The Next Chapter...

…which is a relief – let the cabinet on a stand fun and games play on!

Monday started the week, and I checked in on the nightstand. The good news, it seemed ready to do final finish with wax, but I decided I would let the Waterlox cure a few more days and do at the end of the week just to be extra safe. I decided this would be the week I would finish it, because even though I was heads down on the cabinet on a stand, I really wanted to have a fully completed project under my belt. So that’s the goal for this week!

Did another coat on some Cherry samples to test final finishes for the cabinet on a stand. However, I spent much of the day prepping the leg stock, taking the parts down to size, tracing the template, squaring up the stock, etc. Takes lot of time, as you trace the template and then realize you aren’t perfectly square so you joint and plane a bit more, making sure to be on point.

We also did my walnut panel glue up in the morning, as Nick brought in some epoxy which was super helpful given the joint is essentially all end grain which makes it a bit tricky to ensure a good bond. Also did mid-frame molding sizing and mitering.

Cabinet panel glue up. The blue tape is to help with epoxy squeeze out, preventing it from getting into the face grain.

Front panel after the glue dried, looking just as I had hoped!

A preview of the panel in the door frame, and I am excited with how this is turning out!! I can’t to see it all with finish!

Ensuring joinery perfect before shaping.

Tuesday I worked on the legs some more, taking to size, also took the panel out of clamps and worked on the sizing of that plus finalize legs length and square to ends. Then sized the panel to final dimensions, plus did the back bevel…all these things make you nervous because at this stage, mistakes are not easy to recover from. But all good!

Wednesday was about the legs and doing the markup of the mortise and then cutting them. Lots of care and attention. Also did small items like sizing the aprons and the like. This all is a bit fussier than you might imagine because of my leg design which is a bit of an s-curve style, so you need to get all set when square, because once you cut to shape there is little hope of correcting joinery then. 🙂

Cutting legs to shape on bandsaw…nerve-wracking.

Do one face of cut, then tape back to do another face, thus keeping angles close.

You can see after the cuts and the waste, only one chance. 🙂

All the legs roughed out, that was the easy part!

Thursday my focus was on the legs all day. Did all the layout on the aprons for the tenons and the leg mortises. Then I cut the tenons and sized them with my shoulder plane to a fit with the legs. Now there was only one big step left, to head to the band saw and cut out the shape on the legs. Thanks to Nick’s advice, I ended up doing one side, then taping the parts back and doing the other side.

This allowed me to have it so it was like each of the two cuts on two faces of each leg was in reference to a square leg (apologies if that is confusing). Then, at the end of the day started shaping the legs by removing the bandsaw marks with a spokeshave, something I would be doing for a few days!

Friday was all about finishing the nightstand. We also had a machine maintenance lesson with Nick in the afternoon, which was very helpful. Learning all the inside tricks for the key machines – bandsaw, table saw, jointer and planer. What a week!! 🙂

Saturday was an extra day, and I worked on my home shop – refurbishing grandfather’s drafting board. I remember when I was a child visiting him in the basement and him working on it, so it holds a lot of fond memories. Looking forward to putting it to use for years to come.

My grandfather’s drafting table, before restoration.

After a good clean, sanding, and an Odie’s Oil coat.

Fully rehabbed with new pad, parallel bar, and the tool set is original one my grandfather used.

Dateline: NBSS Three-Month Furniture Intensive, Nov 14-18 (Week 10)