Computer Cabinet - #2 Resawing & Smoothing the Oak plus Starting on Oak Plywood Parts

I wanted to work with pieces shorter than 8’ so after lots of measuring and layout fitting the various pieces around the flaws the long boards were cross cut into shorter sections.  As it happened one cut went right through a dowel.  Assuming they are all about the same length I now know about how deep they go into the boards. 

With the planks cut into shorter pieces, flat and cleaned up as much as I dared it’s time to rip them on the bandsaw for the 7/8” thick drawer fronts and ½” thick sides.  This is the setup for ripping the thicker board to give one piece for the drawer fronts and one for the sides.

While the bandsaw blade was definitely dulled when I hit the steel buried while breaking down the supports from the mantel for the Kumiko jigs it still gives a tolerable cut.  This is after the rip where the piece on the left is for the drawer fronts and the one laying down is for the drawer sides.

A closer look at one of the boards after being ripped in half shows the condition of the bandsaw cut.  It certainly needs to be flattened but the cut isn’t burned and is useable.

This is the stack of ripped boards ready to be stood on edge, spaced apart and left overnight to see if any of them will warp, twist or otherwise get all goofy.

Well after an overnight rest all the boards were still flat and straight, always a nice surprise.  Cleaning up the bandsawn faces is next.  For the drawer fronts that’s done with the thickness sander using 36 grit to get close followed by 80 grit leaving them at about 1/32” too thick.  The drawer sides thickness varied from a little over 1/16” too thick to a bit more than 1/8” over.  The close ones followed the same process as the drawer fronts while the thicker ones were flattened with the 36 grit in the thickness sander followed by a pass or two through the planer.  From there both sides are run through the sander again with 80 grit leaving them still a little too thick.  When they are ready to be used a final thicknessing and flattening will be done with 150 and 220 grit.  Here they all are ready to be set aside while I work on the case. 

The top, bottom and sides of the cabinet are ¾” oak plywood while the back is ¼”.  Over time I have accumulated a fair amount of quarter to half sheets.  That’s because when doing a project, I get what’s needed all at the same time so the sheets grain and color are really close.  The side effect is a stack of partial sheets from various projects.  For this project that’s not really a consideration as none of the plywood will really be visible when the drawer stack is slid into the existing cherry cabinet.  After going through the stack here are the pieces that I plan on using.

Going back to SketchUp I printed off a dimensioned plan of the plywood and solid wood edging pieces needed for the case. 

With the drawing in hand back in the shop the blanks are checked to see if the corners are square and of course some were not.  The good news is there is at least one square corner on each piece so that was my starting point for squaring them and cutting each panel about an inch oversize.  Here is the top, bottom, sides and center, all ¾” thick pieces. 

The veneer layer on hardwood plywood is very thin at only about 25 thousands of an inch thick.  Cutting with the grain is not hard to get a good edge but crosscutting is another matter.  The veneer can chip and leave a splintered edge that really does not look good.  To get around this problem the choice of what saw blade to use becomes important.  Over the years I have tried a whole bunch of different types of blades with different tooth counts, different amounts of rake and different grinds on the carbide tips.  So far what seems to work the best for me is a Freud® High Alternate Top Bevel, 80 tooth, 10” blade.  The grind on the carbide tips blade is different than most in that they are ground to a sharp point.  My guess is the sharply pointed tip does not put a lot of stress on the oak fibers when being cut.  The left photo below is the blade used to cut plywood and the right shows it against my combination all-purpose blade. 

Next is to start cutting the parts down to their finished size starting with the top.  Cutting its length and width is easy but there are a couple other operations needed.  One is to cut the rabbit for the plywood back to set into.  That’s done with a router bit set to the correct height then making three progressive deeper cuts by moving the fence back to expose more of the bit. 

The other is a stopped rabbit on the left edge for the cabinet door hinge’s adjustment screw.  Here is the hinge and the offending screw. 

It’s also cut on the router table although the bit is a smaller diameter so there’s not as much hand chisel work to square up the cut.  The depth and height of the cut are set then tested on a scrap.  Since it’s a blind cut the stopping point is marked on the router table fence to align with the right edge of the top.  Here is how that all looks when ready to route.

Below the top photo shows the rabbit after routing, note how the end of the rabbit is rounded matching the 3/8” diameter of the router bit.  That’s squared up with just a little work using a wood chisel.  The finished squared rabbit is shown in the bottom photo.  The squaring does not have to be perfect as it going to be hidden when completed.

