10-02-2013, 05:03 PM
Hi,
You are so right Lawrence about mass production being an old technique; many of the Victorian pine paneled doors didn't even have mortice and tenon joints the joints being merely machine scribed and doweled.
Well done Joe; you've produced a work of art; may I suggest you very carefully pack it and send it by courier to The Tate after all if they can exhibit a pile of bricks I'm sure yours is more interesting?
http://www2.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/...public.htm
I've had to come out of the workshop as I can't stand too much joy in one day and I'm overcome with excitement; I'd almost forgotten what it was like for something to go as planned.
I removed the clamps and in my mind was the thought that whatever now happened this cabinet was going to get veneered to my satisfaction however much it was going to fight so I was in fighting mood. With the clamps removed I thought here I go again as the packing piece and grease proof paper appeared to have glued themselves to the veneer? A bit of gentle persuasion and with a cracking sound they released and I was amazed to find all was now well. Just a bit of lifting veneer to sort on the front bar between the two cut-outs to sort out and to trim the veneer to size then I could think about finishing the cabinet. It still looked rough with all the over-hanging excess veneer but I knew I was now getting on top of this job.
With something like 3/4" over-hanging I thought the router might grab and break a section of veneer out and having got so near I wasn't prepared to take risks. Using the craft knife and steel rule as a guide the veneer was trimmed leaving around 1/8" excess.
Too much excess veneer.
A straight flush cutting bearing guided bit was installed in the router carefully adjusting depth of cut; I wanted the bearing to run just under the veneer with a little clearance but not too low because if the router was allowed to tip at all the bit would cut deeper ruining the job.
The router was run around the outside of the cabinet making a good job of trimming the veneer and this was followed by careful hand sanding with 240g abrasive paper backed with a block; care was taken to to ensure all sanding was done toward the cabinet and not away from the cabinet to prevent tear-out.
Now came the part I dreaded; the two holes/openings. This could now really go wrong if I wasn't careful so I removed most of the excess veneer using the craft knife and steel rule but did this bit by bit until I could see the cabinet edges around the openings. The router using the same bit was adjusted then carefully run around to tidy the veneer edges but as the cabinet opening edges were rounded over I had prepared for this part of the job.
Yesterday whilst in the garage I took the opportunity to cut from 18mm thick MDF two router cutting guides. These guides were cut out on the big Startrite band-saw to the marked lines ensuring the corners which were rounded didn't go beyond the marks. I could have used the coping saw but the band-saw would be much quicker and an opening cut would not hurt to allow the blade to access the pieces to be removed.
MDF routing guides and guides installed.
With the bench cleared the two guides were secured in turn in the woodworking vice and the band-saw cuts tidied up using coarse grit abrasive paper and a wooden block for the straight bits and abrasive paper wrapped around a marker pen for the rounded corners. Bron then kindly gave me some of her strong double sided adhesive tape and this was used to attach the guides to inside of the cabinet.
A suitable rounding over bearing guided bit was selected and installed into the router; this was very carefully adjusted for depth erring on the generous side of safety then the router was run around each opening. This hardly touched the veneer which is what I wanted. Now using the turret stop the steel rule was placed between the stop points and the stop nipped up removing the rule; I could then control depth of cut in increments running the router around after each adjustment; I wanted to slightly modify the shape of the moulding because the original moulding was very bland being plainly rounded over and I wanted to improve upon this to give a shoulder at veneer depth which would give a definite break between veneer edges and moulding leaving a shadow line; this is easy to produce with care by adjusting the depth of cut but one slip here means a lot of grief but by now I was on a roll.
At this point I sanded the new veneers at 240g using the backing block taking care to remove all sharp corners but not sanding the bit of loose veneer at the joint between the two openings. As the edges of veneer had only slightly lifted I didn't feel the need to go mad and start warming up a fresh batch of hide glue. Whilst at Rufforth a while ago both David and I watched a guy demonstrating the power of super glue he was selling. We were both so impressed by what we saw we both bought some of this glue and now I thought what better time to try it out? The backing block I had been using for sanding was wrapped with a double layer of grease roof paper then the glue was applied followed by quickly clamping the block into place. 15 seconds should give plenty of time for this glue to set but considering my previous problems I'll leave it a couple of hours so now the cabinet is sitting on the bench with the block clamped in position. I'm not worried if this glue fails because this joint is short and it won't be a big job to use hide glue on my next session.
One bit of veneer to re-glue.
Only now did I stand back to look at the cabinet and I confess I'm pleased with it now; the veneer pattern to the top of the cabinet could not have turned out better; the lower joints don't match perfectly but given this is burr I hope the joints won't look too bad once the cabinet is finished. More work is needed to tidy the openings and a bit of filling will be beneficial but on the whole after my earlier disappointments this cabinet is going to look rather special. The veneer is dull at the moment but will come alive once the finish is applied. This has been a rare day when things have gone my way. I can now say with some confidence that such a cabinet can be veneered with Burr Walnut using the hide glue and hammer method; not at all easy but certainly possible.
This cabinet is going to look good.
I mentioned the excellent clamps I use a lot and here is a picture of a few of them; if Aldi get more stock I'll buy a lot more of these clamps as they are brilliant to use.
