Wall Units (WIP)

[deepsplinter]

A guy came over about a year ago bringing me a sketch something like this one and these pictures. He said he wants me to design and build two wall units. He wants me to figure up how much wood it will take, so he'll know how many trees to cut down. His dad had just died, and he inherited a 30 acre woods (full of ash and walnut), so he wants it made entirely out of his dad's trees.



Sections #1 Shelves behind doors..

Sections #2 Drawers (2, 3 if possible) behind doors. Drawers will be in increments of 5" (+-) to store CD's

Sections #3 Shelves, no doors.

Section #4 Open, no shelves, no doors, no back.

Sections #5 Four drawers to hang file folders.

Section #6 Drawers, in increments of 11" (+-) to lay magazines in. Two, four, or six drawers....whatever will fit and look proportionate.






Details are something like these pics, except the tall doors will look like two drawer fronts (like the top pic). It's gonna have fluted columns w/plinth blocks, crown mold, raised panel doors, raised panel drawer fronts, and raised panels on the exposed ends.

We met/talked/planned most all summer. (He couldn't get in the woods to cut trees down until the neighbors crops were harvested). We finally got all of the details worked out, and I told him it'll take about 1,000 board feet, thinking that will be 200bf extra.

I picked up 800bf in January (that's all that was dried, but enough to get started)




I always start with the face frames, so I'll know EXACTLY what I'm working with.

Image Shack is having "issues", so that's enough for today.

I have quite a bit of it done. I'll keep ya'll posted.

[Joe Lyddon]

Looks like quite a Project, Dave!

It's going to look really GOOD... I can tell...

You're off to a good start... Nice load! ;D

[deepsplinter]

On a project like this, I always start with the face frames so I know exactly what I'm dealing with.

I had to make templates for each of the arcs at the top.




Then rout them to size with a pattern bit.



Here's the top of the big side,



and the bottom.



I made them full length for now, with the option of cutting them into three smaller pieces later.

[deepsplinter]

Here's the pic of 700bf of ash (that didn't work in the first post)


There's quite a bit of "ugly ash" in that pile, so I decided to make the CD drawers next (the ones that are behind doors) and use up some of the "ugly".

When I make drawers like these, I use a lock miter joint.

Here's how I set up for cutting them...

Step #1 Set the bit height too low.
Step #2 Set the fence too far out. (not removing enough material)
Step #3 Keeping stock laying flat (don't stand anything on end yet), run two pieces through.
Step #4 Turn one piece over, lock 'em together.

They're not locking up flush, so I need to raise the bit a little.



They're locking up flush now. The height is good.


Step #5 Adjust the fence. See the small gaps at the top & bottom of the joint? At this point, just back to fence up a smidgen and run 'em through again (still laying flat). Keep backing the fence up until that gap disappears.

Step #6 Run two pieces through, one flat and one standing up. It should be on the money.


I alway use a push block (with a strip of sandpaper) to run these.





That's it for now.

[Joe Lyddon]

Great work!

Thank you!

[dburkhart]

cool project even cooler its his own trees

[deepsplinter]

I got all (9) of the doors put together and ready for stain. And, I got all of the raised panels (49) ready as well. I always stain (and seal) the cove part and the backs before assembly. Staining is pretty much cut & dried, but here's some pics anyway.

I use a squirt bottle to apply stain to something like these drawers.


Here's a couple pics of everything drying (exciting, huh)




After letting everything dry overnight, I got set up to spray some sealer.

Here's my "poor boy" paint booth.


After sealing the panels, it's time to assemble the doors.

Lay out the pieces and insert space balls.


This particular door gets two panels, so I work from the center, out.


Getting close.


Clamp it, check for square, and shoot a coulpe brads in each corner.


...and, Wahlah. This door will get a horizontal groove cut across the center to make it look like two drawer fronts.


The panel is even with the rails & stiles, so they'll cleaned up as I sand the rest of the door.



Enough for today.

[fredbelknap]

Dave it is looking good. I do the pencil thing like that when I do the finish sanding. Helps me know when to stop.

[Beamer]

Loving it, Dave!!! Absolutely loving it!

[Ruffnek]

There's some neat stuff appearing on this forum, like this build of Dave's. Thanks for posting.

[dburkhart]

Thats a cool tip on applying stain with a squirt bottle never would of thought of that thanks

[Joe Lyddon]

Looks really GOOD!

The spray bottle surprised me too... Will remember that one!

