G&G Inspired Wall Cabinet

glenn bradley

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SoCal
Made a couple of pieces similar to this for a walk in closet (that was about the size of my whole master bedroom:rolleyes:) and wanted to see how one would turn out in Sipo.

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Sipo looks a lot like Sepele (both in the mahogany family) but, the ribbons are not quite so pronounced.

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I mark out my parts with chalk. With such a definite figure I like to select my boards from within a larger area of material. This leaves you with some odd shaped scrap but, I guess I can always make up some more coasters.

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The Jig Saw makes quick work of breaking things down with minimal mess. For longer cuts I add crosscuts with the jig saw and then band saw the longer cuts up to them.

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In pretty short order I have the bulk of the parts in an over-sized and un-milled state.

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A few pieces call for some resawing from larger blanks and I am never sorry that I have a machine that I can just walk up to and resaw tall stock.

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A little more jointer and planer work and I have a stack of parts ready to be brought down to size.

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I will let these parts rest till tomorrow. In the mean time I'm going to put a touch-up on some of my cutters.
 
another great project to follow.

don't know much about sipo, but I learned one thing about sapele(which I was warned about), finish has to be applied equally to both sides because the wood likes to move. Even unseen sides.

IM sure this piece will be private gallery exclusive kinda stuff by the time you finish it.
 
Sipo is what they call it around here although it is also called Util. It is not quite the hardness of red oak on the Janka scale and about the same weight. Harder than Honduran and African mahoganies but, doesn't cost as much. I was actually shopping for Sapele for an as yet to be determined table for my own home. It was relatively inexpensive with a nice look so I wanted to try it out. I'm takin' one for the team so we can all see how it goes. :)

The cabinet is sized to hold CD jewel boxes. Although I recently carved out the time to make a media cabinet for myself, it seems I find 'still more' CD's every time I go through something that's been stored away. This is what I get for having things that still have not been unpacked after living here for years. The end result of this is that I have multiple copies of some stuff. I just came across about 20 yesterday while throwing out a bunch of computer stuff that I had managed to hold onto until it was completely worthless:rolleyes:.

I know MP3's can sound great but, I guess I am just old enough to have gotten stuck with a preference to hold my music in my hands :eek:. Its funny the things we get hung up on. Its like my piano. I only play the thing about twice a year but, I just can't bring myself to be without it.
 
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I was pleased that the material seems to move not a bit over a couple days so I am confident in bringing things down to final size.

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The blank for the top has the figure I am after with the center I want just a bit off-center of the blank. This will mean a little more waste but, I get the piece I am after.

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I layout the placement of the sliding dovetails and prepare the dovetail sled for it's first real use.

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cont'd . . .
 
I use a shop made stop to control the sliding dovetail length. I know from the dovetail's geometry that I can hog out a 5/16" x 1/4" slot to relieve the dovetail bit of the full burden of these cuts.

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This is one of the times the DRO on router table comes in handy. Not often for me but, when I want it, it's nice to have.

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The pre-hogged path lets the dovetail bit cut nice and clean.

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Now for an excellent example of letting how you are going to do something, overshadow what you are doing. A lapse in attention has me failing to compensate for the stair-stepped profile of this piece. Result; sliding dovetail slots are 2-5/8" too long.

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I am all about feasible recovery from our boo-boos but, this one is not recoverable. Too bad because I really liked that section of figure. This part will become something else (a little smaller) on something else some day. I need to dry my tears and go make another blank. . . .
 
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OK, took me awhile to find a section of board I liked but, I got a new top blank roughed out. Nothing new here; you've seen me do dovetails with the tenonning jig before.

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The tenon is cut back to assure a clean presentation at the front of the joint. And it looks like so.

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The massive appearance of the top will be reduced by the stair-stepped profile. The top and sides are the core that the rest of the piece will be built off of.

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It always helps if it comes back apart after the dry fit :rolleyes:.
 
Glenn hope u dont mind i get so engrossed reading and examining your post i forget to comment.lots to take in. thanks for all the detail you go into.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Now for an excellent example of letting how you are gong to do something, overshadow what you are doing. A lapse in attention has me failing to compensate for the stair-stepped profile of this piece. Result; sliding dovetail slots are 2-5/8" too long.

I am all about feasible recovery from our boo-boos but, this one is not recoverable. Too bad because I really liked that section of figure. This part will become something else (a little smaller) on something else some day. I need to dry my tears and go make another blank. . . .

Thank you for sharing this as well. A good reminder for those of us like me who tend to have these sorts of issues all too often!
 
Thanks for the comment all. I should have mentioned, the router sled worked out great. I would struggle with all sorts of weird setups to perform operations that the router sled takes in stride. Of course if you build one you have to have somewhere to put it when you're not using it. If you've got a need for one I can attest to the usefulness ;-)
 
After messing around with my router table setup the last couple days, I'm pretty sure I'm going to rebuild the top of it. That looks like a slick solution.
 
Glenn,

I could not tell from your post, but is that a tapered sliding dovetail? If not, have you had any problem sliding it home once you glue it?
 
Thank you for sharing this as well. A good reminder for those of us like me who tend to have these sorts of issues all too often!

There are exceptions but, I have found it is faster and better in the long run to accept the goof and fire off my mental-mantra that I use to remain productive in these situations; "just make another one, just make another one, just make another one".

Glenn,

I could not tell from your post, but is that a tapered sliding dovetail? If not, have you had any problem sliding it home once you glue it?

On little guys like this (about 6" of length) I cut the dovetail socket straight. I ease the tail with a chisel so it is technically tapered but, not in the traditional sense. The socket may be about 6" long but, the tail would only be 5-3/4" long and tapered a bit via some chisel work. I put glue in the socket for an inch or so about 1" from the end. This lets the tail push the glue along and leaves a well in case there is extra. The balance of the tail and socket are held by a snug fitting joinery. This also allows for movement towards the rear while keeping things looking nice and aligned up front throughout the year.

For larger work I do taper the socket via a minor 'reposition' of the router jig (or the work piece if I am using the sled/table) and cut the tail portion straight. I have also used epoxy for more complex sliding DT assemblies as it acts like a lubricant during the slide. PVA has a tendency (by design, of course) to grab but, sometimes at the most inopportune time on longer sockets :(. I really hate to get caught in that 'fight or flight' reaction when an assembly grabs too soon; Do I try to force it? Do I try to back it out? Argh!
 
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Thanks Glenn for the further explanation. I have used PVA in the past on sliding dovetails, but am thinking of trying liquid hide glue hoping that it might allow it slide better and would be easy to undo.
 
I layout the stair-step profile and make the vertical cuts on the tablesaw. I could remove the waste on the bandsaw and with a long handsaw.

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However, I don't have a long handsaw and I do have a raised panel jig for the tablesaw. It does the job just fine.

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So here's the roughed-out stair-step profile that gives me that sort of 'soaring' feel I am after that makes the cabinet feel bigger than it is.

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