Sunday, March 18, 2018

Pilot ladder cabinet 4, back panel

A regular way to put a back on a small cabinet is to make a rabbet along the inside of the carcase, and then nail some boards on. these could be shiplapped or tongue & groove, or with a loose spline etc.
Another approach is to make a large floating panel that sits in a groove or use plywood.

All of the above mentioned solutions will sort of require that you have sufficient stock of an appropriate length - which should be equal to or longer than the height of the finished back.
In theory it is possible to put the boards on horizontally, but I have never seen it done, and It is really not a classic way to do it.

I only had two long pieces of steps, and after gluing up panels for the sides, there was not much left. I still need to use a bit for the front frame, but there was just enough for a frame on the back too.

The individual sticks were planed to a somewhat uniform thickness, and then I tried to lay out where the grooves for the small floating panels should be. I used my combination plane to make some grooves, and it ended up looking like shit. Some earlier owner had rounded the end of the blade that I used, and also softened one of the cutting edges. I hadn't noticed it, but it cause the blade to wander and the grooves were not very consistent. In addition the grain orientation helped to ensure that at least one of the sides had a hefty amount of tear out, so I wasn't too happy with the results.
I try to remind myself that very few people judge the quality of a completed cabinet on the appearance of the grooves hidden by the floating panels - and that actually made the thing a bit easier to live with.

In order to not complicate things further, I decided to assemble it by making bridle joints. The plan is to glue the entire panel assembly inside the carcase once it is complete, so it won't have to hold up to that much abuse - and it is technically also just a small cabinet.

I can feel that I am a bit out of training when it comes to something like this, because I managed to disregard the marriage marks on the stiles and also to make a few extra saw cuts in what was to become the lower rail.
It might have paid of handsomely too, if I had made sure that the sticks were of the same thickness before starting joining it all together.
I still feel fairly confident that I can fix the small errors with a sharp plane and a few swipes, so that the frame and panels will end up looking OK.

The next task will be to plane down the sides of the two larger panels, so they can me mounted in the frame and the assembly can be glued up.

Ripping to make the two large panels.

Frame loosely put together.

11 comments:

  1. Jonas,

    Back on board? And doing good work with a limited tool kit.

    "...very few people judge the quality of a completed cabinet on the appearance of the grooves hidden by the floating panels." So true and so easy to forget.

    ken

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    1. Hi Ken.

      Yes, I am back at work again :-)
      I think it is so easy to get carried away with that even the slightest details should be perfect. Off course we should always strive to make them looking the best they can, but I think that I might over react some times.

      I have decided to try only plane stuff like the back panels etc. with a scrub plane. It worked brilliantly on y DTC, and I think that it gives a nice bit of texture to a surface. And it is a lot faster too :-)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  2. Clever as usual...

    Bob, who never cease to be amazed

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    Replies
    1. Hi Bob

      You are much too kind :-)

      It certainly isn't the fastest way to make a back, but I sort of saw it as my best solution, Now I just hope that I will be able to make it work the way I intended.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. Hahahahahaha,

    That was a good one Ralph ;-)

    I guess that being a sailor, I have a tendency to not always use the most delicate expressions the language has got to offer.

    We actually do have some wiping paper near the bench, but we can't throw it in the toilet if need should be.
    The "shitter" system is a vacuum type, so the paper needs to be of the camping toilet model which dissolves easily.

    If people by accident flush out some of the wiping paper, the system clogs up, and then us engineers really have a problem! :-)

    Brgds
    Jonas

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  4. I like a frame and panel back, seems like higher quality. Which is not to take away from how good a boarded back can be.

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    1. Hi Jeff

      I agree that it seems like higher quality, but there is also a bit more work involved. I am a bit curious if the panels on the back will be distracting when you open the cabinet. Normally I like to see some boards perhaps with some sort of beading, but on the other hand, I can't really remember when I last paid attention to the back of a cabinet that I opened unless I had just completed it. :-)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  5. For what it is worth, i have seen this type of back panel arrangements before. And ye# it does look good.

    Bob

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    1. Hi Bob

      Thanks for the encouragement. It does indeed look as though someone has taken a bit of extra time to execute the back. In the future no one will know that it was because I didn't have some stock of the correct length :-)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  6. thanks for sharing beautiful information with us about hings
    i hope you will share some more info about hinges
    please keep share

    hinges

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Ranuk
      I am glad that you like my blog.
      I will leave your link in the comment since it is woodworking related.

      Best regards Jonas

      Delete