Next Up – Making & Assembling Case Except Back – Cutting Drawer Side Blanks

Computer Cabinet - #1 The Beginning

 

Probably some 20 years ago I built a corner computer desk and a side cabinet made out of cherry for the computer, printer and some paper.  It worked well for the original computer but from its replacement and the subsequent machines there was a problem.  The original computer’s cooling air came in at the bottom back and out the top back.  All the others have had the cooling air come in from the front and exit the back so my solid doors were a problem as there was no good way for cooling air to enter from the front.  The 15-year temporary solution was to stick a washcloth in the door to hold it open a couple of inches for the cooling air intake.  I just could never bring myself to cut a vent in the door. 

As computers increased in power cooling needs became more critical to a point of just having a door propped open was insufficient not to mention the esthetics.  What tipped me over to do this project was when I recently finished building a new computer that has six cooling fans and needs a lot of fresh air for cooling.  That and the case won’t fit in the existing side cabinet.  So now I have a nice-looking side cabinet that is completely empty except for a couple of shelves with a 9” x 18” hole in the back for wiring access and cooling.

In looking at a whole series of options ranging from just adding more shelving to adding interior cubbies and drawers similar to what’s inside a roll top desk I settled on a graduated stack of two sets of 3 drawers.  The drawing below shows what I have in mind.  There are no handles, a simple drop cutout will provide a good hand hold.  Since there are doors, I was not worried about the drawer contents getting dusty plus any type of handle except a recessed one would eat up drawer depth and usable space.

For material because the cherry has darkened quite a bit over the years, I wanted the interior to be a lighter contrasting wood.  Alder, poplar, maple and oak all came to mind.  There is a lot of alder used in this area but for me it’s too soft.  Poplar would be OK if it were painted but I want to use a clear finish so that’s out.  Maple is a good choice as is unstained or lightly stained oak.  As the cherry has aged and darkened the grain is not as pronounced as it once was so to provide contrast in color and grain I decided to go with red oak. 

Recently I was gifted an older oak mantel that is about 1 5/8” thick, 14” wide and 8’ long.  To get the width it’s glued up from three pieces.  The mantel is really pretty flat and straight which is nice but did have a few problems. Over time the glue joints had opened up and are not in the best of shape.  There is also a fair number of cracks and splits of unknown depth plus a handful of knots that will need to be worked around.  Nothing catastrophic but it will take some work and measuring to get the needed pieces out of it.  Here is the whole plank along with a closer look at one end showing the problems. 

The first step is to rip the mantel along the glue joints to get the rough blanks.  I was a little concerned about the possibility of hitting some metal fasteners like what had happened when cutting down the mantel supports for the Kumiko jigs.  Dowels or biscuits would not be a problem.  After carefully checking with some rare earth magnets I could not find any ferrous metal so started ripping the plank down.  Process is to make a rough cut just a little bit into the center piece then come back and make a trim cut right at the edge of the glue line.  Here is what making the second cut looks like.  The roller stand toward the back of the piece supports the end of the plank helping me keep everything level making for a smooth cut.

Fortunately, there was no metal fasteners in the mantel but I did run across a few dowels that were used for alignment.  Here is what that looks like.  The question now is how long are they and will that cause a problem when laying out the drawer pieces.

After ripping the mantel down, I ended up with two pieces a little over 6” wide and 8’ long.  Next, they are run through the thickness sander loaded with 36 grit paper to get rid of any finish, flatten them and to see how bad the cracks and splits are.  The top photo is the sander setup and the bottom shows that while some of the cracks were superficial there were a number that are pretty deep.  Lucky for me is that the deep cracks are limited to one side of one board.

Since the drawer sides are going to be ½” thick more can be taken off the bad face and still leave enough to rip the piece so hopefully I can get two ½” thick boards out of this plank.  The thickness sander can be used to remove the material but the planer does it a lot faster.  Here is what that setup looks like except I will have the garage door opened for outfeed space.  Behind the planer you can just see a shop-vac that will suck up the chips it produces.  For ease of use both the planer and the vacuum are plugged into a control box that senses once the planer is started it starts the vacuum.   The vacuum runs as long as the planer is on plus a few seconds after shut off to empty the hose between the two.  The control box is a little more complicated than some due to the current draw of the planer and vacuum they need to be connected to separate circuits.

I removed as much material from the bad face as I could and it helped but some of the cracks were just too deep so I quit leaving enough for two finished ½” pieces plus a little.  That’s so if the ripped boards cup I have some room to flatten them.

