Cabinetry work, just do it I say!

[SwampDonkey]

 A little bit of "learn as you go" here. For now, the picture is only in my mind, not put to paper. This project involves black cherry that was air dried for 10 years in the barn, stacked and stickered. Fare bit of defect, as our cherry is nothing like PA cherry for quality. Work with what you have when your poor. ;D

I have learned so far that this stuff has to be put together with narrow pieces of 3-4" in width glued up with attention to grain direction, flip one up, flip one down. My first glue up I never paid it much attention, worst stuff I ever worked with. So I ran that mess back through the table saw and started again. Right now I have the sides, bottom and top all glued up. No pictures yet until I at least trim the ends and sand the pieces.


Now, what I'm up to is making some legs and I'm not too sure if that is going to work out to my liking as of yet. It's not going that great.

I'm having a time of it just getting some turning stock cut out of some air dried cherry cants (6x6's). Once it begins to dry further in the shop a surface check develops on a face (several actually) and travels right through to the other side within a 12 hour period. Not every piece, but enough to make a man want to split firewood at times. The first ones I cut out are 3.5-4" square when sawed and planed. Got the checking going on. I cut away from any pith wood to. Today I cut new ones a little smaller to around 3" and squared them up to 2-3/4" to see how they turn out by morning. The pieces are sitting on a table off the floor about 10 feet from the stove. I want them to dry a few days in the heat of the shop before I round them out (rough them out) on the lathe. I'm hoping for a leg 12" tall in the end. At the moment I still haven't drawn up a template for them yet.

This is the project with the inlays and borders to be set into.

[isawlogs]

Cherry fire wood sure smells nice in the house       

[tomb]

I can feel your pain about cracks showing up in the cherry after its been cut to shape.  I recently finished a cherry tabletop for a customer, and it was beautiful.  I was very happy with it, I even called the customer to pick it up.  I brought the top into the house to stay acclimated to being inside the house.  Three days later when they came to pick it up, what did I find.  Thats right a crack in the end grain that ran in about 6".

>:(  How embarrasing!!!  I have never had this happen before from any wood.  I have had this cherry for over two years, and the tree was cut over 5 years ago and stickered the entire time.  I brought the cherry into the shop and cut it long, then let it acclimate to my shop for 10 days.  Temps in the storage building were in the 50s, so not terribly cold.  Then over a couple of weeks I milled everything and glued up the panels.  Gave it a week to dry and then cut the oval shape and started sanding.  It was awsome looking, even slightly figured!  But in the end it developed the end grain crack. :'(
Like you said, live and learn.  Thankfully it can be fixed, its wood afterall!  Good luck with your project!

[beenthere]

tomb
It's the pits when that happens.

But check your relative humidity when the room temp is 50° and calculate the equilibrium mc that the wood will seek at that RH.
Then do the same for "in the house" temp and RH. Probably a lot of drying was going on when you brought the piece in the house, sans the crack. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, it's usually 30 % in the house and I bet dryer in the shop. The temps can get uncomfortable in there at times. Sure is a great dry room none-the-less. ;D  It's been a wet fall here to, if it isn't raining the air is full of flurries that don't add up to anything but a good indication that the air is pretty much saturated. Says 90% outside right now. When January comes that should change to 45% or so and sun.

[SwampDonkey]

Here are some pieces I'm drying for the legs.



The knot on the left will be gone as long as there is no end checking when I cut to 12" lengths, otherwise I may cut it out when carving  the leg. Notice some rings are white in this cherry. I've not seen cherry do this in some I cut on the farm. This cherry is from another area down south of here, I picked it up at a mill. It was low quality stuff in my opinion.



Here I rough sanded the top with a hand held belt sander. 36 x 24" maybe 1/16" narrower.

[jimparamedic]

character that is what its called not cracks or whorps or knots love that character

[SwampDonkey]

I've upscaled your image to 300 x 400 tomb, so it it a little closer, using the width and heights tags in the image code. Looses a little sharpness because of loss of pixel density.

Code Select Expand

[img width=300 height=400]https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums
/userpics/17796/DPP_00232.JPG[/img]

[SwampDonkey]

This is an experimental leg I roughed out on the band saw. I used a template and drew the outline on one face , removed the material on the outline. Then, made a quarter turn to the left, drew the outline on that face and removed the waste material.



I will now mount on the lathe and turn the round symmetrical foot at the bottom. The rest will probably make friends with the belt sander. Before sanding, a centreline will be drawn on each quarter for a reference line. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Rough sanded cabinet leg.







So who ya gonna come to for custom furniture legs? Look at that, balanced like a professional. Now lets do it 3 more times. ;D

smiley_beatnik  smoke break

[Bill Gaiche]

SwampDonkey to far for me to come. But that really looks nice. Making three more like that one would be a challenge for me much less just one. Will be glad to see your project when its done. bg

[SwampDonkey]

Bill, all part of the show, to carry on jokingly sometimes. Call it pride I guess. ;) :D

[Mooseherder]

That's a good lookin' leg SD.

[ScottAR]

First time I could ever tell another man "nice leg."    :D :D

[Bill Gaiche]

SwampDonkey, a little pride is what keeps us going. You should be proud of your abilities. Have a good day, bg

[Phorester]

Now we know that Swamp is a leg man    ;D

[SwampDonkey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EXXZVdUJ98



8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[northwoods1]

Here are some pics of a leg I am reproducing at the moment. It is a cabriolet leg in the Queen Anne style w/ lions paw feet. This would have been similar to what Chippendale was producing in the 18th century.
Wallace Gusler carved the leg in the pics he worked at Colonial Williamsburg for 40+ years at one time as head of the cabinet shop. He taught me a lot , how to carve a leg like this for example :D
A leg like this is 100% made without the use of any power tools. A person doesn't need any for this type of work, and it is not as difficult to do as it may look :D The most difficult part of it is having a good understanding of Baroque and Rococo design because without that a person will never get anywhere.
I think it is amusing that you posted that vid of ZZ playing legs. That is a good analogy, and it is exactly what your table leg there should remind you of when you look at it... an attractive womens leg.
I have one of these legs carved and I need 3 more, took me about 40 hours of work to produce the one.

