As an added plus I already had 3D drawings of them so
thought I could print out full size plans, attach them to the oak blanks and
cut away.
Unfortunately, after taking a look at the printed out
full-size drawing and holding it up to the cabinet the scale did not look quite
right. The form was good but the size
was too small so I made a test piece scaled up to what I thought was about the
right size. After clamping it to the
cabinet, looking at it and using it to open the door I found that it needed to
be upsized just a little more. Below is
the original paper handle, the first test and an in-progress final
version. As I am still unsure about what
the final length needs to be so it’s a couple inches longer than what I think
it should be. The process for making it
was similar to the bottom rail work in post #12 Details on Legs, ProfilingRails & Starting the Top so I won’t go through it again.
Once the handles were cut out, I softened the edges using
a router with a ¼” radius bit. The
rounding sure does make the handle a lot more friendly to the touch. The top handle is before routing and the
bottom is when completed. The “NO” is
where the handle gets mounted to the cabinet which needs to be flat so that
reminds me not to route that edge.
Most of the time my deigns start out with a rough sketch
then I go the computer and do a 3-D model.
However, sometimes old school hand done drafting is the way to go. Coming up with the support for the handle is
a case-in-point. Here are the tools and
the drawing done in the shop for that part.
Look to the right above the left clamp at the bottom and there it is
drawn full size with dimensions. Well,
almost all the dimensions as the final length is still a little bit up in the
air. The mechanical pencil next to the
circle template is the first one I bought while in high school so it’s well
over 50 years old and still gets used on a regular basis.
Next is to work on the support block that goes near the
end of the handle based on the drawing I just finished. It starts by making a block matching the
height and width shown in the drawing and about 7” long. That’s more than twice as long as what’s
needed for both pieces but is safer as it keeps my fingers farther away from
the cutters. Below you can see about
where the block will go and the layout on the end of the block. Tape is used to do the layout on to make it
easier to see. The “U” shaped opening at
the top gets cut away so the handle fits in it.
Very, very little room for error here as the radius of the handle and
the radius of the cut in the block have to match as does its width.
A cove bit will be used to route the arc and make the
transition to the flat bottom. However,
to reduce the amount of material the bit has to hog out most of it is cut away
on the table saw. Here you can see the
setup and a closer look at how the waste is cut away.
With most of the oak removed I switched to the router
table and the cove bit and started to remove material a little at a time
sneaking up on a fit by moving the fence a little then making a pass along each
side of the opening. Because the cove
bit will not cut deep enough in a single pass, I had to work in the width
first.
Once the width is right the bit is raised a little bit at
a time until the proper depth is achieved.
Because the cove bit is ½” wide and the cut opening is ¾” the bottom of
the opening is not flat but has a couple of ridges. To get rid of them the piece needs to be
moved over and routed again. Since I did
not want to move the fence a narrow shim is clamped to the fence and the piece
run through then flipped 180 degrees to cut the opposite side which almost
completely flattens the bottom.
At this point there is just one little bit of routing to
do and that to route a 1/8” radius along the top edge of the piece.
Now I can move to the chop saw and cut the handles to
their final length since the blanks were intentionally cut long. To get the length the handles were clamped on
the cabinet door and marked at what looked right. Same process is used to size the support
block length, which comes from the just completed blank. With all the handle parts cut to length those
exposed sharp sawn edges need to be softened.
This is way too small to be done with a router or power tools and will
be done with sandpaper by eye. To help
my eyes out came the 4x headband magnifier.
I know it may look a little funny but they sure make doing detailed work
a lot easier.
This view of the handle shows the connection between the
support block and the handle itself. As
you can see the two pieces have to fit together perfectly, there is no room for
error. The routed radius and cove have
to match up perfectly as does the width of the slot and the width of the
handle. The degree of accuracy, the
design decisions and the prototypes that had to be made are the reasons it took a week to get them from the initial drawing to completed handles.
After all the sanding is completed here is what the two
pieces of the handle look like put together.
I can tell you that the mounting height involved quite a bit of thought
clamping them in place, standing back and looking at them then adjusting up and
down until a balance was established between the hinges, pegs and visual
vertical location.
The mounting to the door is via a couple of long wood
screws. The process I used to mount the
hinges is:
- Mark on the door where the screws go into the handle.
- Drill a pilot hole through the door from the outside face.
- Clamp the handle in place then drill the pilot hole into the handle from the door’s inner face. The top hole is drilled first with the drill left in place to keep the handle from shifting while drilling the lower hole. The photo shows what that looks like.
- The clamps are removed, the handle set aside and the hole in the door drilled larger to provide clearance for the screw.
- The handle is then screwed onto the door.
The handles complete all the wood working (I think)
except for the 6 million or so pegs that need to be made. Well, maybe not quite that many but it’s a
bunch.
Next up – Sanding & Staining
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