FLW Cabinet - #15 Stain Samples, Cutting ¾”- 4’x8’ Plywood Sheets & Testing

Before I can glue up the backs, I want to stain the oak plywood panel.  That’s so if the legs or rails shrink after a few years here in the desert or the panel shifts there won’t be any unstained slivers of the plywood peeking out.  I have a drawer with a number of different stain/finish combinations on different woods so deciding to start there seemed an obvious choice.  Going through them produced this handful of options set in the room where the cabinets will go.  Now it’s a matter of looking at them in various types of light during the day and evening to see which one looks the best.

While looking at the assembled back and the proportions of the cabinet I decided it would look a little better by adding some depth.  In the end a half inch got added to the depth.  Not a big change but it did require dimension changes to the sides, side spacers, shelves, bottom and top.  Also, since the side spacers and the top blanks had already been made, they needed to be checked to see if they were big enough.  Fortunately, they were.  However, it generated this revised cut sheet for the ¾” oak plywood.

With that decision made I started to break down the ¾” oak plywood sheets into more manageable pieces.  Since I work alone swinging around a 4’x8’ sheet weighing 65 pounds without banging the faces or damaging the edges is not the easiest thing.  Also, 40 years ago it was a lot easier 😊.  For these cabinets the plan is to cut to length plus a couple of inches then rip that in half and then cut to final size.  First some 2x4 sleepers are laid down out in the driveway.

The plywood is then carefully set on the 2x sleepers.  Measuring and marking the oversized piece length is next followed by clamping my cutting jig down aligning with the measured marks.  A final check to make sure the length is correct and I am ready to go.  A circular saw with a high-quality carbide tipped plywood finish blade is used to make the cut.  This gives me a smooth cut with minimal chipping of the thin oak veneer.  One thing this photo shows is the sliced face grain of the plywood.  I like using plywood with this kind of face.  The effect it gives is that of a series of book matched solid boards glued edge to edge versus that rotary cut veneer that looks like regular plywood.

Once cut to rough length the piece is ripped roughly in half to make two blanks.  One blank is again ripped about in half to the side’s final width using the cut edge against the fence.  The remainder is ripped to remove the dinged-up factory edge and cut to final width.  The other blank is ripped to the bottom’s final width and an oversize shelf.  The remainder is for two more shelves to be cut to final width and length later.  Here is the setup for all that ripping.

Unfortunately, after cutting the sides to size the pieces developed a bit of a bow.  Not a lot and something that can be worked around when I assemble but it would be nice if they were a little flatter.  With that in mind I stacked them on risers with the bow up.  Clamps applied pressure to reverse the bow.  I will let them set for a day to see if that does any good in flattening them out.

While some of the plywood pieces are clamped, I marked the other plywood blanks for the shelves and cabinet bottoms.  Here is one, in the center just below the “X” is a place where the edge got chipped and part of the oak veneer got ripped off.  There are a few instances where the veneer near the edges got damaged but they can be cut away so it’s not a problem.  I just had to carefully do the initial cutting layout to make sure they did end up in places that were waste.  Once the layout is verified it’s a simple matter to cut the pieces to final length and a little long.  Final length will come a bit later.

Well, it took three days of the plywood pieces being clamped but they are now pretty flat.  That doesn’t mean they will stay that way.  I will give them a couple more days to see if they are stable.

Each door and cabinet frame have some 40 square pegs in them that hide places where screws will be installed.  The original rendering shows what I mean.  In it the pegs have been ebonized so they are black.  As the project has progressed, I am not so sure that’s a good idea.  For instance, the pegs in the tapered legs represent the double tenon of the side spacer.  Now since the spacer is oak the exposed tenons should be too.  Another consideration is the focus of the cabinet is the stained-glass window in the door and not the contrasting pegs.

To see how things would look I decided to make a sample.  By now I had looked at the various stain samples and made a selection.  Taking a scrap of the oak I cut a couple of square peg holes, stained it with the selected stain then set an ebonized and stained peg in place.  That was followed by a couple coats of finish which gave me this.  Based on how it looks I will change the leg pegs to stained oak.  Still not sure about the ones in the door as they are independent pegs.

Since I was in the testing mode one other item needed a decision.  The edge treatment of the side spacers and legs has been up in the air all during the design between a bevel and a radius.  Even the rendering has one side drawn with a bevel and the other side with a radius.  Looking to past furniture did not provide any guidance as I have done it both ways.  To resolve this, I made a test piece out of MDF and set in place.  The left photo below shows the beveled edge and the right a radiused.

A closer look at the options are below with the top being the bevel and the bottom being the radius.  After looking at them along with the existing furniture made each way the decision is to go with the radius on these pieces along with the legs, top and bottom rail, doors and shelves.

Next up – Making the Side Spacers, More Stain & Front Frame Glue-up