Drydock pallet frame cabinet part 1

 We have a volunteer engineer apprentice on board. She is doing her initial training and is doing a great job. We talked a bit about making stuff one day where she was knitting a sweater. I told her a bit about what I had made earlier of woodworking, and she told me that one of her oldest friends were going to get married - and that she would like to make something for her as a wedding gift.

After discussing the various possibilities and showing her examples from my blog she set her mind on something like the small hanging cabinet with drawers which I made 9 years ago.

As per usual, we started off finding a decent pallet frame so we had some wood to make the cabinet out of. Since we are in drydock at the moment, and due to the nature of our ship, we have a lot of the carpenters machines ready set up in a warehouse on the yard. So stock preparation was much easier than it used to be. We have a small Makita planer that could trim the boards to the desired thickness in very little time. The table saw is out of service at the moment due to someone sawing into a hidden screw and activating the Sawstop. So for the ripping of boards we had to use the band saw.

Klara is new to woodworking, so I decided that a rabbeted construction would be the best bet, also given that we need to complete the cabinet before the wedding.
For some reason we don't have a router plane, so for the dado for the shelf, I had to make a small router plane out of a block of wood and a sharpened screw. That worked OK.
There is a Lie Nielsen rabbet block plane on board that we used for the rabbets. I like my Veritas skewed rabbet plane better, or the old combination plane that I have in my ocean going tool set. I didn't bring this set with me, so we had to rely on what we could find on board.

The case was assembled using some headless brads and glue. We had glued up a back panel which was reduced in thickness to 1 cm (3/8"). The back panel was attached in a rabbet with a dab of glue in the center and some more headless brads. The idea is that the back can then move a bit with the seasons without splitting.

I demanded that the face frame was built traditionally with mortise and tenons and rails and stiles. No mitered corners and quick solutions. Klara really liked the look of the face frame on one of my other old cabinets, where there is a small moulding on the inner part of the frame. In order to make something like that, we found an old moulding plane that someone has once donated to the ship, and it was still sharp enough to work. 

So far we have made one corner of the face frame, but today we are going to see of we can complete it and glue it onto the case.

Klara planing wood for the face frame.

The case with the back panel mounted

Klara using the moulding plane.

Saddle holders

Some of the products our little company makes are what is generally known as eventing inventory.

The idea behind this description is something you can use at any type of horse event where you will keep your horse(s) in a competition stable such as a giant tent stable. This will mean that you suddenly haven't got the access to the stuff you normally have at home such as holders for the halters and bridles, holders for the saddle blankets or for the saddle itself.

Generally people bring a saddle cabinet which is sort of a transportable cabinet on wheels with room for a saddle and other stuff. But in addition to this a lot of people like to have the stuff ready at hand and that is where our products excel.

For some time we have offered a saddle holder for two saddles. A lot of people like those because you can have the saddle on the upper peg and the saddle blanket in use on the lower peg. The spare saddle blankets are kept on a saddle blanket holder.

But we have had some inquiries for a saddle holder for one saddle. One of the ideas is that it takes up less space when you need to pack the trailer and your car, and some people keep the saddle blanket under the saddle even when it is stored during an event. 

This time at home I made one horse saddle holder. It is 20" high, and on the back of it there are two sheet metal hooks that are each 1.52" wide. These are used to hang the holder over the edge of the box where your horse is kept during the event.

The board is made of first grade pine, the edges are routed to look nice. The wood is then stained using some mahogany stain and finally it receives a double coat of spar varnish. That makes the stuff easy to wipe over with a damp cloth to remove all the dust that inevitably comes from being in a stable.

Saddle holders mounted on a pallet.

Single saddle holder.