Photo Club Cabinet – #5 Test Finish, Back & Face Frame

At this point I decided to take a break from construction and do a test of the stain and lacquer finish I plan on using.   I took a scrap of the plywood and solid oak, sanded them both to 220 grit and wiped on a coat of stain.  The piece on the left is oak plywood and the one on the right is solid oak.  The stain is in the middle.

Cabinet Material Stained

After letting the stain dry overnight, I pulled out the air-brush equipment and gave the two pieces a coat of satin lacquer. 

Airbrush Setup

I let that dry, wet sanded it with 1,500 grit and gave it a second lacquer coat.  When it dried I wet sanded again with 6,000 grit just to remove any dust nibs or other slight imperfections.

Completed Test Finish

The next step is to cut and install the back.  Because the back is only 3/16” thick a 4’x8’ sheet is not too heavy.  It is a little wobbly and somewhat fragile so I had to be careful and support it so it would not break.  The process is nearly the same as with the plywood panels.  The main difference is that I do not rough cut to length but carefully set up my straightedge and finish cut to length.

Because the edges of the back are hidden by the sides and shelves I could skip the re-cutting on the table saw.  

For the width cut I wanted the holes centered between the sides so that meant I had to measure and cut each side edges on the table saw.  One interesting thing is that the holes in the pegboard are not square with the factory edges.  Not a lot off but enough to confuse me when I first started checking my measurements.  Also, because the pegboard is not very ridged I had to put together a Rube Goldberg set up to support the sheet while cutting.

With the back cut I could set it in place and screw it to the sides, top, bottom, center divider and fixed shelves.   The back will act to help keep the cabinet square so I took advantage of every available point to screw it down.  How many screws you ask, about 60.

Case with Back

Now that I had the bulk of the case work done I turned my attention to the solid oak pieces.  I pulled the out the rough cut pieces and checked them to see if there had been any movement.  Sure enough, there was one piece that had cupped a little.  Not enough to be a big problem because it was for the toe kick space and thickness is not critical so I could just flatten it out using the thickness sander. 

Cupped Board

I will run all the face frame pieces through the thickness sander for a couple of reasons.  First, is to get them all to exactly the same thickness and second to remove the planer marks from the mill.  If I left these planer scallops, then when the stain is applied the surface would emphasize them and look terrible.  The pencil lines are for reference when they are gone the board is flat.

Planer Scallops

To build the face frame I ripped all the pieces to their final width then used the chop saw with a stop block for consistent lengths cut the needed parts.  After that it’s on to the pocket hole jig to drill another bunch of holes.

Pocket Hole Jig Setup

For assembly I use two clamps to hold the pieces in alignment and to keep them from slipping during assembly.  One is a long bar clamp and the other is a locking set of pliers that hold the faces in the same plane.  This is where making sure the parts are all the same thickness pays off.  If they are not you can’t get flush joints between the two pieces.  Clamped up like this assembly is simply driving two screws in place.

Assembling Face Frame

Sometimes the assembly is not done laying down flat.

After completing the face frame assembly, I used the small handheld router to route a 1/8” radius on all the exposed edges to soften them.  Because of the diameter of the router bit and it’s pilot bearing the corners come out somewhat rounded as in the left photo below.  I don’t like that look and wanted the radius to go all the way into the corner.  To get that look I used a rasp and some sand paper to hand shape the joint the way I wanted it to look.  Not to hard but each one takes some time and there are 24 of these rascals to do.  The devil is in the details after all.

Before and After Corner Shaping

With the face frame done I carefully measured to get it in place then clamped it there.  To install I used the previously drilled pocket holes in the sides and screwed it in place.  

Attaching the Face Frame

Once all the screws are in place I could remove the clamps and here is what the cabinet looks like with the back and face frame in place.

Next was to remove the back so I could clamp the face frame to the center divider and fixed shelves then install the pocket screws.

Attaching Center Divider to Face Frame

One thing I noticed when assembling the face frame was that one of the joints did not fit together quite as well as it should have.  Investigating I found that somehow my chop saw had gotten out of square for vertical cuts.  So, before continuing I needed to do some maintenance on the saw.  While you can use a square to check and set the saw that can lead to inaccurate results.  I only have room to use a 4” long square for the vertical cut.  If I am off just a little or if the square is not perfect, then when I cut a piece that’s 4’ or 6’ long the error gets magnified 10 or 15 times.  There is a better way.

Take two pieces of material a couple of feet long and 3” or so wide then rip them to make sure the long edges are parallel.  With that done mark one corner on each board stacking them on top of each other with the marks in line make a cut.  In my case since I was checking for the vertical cut I set the pieces vertical for cutting.

Initial Cut to Check if Blade is Square

Test Cut Showing Correction Needed

After cutting take both pieces to a flat surface, stand them on the edge you just cut and slide both pieces together, side by side.  If the long edges are parallel top to bottom spin one piece on the flat surface 180 degrees.  If they are still parallel, then your cut is square.  If not, it’s time to adjust the saw.  Mine was clearly not cutting square. 

Square Cut After Adjustment

Adjust as needed, in my case I had to take more off the edge opposite the mark I had made.  Continue to make cuts, adjust and re-cut until the long edges are parallel and aligned top to bottom.  

When they are your cut is square and you are ready to go.  I will say it did take me probably half a dozen cut-adjust-check loops to get the saw cutting square again.

Next Up – Doors, Toe Kick, Hardware & Adjustable Shelves