Triffidish tool chest with a nod to JK

[Modernist]

I ground to a halt on my JK cabinet for the moment but wanted to try some proportions of JK legs and angles on a utility piece. I had a couple of unused kitchen cabinets so decided to make a 5 drawer tool chest which I need and test out the design theories.

No drawing - all out of the head as we went. I can hear the tut tuts!

The cabinets were 600 wide x 350 high and about 550 deep with the rear wings cut off.

I needed a total height of 1200mm so that I could see in the top drawer and put tools on the top so made a template for the JK leg with 25% reduction in width at 25% of the height. This is one of the issues as this only works for single side curves with the other left straight.

Here I made the first mistake as when I cleaned up the curve with the circular plane it ran into the nail holes

I reckon the top needs to be about 15% less than the foot.

For the first one I bandsawed off the waste but this was not necessary and I just did the others on the spindle with a bearing taking two cuts to cover the 70mm height with the spurs removed.

I cleaned up the legs with the circular plane again (great tool that) and tested a few angles for the legs. I ended up with 4deg incline which is less than it looks.

Screwed them up temp to take a look

I also tried to put some tension into the top of the legs by a compound angle lifting the outer corner by 4 deg.

I'll chamfer them up in the morning and stain them. I am going for 3 drawers in the top unit and two in the lower with some left over wenge MDF for fronts or I may discover something nicer in the oddments pile.

If I say it myself I am well pleased with the proportions - for once it has come out as I intended and has a bit of an animal look to it - certainly organic - getting there.

To be continued

 

[The Shark]

This looks interesting, shall look forward to further instalments!

No drawing - all out of the head as we went. I can hear the tut tuts!

What, not even a fag packet, and a pencil behind your ear?

Malc

 

[woodbloke]

What, not even a fag packet, and a pencil behind your ear?

Malc

Agreed...if it's JKish it's gota be a smudgy sketch on the back of a fag packet :lol: :lol: - Rob

 

[Modernist]

For those of you who don't venture elsewhere I though you may be interested in further progress

Legs now sporting Indian Rosewood stain retrieved from the shelf after 30 years and still fine.

Changed my mind on thickness after reading Hayward and made the fronts 20mm with 12mm sides. These are thicker than ideal but with side runners you haven't the possibility of going really thin.

My recycled runners were 600mm so I've had to order some from Hafele. Despite the possible weight I've gone for side mounted as the full extension unders seemed overkill.

Re the fronts think assymetric cascading vomit!

Now to set out the dovetails 2 to 1 and 1 in 8 I think.

I tried to bank them up in sets to save time.

And finally got the tails done on all five drawers and a test fit on the front and back of the first.

I think that's enough for today in 29 deg

Incidentally when I checked some details in both Hayward and Joyce I was surprised to find they were identical, including the illustrations. I wonder who copied whom?

Phase two - making the drawers.

For chopping out the pins I use a cheap and cheerful but effective skew

Fairly straightforward getting them glued up and ready for cleaning off. I don't make any allowance for this only the thinning of the sides by cleaning up with the smoother leaves a fraction.

Along the way I had to shorten the tails ar the back as I had thinned the backs from the original plan. My dovetail saw needs more set but at 20 tpi that is going to be difficult. I have heard that the burr from just filing can be enough at that pitch so I'll give it a try when I get a minute. Consequently I used the Jap DT saw which was stunningly good, so much so I may use that in future for sawing the tails and pins.

I decided to include muntins as the loading may be heavy so tongued them into the front and used a single screw up into the back. I only left 2.5mm above the bottoms so as not to make too high a ridge in the middle of the drawer (and drawers do not normally burst up from below!

Next on to the bottoms where I had some 10mm Cherry MDF available so used that. I only milled a 7mm slot to save drawer depth so had to field the bottom panels using a 15 deg cutter in the Record Router table. What a rubbish fence system that has. It is quite complicated and no doubt cost a lot to make but without a false fence it is absolutely useless. They would have been better off reducing the price and leaving users to make one from MDF.

I've never used this bright green MDF previously, preumably Medite and was very surprised what a good finish it took straight from the router.

It actually looked quite good with the green against the cherry - pity you wont see it.

Secured the bottoms with a single screw but may add a drop of glue when finally assembling for extra strength.

Finally a finished drawer

Next on to the runners then the fronts and a bit of exitement

I was going to fit the drawers today until I discovered I'd ordered the wrong length slides so I shall be calling on Hafele's charity in the morning.

