Garrett Hack Cabinet - Continued Some More

glenn bradley

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Awhile ago I posted about using my planer sled. The lumber I milled down already has a purpose. I get emails from Fine Woodworking Magazine and the latest involved a small cabinet for special tools by Garrett Hack.

Since it involved sliding dovetails and I had just done a sliding DT cabinet, it caught my eye. My adaptation of his cabinet will vary somewhat but, it is his sequence of parts creation and assembly that I found really logical.

So here are some of my parts (again, this is a prototype and made from an old 4 x 10):

Garrett Cabinet parts.jpg

For those of you with a sled (or more importantly, for those of you without), the making of very accurate, repeated, consistent length parts is a cinch. One of the beauties of Garrett's design is that the top, bottom and all the shelves are the same length, although different thicknesses:

Garrett Cabinet sled.jpg

I use the tenoning jig for the sliding dovetails again on the top and bottom. The shelves are thinner and just slide into dados. They are captured between the face frame and the back just as in Garrett's design. Garrett did his dovetails with just the fence and the router table but, he's a lot more experienced than I am:

Garrett Cabinet tenoning.jpg

Well, I had to squeeze this in between work and running over to LOML's house. I have to fix the oven if I want any more free dinners so, I'll post more as I move along.
 
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Looks great so far Glenn. Sliding dovetails for cabinet shelves are my preferred ones.

BTW I like the extra protection wood block on your TS sled.:thumb:
 
Looking forward to watching your progress, Glenn. What material are you making this out of?

Garrett is coming back to the Pacific Northwest this June to teach some classes ( Cabinet Curiosities & Decorative Details ). I am going to the first class. It would be great if some other Family members showed up. Glenn, it would be good for you to come up north for a week, as all that sun is just not healthy for you.
 
on your sliding dove tail shelves are you gonna glue that joint??? or just use the dT to be the holding factor?

Although it is tempting to just use the joint (as it will be captured) I run a bit of glue on the leading edge and then count on the dovetail to smear it along as I slide them together. The top and bottom are sliding DT's. The shelves are just dados per Garrett's design.
 
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Looking forward to watching your progress, Glenn. What material are you making this out of?

Garrett is coming back to the Pacific Northwest this June to teach some classes ( Cabinet Curiosities & Decorative Details ). I am going to the first class. It would be great if some other Family members showed up. Glenn, it would be good for you to come up north for a week, as all that sun is just not healthy for you.

The proto is just construction lumber and will end up in the stove but the keeper will probably be QSWO as I have some in the rack that has been staring at me for while.

I've been away from the "Ever-gray" part of the country almost long enough to make a trip sound fun ;-) I'm gonna check that out, thanks.
 
Garrett Hack Cabinet - cont'd

I am studying more of "how" Garrett approaches this piece than "what" he is doing. It is interesting going through his sequence as he has obviously got this down cold.

He uses story sticks and the actual parts already created as measuring tools. Here the cutout for the top and bottom pieces (to allow the stiles) are marked with the stiles:

1-Garret Cabinet parts as story stick.jpg

Once marked, a stop block allows quick repetition but, the notches are cut a bit small:

2-Garret Cabinet stop block.jpg

The logic goes that during glueup, things could wiggle and you can fine tune the opening before adding the stiles:

3-Garret Cabinet chisel tune.jpg

He cuts the bottom oversize and finalizes it with a plane. I'm fine doing this to finished size on the tablesaw but what the heck; in for a penny, in for a pound. I'll do it his way:

4-Garret Cabinet plane bottom.jpg

The stiles are also oversize until after glue up. Then you finalize the length and the notches (if required) before gluing them into position. In preparation for glue up the stiles are set off to the side:

5-Garret Cabinet stile oversize.jpg

Before glueup of the carcass, dados are cut for a divider in the lower position. He adds a single drawer later, for small parts:

6-Garret Cabinet divider dado.jpg

Lay everything out, arrange your clamps and have your glue bottle nearby. I use the Baby-bot for gluing smaller projects like this. I would say this cabinet is at the limit of the Baby-bot's usefulness. It is great for smaller work though:

7-Garret Cabinet glueup layout.jpg

Check for square and clamp her up. I'll let this set for about a half hour and then start "fitting" the stiles. The cabinet is laying on its back here. You can sort of see the rabbets and notches that will house the stiles which support the door:

8-Garret Cabinet glueup.jpg
 
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There's some neat beading on Garrett's version. I was waiting for glue to dry anyway so I tried my hand at a scratch stock made out of a piece of maple scrap and an old sawzall blade. The construction lumber is so soft it tears more than shapes. It seemed to do OK on a scrap of cherry.
 