What's with the "403 Forbidden" pictures that ImageShack doesn't like??

[deepsplinter]

Mar 30, 2010 14:29:06 GMT -6 Joe Lyddon said:

What's with the "403 Forbidden" pictures that ImageShack doesn't like??

Huh...beats me, Joe. They were here the other day.

Oh well...here ya go.

Start in the center, and work out.




"Poor boy" paint booth.

[Gecko]

Looking good. Thanks for posting this build. I love to watch a project in progress.

[sachbvn]

That is looking GOOOOOOOD!!!


Zac

[deepsplinter]

The next step was to build the drawers for sections 5 & 6.

These drawers are all 11" deep, so I had to glue up all of the sides and backs. This is one of those "you can't have too many clamps days"


I use sliding dovetails to attach sides to the fronts. To get accurate pins (male part), those sides need to be as close to the same thickness as possible. So here I'm sanding them to thickness (much more accurate than my planer)


Here are the sides, backs, and bottoms ready for stain. I used a lock miter joint on the "pull-out drawers" that I built earlier. The client was very impressed with 'em, so I figured I'd attach the backs to the sides with 'em too.


Everything stained and spread out to dry.


This guy wants everything built out of his wood, so I planed the drawer bottoms down to 3/8" and tongue & grooved 'em (no glue)


Here's a pic of the bottom going into the front. Notice just a dab of glue in the center of each bottom slat, and 1/16" crack in the T&G joint for wood movement.


A few of 'em put together.



We (me & my shadow) assembled these last Wednesday. I got 'em sprayed with lacquer today. Now I have to get all of them outa here so I'll have room for the next step.

[deepsplinter]

I made the fluted trim a few days ago. I need 16 pieces, all the same width and spacing, but different lengths (in sets of four).

After doing all of the math and a ton of test cuts, here is my set-up. I had to attach wings to both sides of my router table to clamp the stop blocks to. I used three fences to attack this. The one all the way to the left stayed where it is during the whole process. The other two moved as I made each groove. (no room for error when the piece is trapped between two fences) I ran all 16 pieces through this set-up, moving the stop blocks as needed. (notice the three spacers)




After running all the pieces through that set-up, I'd remove one spacer, back up the fences, and do it all again.



Do that again (and again) until I'm backed up tight for the last pass.




Finished products (almost). Some of those "starting/stopping" points burned a little, but they all have a shadow in this pic.







edit: I don't like the pics like this, but...I'll TRY to work it out before the next update.

[Leo Voisine]

WOW Dave, Awesome posting.

YEAH - we are really starting to become a REAL woodworking forum.

LOVING it.

I LOVE the locking miter joint for the drawers.

I did the half blind dovetails for my daughters dresser. I thought about box joints, but am having a little issue with alignment with the dados for the bottoms. I will fix it up and it will be fine. However, I am going back to Locking Miters next time - and I think I will just stick with that. That is a real nice strong joint.

Looking GREAT Dave.

Thanks for the posting.

[deepsplinter]

Apr 10, 2010 7:46:50 GMT -6 Leo Voisine said:

YEAH - we are really starting to become a REAL woodworking forum.

I LOVE the locking miter joint for the drawers.

I did the half blind dovetails for my daughters dresser. I thought about box joints, but am having a little issue with alignment with the dados for the bottoms. I will fix it up and it will be fine. However, I am going back to Locking Miters next time - and I think I will just stick with that. That is a real nice strong joint.

Thanks, Leo.

Yeah, we're starting to get more and more woodworking threads mixed in with some of the BS sessions.

A dovetail jig is on my rountuit list. I'd like to learn how to cut "real dovetails" some day.

I usually just dado the backs into the sides (on drawers), but this guy went on and on about the locked miters on the other drawers, so I thought "why not use 'em again?"

[deepsplinter]

It's been quite awhile since my last update.

I have been working on it just about every day, but nothing exciting enough to post about.

These bottoms have turned into a "hodge-podge, fly by the seat of my pants, skeleton of a cabinet". But, they're full of drawers, so they really don't need backs, bottoms, or interior sides....just a skeleton. (I guess)


Carcase...9' side



Carcase...12' side


I brought 'em up to workbench height to install door & drawers.



9' side.....drawers behind doors





12' side....all drawers





The locks were an after thought, so I had to make "alterations" (eight of 'em)



I installed all of this yesterday. Gonna take a couple days off (the shop needs a good cleaning), then start on the uppers.