Conseqently I made a start on the drawer fronts which are much more interesting as I intend to use some spalted beech as a feature which I have had in stock for years. The fronts themselves are cut from re-cycled sapele stair treads

After cleaning them up and roughly sizing I laid them out for appearance

I cut the spalted beech into sawn veneer on the bandsaw and bookmatched them after thicknessing to 4mm

A bit more cleaning up then shot the join using a No7 on the bench. Quite why I did it left handed I've no idea

I didn't glue them up as I might fit them a front at a time but clamped them together and bandsawed a profile to reflect the grain

I hope the Asymmetric Cascading Vomit now starts to make sense

Not only did I order the wrong size drawer slides but the handles are also too long but I'll keep these for another job.

Next I paired them up and smoothed the curve with spokeshaves

I gave a bit of thought to how I would rout the recess and decided to make a template for a top bearing cutter to do the outer edges and clear the waste freehand in the centre.

The template has to be spot on or disaster awaits

It was possible to sight this and adjust for a perfect fit.

I spaced the fronts with 3mm spacers so that grain would flow correctly in the finished front and clamped them to the building board with blocks and wedges.

I only had one size of template cutter so had to raise the template to align the bearing

Moment of truth when I took the first cut, making sure the router was being pressed against the template by the cut.

Flipped the template for the other side, spaced from the centre line. I used a small engineers square and a torch to make sure the template was exactly over the line (taking off the pencil line) and screwed the template securely to the base board.

Ripped out the middle except the cutter came loose and went too deep in part of the centre. Fortunately that will be well out of sight when glued up but it is annoying and the collet is not only clean but fairly new. Anyone else had this on a DeWalt, it never happened on the Elu.

Moment of truth and they snapped in a treat.

I think I'll saw the veneer into individual drawer lengths and glue it up one at a time before an interesting cleaning up job which will test the BU smoother to the limit.

Thanks for looking

 

[tisdai]

Love the look of the spalted beech inlays really shows it off and brings the eyes into look more at the details. Thanks for the wip and I can't wait to see the end result..

Cheers

Dave

 

[eoinsgaff]

Brilliant WIP. Wish we got a few more of these. I was very curious to see how the spalted beech would be fitted.

It's going to be a smashing piece.

Eoin

 

[woodbloke]

Can't see the pics at the 'mo but will have a look ce soir... - Rob

 

[SeanG]

Very nice Brian, some shameless tool sneaking going on in those pics though :mrgreen:

 

[Modernist]

Very nice Brian, some shameless tool sneaking going on in those pics though :mrgreen:

What Moi? I am a user not a collector Realistically cleaning up Am Cherry with anything other than a LA smoother honed to high angle can be a pain and the interlocked Sapele looks like another good candidate, not to mention the cross grain beech (with softish spalty bits).

Have I convinced you yet?

Roll on the Bank holiday weekend I'll get some more done in between finishing the floor in my daughter's house with the newly arrived Fessy Oil dispenser and fending off demands for a new kitchen.

 

[markturner]

Very impressive, I hope I can get to the level of craftmanship you have. The set of pictures was very well done as well for anyone looking for tips etc. looking forward to the rest of the project!!

Cheers, Mark

 

[Modernist]

Very impressive, I hope I can get to the level of craftmanship you have. The set of pictures was very well done as well for anyone looking for tips etc. looking forward to the rest of the project!!

Cheers, Mark

Thanks Mark, although it is very kind of you to say so there are many on this forum and others with far higher skills than me. Apart from preparing the timber, which would be hard work without a bandsaw and thicknesser, there is nothing that cannot be done with a small set of quality hand tools. Anyone who can saw, plane and chisel to a mark can do dovetails.

The cabinet is actually a design mule to test out some ideas and I have learned a lot so far. Although the drawers are 100% traditional construction (apart from the small error on the backs ) the rest is an exercise in making best use of the natural beauty of the timber and getting away from "standard" designs towards a more organic approach. In doing so I hope to encourage more people to have a go at real woodwork rather than worry endlessly about tools and techniques. So much of these forums seem to focus on that rather than actually making things by hand and basic machines in natural timber. The WIP pics may be obvious to many but a useful revelation to others.

I hope to post this weekend's progress tomorrow!

