Corona Virus Projects

A lot of it I bring on myself. If there is one thing I have become passably good at over the years, it is fixing unintended consequences. One of the dumber choices I made was the up-front choice to make the boxes first, then make the carcass. There are a lot of people who swear by that method, and it probably does work really well if you are making a desk or a dresser with a limited number of drawers, and where you are face framing and can easily make adjustments. But it has proven to be a nightmare with 13 drawers and no face framing to hide bad choices. Just have to figure out a way to make it work at this point.

Fitting:

I had thought the back fitting would go quick, because it is way less complex than the front fitting. I was wrong. This ate up the entirety of the day, mostly in pulling everything apart, making a couple of adjustments, putting everything back together, and then repeating over and over again.

Five of the drawers fit as planned. Seven needed to be fitted, because of small but stacking variances between where I had intended to put the cross-pieces, and how they actually stacked up over five panels.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...kfitting01.JPG

Even though I planned and measured a bunch of times, I ended up with the farthest vertical row being spaced too close to the left panel. The other four boxes just needed trim here and there, mostly reflecting the box itself being less than perfectly square after glue-up
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...kfitting03.JPG

Did the best I could to make sure everything had at least a little bit of space for expansion. In theory, the way I ran the grain on the boxes, they should tend to expand vertically rather than horizontally.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...kfitting06.JPG

Took all day to get here. All day.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...kfitting08.JPG

Getting there.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...kfitting09.JPG

Front Cross Piece Work
I got in some good practice with the back lattice, and I had a definite plan. Parts of this went surprisingly quick. First, I cut the cross pieces to 3/4" over the width of the openings:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece01.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece02.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece03.JPG

Marked them up carefully, labelled them well, and then wasted 3 of my 4 extra test pieces on getting the Domino aligned so that it would be perfectly centered. But once I had that locked into place, it took no time at all to route some extra deep Domino mortises in all of these.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece04.JPG

Very happy with how well the mortises and tenons align before any trimming
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece06.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece05.JPG


Next, I cut some rabbets into each end. These were spaced with the help of a 5/16" brass spacer to give me consistency across all pieces.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece07.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece08.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece09.JPG

First fitting. These are super tight, but the first fitting is only about making sure they are consistent and aligned vertically. This turned out better than I expected.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece10.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece11.JPG

A very little bit of trimming just to make sure edges aligned where I wanted them to.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece12.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece13.JPG

Coming along nicely.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece14.JPG

Now to make the cross piece miters. I've mentioned before that I do everything possible to avoid taking my sawblade off of 90 degrees. So the 45 degree donkey's ear jig came out. I have a brand new blade in with a flat top profile. Even though it is a ripping blade (few, far spaced teeth), it is new and sharp and I figured it would be clean. It ended up cutting so clean that I didn't need to cut wide of the miter and trim the chip out away with a hand plane. Very happy with this.

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece16.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece15.JPG

All the crosspieces mitered up.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...osspiece17.JPG

Looking good!

That really is impressive.
Thanks for posting all the steps.

After about two months of putting it off, I grit my teeth and got back into the garage for some time dedicated to the really tedious task of mitering in all the cross pieces.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe01.JPG

The first task was to break everything down and trim up cross pieces width-wise. To cover some spacing issues, the center pieces are slightly wider than the pieces on either end, and since I can't trim the case itself, the end pieces can only be trimmed on one side. Once everything is good enough here, all final fitting will be done to the boxes.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe02.JPG

Took a little break about half way through to sharpen my block plane blade.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe03.JPG


Because each vertical run of cross-pieces was a slightly different width to each-other, and a considerably different width to the carcass profile, none of my jigs would work to miter them in. I did it mostly free-hand with the chisel, and a 45 degree fence to keep the final cuts cleanish.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe05.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe10.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe11.JPG

I definitely got better as I went along. The first three were pretty rough, and there will be a lot of sand and filler work in the near future. But once I got into the groove, I started fitting them better and better.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe12.JPG

Finished the first and second rows, then called it a night.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe13.JPG

Sunday morning began with some more chisel sharpening. I resharpened after every 5-6 miters. Most of them, I just had to hone on the 12000 grit stone for a few swipes to tighten up a good working edge.
When they can cut a doubled-up shop towel cleanly across the grain with only the pressure of their own weight, I consider them workably sharp.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe08.JPG

Nothing fancy. Just two cheap chisels, a moderately expensive small chisel, and some marking equipment.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe09.JPG

Didn't take long to get the second rail complete.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe13.JPG

Third followed shortly thereafter. Starting to get pretty good at this.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe14.JPG

All finished. This is a milestone moment.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe15.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...redframe16.JPG

Still a lot of work left to do. Got to fit some internal rails so the drawers don't wrack when pulled in and out. Then a lot of glue, sanding, and interior finish work before it can get final assembly and exterior finish. But the end is finally in sight. With any luck, I have about two weekend's worth of work to go.

