The following gallery is again compliments of the cutting room floor- I encourage you to carefully study the Sketch-up model and bench-plan before beginning this project to better understand how all of the components and joinery relate to one another. Good luck!
Before anything I have to assemble my cut list and dimension the stock. I think I filled 5 garbage bags worth of wood shavings in this piece!
Joinery complete and stored on my ‘shop bents’.
One of the dozen or so dry fits while building the cabinet.
Fine tuning one of the many joints. Do I looked stressed in this shot?
More chiseling and tuning- notice the amount of chisels strewn across the bench in front of me?
Another dry fit- this is how I discover and uncover any problems or changes to make along the way.
Cross cutting the cherry top to final width. Notice the wax on the saw plate?
Locating the center screw hole for a knife hinge.
Shaping the legs in low light helps me see the contours and curves developing in the cherry.
Fitting the spalted maple drawer fronts. If you’re someone who studies design and understands the system of graduated drawers then you may think I’m completely crazy for the strange drawer sizes in this piece. To be completely honest with you, the drawer sizes were determined by the width of my rough stock- I couldn’t bring myself to rip it down for the sake of ‘traditional design’ rules and theories. Not that I ever follow these ‘rules’ and equations but generally let my work develop as I build and allow grain to dictate whenever possible. The widths and drawer depths? Well they were made to fit my vinyl record collection- imagine that!
I’m happy to say that just recently (Dec. ’09) Christopher over at CombrayFurniture Studio posted an article about a contemporary jewelry making cabinet he’s currently building. He said his design was inspired by this piece! Stop by his website to see how its going-
http://combraystudio.blogspot.com/
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Good luck with them and happy shavings!
Tom,
I enjoy your work & style and have been reading your book. I have a question about the “Picture Perfect” piece.
How did you secure the breadboard ends? Is it glued all the way across the tounge/tenon? If so, is there a concern there with inhibiting the wood movement of the top?
Thanks!
Gil McNeill
Gil,
thanks for the comment and for pointing this out- I meant to explain more on this point but never did get to it…
this is one of those examples where yes indeed, an alternate form of joinery could/should be used to allow for seasonal movement and when I use bread board ends in my work I usually split this up into multiple tenons- a few more hours of work but worth the extra effort and the insurance of the wood staying put over time.
These multiple tenons would also allow glue on the middle tenon alone and the wood would be free to do what it likes seasonally.
I ran out of Cherry while building this piece and had to run over to the local hardwood store to grab a plank to finish off the book in time to make my dead line.
(The cherry in the top is also noticeably different in colour and grain pattern as well….)
So this new cherry plank for the top was a little wet and I thought I’d be replacing it in the future and in trying to buy a few hours of time I simplified the joint into a tongue and groove…I don’t remember if I glued it all the way across or not and didn’t elaborate in the text (sorry)
Almost two years later its still there and doing fine…no cracks or problems with wood movement at all through our cold and dry winters here all the way to the ultra humid summers of Southern Ontario…
The middle, cross grain area swelled up last summer and pushed forward but was free to move back again…
So the verdict ?
I’d recommend splitting long tenons into multiples but in this case I didn’t and its no worse for wear…go figure?
cheers!
Tom: What type of wood did you use for the small pieces on the top that covers joinery on the breadboard ends?
Thanks for the question, the wood is cherry. Not from the same source as the rest. Cheers!
Tom: Do you use birch for many of your projects? I’m finding here in Canada that the cheapest domestic wood is Oak or Birch — and I prefer the latter. As much as I’d like to use cherry it’s over $8.00 / bf here in NL.
Hey Gary, thanks for the question. I’ve used much more birch out East then here in Ontario- ; )
I like birch and there are some East Coast varieties that are just as nice as any cherry I’ve seen. lots of figure and flame.
Oak in the quarter sawn is also one of my favorites to work.
cheers!