Monday, April 2, 2018

Pilot ladder cabinet 10, completion

Two days ago I glued in the back panel, and yesterday I managed to smooth the outside surfaces of the carcase. I had to place the cabinet on the floor, and push it against the workbench with a small piece of wood in between, to be able to do a decent job.
I have also glued in some drawer guides and drawer runners. These are merely flat sticks that the drawer will run on and register to.
I tried to sand the outside a bit, but I think that I'll wait with the final sanding until I get home. This wood is so hard that I think a quick run with an electric sander would be better than me spending forever with a sanding block.
My plan has been to give it a coat of clear varnish as a finish, so I might as well do a proper job of preparing the wood for that.

Today I installed the hinges and mounted the door. As per the instructions of Robert Wearing's "The essential woodworker" a hinge on a cabinet should be let into the door, too keep a continuous line of the stile.
The text and drawings are easily understood, and mounting the entire door was a smooth operation without any unfortunate hick-ups.

Before the final mounting of the hinges, I glued in the knob for the door.
The door knob and the drawer pull were both turned yesterday, and while not identical, they still look a bit the same, and that is fine with me.

Our daughter Laura has expressed a genuine interest in this project, and I asked her the other day if she would like the cabinet at some point, and she did. She is left handed, so I decided to mount the hinges on the left hand side of the door, to make the cabinet more user friendly for a lefty.
Actually I am not sure if that is the normal way, but I find it most natural to have the hinges on the right, so I guess that mounting them on the other side would make sense for someone left handed.
I figured that she might as well participate in deciding where the small metal plate should go, and I also have some nice small round headed brass screws at home that would make the mounting look fine.

With the door in place, I made a small toggle to keep it closed, and the final work was to chisel MMXVIII inside the door frame on the hinge side.

Now it will be a matter of finding a cardboard box and make the cabinet ready for the flight home.


Thoughts about the build:

-The pilot ladder wood is definitely harder to work than my regular spruce/pine pallet sides. But I was lucky this time that it didn't twist and cup too badly.

-I would have preferred a regular back made of T&G boards, but since it wasn't really an option, this 3 panel solution was also OK. It took a long time to make and the joinery is not of a very impressive accuracy.

-The door came out pretty well, and making the small beading on the frame went surprisingly smooth. In addition I think that this small detail gives a lot of visual interest and helps to make the door look more "done".

-I was afraid that the cabinet might be a bit too deep, but I think it looks OK. The final test will be once it is mounted on a wall somewhere.
One of my colleagues remarked that it looked a lot like a small bedside cabinet, so that could also be a possible future for it.

-I haven't registered the amount of time that I have used on the build, but I guess it is somewhere around 60 hours. So it isn't a fast build in any way, but with stock preparation entirely by hand, it isn't a surprise.


Pilot ladder cabinet completed.

Left hinged door.

Door and drawer opened.

Not too deep after all.

Chiseling out for the hinges.

14 comments:

  1. It turned out really good! What a nice design. No wonder Laura wanted it.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brian
      Thanks a lot. Coming to think of it, the colour is pretty close to that of elm (such a nice wood)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you for the nice comment.
      I hope my wife won't be upset because I promised my daughter that she could have it, but if that's the case I guess I'll have to see if I can make another one like it.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. No need for apologies on the back, it looks very well done.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Tom.

      Thanks for the nice comment. The back side is after all just that, so the front is what will be see the most.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. Looks great Jonas! I particularly like the bead on the door frame. I have been away for a little with limited internet access, so I will have to go back and check out the project details. Well done sir!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Bill

      Great to hear from you :-)
      I am glad that you like the cabinet. It is funny how such a small detail as a beading can have a fairly large impact on how the end result looks.
      I am afraid that there aren't any real smart details or novel ideas employed in the build, just a bit more work than usual because of the hard dense wood.

      Thank you.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  5. Nice... even nicer understanding its provenance, bravo, well done!
    BTW that back panel detail, multiple inset panels, is typical also.
    In some case it works even better than the T&G boards, such as in this case.

    Bob, taking Rudy out for a walk
    Bob

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    1. Hi Bob

      Thanks for the nice comment
      My only problem with this back panel is that the back is not entirely flat on the inside, so the shelf meets the center stile of the back panel first, and then there is maybe 1/8" of air between the actual panels and the shelf.
      So in theory something could fall off the shelf in the back. Not that it will be a major problem since it will just land 6" lower on the division between the cabinet and the drawer space.

      Brgds
      Jonas (who will hopefully be walking Bertha Friday).

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  6. Very nice piece of work, Jonas. The proportions, the wood, the beading, the look of the back panel with the door open, everything looks good. Thanks for letting us follow along.
    Daughters can get pretty much anything they want from us if they ask the right way. Seems like a pretty good system to me. :)

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    1. Hi Jeff
      Thanks for the very nice comment. I am glad that you liked the build series.
      I agree that daughters can get pretty much anything they want, but I am actually happy that she would like it.
      It would be much worse if she didn't want it at all :-)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  7. This turned out very well! As a lefty I'm sure she will appreciate the thought. in my experience, it's not so much about handedness but access direction so you don't have to move "around" the door when using. Still, since you don't have a fixed location in mind I think you did the right thing.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jeremy.

      Sorry for the late reply, but I am home again, so I have a hard time finding the spirit to fire up the computer and get on-line.

      I discussed the case with Laura, and she also said that she was so used to right hinged cabinets, that she never thought about that it might be easier the other way round.

      I still need her to have a look at the cabinet, and determine where she would like the small metal plate to go.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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