The client is returning soon from a golf vacation and I’ve promised to have this cabinet ready!
Not to mention the fact that I will soon be helping Monika with this years’ “Advent Fenster” for the Retirement Home. This is basically a village-wide Advent Calendar where different homes or establishments decorate a window, one for each of the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Big Do-ins and a lot of work so I better finish up on this cabinet.
This particular cabinet will be a bit complicated to glue-up. Oh, to have extra hands for the assembly like Shiva. But I would be depressed when I had to destroy the universe at the end of the current cycle (don’t worry, we’ve probably got another 100 years…..).
Or is it death by prep? Okay, the really fun part of the project is mostly done but unlike the majority of the pieces I build (that only get oil and wax), this one is getting dye, stain, oil and wax. Yes, dye and stain…..
It’s nice to have some extra help around the shop, but he’s so excited to start working that I’m glad that my floor is covered with sawdust and shavings 🙂 .
The actual construction phase is nearly done but so far, none of the major parts have had glue applied. This was a good decision as it was necessary for me to insert and remove web-frame parts a number of times to get the fits just right, especially for the dividers, which I had some slight difficulty with. For any professional woodworkers reading this post (why would you be? 🙂 ), I’m sure you’ll have a chuckle, but at the time it sure seemed like a straightforward process…..
Yes, more mortise and tenons! This is my goal: When the next major earthquake hits Switzerland, like the big one near Basel in 1356, I want someone digging through the rubble to come across this cabinet and say “Wow! The building is gravel and dust but this cabinet held together like a steel safe! I think I’ll take it home.”
I really like frame and panels. For their size and weight they can make a piece of furniture incredibly strong, and they look nice too! The joinery used to make a frame is also one of my favorites, the humble mortise and tenon. While dovetails are the traditional mark of the skilled craftsman, I think mortise and tenons should be right up there with dovetails. Unfortunately, I think the M&T gets a bad rap because they are just as difficult to do as dovetails and yet, in most cases, will remain unseen.
After a brief foray into a coffee table project for my son, I come back to the pieces I have rough milled into parts for a liquor cabinet. A good feeling for how the wood is acclimating and how it might further move can be determined a week or two after the first rough dimensioning.
So, my son and granddaughter will be arriving soon and I’d really like to finish this coffee table in time for their arrival, not counting the oil finish, so I’ve put in a couple late nights and most of a weekend.
Wood is always surprising to me; when selecting the five boards for the top, one of them was a much lighter shade than the others, enough so that I asked my son if it would be alright to have this one piece down the middle (it was). By the time I had finished planing them to final dimensions, the difference was not so striking and, foreshadowing, once the oil finish was applied you couldn’t really tell the difference.
So this coffee table is coming along pretty well and I’ve made good progress the last few evenings. Every so often I’ll stop for a drink or to rest my feet (Someday, I’ll have a wooden floor to stand on. Or not.) and I’ll look ahead, thinking about the steps to come and if there is something that can be done easier now than later.
This goes without saying (therefore, we have to say it) however, there have been many times when I’ve thought that the next step was clear only to find out that something would have been easier done before the glue was applied.
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