A JohnnyEgo Dresser, circa 2021 :)

(Things that would be said on Antiques Roadshow.)

Very cool.

Are the drawers currently labeled just so you can keep track of them while you build?

Mostly as a convenience. The drawers are numbered in permanent market on the drawer bottoms, but it is marginally quicker for me to keep track of them as labelled. In theory, when I do final fitting they should all fit in any opening, but they will have more even gaps if they go back to the one they were primarily fitted for. My son plans to label them with the different Pokemon types when we are finished.

I did a small thing today, but it let me scratch another line off the final punchlist, so that was good. I had previously milled some tenon stock for the floating tenons, and today I cut and fit all the forward tenons.
Nothing fancy, just mark to length and cut quickly with my $15 Zona saw. That thing is remarkably useful for the money.

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...ngtenons01.JPG

Just in case someone tuning in doesn't want to look through nine pages of pictures, there are holes in the ends of each of the cross pieces to accept a tenon, and a hole in the rail itself.

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...ngtenons02.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...ngtenons03.JPG

When I've done my part to perfectly center each mortise and align the mitered ends as best I can, everything fits where it is supposed to and looks reasonably aligned.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...ngtenons04.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...ngtenons05.JPG

With everything tenoned into place, the structure is very rigid and still reasonably square, which is good. At this point, there is still not a drop of glue in this project, but it is fairly stable.
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...ngtenons06.JPG

The only parts I have left to cut are the drawer guides, but it is going to take a while to taper them to the front and back supports. I might skip ahead a bit and start gluing the panels as I find free time in the next few nights.

No glue so far, impressive.

Brief contribution since I didn't take build pictures.

See this spider? She's sad.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

Just look at that sad, bored, I-haven't-eaten-in-six-months-because-I-don't-like-my-cage face.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

It was time that I got to execute my life long dream of gluing plexiglass together to build a better prison for this spider.

Let's get started!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

Size comparison with current cage.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

And done.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

Metal, I mean plexi-glass. That spider has a good dad, lol. Looks like a Tarantula?

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea (of plexi-glass)?
Ir-ving's Spi-der!

In all honesty, had you not told us that was your spider's face, I'd have thought I was looking at it's butt.

That is a nicely crafted terrarium! I have contemplated trying to weld acryllic a couple of times for different purposes, but never got around to actually doing it. How hard was it go apply and set?

Beautiful job!

Nice project and tarantula. Is yours hand friendly? The ones we had were, and had no issue sitting on your shoulder.

What do you feed your tarantula? what's her name?

It's not mine, it's my daughters. My brother bought it for her birthday a few years ago. It eats crickets, when it eats, but we're going to try meal worms as well. Her name is Venture and she's a pink-toe'd tarantula. Named after Vin from Mistborn.

Welding the plexiglass is easy enough, but even with the little needle syringe it comes with, it's very easy to get the weld everywhere, then it ruins the finish on the panels. You basically hold the panel together for a minute or two, then it holds itself.

The hinges aren't installed in line with each other so there is some binding, but the wall flexes enough that it doesn't matter. The same wall flex allows the door to sag way too much as well. Were I to do it again, I think I'd put the hinges on top, OR just do a magnet in all four corners with no hinges at all. Both the hinges and magnet idea were experimental and worked okay enough.

The adults don't pay her much attention because she lives in the kid's room. However, I've seen my daughter pick her and move her around before. I didn't even know she ever handled her. I think she got cocky though because kid said the spider got snappy at her just before, and during the cage move.

My brother had the same spider growing up, and he thought it'd be a wonderful idea to buy my kid one. Thanks bro.

"Her name is Venture and she's a pink-toe'd tarantula." I was going to mention the pink toe-nail polish.....

Just like I feared, I rushed through the spider cage project and now the door won't stay shut. My daughter says she'll wake up to the door wide open and the spider just chilling inside. However, at least once so far...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

I think you should get some magnets to keep that door closed.

I did, but the whole thing flexes enough that they weren't lining up. Eventually two of them fell off, as you see in the photo. I told the kids she can weld some tabs on to to door and glue velcro on instead.

Or you can just have a free-range tarantula.

She probably wouldn't go far. Especially once the dog or cat saw her.

Some tedious stuff that needs to be done. Started out by finally gluing all the panels together. I used cauls, which are slightly curved pieces of 2x4, to help me get even clamping pressure across the glue joint.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...anelglue01.JPG

A little clean-up, then the interiors got pre-finished. I find it a lot easier to pre-finish than to try and get stain into a bunch of tight corners after assembly.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...nelstain01.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...ssglueup04.JPG

Did my last dry assembly, and cut up the drawer guides. These will be hit with wax to make the drawers go in smoothly.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...ssglueup01.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...ssglueup02.JPG

All the parts ready for glue.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...ssglueup05.JPG

I used Titebond III, which is a wood glue that dries clear(ish) and has about a 30 minute working time. I used every last second of it to get things in clamps.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...ssglueup07.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...ssglueup08.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...ssglueup09.JPG

