Making a masterpiece.

I forgot to update.......

2009-08-02T19:59:00.016+10:00

It has been almost two months since my last update, but I have been busy working on my masterpiece. I will post more photos over the next week, as the piece has advanced a fair way now.

After veneering the doors I started work on the legs and base frame. I decided to use the Festool Domino machine to joint the base together, as this is both strong and fast. I used 2 of the 10 x 50mm Dominos in each joint.

I also used the Domino machine to cut some slots in the rails which will later be used to attach the leg frame to the carcase.

After all the Domino slots were cut I hand sanded all the inside faces to 320 grit.

Next the base frame was glued up in sections.

Bessey 'K' Body clamps were used for the clamp up.

Here is the glued up base frame.

The complete outside still needs to be sanded and I might add a shadow line, where the cabinet will later sit on top of the frame.

Work has also started on hinging the doors.

Careful marking out is critical at this stage.

Each hinge is individually numbered and marked out.

I am using some of my own 50mm 'GERNER HINGES' (BH-03) which are available at:

http://www.gernerhinges.com

Here is the fitted hinge, attached with a temporary pozi drive head screw. I will only use the brass screws in the final fit up to prevent damaging them.

Once the hinges were fitted to the doors, I positioned the doors in the carcase with the right gaps using veneer. Each hinge position was then marked onto the carcase to it could be fitted exactly.

Using a Makita trimmer router I carefully routed out the hinge rebates in the carcase and later squared the corners with a chisel.

That's it for today, but I will post some more over the next few days.

The Doors

2009-06-08T15:24:00.008+10:00

This week I started on the doors......

Firstly I calculated the exact size of each door and was then able to work out the size of the plywood required, after subtracting 3mm for the Huon Pine edging. For this project I am using very high grade 18mm Russian Birch Plywood.

Next I clamped on the Huon Pine edging and glued with Garrett Wade 202GF.

A thicker edge (35mm) is required where the doors will meet.

Today, I trimmed all the Huon Pine edgings back flush with the plywood and then layed out all the veneers for the doors. At this stage it is critical to clearly mark each piece veneer in the correct book matched order.

Pressing time !! I carefully rolled on the glue (202GF) to the veneers and made sure I applied only just enough glue to the natural edge size of the veneer.

To ensure that the veneers didn't move while being pressed I used some headless pins to prevent them sliding. I pressed each panel one side at a time in the vacuum press, for 2 hours per side. Once each side was dry I trimmed it off with the trimmer router to ensure the edges didn't break during the next pressing.

Now you can get an idea how my piece will look.

Stunning natural edge Fiddleback Blackwood, with a Huon Pine detail between each door.

I think I might just start on the cabinet base tomorrow, while the drawer fronts are pressing.....

Cutting the pins, rebates, sanding & glue up the carcase.

2009-05-17T20:24:00.009+10:00

First thing today was to get the back panels glued up. I had already machined these to 6mm and just had to lay them out in the right order to trim to correct width.

The panels are booked matched and once each piece was cut to width, I glued them up with Garrett Wade 202GF glue. I really like the Bessey K-Body clamps.

While the panels were drying I went back onto the dovetails. I marked out the pins on the side of the carcase, using my sharp Japanese marking knife. This step is the most important step in the whole process of dovetail cutting. If you don't mark accurately now, you will end up with gaps on your dovetails.

Next it was onto the bandsaw to rough out the waste, using a series of lots of cuts.

As you can see, most of the waste has been removed.

Next it was onto the bench and a 32mm thick MDF guide was clamped on the work and I slowly chiseled back to the marking lines.

With the work in my main vice I further pared back to my marking lines. This was very hard work in this exceptionally hard Fiddleback Blackwood. I had to again sharpen my tools 3 times for each row of dovetails.

Here is the result, after several hours work. A perfect fit.....

I was going to fit the two central dividing walls using a sliding dovetail from the rear of the carcase, however upon measuring the panels which I had already glued up, I found they were not long enough. Instead of machining some more wood I decided to just Domino them in. This is what happens when you are not working to exact drawings or plans.

Next I went back to the back panels I had glued up earlier and measured them for thickness and set up the trimmer router to rout the rebates for the back panels. This was done using a 5mm router bit, in two passes.

Out with the Festool random orbit sander. I sanded only the inside faces, using 120, 180, 240 grits.

Later in the day the whole piece was ready for glue up. I decided to do this in stages, as I wanted time to make sure the whole carcase was square. First I glued and clamped in the two central dividers and made sure these were square. I then clamped on the two ends to the bottom.

