Router Plane

Monday, December 2, 2019

FLW Cabinet - #27 Assembly

The final assembly starts with the back laid out on the work bench and then attaching the bottom which will help hold the sides square.

Next is to stand the back and bottom up then clamp them to the work bench.  The plan was to take the appropriate side, run a bead of glue where it and the back come together then run the screws in through the pre-drilled screw holes and be finished.  If that had worked assembly would have been easy and would have looked like the photo below. 

Unfortunately, the side pieces had other ideas.  Early on in post 15 Stain Samples, Cutting¾”- 4’x8’ Plywood Sheets & Testing once the sides were rough cut to shape they bowed a little.  To get rid of the bow they were clamped like this and left for a few days. 

During the initial assembly they went together just fine but now some of the bow had crept back in and they did not want to cooperate.  The bow was not a lot, maybe half an inch but enough to make lining everything up to run the screws in problematic.  Here you can see the light strip of unstained and unfinished oak leg that should be covered by the side.


The workaround is to start at the top aligning the piece where is should go.  Next is to go down to the first side spacer where the screws will be installed and push the plywood back straight using a clamp attached to the leg to hold the side in place.  A piece of blue tape marks the intersection of the side spacer and the leg.  The same process is used at the next side spacer.  Nothing is needed at the bottom since the bow pushes against the plywood bottom setting the correct location.  Here are the center two side spacers with the tape marking.


Using the tape as reference to get the side correctly located made assembly fairly easy.  After gluing and screwing it in place I added some intermediate clamps between the screws to help pull the sides and back tightly together.


Attaching the front is easier as the sides are now pretty well straight.  I did go ahead and mark the intersection of the side spacer and the leg with blue tape just to make sure but the adjustment was small.  Here the front is glued, screwed and clamped together setting while the glue cures.

After letting the glue cure overnight, the cabinet is tipped onto its back on the workbench so I can finish installing the screws through the cleats into the bottom.

While on its back the faux tenons were installed.  First, using a small flat scrap of wood glue is spread in the mortise.  It goes in the mortise because if you coat the tenon when driven into place the excess glue will get scraped off ending up with a mess where the tenon meets the mortise in the leg.

The appropriate tenon is selected for installation.  They are all numbered to match the leg and have an arrow that shows which face goes out.

The tenon is started and pushed as far in as possible by hand.  If you look close about 3/8” in from the right side of the tenon there is a dark line.  That’s how far the tenon gets driven into the mortise.  It’s from when I used a marking knife fitting the tenons back in post 17 Faux Tenons, Staining Back &Leg/Rail/Back Glue-up.

A rubber mallet is used to drive the tenon in the rest of the way.  It’s a little dusty here but will clean up just fine.

While on its back the sub top is installed.  Using pocket holes makes for a clean installation when viewed from the inside.  When the finished top is in place all the pocket holes and the screws will be hidden.

Here is the cabinet with the top installed plus the door with the handle temporarily hung to check and make sure all of the clearances between it and the door are all still good.  Fortunately, everything lined up and the door fit perfectly.  Now it’s time to go through the assembly process for the other cabinet.


At this point most of the woodworking has been done.  Left to do is the drilling and installing of the 28 finish screws in the four hinges on each cabinet as right now I just have the temporary hardened screws being used.  There is also a latch and stop for each door.  Exactly what they will be falls in the, “That’s still to-be-decided.” category.


Oh yes, there is still the matter of fitting, staining, finishing then installing 32 pegs in the case plus 8 more in the door or a total of 80 for both cases.  Here is what the corner of the cabinet looks like minus the pegs.


Next up – Grouting the Stained Glass Panels

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