It was an absolute bear to get this assembled within the glue's set time, and it fought me in every way possible. At one point, I had all but one corner aligned. I applied some force to the corner to get it to settle, and heard the dreaded 'CRAAACK'. Split the top panel at the groove for the backer, all the way through, and down 90% of the length.
Not much to do at this point but move on, so I broke out more glue, sawdust, and clamps, and pushed everything back to roughly where it was. Filled

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...scleanup10.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...scleanup11.JPG

Sanded it flush, filled any gaps with sawdust, and sanded it flush again. Then finished off with the card scraper. The crack runs vertically in this picture all the way across the top panel, and I can see it instantly still, but I think I did a pretty fair job blending it.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...scleanup12.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...scleanup13.JPG

Last thing to do was to apply Danish Oil to the exterior of the panels.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...scleanup14.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...scleanup15.JPG

It's getting there! Hearing a crack during final assembly has to be heart breaking for sure.

Home Stretch:

Some final fitting courtesy of the sander, followed by hand-sand clean up.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit01.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit02.JPG

Some paste-wax on the runners:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit03.JPG

All lined up for final coat of Danish Oil:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit04.JPG

I used the actual pull itself to determine the position of the holes.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...llmounts01.JPG

Quick tap to the marking punch to locate the holes.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...llmounts02.JPG

Perfectly positioned and drilled.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...llmounts03.JPG

Case is complete, all runners mounted, and the inside waxed and buffed.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...complete01.JPG

Drawer fitted and in place
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...complete02.JPG

As complete on the bench.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...complete03.JPG

Final pictures of it in place, and commentary, coming soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnnyEgo

Home Stretch:

Some final fitting courtesy of the sander, followed by hand-sand clean up.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit01.JPG

https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit02.JPG

Some paste-wax on the runners:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit03.JPG

All lined up for final coat of Danish Oil:
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...finalfit04.JPG

I used the actual pull itself to determine the position of the holes.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...llmounts01.JPG

Quick tap to the marking punch to locate the holes.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...llmounts02.JPG

Perfectly positioned and drilled.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...llmounts03.JPG

Case is complete, all runners mounted, and the inside waxed and buffed.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...complete01.JPG

Drawer fitted and in place
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...complete02.JPG

As complete on the bench.
https://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020P...complete03.JPG

Final pictures of it in place, and commentary, coming soon.

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Looks like vacation gets you motivated ;)

You have some of the coolest tools.
I had not seen the locator for the drawer pulls before, and I am a fan of the latest tool flyers.
Great project. Thanks for posting and the updates.


https://i.imgur.com/R6Jb9xx.jpg

Daym,

I learned to use the “Dewy Decimal System” in a cabinet very similar to that one except it was aged & worn way back then.

Haha yes, two additional days of vacation and the incessant demands of my 11 year old certainly helped motivate me to finish. Just for a quick recap,

Before:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...okechaos02.JPG

After:
http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...dcatalog01.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...dcatalog04.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...dcatalog05.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...dcatalog07.JPG

http://www.johnnyego.com/wood/2020Pr...dcatalog06.JPG

So the after-action lessons are as follows:

At some point, I am going to need to build two replacement boxes for the two that hit the shop floor and dented their corners. In the future, I think if I have something critical to the appearance, I will budget the wood, time, and effort to make spares, even if they go in the scrap pile.

I don't think I got a whole lot out of making the drawers first. They were nice to have during the fitting process for the carcass, but I think I would have been better off to just build the carcass and fit each individual drawer. 10 of the 12 are interchangeable, which is nice, but I don't think it is all that critical.

I did some needlessly complicated things, such as integrating the beading into the carcass. Would have been easier and faster to just mill the beading and apply it to the carcass like a face frame. That would also have the advantage of being a lot less critical for a lot of things. There are a couple of face miters that I would have loved a do-over on, but had to grit my teeth and fill because I couldn't afford to remake the panel.

There are a few relatively inexpensive tools that make a tremendous difference in a project like this. The hardware alignment jig that BnB complimented me on was $27, and made for very consistent hardware mounting across 13 total drawers. My $13 Zona Razor Saw was very useful for cutting little shims, cleaning up rabbets, and doing minor precision trim cuts. The Veritas Side Rabbet is not nearly as inexpensive these post-Corona days as when I bought it, but even at $150, it is so useful for fitting drawer bottoms that I would fork over the money again without hesitation.

Lastly, hand-sharpening is not that hard and does not have to be tremendously expensive. I did spend a couple hundred bucks on my water stones, but there are cheaper options. And any time spent sharpening is 1/3 the time and frustration of using a not-quite-sharp-enough tool. I sharpened my chisels at the start and mid point of every day, and it was the right call to stop every time and do it. I am coming out of this project with a lot more knowledge and appreciation for my non-powered tools, although I am never going to give up my tablesaw or jointer.

Thanks all for joining me on the 16 month adventure!

You had beer left over?!?

Look closer. Different beer.

Left over beer is left over beer...