Plans ideas

The Full Tool Kit



This is the tool kit I actually used when building this project.





Left Side:

• rip saw, crosscut saw, hack saw



Center (back to front):

• #7 jointer plane, #4 smoother plane

• #62 low angle jack plane, #5 1/4 jack plane, side bead moulding plane, dropped quarter round moulding plane

• #271 router plane, shoulder plane, rabbet plane, #18 block plane

• Hand drill, awl, nail set, mallet

• square, combination square, 3/4" chisel, bit and brace

• file, round file, nippers

• marking gauge, marking knife, flush cut saw, hammer, screw drivers

• dowel plate, pencil (And yes, Dixon Ticonderoga 1388 #2 HB - one of the vintage, good ones from before they sold out!), hammer, folding rule



While working on this project, I wasnt trying to limit myself tool wise in any way. If there were multiple tool options, I tended to use the one that was either easiest or produced the best results. Of course, there are many, many different paths to the same destination. It would be possible to build this project with much less in the way of tools.



With that in mind, I though I would do something similar to my tool kit post on the Shaker Cupboard project. So, heres my take on the most basic set of tools that would create the same final result (different techniques would be required - such as forming the rabbets with a chisel rather than rabbet plane).



The Minimum Tool Kit



This is the minimum tool kit that could be used to build the project.





Back to Front:

• rip saw, cross cut saw, #5 jack plane, #4 smoother plane

• flush cut saw, 3/4" chisel, hand drill, block plane, side bead moulding plane, dropped quarter round moulding plane

• screw drivers, brace and bit, square, marking gauge, knife

• pencil, nail set, hammer, folding rule



I assumed that you would be able to find appropriate hinges and could forgo the tools I used to make my own.



As you can see, you dont need a shop full of tools to make a project. That said, I like having tool options and specialized tools that make some tasks easier, or allow for superior results.



So, will I make a second medicine cabinet using only the smaller tool kit? Well, my son cant reach the Tums anymore, and I have about a billion other projects waiting for my very limited time, so "Nah!"



Not anytime soon anyway...

So with starting back to work on my normal job, I havent spent a ton of time this last week on the media cabinet, just a little bit here and there. I was able to do some work on it today. During the week I was able to work on getting the base glued up. Below you can see where I am gluing up the long stretchers. As you can see, I dont have any clamps long enough for this so I had to improvise.

From MediaCabinet

So today I decided to do some more work on the doors; specifically the two outer doors. These doors are 26" tall by 13" wide. As I mentioned in my last post, the center panel is one solid piece of wood. What I worked on today was to mill up the rails and stiles. I am using 2" rails and stiles so once I got them cut and planed I used my matched rail and stile bit to rout the pieces. Here are the individual pieces.

From MediaCabinet

And here they are loosely put together.

From MediaCabinet

Here is one door dry fit, without the center panel obviously.

From MediaCabinet

Next, I took the two center panels and used one of my new vertical raised panel bits and routed the panel profile. Here is a glimpse at the profile.

From MediaCabinet

Here is one door dry fit. Note the chalk marks, this is how I keep track of where each piece goes and how they should be oriented.

From MediaCabinet

Straight on look.

From MediaCabinet

Also note that the I kept the stiles about 1" longer; this is on purpose so I can lay the door flat, make sure the panel is centered for glue up and then trim it to exact length. Here are both doors together.

From MediaCabinet

Well, that is all I was able to get done today really. Next I need to finish gluing the bottom together and then I need to do a little trick to them to re-enforce the mortise and tenon joint. Next, I am also going to turn my attention to the bottom panel and take my card scraper to it to get all the glue off from the glue up and work on flattening any unevenness. Hopefully more on that tomorrow!

Be Safe!

weve got a good project coming up ... two recycled chestnut cabinets and a new mantle, built around an existing stone fireplace ... the clients were interested in having a large flat screen tv pull out from the cabinet on the right ... a 46", larger, in fact, than would fit in a traditional head on installation. my friend, and, coincidentally, the audio/visual man on the job, kem verner, told me it was no problem to do this as the tv could go back into the cabinet on an angle ... hmmm.. why not? ..
the clients were serious, so i picked up one of the sanus tv brackets we typically use .. i first tried putting the wall for the tv bracket on an angle, thinking that would give me the most flexibility, but, in the end ...
kem suggested mounting the bracket on a vertical partition 90 degrees to the face of the cabinet and as close to the front as possible ... click the photos to enlarge them ..
in the end, this location gave us the most extension and smoothest in/out operation for the tv and the clients ( and i too) were able to see it would work ...
the vertical mdf on the left represents the retractable door in the closed position.
this photo shows the tv in the all the way out location ... you can see in the photo below that the door, when its retracted, will be behind the face of the stone and the tv will be out past it ... a slick solution ...