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That is really great work Glenn :thumb:

I had the great pleasure of meeting Garrett this last week, he came and stayed with us on Saturday night and we got ready for the class he was teaching, he came to the Dungeon and we worked on some planes that he brought for the class, my idea of "Sharp" was completely upgraded :D

I will be doing some flat work in the very near future and I'm looking to incorporate a lot of the ways that Garrett works, a lot of it is a lot simpler than it looks.

Your cabinet is really great, and making a prototype is sure the way to go, as the second one you build will even be better.

Keep us posted, I'm certainly following along! :lurk: :wave:
 
I find it hard to believe the prototype won't hang somewhere and be used. Donate it to habitate for humanity, put it in the upstairs bedroom, in the shop for your planes, garage for stuff, once you become rich and famous, the prototypes of your work are all guys like me could envision affording to buy!
 
I always enjoy following any thing you build. I always learn something every time. Useing a tendoning Jig for cutting those dove tails.... wow I never would have thought of that , Thank You! Great job, But I am with Jon, on useing your proto-type for something besides fire wood....Looks like a keeper to me.:thumb::thumb:
 
Well Glenn, you just made it, after seeing your post and watching Garret's video on the cabinet I can't but give a try to it myself, haven't got a TS though so I'll use my back saw.:) or my miter saw.;)
 
thats a differnt approach to a scratch stock glenn!!! mine was along the lines of a spoke shave with the cutter in the middle.. i like your idea,, still has a refernce edge to keep straight and could be alterd easily to make curves..:thumb::thumb:
 
GH Cab - Moving Along

Got a little more time after work today. Garrett stated that "the quality of the hinge setting shows me an awful lot about the quality of the work". Well that would be true as I maimed these pretty well :rolleyes:. The size of my hinges vs. the stile leave very little backing material and I blew out the back with my chisel clean up cuts. This is one of the reasons that I do prototypes; its all a learning experience:

9-GHCab hinge cuts.jpg

Another good reason is that after I finally managed to seat the hinges:

10-GHCab hinge placed.jpg

I carefully put the stile in upside down and glued it in place. This just means the hinges will be slightly lower than centered as opposed to slightly higher than centered. since this is a test piece, I'll practice fitting the hinges to match and install the door anyway:

11-GHCab hinge rails glued.jpg

I made my own cove moulding much as the video shows; milling two faces in an old pallet skid and then ripping the moulding off. I planed the edges to get them tuned into each other:

12-GHCab cove rough.jpg13-GHCab cove planed.jpg

I placed a pencil mark along the edge I want to use the scratch stock on. It is a little hard to see due to the coloring in the mystery wood but it is along the edge closest to you in the pic. When I see the pencil line start to disappear, I know I'm almost deep enough with the bead profile. I give it a look to see if I am happy with the proportions:

14-GHCab scratch stock mark.jpg15-GHCab cove trial.jpg16-GHCab cove proportions.jpg

I think the moulding is a little thick, front to back but am not going to try to thin it down. I've jotted this down and will take it into account on the next build. I'll get the trim ready to glue on and I can start the door next time.
 
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In an attempt to disguise my over-thick moulding, I made some dentil(?) like trim. The little nail poking out of the sac fence on the miter gauge acts as my offset register:

17-GH Cab dentil.jpg

My smaller bandsaw comes in handy for stuff like this. I clamp a piece of scrap as a guide and rip the moulding down:

18-GH Cab dentil rip.jpg

I'll get a picture of the result of my disguise efforts after bit but, for now, I need a door. As with all the material for this build, everything is first class :thumb:. A piece of scrap luan serves as the door panel. I used the Mortise Pal for the tenons because; One, I have it and Two, its just too easy:

19-GH Cab MP.jpg

I'll let this masterpiece dry and then see if I can do the other half of the hinge setting without embarrassing myself:

20-GH Cab door glueup.jpg
 
Well I banged my way through hinging the door without too much mishap. I think I'm sold on the QSWO idea for a keeper. Maybe a contrasting detail for the small trim. The absence of the raised panel door and the monochrome/mismatched materials don't really do this little guy justice.

I'll need to come up with a catch that the soft materials can deal with. The bullet catch Garrett uses would self destruct in this wood; maybe magnets(?). Anyway here's a shot with some random items inside for scale. I'm going to make the drawer to get the advantage of trying that out once before going for a nicer version.

This has been quick and fun and I would recommend it.
 

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