After several hours I removed the clamps and glued and clamped on the top. I again used Garrett Wade 202GF for this and watered it down slightly, as my dovetail joints were very tight. Note the special clamping block I made from Plywood, to put pressure on the pins only. I checked the diagonal measurements to make sure the carcase was square and only had to make s very slight adjustment to my clamps.

I am very happy with today's progress. I now have a nice perfectly square dovetailed carcase. Next I have to begin thinking about fitting the back panels and then it is onto veneering to doors and drawer fronts.

PROGRESS !! - Dovetailing the carcase.

2009-05-09T13:43:00.019+10:00

During the week, since my last post, I have cleaned up the glued panels and have run them through the sander one more time to 120grit. They came up really well, perfectly flat, with perfect joints. I then worked out the final carcase size and cut the top, bottom and two ends to size on the Altendorf.

Next I was ready for the fun part - Dovetailing the carcase. I got out my marking tools and worked out my spacing on an offcut. I just wanted something that looked pleasing to the eye, but it took a few goes to get it right.

I used my Colen Clenton marking gauge to scribe a line for the depth of the dovetails. This is one serious tool.

I find dividers are the quickest and most accurate way to make the spacings for dovetails.

On the blackwood however it was hard to see my small marks, so I highlighted them with pencil.

Next I used my Colen Clenton 1:8 dovetail gauge to mark the angle for each dovetail. I could have just used a bevel, but this tool is just so nice to hold and use.

Once everything was marked out I shaded in with pencil the areas to be removed. I find this helps to avoid errors as it clearly shows the waste.

As the carcase is 1.8m long I had to stand on a ladder to cut the dovetails with my Japanese Dozuki saw. I found this did not work well as there was just too much panel unsupported above my workbench. Because this Blackwood is so hard, it was just too hard to cut to the line this way.

So what did I do ? I reverted to the bandsaw. It was just the ticket - fast and accurate.

The end of my panel was supported by a roller stand.

Here is how it is done.

I made a series of cuts in the waste area.

Next I clamped on a 32mm thich MDF guide, which greatly helps to keep the line straight and shoulders of the dovetails square.

Tap, Tap, Tap, I carefully removed the waste, working back to my line with my Japanese chisels, and then very carefully paring back the sides of each dovetail, right on the line.

Here are some of the Japanese chisels I used. 25mm paring chisel, 19mm Boxwood handle chisel, 6mm Oak handle chisel, 6mm paring chisel. This Blackwood was so hard I had to sharpen these 4 chisels 3 times, for each row of dovetails.

Here is the result

Dovetails are now cut, tomorrow I'll tackle the pins....

Gluing the carcase panels

2009-05-03T20:52:00.007+10:00

Due to other work commitments I have not progressed very far with my masterpiece this week.

Today however I managed to Domino joint the panels for the carcase and to glue them up.

I used the smallest Dominos - 5 x 30mm, three for the carcase end panels and dividers and 6 in the carcase top. To glue up I brushed on the glue to get an even spread to ensure a good strong joint.

For clamping I use my Bessey K-Body clamps, which are ideal for this task. Here is the carcase end panel clamped up.

Here is the carcase Top panel clamped up. Note the small 'F' clamps on the end to line up the face on the ends. 15 Minutes after clue up I scraped the glue off the surface, which is much easer than when dry.

Starting the carcase.

2009-04-24T20:13:00.011+10:00

Today I started on preparing the wood for the carcase. Firstly I spread out the timber I had allocated for the top, bottom, ends and internal dividers and decided what would go where.

Of course the best went into the top and next best into the ends. Note the triangle I have drawn on in chalk. This clearly shows me the match and edge to be joined incase the parts get mixed up later on.

The two ends will come from one length, so next I had to cut through to separate the the parts.

The next step was was to thickness all these pieces (which ranged in thickness from 26-23mm) to the final thickness of 21 mm. I had already straightened them on the jointer, so it was just a matter of putting them through the thicknesser - See movie below.

Two things happened during this process. Firstly a knot came loose in one of the boards for the internal dividers. I decided to glue it back in and will hide this somewhere towards the back of the cabinet. Not wanting to wait for the glue to dry I decided to just screw it back on - strong enough to continue my machining.

The second thing was that I was getting far too much tearout in the surface of this Fiddleback Blackwood, even though my cutters were razor sharp.

At 22mm I decided to revert to the widebelt sander, which worked a treat. I was happy with the final thickness of 20.5mm, sanded to 80 grit, with no tearout at all...... Very happy indeed.

