Monday, March 5, 2012

Cabinet Beginnings


Finally back to some woodwork.
This being a veneer constructed cabinet, one of the first things to do is get substrates together. Here I'm laminating a few thinner sheets of plywood to make a thicker plywood. Sometimes I do this so that I can add an extra sheet or two of veneer to achieve a thickness I can't readily get or to just better control my materials and make a flatter sheet of ply than I often see stock.

While that/those cook I got on veneer duty. I'm using a plank of Walnut I've been hanging on to for a couple years now. I found this plank at the local commercial lumber yard and nabbed it without a project in mind. You may see why when looking at the end grain pictured above! Such tight grain! Such deep color, for a kiln dried plank. It has a a few small knots and one big one at one end, must have been shunned from a veneer auction or something. Well, now I have it and I am going to cut veneer out of it. I welcome a bit of that character that makes the wood "more" organic and breaths more life into the typically stale veneer we've all seen.

After veneer was cut I got a move on the "stand," which feels odd. The stand usually comes after the cabinet. Because of the kind of integration between cabinet and stand here, I'm needing/wanting to make the stand first. It still feels strange.

Got the stand joints dry fit and am continuing the mock-up to see how it works/looks.
The legs perhaps look a bit fat, even though a little will get cut away I may slim them down a hair. I actually have extra legs this time! So I can do a pretty exact mock-up with those.
I'm also a bit torn between open legs and adding lower stretchers. I think I'm going to have to get the frame and panel doors represented to better feel/see the kind of weights going on and to see how "line-y" it all gets.
Hmm.

5 comments:

Dan McC. said...

Hey Nick. Looks like it's going to be another great project! Question for you on the veneer, how come you chose to use a plywood core rather the other type (whose name escapes me right now) with a core made up of individual pieces of wood with each piece's grain arranged at 90 degrees to its neighbours?

Dan

Nicholas Nelson said...

Hey Dan! Hah I feel like I'm trying to scrape some rust off along the way with this one. Feels like a while since I last made a cabinet.

I believe you are describing Lumber-core, yes?
I've used lumber-core in the past and it's great, but more time consuming. I use it when making tapered or some curved work.
In this case it's pretty economic. I'm making flat panels, had plywood on hand and no Poplar.
Perhaps not the most inspired of answers heh.

Jason Herrick said...

Looks cool Nick! Question.... How thick do you think you will slice that veneer? I'm so used to working with such thin crap, I'm interested to know what thickness makes you comfortable. Thanks!

Nicholas Nelson said...

Hey Jason, thanks for the compliment!
Well the way I approach veneer is about the way I learned at IP.
I aim to cut it on the band saw at 3/32" then use the planer to clean them up which will leave me at around 1/16", perhaps aim a little thicker overall so that after joining and smoothing I'll be left with about 1/16". This time I'm seeing if I can come out slightly thinner than that... Scarey!

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