Beth's built-in: the face frame, part three

In my last post, I completed the cross pieces of the face frame. This post is all about joining the cross pieces to the side rails and completing the beading that surrounds the face frame openings...

Pocket screw joinery. Driving screws into oak means that I use a pipe clamp to lock the pieces in place while I drive the screw.

Completed. The cross pieces are attached to the side rails. Note the location of the pocket screws and the slight 45 degree cuts at the interior bead corners.

Making beads. After routing beads in the edges of this board, I use my table saw to cut them away.

Cutting the 45's. Next, I begin the process of fitting the beads. Here I cut 45 degree angles to match up to the 45 degree cuts on the cross pieces.

Slipping the beads in place. Note the beads already slipped into place in the drawer openings to the left of the bead I am about to position in place. Click the photo to enlarge.

The face frame - almost complete. Right now the face frame is not attached to the case. I also have to sand it.

I had hoped to have the face frame attached to the case, but I ran out of time. I plan to use mostly pocket screws for this process. Next will be work on the drawers. I had planned to have drawer fronts of quarter sawn oak with tiger maple inserts, but I am loving the quarter sawn oak, I am leaning towards keeping it simple with just oak. I also am planning on using concealed drawer slides, which will be a first for me.

I really like the look of this project, especially the beads and the size of the graduated drawer openings.

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Have a question or comment? Leave yours by clicking on the "Comments - post yours here" link below. And if you like this post or this project, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here.

My top three projects:

1. My coffered ceiling project. 2. The Scott Bookcase. 3. My foyer project.

Beth's built-in: the face frame, part two

After spending this past Sunday adjusting my jointer, I am back in business on my daughter's bathroom built-in cabinet. The really cool quarter-sawn red oak I bought from Woodcraft comes surfaced on both faces, but the edges are rough sawn, so a jointer is critical to finishing the surfacing process.

If you remember, I have the upper and lower boxes constructed, attached to each other and the left and right sides of the face frame cut. This week, I am working on the cross pieces: the top and bottom cross pieces as well as those between the three drawers the built-in will have (see an incomplete SketchUp drawing of the built-in here).

Today, I milled the face frame cross pieces and added beads to them. Here is how it went:

The cutter. I use this router bit to cut the bead that surrounds all of the openings of the face frame. This is a little detail that adds a lot of visual interest to a project.

Ready to cut. The bead bit installed in my router table. I purchased this router table a loooong time ago from Highland Hardware in Atlanta. At the time this was a cutting edge router table. Now it is quite antiquated.

With beads. Here are the face frame cross pieces with beads cut.

A problem. Note the tear out adjacent to the bead on the top board. This pieces is now trash and I use some left over wood to cut a new piece without tear out.

Simple joinery. I am once again using pocket screw joinery on the face frame, although this is the first time I have done this on oak. I used my corded drill for some added torque when drilling this angle in hardwood.

Sufficient. I think pocket screws along with glue is adequate joinery for the face frame.

Clipping the beads. The corners of the beaded cross pieces must be cut at a 45 degree angle. I carefully set my rip fence to act like a stop block. This enables me to make quick, acurate and uniform repetitive cuts on the remaining boards.

Fabrication complete. Here the cross pieces of the face frame have been cut to length and all but one has been cut to width. The beads have been added and the corners have been clipped.

My next step is to actually join the cross pieces to the left and right sides of the face frame and then attach the whole thing to the upper and lower boxes. I hope to have this completed by Sunday evening.

To see all the posts on this project including design aspects, click here.

________________________

Have a question or comment? Leave yours by clicking on the "Comments - post yours here" link below. And if you like this post or this project, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here.

My top three projects:

1. My coffered ceiling project. 2. The Scott Bookcase. 3. My foyer project.

I do battle with my jointer

We have issues. Note the taper on the end of this board. My jointer has been giving me fits all week long. I aim to fix this today.

I hate doing plumbing. When I tackle a plumbing problem in my home, it is never accomplished in a comfortable way. It always seems to involve me lying on my back with water dripping in my face and tight confines with which to loosen or tighten nuts or bolts. That is why most of the time I’ll call the man when it comes to plumbing work.

Not so with my jointer – my wife suggested that I put in a service call on it and let someone else fix it. It has been giving me fits this week and when it comes to power tools, especially stationary tools, I’ll work on them. In a nutshell, my jointer cuts a taper on boards. I have never had this problem in all of my 25+ years of woodworking. My owner’s manual does not even mention this kind of problem. However, I did find information about this weirdness online here. Work on my built-in project has come to a stop until I correct this situation.

My jointer and dust shoot. If you look real close, you can see that the in-feed table needs adjusting. Note the dust shoot under the jointer that must be removed prior to adjusting.

After looking at my in-feed table, I decide that the back of it is too low, which means if I lower the front of the in-feed table, it should become parallel with the out-feed table. To gain access to the leveling bolts under the jointer, I have to first remove the dust collection contraption I made for it. I lay the jointer on its side and spin the feet out of the way, then remove the dust port, so the dust shoot will clear the legs and stretchers of the jointer.

Less than comfortable work. I sort of lay on my side, leaning against the uncomfortable stretcher in an attempt to adjust my jointer.

