Stanley Transitional needs a cherry body.

A Stanley #27 with a new Cherry body. Knob and tote are original. All other parts are original.

Sharpened with a slight camber for a jack.

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Building a Cherry TV Cabinet with Hand Tools - Part II

 

Starting the rip cut on the tail board. Begin the cut at the heel of the saw were the rip teeth are the smallest.

READ PART I of Building a Cherry TV Cabinet with Hand Tools

As with any woodworking process there are a host of ways to achieve similar ends. In this case the tails, pins and sockets were cut entirely with one small ryoba saw and a few nomi. I considered using a router with a straight cutter to clean out the bulk of the tail sockets but decided to stick with hand tools and chop this material away in a more traditional manner. For layout tools I used a marking gauge called a kibiki, left and right marking knives (???), small square, mechanical pencil and a wooden dovetail template. 

The design and layout of dovetails is open for expansive variation and creativity. Typically a narrow pin is considered more refined. I decided on seven evenly spaced and relatively narrow pins with six moderately large tails per joint. The dovetails are cut at an 8° pitch. I begin by laying out the tails on the outside face of the side panels, with the plan to cut right to my line. The tails are marked in pencil with the dovetail template and squared across the end. The completed tail board will be used as a template for marking the pins and tail sockets. Therefore any variation in layout or cutting will be carried forward and ultimately lost in the mix.

I sawed the tails using the rip cutting edge of a Mitsukawa - 195 mm super deluxe ryoba. This is a fairly small saw that as is typical of Japanese saws also has finer teeth. I sawed to the center of my pencil line removing the half of the line on the waste side of the cut. While cutting, my aim is to cut straight, cleanly and square. I worry less about slight variations on the pitch angle of the tail. 

Once the sides of the tails are sawn I score the bottom of the pin sockets with the kibiki marking gauge and chop the waste away. I typically chop from both faces leaving 1/32" to 1/16" for clean up depending how the material is cutting. I alternate chopping down from one face and then chip out 1/16" or so of material from the end. I tend to cut about 1/3rd of the way through from the inside face and then take the remainder from the outside face. Once the bulk of the material is cleared I pare the bottom of the socket clean making sure that it is square from the outside to the inside. With a chisel, square and straighten the sides of any tails that require it. The tail board is now ready for transferring the layout to the pin board.

I clamped the sides to the top one at a time using a simple plywood 90° corner jig so that I could transfer the layout. I marked as much as possible with marking knives and also traced the layout in pencil. After unclamping the top I scored the thickness of my side panels with a kibiki to the inside face of my top panel. Then I squared the layout of the pins around to that line with a marking knife. I like to locate my square by first inserting the marking knife into the end of the previous layout mark and then slide the square up to the knife. 

I saw as close to my marks as I dare, usually leaving just enough waste to clean up later with one or two passes of a chisel. Chopping out the waste on the tail sockets is pretty much like removing the waste on the pin sockets except that with half blind dovetails all the work is done from the inside face of the panel. Once again I chop down staying just to the waste side of the layout and chipping out the material from the end.

Chopping Out the Tail SocketsSet the chisel for your fist cut so that the wedging action of the chisel leaves the back of the tool about 1/32-in. back from your scribed shoulder line.

Alternate chipping out the waist on the tail sockets.

Clean up the final 1/32-in. on the depth of the tail sockets.

Once all the tails and pins have been cut clean to the layout lines I chisel a small chamfer on the inside faces of the tails where they won't show when the joint is completed. Then I test fit the joint looking carefully and feeling for tight fitting areas. Burnished or scratch marks can be clues to where the joint needs to be eased. With hard or brittle woods I like to be able to easily tap a joint like this at least three quarters of the way home. Softwoods that compress well can be test seated less deeply.

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Free Plan: Wall Cabinet in Cherry

Subtle standout. Your cabinet's visual appeal will rely on quiet details and handsome traditional joinery.

Photo: Kelly J. Dunton

Sometimes a woodworking project looks so good that you just want to hang it on the wall and admire it.

That's definitely the case with this cherry cabinet. Matthew Teague's design skips the fancy moldings and other decorative details for a clean look that doesn't distract from the beauty of the wood or the handsome traditional joinery.

The free download includes an exploded, dimensioned drawing of the project along with Teague's full article describing its construction. Great color photos and drawings will show you Teague's router and tablesaw techniques for cutting the joinery - through dovetails, sliding dovetails and bridle joints - with ease and confidence.

When it's done, your cabinet can serve all kinds of uses - from holding collectibles , sewing supplies, etc. Just be sure to hang it someplace where you can enjoy seeing it.

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Are you looking for free woodworking plans? You're not alone. That's why we've created this blog to gather intellegence on all the free woodworking plans available on the Web. 

If you've built a project based on a free plan, let us know by posting a comment or by posting a photo of the finished product in our community photo Gallery.

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Portable mill sawing up a local Cherry tree

Here's a photo of the 8 foot section being squared up.

Photo: John Tetreault

A neighbor of mine had a 16 inch diameter Cherry tree come down in his yard during a recent storm. It was going to be cut up for firewood, but he said he would be glad if it could be put to better use, so I called a local sawyer with a portable mill.

On a crisp, but sunny December day, the sawyer pulled up next to the tree and set up the mill. He charged a certain amount per hour, which was very reasonable, and I was the "helper" for the day.

The best part of the log was about 14 feet long and 16 inches in diameter. It was straight for 8 feet and then took a little turn for the other 6. We cut it at the 8 foot point and I decided to have that section cut at 4/4 thick. I had the 6 foot section cut thicker for legs and such, at 10/4.

There were also a few shorter 3 foot long pieces that I had squared up. One a full 16 inches square, and the second 11 inches square. I'll turn these into solid breakfast bar stools or maybe end tables.

To start sawing we first moved the logs up to the mill with peavy's. Once the log was at the side of the mill, two hydraulic "arms" pick up the log and place it on the bed of the mill. Then a little spiked "hand" helps to roll the log into place up against a system of movable fences that adjust in height along the back. The whole system worked very smoothly, and the bandsaw itself cut through the log much faster than I thought it would.

What a great way to spend a saturday afternoon. The sawyer was a downright pleasant guy and a lot of fun to work with. And being there to see the wood exposed, thinking about how you want to use the wood, and deciding how to cut it up in real time, was real fun.

Building Furniture
From the editors of Fine Woodworking Discover the joys of building furniture yourself for the first time - or 50th! $8.99 more info... posted in: blogs, cherry, saw mill, wood mizer, portable saw mill

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