Pie Safe Build

Bob Gibson

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Messages
11,472
Location
Merrimack, New Hampshire
My daughter Melissa found Norm Abrams pie safe on line and asked me if I would build it for her. Dad can never say no so I ordered up the plans. I think that the show that shows his build is coming up soon.

He used pine but I'm using red maple. I'm going to build it according to his plans except where he uses biscuits I'm going with mostly mortise and tenon joints. He tends to use nails when he builds stuff. I'm not a big fan of nails so I'll figure a way around them. I'm going to change the way he made his drawers also.

I'm going to try and punch my own tin panels. Need 6 of them for the doors. I'm having trouble finding the design she wants. She wants an eagle with its talons clutching the flag or something similar. I'm not very crafty and I can't stand tedious work. So if I can find pre-punched panels in her design I may possibly buy them.

Got all the maple planed down, straightened, and ripped to width. Today I had the time to make up the 4 maple panels. 2 for each of the sides as well as getting the top glued up. I think Saturday will be taken up with glue scraping and sanding.:eek:

Thanks for following along. Any ideas, comments, suggestions are always appreciated.

100_3771 (600 x 400) glued up.jpg

100_3772 (600 x 400) ripped to width.jpg
 
Cool build Bob. :thumb: You taught me something already. I did not know of Red Maples existence. Will look for that next time i go to my lumber guy.

Oh i envy you with those clamps. I see you got Jet and Bessy can you give me a view on one or the other. I like that trigger that Jet have but how does the rest fair against the bessy in real world.
 
Rob,

I might be wrong, wouldn't be the first time. I think soft maple is red maple.:huh:


John there is a Red leaf and a Silver leaf maple and both are a soft maple but the Red leaf is a far better material. If given a option always take the Red leaf it routes and machine a lot better than Silver leaf. I always referred to Silver leaf as trying to machine bubble gum.:D

Jay
 
Red maple is also called soft maple. It was only about $1.90/bf. Hard or sugar maple was around $2.30/bf. So thats why I went with the Red :D

Thanks, Alan. Thats about the only site I've found with patterns. They are selling me the blanks. But they don't have the pattern i'm looking for. Norm's plans call for an unusual size of blanks. As soon as I mentioned the size I needed to the lady on the phone she said " oh, you're making Norm Abrams pie safe". I guess they helped him with the design or something.

Rob
I like the bessy parallel clamps over the jet ones because the head seems to be easier to slide up to the workpiece.
I found a guy selling junk on the side of the road last week and he had 5 6 foot pipe clamps for sale and 1 3 foot. A little rusty but they worked fine. He said that he would sell me all 6 for $4.00. So I took them.:D
What I need a lot more of are the 12" F style clamps. I'd like to find a deal on 8-10 more.
 
John there is a Red leaf and a Silver leaf maple and both are a soft maple but the Red leaf is a far better material. If given a option always take the Red leaf it routes and machine a lot better than Silver leaf. I always referred to Silver leaf as trying to machine bubble gum.:D

Jay

Thanks Jay, I had forgotten that silver maple is also considered soft maple too.
 
Thanks guys. I dunno but i love maple and battle to tell the difference when its in wood form. Will pay extra care next time i am at the lumber yard. Only maple i have is stuff i bought from the HD before i set up shop. Wont be doing that again.:D

You got a great buy there for $6 bucks Bob.:thumb: I also need more F style clamps but i want the deep throat ones not the 2 inch ones.
 
I can just see it 50 - 75 years from now at an antiques roads show. Why Mam that's a Bob Gibson pie safe one of a kind worth $15000. I'd insure it for at least $25000 just to be safe.

Then your daughter will say my Daddy made this it's priceless.
 
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they are not pie safes

Did you know (probably not ;) ) pie safes are not pie safes? :huh:
Yup, really.
They are really Pye cabinets. So named because they were originally made and popularized by the company Thomas Pye and Sons.
They were not made for exclusive storage of pies. In fact another kind of storage device was used for pies. The pie storage thingy is much smaller, has a swing down door and screen front. You may still see them in some old time road side cafes.
The Pye 'cabinet' was used to store milk, butter and other dairy products.
The piercings on the doors was changed every year. An expert (maybe there is a printed guide, I dunno) can tell the year of manufacture by looking at the design.
 
So I'm getting a little more work done on my "pye" safe :D

Got the sides completed and got the drawer frames and top frame done. I used mortise and tenon joints for the sides but gave in and used biscuits on the frames.
The op had a pretty bad knot in it so I cleaned it out and epoxied it. The top isn't seen so I'm not worried about it being an eyesore. Still kind of bothers me to have it there though.
So far no major screw ups :rolleyes:
The face frame and doors are cut to rough length and will finish those tomorrow after I put the case(?) together.
I learned long ago not to cut face frames and doors to exact length untill the case is made op :)()
Hopefully I will have this ready to start finishing this weekend. Then got to decide on what pattern to make the tin inserts.

100_3776 (600 x 400)sides.jpg

100_3777 (600 x 400) drawer frame.jpg

100_3779 (600 x 400)Top.jpg

100_3780 (600 x 400) Knot.jpg

100_3781 (600 x 400) Face frame.jpg
 
coming along real well there bob:D:thumb::thumb: now frank what about the ones that had screen in them.. instead of the punched tin..??

They came later but were still 'cabinets' intended for dairy, and other, items but not generally pies.
Pie safes/cabinets were small items about 12"X12"X12" with a bottom hinged, screen front, door. We have all seen them in restaurants.
 
Rob
I made the side with mortise and tenons. The door frames will be m&t also. I did use biscuits on the drawer frames.
The drawers will be dovetailed. Norm seemed to want to make his the fastest way possible. I have no time constraints :D
Not sure what to finish it with yet. My daughter has darker wood in the kitchen but I really don't want to stain the maple dark.
 
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