Then the plumbing comparison can be made. I stand the jointer back up and then use a combination of a ½ inch wrench and a ¾ inch wrench to loosen the bolts that adjust the height of the in-feed table. I have to contort my body into various positions before settling in on the one shown above. To properly adjust the jointer, I have to see the in-feed table move as I turn the bolts, which simply can’t be done, so I call my wife for assistance. She watches the in-feed table as I lay on my back and reach up to adjust the bolts. I am positioned just like a plumber would be working on pipes under the kitchen sink. When we determine the necessary adjustments are made, I tighten the bolts down and give her a test. The taper still exists.

The only other thing to do is to make sure the knives are set at the same height as the out-feed table. I re-set the knives and give it a test and the cut is pretty good. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am back in business. I worked on this before church and for the better part of the afternoon. I will get back to working on the built-in a little at a time this week with hopes of making some decent progress.

Fixed, I think. Here it is back in position minus the dust shoot.

By the way, I did not put my dust shoot back on because I want to make sure the jointer is fixed. Also, it was nice having a hose that I can sweep sawdust from my shop floor into. Plus, there just isn’t that much dust generated by the jointer. I may put it back on – we’ll see.

My wife told me a couple of times how impressed she was that I fixed this. I was just impressed I fixed it without letting any cuss word fly.

Beth's built-in: the face frame, part one

Visiting Woodcraft. I am fortunate that my local Woodcraft store is ten minutes from my shop.

I am entering a fun time with this project. I say this because with the completion of the face frame comes a better understanding of what this built-in will look like.

The interior of the visible part of the built-in; the top section is made from red oak plywood. I selected this material for a few reasons, but chief among them is the cost savings. I could get all the wood I needed for about $50.00.

The current view. Here is the project at present. The uppercase has been joined to the lower case with eight screws.

Using red oak plywood for the interior of the top was not my first choice. I had envisioned plain sawn red oak for this, because the grain would look better, enough material to do this was going to be more than double what the oak plywood cost. And, much of the interior of the upper box would be hidden by towels and other stuff. I did decided to utilize quarter-sawn red oak for the face frame as well as the drawer fronts. And I went to Woodcraft to buy this.

Yummy. The lumber area at Woodcraft in Pelham, Alabama. There is a lot of tasty wood here.

I picked out a nice piece of quarter-sawn red oak with a lot of rays in it. The board came surfaced on the two faces, but the edges were rough, so the first thing to do was to rough cut it to length and then to joint one edge straight.

Flecks. The main reason to buy quarter-sawn lumber is to get the cool rays or flecks show to the right of the 6.4 board feet mark.

Layout. The left and right pieces of the face frame are positioned with locations for the cross pieces drawn on them.

It is critical at this point for me to get organized on exactly where the cross pieces will go. Remember that the plans are drawn full size on the bathroom wall where this built-in will reside. So, I take the left pieces and mark the location of each cross piece then transfer these marks to the right side. I then measure how far apart they need to be, marking this on the upper and lower boxes. I then ran out of time. I plan to add beads to the inside of the face frame, so the burn marks you see will be covered up. I am having major issues with my jointer right now.

We'll see how much of this I can get completed during the week. I hope to have the face frame completed and attached by this time next week.

To see all the posts on this project including design aspects, click here.

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Have a question or comment? Leave yours by clicking on the "Comments - post yours here" link below. And if you like this post or this project, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here. Top three posts:

1. My coffered ceiling project. 2. The Scott Bookcase. 3. My foyer project.

Beth's built-in: the back of the upper box is completed

The back. Note the slight bevel on the boards which make up the back. Hopefully, this will add a nice touch to the completed built-in.

We left off on my last post with me thinking about how I would make the back of the upper box. The piece of oak plywood I had was long and narrow – not wide enough to span the width of the box, but there was certainly enough wood to do it in pieces.

I once built a coffee table in which the top was made using frame and panel construction and it went together pretty easily, so I decided to replicate that process for the back of the box. Here is how it went.

The frame. Here are the parts of the frame cut to final width and length.

The panel. The center of this frame and panel back is composed of four slats. With everything fitted, it is time to add a little detail to each piece.

A micro bevel. Using a chamfer bit in my router, I cut a small bevel on the edge of most of the boards. This will add some visual interest to the back.

Cutting slots. I make several passes on my table saw to cut a slot to receive the tenons used to joint the parts together. The second photo shows how I use a home made jig to cut the ends of each board.

The joinery. The parts of the frame and panel are held in place with plywood slats. The slats fit in groves cut along the edges of each board.

The gule-up. This is a pretty straight forward process. I am only gluing the frame together - the boards that make up the panel float. The frame was very slightly out of square, so I use a pipe clamp placed diagonally to pull it into square.

In place. Here the back is installed in the upper box - I simply screw and glue it in place.

With the back installed, The upper box is complete except for some final sanding. I will make the two adjustable shelves for it later. Up next: I will join the upper and lower box and begin work on the face frame which will be made from quarter sawn red oak. When the face frame is completed you will be able to get a much better understanding of what the built-in will look like.

We have a busy weekend coming up moving my daughter back to college, so I won't have much time for woodworking this week.

To see all the posts on this project including design aspects, click here.

________________________

Have a question or comment? Leave yours by clicking on the "Comments - post yours here" link below. And if you like this post or this project, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here.