Next step was to straighten the edge of each board to joint together. Some people do this on the jointer or with handplanes, however I prefer to use my Altendorf panel saw. Accurate to 0.1mm over 3m I reckon this is far more accurate and easier than any other method I know of. With a 48 TPI blade I get a perfect edge for jointing. See the movie below.

Tomorrow I will see about Domino jointing these boards together and then gluing them up.

About the design

2009-04-07T21:05:00.007+10:00

The only thing I did on the piece today was to look again at the Fiddleback Blackwood. You see, I've got a business (http://www.antongerner.com.au) to run and this piece is in my spare time. I've put some water on the surface so you can see what the colour and grain will look like. STUNNING !!!

Before I go any further with this project I thought I'd explain a little about the design. When I first had the idea for this piece I completed many pages of small thumbnail ideas. This got the basic design out of my head and helped narrow down the direction I would take.

Watch the video below where I explain some more detail about the design.

Sanding the veneers.

2009-04-06T21:12:00.012+10:00

So, what did I do today ?

I was very interested to see how the veneers for the doors were going to turn out, so I decided to jump ahead in the project a little by sanding these down to thickness. I thought I had better make sure they were going to be OK before I went ahead and made the carcase.

To sand the veneers through the wide belt sander down to thickness I made a simple sled from blockboard which has a thin back stopper to hold the veneers from slipping. This sled is needed because the sander can only sand down to 3mm and very thin material it tends to compress into the feed belt which sometimes creates an uneven thickness.

Since my veneers vary in thickness a little I measured the thickest at 4.3mm and slowly sanded them down, 0.1mm per pass, one by one until they were all clean at a nice final thickness of 1.89mm.

For the sanding I used my Casolin Wide belt sander with straight 80 grit. It did a stunning job and I am very happy with the end result. See the process in the two videos below.

CLOSE UP OF THICKNESS SANDING VENEERS DOWN TO 1.89mm

ANTON GERNER SANDING BLACKWOOD VENEERS DOWN TO 1.89mm

Rough cutting the timber.

2009-03-23T21:06:00.015+11:00

After spending some time measuring and looking at the timber I have started to rough machine it. This involved bandsawing some 75mm thick stock into boards which will become the cabinet top and sides. The photo shows how the boards will be bookmatched.

I then rough cut all the pieces one by one, carefully working out which piece would go where. At this stage I like to do all my rough cutting on the bandsaw, as it allows me to cut where I want safely, when working with larger pieces of timber. There is also much less waste than when using the panel saw.

The doors for this cabinet will feature 350mm wide panels of Fiddleback Blackwood in one piece. I decided to cut 1 exceptional piece of the Fiddleback Blackwood into eight 3mm veneers, which will be used for the front and backs of the doors.

In order to cut these veneers I knocked up a quick (no time to waste) melemine higher bandsaw fence to rest the 350mm wide block of wood against. I clamped this down to make sure the thing didn't move and coated the surface with wax to reduce friction. After changing to a brand new blade I slowly began to cut. Man the bandsaw just ate through the nice and dry Blackwood. I didn't rush, just took my time and let the machine do the work. After every cut I lightly passed the face over the jointer again to make sure it was flat.

At the end of the day I now have a nice pile of rough cut pieces, ready for the next step - machining. It may not be until the end of the week before I get back to this piece, so I have taped up the pieces, labeled them and put them aside.

The project begins...

2009-03-23T20:53:00.004+11:00

I've had a pile of amazing Tasmanian Fiddleback Blackwood which I've been wondering what to do with for years. Last Friday night an idea finally came me for a project that would do this wood justice - a cabinet.

I spent some hours that night trying to design it on paper and couldn't stop thinking about it all night. Upon waking early on Saturday morning I quickly went to my workshop and dug out the timber from under a pile of boards, right at the bottom of the timber rack. It was dated November 1998.

I looked at the timber. I looked at my drawings. I thought.

I was excited, but something was not right. I suddenly realised that working to drawings on this project was a bad idea. For this project I decided I need to follow my instincts and just create as I go, only loosely sticking to my initial design concept in my head.

Over the coming months I am going to document the process in making this cabinet from start to finish. There is no deadline and I am making it in my "spare" time. I might exhibit it or I might auction it to the highest bidder - I don't know yet.

What I do know though is that this timber is exceptional and the grain and texture will form part of the design.

I hope you will follow me as I create a masterpiece.