Things have slowed in the shop. I have been keeping my hours on the shorter side as the deep freeze has set in. A lot of times the shop interior is colder than the outside air as the bricks of the structure seem to store up the nigh’s coldest temperature and the flywheel effect, as such, means the building says colder during the day.
I’m starting to consider the purchase of a heated jacket, and maybe gloves. It was 34˚F (1˚C) in the shop a few days ago, and only modestly warmer at 37˚F (2.7˚C) today. My right hand is starting to get weirdly achy, as in past years, and the cold is largely responsible for that. It seems to me that since I have crested 50 years of age, my eyesight has gotten worse and now I am thinking my circulation also is not what it used to be. If only there had been a solid alternative to turning 50…
I find that once my fingers get cold, they stay cold and take longer than seems reasonable to warm back up to normal. Wearing gloves helps, but only marginally. I found my fingers were quite cold despite being gloved today, and while I do have thicker gloves I could use, dexterity suffers. And you don’t need to tell me that wearing gloves around spinning cutters is not exactly betting wisely.
Anyhow, enough wingeing for the time being. Though things be slow on the project at present, they are progressing. I’m still working on the parts for the drawer bank framing, and most of these are through cutout now. The following picture shows some of the parts:
The two rails on the left are the upper drawer bank frame rails, front and rear, while the middle set, the most recent completions, are the 4 top and bottom end rails, found transversely left and right at the sidewalls of the cabinet.
A closer look at 3 of the 4 main rails, turned on side:
I’m generally striving this time to keep the number of times the pieces are assembled to one another to a minimum, so unless I have to, I am avoiding putting the elements fully together at this time. Nevertheless, it is helpful to to a semi-mockup to confirm nothing obvious has been missed:
The front strut, having spearpoints top and bottom, is one of those exceptions to the aforementioned plan, as it needs some trial fitting to take the last few shavings off to tune the fit in:
At this point, it looks to be getting pretty close. The doubled miter area closes up tight without any egregious sukima (gaps), but the housing portion could be taken down a few slices yet:
A tiny bit of the spearpoint was inadvertently dinged in removing it from the paring jig, but once the surfaces are finish planed that will be gone. I’ve already steamed 95% of the tiny ding out and it should come out as desired.
As you can see in this view, the strut is still about 0.01″ or so from being seated all the way down:
A look at the rear of the same connection shows the confluence of parts:
And the view from the underside reveals the through tenons from the strut:
The tenons will get wedged and glued at the time of final assembly. The strut end joints are one of the few connections on this cabinet which resort to glue and non-demountable joints. Everything else will use dry joints.
The 1/4″ (6.35mm) peg mortises I have been attending to with the hollow chisel mortiser, and that little bit of auger bit kiss on the left peg mortise does annoy slightly. It’s very hard to avoid 100% of the time with that tool, so I am reconsidering how I do the cutout for these little gippers. However the pegs which are to fit in those mortises, as they are done with an interference fit against the end grain portions of the peg mortise, should fill the area and disguise the mark. I guess if someone lays on their back and looks up at the rail from below, with some good lighting, they may spot it (a bit unlikely), but I think it will turn out okay.
I slipped a few more of the pieces together part-way, just checking things out:
More:
Everything seems to be more or less going together, and I think I’ve attended to all the particulars with these frame members.
The joints on the ends of the 4 main long rails are yet to be cut out, but that work is next on the list. The front long rails and the connecting strut with spearpoints will all be chamfered, but I will leave that task undone until I have tackled the cutout on the front posts.
See you next time then, and thanks for visiting!