[SwampDonkey]

That's awesome northwoods.  8) I can believe the number of hours into such a work of art. That's pain staking. You could never sell for profit around here because of the hours into what some of us do. Heck, all the furniture shops for miles closed up, so you know there is no money for the time. And besides that, someone like myself isn't running for production, just hobby. I don't intend to ever sell anything. Besides, I'm still learning this art and pretty proud of what I can do.  8)

[SwampDonkey]

Here is my method for my legs I'm using. Machines were invented to make life easier. ;)

Here I have my pattern drawn out and cut my template from card stock. This is like looking at a slice which is dead centre of your leg, the thickest dimension.


Here I lay my template on my work piece and trace the lines. After tracing this side I rotate the piece to the left and trace the other face. However, notice I go near one corner where the leg will be square. The two faces I trace my pattern to will be flat and at 90 to one another. In this style leg the bottom trim of the cabinet will be 4" wide corning onto this leg corner (butted up against), which as stated, will stay flat and square as the trim buts onto it.


Make sure your table top is square to the blade running vertical by checking with a square. I don't trust scale marks on El Cheapo machines from Taiwan.

Here I cut away the waste on the band saw. Your stock should be as square as possible, notice a little run out on the next picture. This can be corrected as I always leave a 1/16" error margin (a little thicker) than is marked. I'm am very careful and slow making my cuts.


Here I take my template and retrace the opposite side to be cut using the old marks as guides where the previous cut left pencil marks behind.


Second side roughed out on the band saw. Notice the two faces that have no cutting (smooth) for the bottom trim of the cabinet to but onto.



Here I find centre of my foot. I also find centre on the top by measuring half the distance from the square corners which I know to be 1-1/4 inches and mark centre with a square.


Here I mounted the piece and turned the foot round.


Here I am attempting to show that I freehand a line on each face in the centre from the 4" mark down the leg to were I rounded it within 1-1/4 on the bottom if I recall the measurement here. This picture shows a pencil line extending to the top. But, this section at the top gets tapered from the 4" line to the corner to the right. So the top of the leg down to the 4" starts by taking almost no wood off at the top and follows the taper of the leg, essentially the shape of the template, which is the apex of the leg. This corner gets rounded all the way to the top of the foot. The rest of the corners are rounded from the 4" mark to the top of the foot as well. You can see the 4" mark (horizontal line) drawn with a square for reference (on all 4 sides). One line facing the camera is at the blunt tip of the eraser, hard to see. You use the centre lines drawn in pencil as a guide for the rounding of the corners.



This picture shows progress part way as we round the piece out on a table belt sander. See the pencil marks are still visible as we round each corner (quarter) of the leg. Once I round these corners I sand the foot on the belt sander to match and make sure that the corner in the previous caption is a smooth curve from top of leg to top of foot, like a French curve (left side). From the 4" mark down to the bottom of the foot is (will be) a smooth curve also (right side).


A second leg roughed out for good measure. ;D



smiley_beatnik

[SwampDonkey]

All 4 roughed out for now.  ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Been working on some mortises in the base of my cabinet today. I just got in my 1/2" Sorbey Mortise chisel so I went to work on this piece of cherry. Probably a 4 hour job today.



The holes are 1/2"x13/16"x7/8"  the 4 middle ones (length wise) are 1/2"x1"x7/8".

[Left Coast Chris]

Both the legs and the leg video are over the top 8) 8)

Can't wait to see the table.... 

[SwampDonkey]

Looking for an opinion, and there are a good many on this place. ;D

I'm undecided on one aspect of the project. I think I have the answer to be honest. But I'll shoot this out there.



This here is a facing rail on the front. I believe I want flush mount drawers, one on each side of those middle stiles. And this is a separator, between the drawers to be at the top, and the doors on the bottom. This is 3" wide material. I want to dove tail the ends of this face rail and slight down dovetails on the side panels. I also want it lap jointed against that middle stile, OR dovetail a track to slide down from the top of the stile, where it will be positioned as a separator between drawers and doors. And making a flush fit on the stile. I once had thought I wanted one of these at the top under that top rail or to face the top rail because of grain. But, that isn't the way to do it at all. Would look like crap. ;)

As a side note: The top rail fastens the cabinet top on slotted holes so it floats with shrinkage and swelling of the seasons. There is a second one for the back of the cabinet, both half dovetailed to the side panels.



This is a top rail that is tenoned for the middle stile and will be half dove tailed to the side panels. Meaning the dovetail does not go all the way through the panel material thickness.

Well, I think I made my own decision, as I typed all this out and put thoughts to fingers.  ;)

Anyway, something new to look at so you know I am still working on my cherry cabinet.
The real interesting stage is to get everything fit in sequence and glued without screwing up. :D

[SwampDonkey]

This is probably one of my best purchases this year.



First off, I have an M2 arbour, keyed chuck and this flexible shaft.



I use it with this inflatable sanding cylinder, just use a foot pump to inflate to as firm as you want. Comes with 4 sanding sleeves, but I bought extras. I sanded smooth my cabinet legs with this little baby.

If you have a dust collection system, it comes with the dust collection attachments. Hoot! The whole shoot'in match is of high quality, the flexible shaft is a Swedish made tool.

Oh yeah!  8) 

You don't have to buy Chinese junk. ;)