 

[Corset]

I really like the organic way of working I think it makes some interesting designs. That chest looks very nice, i shall watch this build keenly.
Not that I know much but sometimes i think being flexible from the original design during construction allows for some interesting developments. Due to me being a hobbyist it takes me long time to get stuff done so I often have brainwaves mid process.
Owen

 

[Modernist]

Got a bit further today although it would have been finished had not my daughter required 2 days out of the 3 helping to decorate her living room :evil:

I missed this bit earlier so I have edited it in now.

I mentioned earlier that I had honed the BU Jack to 27 deg and this held up cleaning off the cherry dovetails. I have yet to re-sharpen it and used it to shoot the drawer front ends which it did exceptionally well with see through long shavings

May the God of timber place a 6" nail in the band saw of the timber merchant who put the metal staples in that Sapele board. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: Interestingly the High angle A2 was undamaged although I could clearly see where it had sheared off the staple.

After that I cleaned up the fronts with the 58 deg EP BU smoother which also worked well on some very difficult and mixed grain.

Now back to the original................



Set about fitting the drawer slides (Bee Slides from Hafele which seem good) and decided to play safe and set them with MDF guage blocks. I worked out the height under the slide for each position and made blocks to suit. With careful shooting it is fairly straightforward to work to 1/10th mm, which is more than enough.

133.6mm as required

Split it on the bandsaw to ensure both ends are the same.

I then gauged a centre line along each drawer and marked the screw positions which I then centre popped metalwork fashion to make sure the screw remained central

All went well and we were ready to fit the fronts

I made cover strips of sapele for the top and bottom edges of the cabinet and the central double width where the two cabinets joined. To make up for the set-back on the horizontal pieces I lined them with a piece of iron on edging which I trimmed with a wide chisel which I find better and easier than the proprietry devices.

They were then biscuited to the front edges and I slotted in the drawers. Along the way I had altered the legs by rebating them 15mm into the sides of the cabinet to leave a ledge to support the weight. I was going to do this originally but wanted to see how the full leg section looked on the outside.

Eureka

Excuse the barrel distortion I think this was at 20mm (old Money) wide angle on the Canon 15-85 I have been using.

All that remains is to adjust the fronts, chamfer the sharp edges and give it a coat of oil when Wizer gets back from his paternity leave and sends the kit!

I am happy with the organic look and surprised it looks so Scandinavian, it must be in my blood. I am starting to think about tool layout inside and maybe some half height sliding trays for small parts.

Hopefully St Jim would not turn to much in his, no doubt, sawn veneered and coopered box

Thanks for looking

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

I love the front and legs. very nice.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Very nicely done, Brian, and great WIP photos =D>

However, now it's done I'm not sure I like the veneer on the front of the drawers. Looks too much like a vase. Maybe it would have looked better with straight sides :-k As it is, it looks like there is too much going on.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[tonytopman]

Lovely work. A joy to behold.

 

[woodbloke]

However, now it's done I'm not sure I like the veneer on the front of the drawers. Looks too much like a vase. Maybe it would have looked better with straight sides :-k As it is, it looks like there is too much going on.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

In fact, I'd go further...the whole front just doesn't work. The 'vase' inlay combined with the SS kitchen drawer pulls just 'jars'. It could've been a nice piece, but for me...niil points - Rob

 

[alan2001]

Well now. When I got to this photo:

I thought "ooohhh... that looks a bit basic." :shock: and when you said it "has a bit of an animal look to it", I was reminded of Evil Edna from the cartoon Will O The Wisp:

But now I've read to the end of the thread, I'm amazed and flabbergasted at how much work and skill you've put into this unique project. You are a mad genius and I love it. :lol:

I also love to see things happen organically without any preplanning. I tend to do that sometimes, but that's down to inexperience, not skill or confidence. Bravo sir. And thanks for all the completely gratuitous photos of your tools as well. =D>


edit: paul & woodbloke: I'm not so keen on the design on the front either, but this is a piece of art as well as a functional object. surely worth more than 0 points?

 

[adidat]

i think it looks excellent love the offset handles

adidat

 

[woodbloke]

edit: paul & woodbloke: I'm not so keen on the design on the front either, but this is a piece of art as well as a functional object. surely worth more than 0 points?

The piece has been nicely made for sure, but for me the use of kitchen style stainless steel drawer pulls and the 'vase' just clashes horribly. If the 'vase' had been used on it's own with some sort of self-opening drawer mechanism (push to open catch maybe?) it would have been much better and of course nil points is a ref to the compulsive Eurovision viewing which I look forward to every year with increasing anticipation and unbridled excitement :---) as the time for the comp draws near - Rob