Now in my current house of three yearsI'm getting ready build a new kitchen again.
My income hasn't gone up 25-100% in the past 7 years, so those box store prices look appealing, but I think I'm just gunna bite it and pay the extra for what I know has (better have) the best quality.

Your thoughts?

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A Vancouver Island vacation home serving tray

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Building a serving tray featuring my aunt and uncles vacation home in Fanny Bay, Vancouver Island.
The 11 by 22.5in tray is made from a piece of Honey Locust I had milled from a large tree branch I cut down. On one side, the island surrounded by the text "Vancouver Island" and "Fanny Bay". On the other, their house in a fashion to match a wall hanging quilt my mom made. All cut out using my FoxAlien 4040 XE-PRO CNC Router. The cutouts were filled with Alumilite Clear cast. The tray also features a midnight blue, black and purple river on the live edge bottom of the board which was poured with Aluimilite Deep Pour Resin. After sanding the tray was finished with Myland's sanding sealer and final finish of lacquer.


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