Excellent clamps.
Kind regards, Col.
You are so right Lawrence about mass production being an old technique; many of the Victorian pine paneled doors didn't even have mortice and tenon joints the joints being merely machine scribed and doweled.
Well done Joe; you've produced a work of art; may I suggest you very carefully pack it and send it by courier to The Tate after all if they can exhibit a pile of bricks I'm sure yours is more interesting?
http://www2.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/...public.htm
I've had to come out of the workshop as I can't stand too much joy in one day and I'm overcome with excitement; I'd almost forgotten what it was like for something to go as planned.
I removed the clamps and in my mind was the thought that whatever now happened this cabinet was going to get veneered to my satisfaction however much it was going to fight so I was in fighting mood. With the clamps removed I thought here I go again as the packing piece and grease proof paper appeared to have glued themselves to the veneer? A bit of gentle persuasion and with a cracking sound they released and I was amazed to find all was now well. Just a bit of lifting veneer to sort on the front bar between the two cut-outs to sort out and to trim the veneer to size then I could think about finishing the cabinet. It still looked rough with all the over-hanging excess veneer but I knew I was now getting on top of this job.
With something like 3/4" over-hanging I thought the router might grab and break a section of veneer out and having got so near I wasn't prepared to take risks. Using the craft knife and steel rule as a guide the veneer was trimmed leaving around 1/8" excess.
Too much excess veneer.
A straight flush cutting bearing guided bit was installed in the router carefully adjusting depth of cut; I wanted the bearing to run just under the veneer with a little clearance but not too low because if the router was allowed to tip at all the bit would cut deeper ruining the job.
The router was run around the outside of the cabinet making a good job of trimming the veneer and this was followed by careful hand sanding with 240g abrasive paper backed with a block; care was taken to to ensure all sanding was done toward the cabinet and not away from the cabinet to prevent tear-out.
Now came the part I dreaded; the two holes/openings. This could now really go wrong if I wasn't careful so I removed most of the excess veneer using the craft knife and steel rule but did this bit by bit until I could see the cabinet edges around the openings. The router using the same bit was adjusted then carefully run around to tidy the veneer edges but as the cabinet opening edges were rounded over I had prepared for this part of the job.
Yesterday whilst in the garage I took the opportunity to cut from 18mm thick MDF two router cutting guides. These guides were cut out on the big Startrite band-saw to the marked lines ensuring the corners which were rounded didn't go beyond the marks. I could have used the coping saw but the band-saw would be much quicker and an opening cut would not hurt to allow the blade to access the pieces to be removed.
MDF routing guides and guides installed.
With the bench cleared the two guides were secured in turn in the woodworking vice and the band-saw cuts tidied up using coarse grit abrasive paper and a wooden block for the straight bits and abrasive paper wrapped around a marker pen for the rounded corners. Bron then kindly gave me some of her strong double sided adhesive tape and this was used to attach the guides to inside of the cabinet.
A suitable rounding over bearing guided bit was selected and installed into the router; this was very carefully adjusted for depth erring on the generous side of safety then the router was run around each opening. This hardly touched the veneer which is what I wanted. Now using the turret stop the steel rule was placed between the stop points and the stop nipped up removing the rule; I could then control depth of cut in increments running the router around after each adjustment; I wanted to slightly modify the shape of the moulding because the original moulding was very bland being plainly rounded over and I wanted to improve upon this to give a shoulder at veneer depth which would give a definite break between veneer edges and moulding leaving a shadow line; this is easy to produce with care by adjusting the depth of cut but one slip here means a lot of grief but by now I was on a roll.
At this point I sanded the new veneers at 240g using the backing block taking care to remove all sharp corners but not sanding the bit of loose veneer at the joint between the two openings. As the edges of veneer had only slightly lifted I didn't feel the need to go mad and start warming up a fresh batch of hide glue. Whilst at Rufforth a while ago both David and I watched a guy demonstrating the power of super glue he was selling. We were both so impressed by what we saw we both bought some of this glue and now I thought what better time to try it out? The backing block I had been using for sanding was wrapped with a double layer of grease roof paper then the glue was applied followed by quickly clamping the block into place. 15 seconds should give plenty of time for this glue to set but considering my previous problems I'll leave it a couple of hours so now the cabinet is sitting on the bench with the block clamped in position. I'm not worried if this glue fails because this joint is short and it won't be a big job to use hide glue on my next session.
One bit of veneer to re-glue.
Only now did I stand back to look at the cabinet and I confess I'm pleased with it now; the veneer pattern to the top of the cabinet could not have turned out better; the lower joints don't match perfectly but given this is burr I hope the joints won't look too bad once the cabinet is finished. More work is needed to tidy the openings and a bit of filling will be beneficial but on the whole after my earlier disappointments this cabinet is going to look rather special. The veneer is dull at the moment but will come alive once the finish is applied. This has been a rare day when things have gone my way. I can now say with some confidence that such a cabinet can be veneered with Burr Walnut using the hide glue and hammer method; not at all easy but certainly possible.
This cabinet is going to look good.
I mentioned the excellent clamps I use a lot and here is a picture of a few of them; if Aldi get more stock I'll buy a lot more of these clamps as they are brilliant to use.
Excellent clamps.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
