Friday, April 5, 2013

Shaker hanging cabinet from New Lebanon

This little cabinet is one that I have been wanting to build for a long time. I have thought that it would make a good project to do with my children in the workshop. So today we started it. (Popular woodworking magazine feb. 2011 page 48)

The first thing was to prepare some wood. I chose larch since I still have about 1000 board feet in the barn + 30 logs outside that I stil haven't processed. It might not be a classic furniture wood, but it is cheap and plentifull in my workshop.

Gustav (10) helped me with the planer, at first he was at the outfeed table, but he would like to be on the infeed table, since it looked more interesting. So we switched places. Asger (7) was in charge of removing the chips that came out of the planer. Therfore we didn't run the dust collector, but stopped the planer every now and then to clear it.
All the chips were put in a large cardboard box, and taken to the stable, so they could be spread in the boxes for the horses.
By the way, is there a more correct English word than box for the compartment inside the stable, where a horse is kept? In Denmark it is called a boks (the same pronounciation as box).

Finally we were ready to start with the real woodworking as Asger put it.
He boldly stated, that sawing was not real woodworking, but to use a hammer and some nails, a block plane and some sandpaper was the true way to work wood. I tried to tell him that I believed that sawing was a somewhat noble and fairly integral part of woodworking as well, but he was not convinced.

They both sawed out the rabbet and the dados in the sides, and removed the wast with a router plane. Gustav tried to use a chisel as well, since he didn't want to wait idle for the router plane.
Sadly Gustav made a mistake for the dado for the shelf, so it was not the same height on both his sides. We didn't glue it together, so we will fix it by shortening the sides  some other day. He was preparing for riding lessons anyway, so he stopped for the day.

Asger whom I had helped a little more than Gustav, was thrilled when we were nailing the carcase together. He asked if The Schwarz had ever made such a cabinet? I had to show him that it was actually Chris Schwarz himself who had written the article. He immediately responded that he intended to make his cabinet better looking! Talk about having a high self confidence.

I hadn't prepared the wood for the door and the back, since I didn't expect the project to go this far on the first day. So later I glued up some boards to make those wider things. The sad thing is, that I used a perfect 8" board for the first narrow parts, because I thought that I had some more. I didn't! The next width available was only 7".

I would love to do some woodworking in this weekend, but Gustav is active in driving motocross. This absorbs an enormous amount of time and energy. The bike has to be maintained, training always involves a parent (me when I am not at sea), The Moto cross club expect and count on that parents willingly devote entire days for tending the track and participating as officials whenever a race is being held etc.
So yesterday I was summoned to be an official tomorrow (Saturday) from 07:30 to 17:30.
Yesterday and today I have been toiling with repairing the bike so it will be ready for some special training on Sunday held 2 hours drive away from our home..
That is the bulk of the weekend. The positive things about it is that we get to spend some quality time together Gustav and I, and I get a lot of semi fresh air with two stroke smoke and a lot of dust.

I hope that you will all have a nice weekend doing something that you will enjoy.

Asger collecting chips from the planer

Gustav and Asger are making dados

Asger sanding the roundings of the exterior bottom

Asgers cabinet at the end of the day

The fiercest competitor of idle hands


15 comments:

  1. I love to see children learning. Keep up the good work.

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    1. Thanks. I think the key is to make some projects that doesn't take too long. And they still have to look decent, so they really get a morale boost when looking at the finfished project and thinking WOW did I really build this.
      Jonas

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  2. Stall is the word you're looking for...

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    1. Thanks. So the horses are kept in a stall inside a stable. That meant that I learned something new today :-)

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    2. Stall is a word you can also use in motocross, as a verb.

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  3. Hi Jonas,

    Box also works in this context - a loose box is a stable or area within a stable where you can keep a horse without having to tie it up.

    I'm hopefully going to start on some projects with my eldest daughter this weekend - first up is a boot jack for getting wellies off with.

    John

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    1. Hi John
      Sorry that your comment never made it to the blog, but the automatic spam filter had removed it. I really wonder why. So I redirected the comment to the post.

      By your definition, I think our horses are in a box. Since they are not tied up while they are there.
      Have fun with the boot jack.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. The verb stall is not a good one, at least not in moto cross. Unless off course, that it is someone else who is stalling.

    I had a "fabulous" day today: Being a flag official at the Danish quad motocross championship on a dry dusty track. strong winds and a temperature of 3 dgC (probably 37 fahrenheit). We had a small shower and also a little snow just to remind us of how nice it would have been to stay at home in the workshop. On top of it all, the race was rather boring.

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    1. Your bike will stall if the engine isn't stable.

      Haha.

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  5. Great to see your boys in the shop. I'm not familiar with Larch as a wood. I'll have to look it up. I like the project you are making. I have the same plan and I've thought about making it but I'm not sure where I would use it. By the way, that's a nice work bench you have made there.
    Bill

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  6. Hi Bill
    I don't think that larch is used much as a furniture Wood, since it contains a lot of sap. It is also very prone to warp. But I suppose that also depends on how wet it is. It splits rather easily, but otherwise it is nice Wood to Work in my opinion. The top of the workbench is made out of larch as well.

    Due to some disagreements regarding if one should wear a sweater while in the workshop, the building is temporarily on hold until we achieve a common understanding of the clothing issue.

    In addition to this the entire weekend has been in the sign of moto cross. And just as I thought I could have a break from the maintenance of the bike, the seal on the left front fork leg has started to leak. So it is a never ending story..

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  7. I know that Larch grows in North America and I think in some places it is used for fences because it resists rot. Other than that I know little else.
    Boys will be boys I guess you can say. My little girl is the same way.
    Bill

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  8. Nice work on the cabinet! I enjoyed reading along as you built the project. I recently completed the same project over the Christmas break. It's a decent little cabinet, I also opted to omit the clenched nails on the door as I didn't like how they looked.
    I teach Industrial Arts in Saskatchewan but am originally from Nova Scotia in Canada.
    Nice pictures of the North Sea, you've been in some fairly heavy weather.

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    1. Thanks for the nice comment.

      I normally use clenched nails on carpentry items such as barn doors etc. but I decided it could be interesting to test on a piece of furniture. It was a real hit with Asger (7) since deliberately bending nails was a sort of forbidden thing. He has later commented on me clenching some nails for a door, that they looked like the ones he made.

      I already checked out your blog :-) My parents had the same jobs as you, sloyd and home economics. So that is one powerful combination.

      I like to make small projects that involves the children, but I normally don't make a test piece first. After all my "class" is only 2 pupils.
      Your idea of making a test piece before attempting an entire class to make the project is a good idea. I am sure it saves a lot of frustration and commotion in the class.

      Happy New Year
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  9. Our blog can be found at http://colinandtanith.blogspot.ca/ if you want to check it out!

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