Building an Oak Display Case and Related Tasks

Frank Pellow

Member
Messages
2,332
Location
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
(part 1 of 3)

I built my wife Margaret a display case for her birthday on January 1st. I used plans from the book “Display Cases You Can Build” by Danny Proulx (ISBN: 1-55870-606-2) and followed them quite closely. The main difference was that I used dowels in places where Danny advocated biscuits and in others where he advocated mortise and tenon joins. Another difference is that I used 10mm glass for the shelves and 5mm glass in the doors where he suggested 6mm for shelves and 3mm for doors.

Here are some notes extracted from my weekly journal:

2007 Dec 30:

Christmas has come and gone and now I am rushing to get the core part of Margaret’s main birthday present finished. As usual, I left things to the last minute and, this time, the last minute was too late.

On Saturday, after our return from London, I started work on the carcass of the oak display cabinet. The carcass is completely made of sheet goods. In the picture below, the back (made of nominal ½ inch red oak veneer) is being trimmed to size using a guided circular saw:

Hall display cabinet 01 -Cutting plywood for carcass -small.JPG

Here, shelf support holes are being drilled into a side (made of nominal ¾ inch red oak plywood) using a home-made template:

Hall display cabinet 02 -Drilling holes for shelf support pegs -small.JPG

And next dados and rabbets are being routed into the sides using a guided router:

Hall display cabinet 03 -Routing a dado in carcass side -small.JPG


2008 Jan 6:

I actually finished construction of the carcass Tuesday morning (just in time). Here are a couple of pictures, the first showing the glue up with 18 clamps of the back and the second showing what I ended up presenting to Margaret:

Hall display cabinet 04 -Gluing up the back to the carcass using 18 clamps -small.JPG Hall display cabinet 05 -Plywood carcass beside a solid oak board -small.JPG

Well, actually I first presented this picture:

clip_image002.jpg

simulating the finished cabinet in our hall, then I took her to the shop and showed her the real thing as so far as it has been built.
 
(part 2 of 3)

Later in the week I attached a partial a solid oak face frame to the plywood carcass. 32 dowels spread over 13 feet had to be in the right place for a single glue-up. They were in the right place and the face frame fit very well.

another small photo of the face frame being attached.jpg

I have a couple things to say about the face frame shown in the earlier photo. First of all it is not a complete face frame because both the top and bottom rails are missing. I was too much of a wimp to attempt to attach those as well as the stiles to the carcass in one BIG glue-up. So, I added them later. This necessitated connecting the rails to the styles with something other than dowels. Hidden pocket holes proved to handle this job very well, as shown in a photo below of the back side of a rail drilled with both pocket holes and dowel holes.

Hall display cabinet 10 -Both dowels and pocket holes used in face frame rail -small.JPG

The other thing is that the plans did not call for the middle cross-piece. I felt it was needed in order to keep cabinet sides in alignment. The cross piece attaches to the stiles with two dowels at each joint. That appears to be very strong and has convinced me to construct the door frame using dowels rather than mortise and tenons.

Another change that I made was to add a couple of extra pieces at the bottom back to sit on the floor and distribute the weight better. The photo below shows then being glued into place.

Hall display cabinet 12 -adding support not called for in the pattern -small.JPG

Of course, they were later screwed as well.

2008 Jan 13:

The hall cabinet, without a door, is now in the hall. Finishing it to this stage took less time than I expected it to but changing electrical outlets and circuits took a LOT more time than I expected it to. I inserted
Brass sleeves (116 of them) into all the shelf support holes (as shown in the picture below). This adds to the professional look of the cabinet and makes it much easier remove and insert the support paddles.

Hall display cabinet 13 -Istalling 116 brass sleaves for shelf supportsd -small.JPG

The picture below shows three 12 volt lights being installed at the top of the cabinet.

Hall display cabinet 14 Installing halogen lights at top of cabinet -small.JPG

An electrical receptacle was needed behind the cabinet. The closest source of electricity was above the washing machine. The hall light switch was in the position where the receptacle was needed and, since it would be blocked, it had to be moved. All this required a work on three different circuits and the installation of wire and boxes. So here was the ‘game’ plan:
-Move the switch in the hall to the Laundry Room just inside the doorway (as one of a gang of 3 switches),
-Tap into the receptacle behind the washing machine and run a line to the previous location of the switch in the hall,
-Connect a switch to the new receptacle in the hall (as one of the gang),
-While I am at it, pigtail all the aluminum wiring in the boxes.​
It sounds easy and it would have been except that I needed to cut into the walls to access wire and install boxes. This made a below shows holes in the Laundry Room wall part way through the work. The second one shows that some progress has been made. Things are operational again, but there are still holes to be dealt with. I will probably make a small shelf to cover them.

Hall display cabinet 16 -I had to change wiring because of the cabinet's location -small.JPG Hall display cabinet 18 -Almost finished electrical work in the laundry room -small.JPG

There was a really big hole around the new receptacle in the hall, so I made this big plate to cover it out of plywood.

Hall display cabinet 17 -improvised receptical plate to cover a big hole in the wall -small.JPG

It looks very strange but will be hidden by the cabinet.
 
(part 3 of 3)

2008 Jan 20:

This week, I finished and installed the door for the hall cabinet. The cabinet looks good, but I can’t seem to get a good picture of it becuase of reflection off the glass. I have tried lighting of different kins and here are the best pictures of a bad lot:

Hall display cabinet 30 -Finished with door open -small.JPG Hall display cabinet 33 -Finished with door closed -yet another try -small.JPG Hall display cabinet 32 -Finished with door closed -another try -small.JPG

I am happy with the job on the cabinet. It’s really only the second piece of fine furniture that I have made –the first being Terry West’s TV cabinet a couple of years ago. The bedside cabinet that I made for our guest room three years ago came close –but I screwed up the top.

I also made a shelf to cover up the remainder of the holes in the laundry room:

Hall display cabinet 27 -Built and installed a shelf in the laudry room to hide the holes -small.JPG
 
Nicely done, Frank. :thumb: Thanks for documenting it for us. I'd say you're getting good use of your new Dowelmax.
 
Top