Next Up – Resawing & Smoothing the Oak plus Starting on Oak Plywood Parts

Kumiko Sampler - #8 Completing the Frame, Lacquering & Assembly

In the photo below the long frame pieces are cut to their final length and I am working on fitting the short pieces on either end.  The playing cards are there to establish the gap between the sampler and the frame.  These cards are right at a hundredth of an inch thick so two of them gives me a .02” gap. 

The miters are cut using a jig made for my son’s dining/game table.  If you want to see how it was built here is the link Dining/Game Table - #13, the jig information is near the end of that post.  The setup here has the end next to the stop already mitered and it is ready for the final skim cut at the other end. 

Once cut to their final length a frame clamp is used to pull the corners tightly together while keeping the frame square.  The 8:45 is when I glued the frame together. 

After letting the glue cure overnight, the clamp is removed and the final sanding begins.  Any minor mismatches at the corners get removed using three grits of sandpaper 150, 220 and 320 clamped to the table saw.  The finishing touches are done via hand sanding blending the radiused edges then knocking the sharp edge off the bottom and corner edges.

To reinforce the corners thin pin nails are added at the corners using the air nailer.  The nails are about the thickness of a pin.  If you look close on the left side of the frame there are two pins.  One is about 1/3 of the way down from the top and the other is about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom.  The right side has a single pin in the center.

Cutting the Plexiglas front cover comes next.  The sheet I am using is about an eighth of an inch thick.  It’s thin enough to be a little persnickety when being cut.  To keep chipping to a minimum a fine-tooth blade used to cut plywood and plastic laminate is used along with a backer to add a little thickness to the stack.  The backer is 3/16” foam core and will be used for the back layer in the stack.

A black piece of matt board that goes between the sampler and the foam core is also cut on the table saw.  That’s not the normal way to cut it but the piece needs to fit the frame exactly.  That's because where it abuts the frame is visible so using the table saw is the best way for me to get square straight edges.

Here is the frame and the layers that will go in it.  There is the frame then the Plexiglas, the sampler, a piece of black matt board and on the bottom the foam core. 

Finishing comes next and I will be using the air brush to apply three coats of lacquer.  This is the setup.  At the far left in the back are the cans of lacquer and thinner along with the mixing and spray bottles.  Closer the four frames are set on plastic painter’s triangles for drying.  The blue on the triangles is tape to hold them in place while taking off and putting the frames back on.  Closer is a lazy susan with plastic triangles on it used to rotate the piece while it is being sprayed.  At the lower right the air brush is set up and ready to go.  The spraying starts by doing the bottom and inside of the frame.

After the frames are sprayed and dry, they are dry sanded with 320 grit paper to remove any imperfections then flipped over and the top sprayed.  This is followed by another coat and sanding. After a third coat is applied the final sanding is done except this time the sanding is done wet with a three-step progression starting with 4,000 and ending with 8,000 grit.

Once the frames are finished the Plexiglas goes in followed by the sampler.  To hold the sampler in place a drop of glue circled in red is put in the center of each of the patterns.  The cut down playing cards around the perimeter keep the sampler centered in the frame.

The black matt board goes down next followed by the foam core and a temporary piece of plywood that acts as a clamping caul.  This is what that looks like.  The frame’s Plexiglas on the right looks a little fuzzy because the protective layer of film is still on both sides.  After the glue dries the clamps come off and all the layers in the clamped package get removed along with the cut down playing card spacers around the sampler edges.  With that done the final assembly can begin. 

First, the protective film on the Plexiglas sheets is removed and both sides are very carefully cleaned to remove any dust.  That’s because once everything is together you can’t get any debris out unless the layers are disassembled.  The clean Plexiglas sheet is then set into the frame.  Second, is to add the glued together sampler and matt board.  Third, is to add the foam core finishing the package layers.  The last step is to anchor the package in the frame using some Framer’s Points.  I used to anchor the package in using brads and a variety of other things but was never satisfied with the results.  Some years ago, when I was building a lot of frames I broke down and bought a driver for the points.  Below in the top photo you can see what the driver looks like.  It’s similar to a stapler except that instead of driving the points down it shoots them out the front.  The bottom photo shows the point on the left driven in and nearly a whole one on the right.

Once the points are set this is what the back of the framed sampler looks like.

After all the sampler pieces are done here is what they look like.

I have to say this was both a learning experience and enjoyable.  Even cutting and beveling the 145+ pieces was relaxing in its own quiet way.  After doing these pieces some more patterns have come to mind but pursuing them will have to come later.