Shopsmith Forums

Managed to get back in the shop last two days and made headway on the doors for the cabinet. I did not get to the edge shaping but got them surfaced and ready. The SS drum sander did a great job as usual in the surface sanding.
Paul

Nice tight glue-up, Paul!

That’s an interesting panel design. Why two layers of frame/edging? Did you use biscuits or anything on the end-grain joints? Any concern about expansion/contraction, given that the center panel is not floating?

How is the glue gonna dry with no air space in the joints?

Gotta ask why the 'extra' piece between the rails on one end.

Nice work!!!!

Well done. Greatlooking doors.

Dennis as far as stability I have made lap joint doors in various climates and never had an issue over the years. Even using different species for the panels etc and they do fine. One of the advantages of those doors besides their stability is they are quick and simple to make and the ability to make variations in the design is endless. At each layer you can change to a contrasting wood and vary the width all the way down to pin striping. We did a set once that had seven layers I think. They only require a table saw to make. No SPT’s required. A surface sander makes life a little easier but we have made hundreds of these doors and in the early years we made them with a Mark V, a 4” belt sander, a hand held router and a 1/2 sheet orbital sander. The SS drum sander makes them a no brainer.
Paul

Today was glue up drawers day. Fairly easy glue up with plastic resin glue.
Paul

OK, I am enough of a newbie to ask this Paul as I don't feel stupid asking dumb questions .... LOL.

I am amazed that you don't have expansion and contraction problems with your doors. That method seems to fly in the face of everything we are taught about woodworking. I trust and believe you completely, but can you explain why you don't have problems with them? I am making standard floating panel doors for our kitchen, and I am very pleased as to how they have come out, and I don't think I would do them differently, but for future reference, enlighten us/me. I am amazed ...

Yeah, why did I buy space balls?

I managed to get back in the shop today and continued on the drawers. I have been directed to use the soft close accuride drawer slides for the first time. I am not too impressed. Too many very small plastic parts that do not look like they will pass the test of time. I like accuride slides and have used them almost exclusively on my cabinets but the soft close feature has a lot of moving parts. As far as the doors and expansion issues I think the fact they are made with each joint overlapping the last is probably the biggest factor. We made them for many years on our cabinets and one of the best features is the stability. Most of our homes were in the Carmel and Pebble Beach Ca area which is notorious for humidity issues. Standard rail and stile doors were very problematic with a lot of call backs for warped doors. The primary woods we used and still do is alder and Honduran mahogany but we mixed in black walnut and used rosewoods for striping. The other advantage is they are so low tech and simple to make but look very intricate and unique. The fact they use just a table saw and a router for the edge detail is a big advantage when you have a lot of doors to make. The SS by the way is the primary tool for these doors. The PP headstock definitely made a huge improvement but we made a lot of them in the early years with a standard Mk 5.
Paul

Feeling pretty good and back to about 99% physically. All the drawers and doors are on and have the pull out shelving cut and dovetailed. The bottoms for the pull out shelving is 1/2” plywood so I cannot just dado them in at full thickness. I will have to rabbet the edges of the ply down to 1/4” to be able to get the dado down to less than the thickness of the dovetail.
Paul