A Cabinet in the Making
When I built my desk, I started with buying a tree and ended up with a gorgeous piece of furniture. I have always regretted not documenting the process. So, when I decided to built a file cabinet to go with the desk, I decided to keep my camera handy. If you have never been inside a woodworking workshop you have no concept of the amount of (saw)dust that can be floating around. For that reason I used a very inexpensive camera. So, the pictures may not be brilliant, but they do give you an idea of the work involved. Enjoy!
My poor Peugeot 106 at "De Schrijn" grunting under the load of all the rough cut planks straight from the mill.
The main area of the workshop. The tall, skinny guy in the middle is Michel. He and Eric (see later) are professional cabinetmakers. They also run courses that allow poor sods like me to learn basic woodworking skills and then start making your own stuff.
The machine shop. You don't get to use the stuff in here - at least not without supervision - unless you have taken the "machine course". In that course Eric teaches you about the machines, their maintenance, safety and various uses to which you can put each machine. In the process each participant builts his/her own side table.
Having taken this course early in 2001 I am now let loose on my own in here. The picture isn't very clear, but on the right it shows the "thumb saw" with the rough cut plank that will be turned into the cabinet's top. The "thumb saw" is the nick name of the saw you use to cut pieces of wood to length. It's a bit of a brutal name, but it does remind you of the danger this machine poses. People invariably get their thumbs in the way of the saw...
Having started with the rough cut plank above, I dressed the wood to create a number of straight, square pieces of wood. Glued together they will will become the cabinet's top. By the way: these pieces of wood are appr. 45 mm thick!
Same situation different angle. The picture really doesn't do justice to the incredibly way in which these solid steel clamps bend when you apply the pressure needed to glue the wood together.
Now here's a small belt sander for you. With a little effort you can see my cabinet top on there. At that stage it was still over a meter wide. So yes, you can easily fit an entire table top under there. This belt sander is used to take out all the deep cuts and marks.
The top was cut to measure using a circular saw and a planer. Then I put in some arduous sanding with an oribital sander. You start with 150 grain paper (preceded with 120 grain if you didn't use a belt sander!), do all sides until the marks of the belt sander have gone. Then you take 180 grain paper and remove all the marks of the 150. After the 180 comes 220. It feels real smooth by then and you might think you're finished. Not so. You ruin your work by taking a wet cloth to it. If you have never done that, you won't believe how that brings up all the veins in the wood. And that's the secret. When you then sand the wood using 280 grain paper, it will feel like a soft peach afterwards. The whole process is finished by oiling the wood twice and then waxing it.
These are the dressed pieces of wood that were turned into the sides of the cabinet.
Michel showing off those pieces of dressed wood, now glued together and ready to be belt sanded and cut to measure. The latter once again using the circular saw (behind Michel) and the planer (wood is leaning agains that). If you thought that the number of clamps used to glue the top was amazing, I am sorry I didn't take a picture of this piece in clamps. If I remember correctly at least 10 clamps, including two "sergeants" were used to actually clamp the wood together and at least another 20 were used for the bars that are used to keep the wood flat.
The cabinet's sides cut to measure. Though it may look like one piece of wood, by now it is already halved.
I am sure nobody will ever notice that the sides of my cabinet were made out of one piece of wood. Nor will they notice that the grain of the wood is continuous if you let the sides "fall back in" again. But I know, and it is fun!
If you want to be able to put shelves into a cabinet at any height you fancy, you need to create four rows of holes, exactly spaced at exactly the same height from the bottom. If you ever wondered how to do that... You use a template and a router.
It was Eric (on the left) who taught me how to use the template. Because even that isn't as straightforward as it looks. <g>
Oh yeah, here's a picture of me working on those holes for the shelves.
And this is the end result (though it's pretty hard to spot in this picture): one cabinet side with two rows of holes spaced absolutely evently and each hole in row 1 at exactly the same height as its counterpart in row 2.
This is as far as I got before the summer break. The autumn course starts in September 2001. So, from then on I will be back at "De Schrijn" hoping to finish this cabinet by Christmas. It would make a nice Christmas present for me now wouldn't it? <g>
Update: I didn't make it. It's now February 2002 and I am still working on the cabinet. Unfortunately my inexpensive camera decided to pack in and I lost two films of pictures before discovering that. So, no more pictures of the process (I am not risking my normal camera in the dust), but I promiss to publish a picture of the finished product. A promise I have by now (october 2002) kept. Have a look at the Handmade Solid Wood Furniture page to see it.
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