Some Finish Work, and a Problem

Now that the milling is done, time to round over the inside edges of the door frame. This has to be done before the frame is assembled with the central panel. The panel will interfere with the round-over bit.

The frame setup for the rounding over operation.

Next time.... I will use a combination of accurate marking, and routing the pieces individually. The clamps add weight, and renders the whole assembly awkward to handle.

Ready to route!

End Result.

After the round over step, I need to drill the pockets for the hinges. Here we run into a nasty little problem. The vertical member the hinges are mounted in are much too narrow. I did not work this project up in CAD, as I usually do, and now I pay the price. There are several problems: One is the weakness of the member - simply too much wood has been removed. The other poblem lies in the offset of the hinge pocket from the outside edge of the door. The narrowness of the vertical member shift the hinge pocket form 7/8"  to 3/4" from the edge. This has implication for the set of the doors, and their width.

The simplest solution, is to mill wider verticals for the hinge side of the doors. This will both strengthen a weak point, and allow for proper hinge offset.

As seen, the pocket weakens things too much!

A new means of cutting tongues...

I used the sled pictured above to cut the tongues on the new verticals. The sled is much faster, safer and more accurate.

Milling of replacement verticals almost complete.

The replacment verticals are about 3/16" wider, which make all the difference in the world! The small increase was dictated by the wood available.

The hinge pocket marked...

... and milled.

Now that we have frame that work, time to sand and assemble!

A Walk Down Memory Lane....

It's about time that I started posting about robotics and electronics, in addition to the woodworking...

First up is my Senior Project - an "Inverted Pendulum" robot. That is, a robot that balances on two wheels. I will post and comment on the pictures that I took during the building of the chassis, and initial electronics work. I will then post schematics, and code.

I will call the is the first version of the robot or "V1".  The V1 robot is marginal in its ability to balance, due to a combination of poor sensor placement, less than Ideal programming of the robot, and motors that are too slow. Additionally, I had to remove the microprocessor in order to update its programming. The resulting overuse of the ZIF socket resulted in a growing electronic unreliability.
I intend to address these problems in the V2 robot.


Without further ado, the building of my robot:

Chassis parts.

Nice thing about this design, it that all the pieces are 1" x 6", which was very quick to mill and assemble.

Adhesives used.

Start of assembly.

The pencil lines are to assist alignment later....

Almost there!

Glued together, ready for further work.

In the future, I would drill all the needed holes before assembling. Overall would be much faster then drilling  holes in the assembled chassis, as I did in this build.

Door Tongues

Now that the panels are drying, we need to cut the tongues on the door verticals.

Horizontals - ready to be cut to length.

Cutting the horizontals.

 Note the clamp attached to the sled - this allow me to cut all the pieces to the same length without measuring and marking. The accuracy and repeatability are also much better. I am finding that I need achieve tolerances in the thousandths to achieve the desired fit and finish.

Horizontals cut to length...

...and the verticals as well.

Now the verticals need to have tongues cut into the ends, so the doors can be assembled. Next time, I will cut the tongues first, so the bearing on the bit will have somthing to ride on all the way across. This would result in a superior fit.

Tongue-Cutting Bit.

The bit set up and ready to use.

Note the use of a 90 degree sled. End cutting of wood on a router table is very dangerous! If done improperly, the bit will do its damage before the reflexes kick in. Thus holding the piece of would without a sled of some sort is just asking for trouble....

I did not take a photo of the finished work.... sorry.

Prepping the Center Panels

The doors consist of a frame, with a free-floating center panel. This is done to allow for wood expansion/contraction, especially in solid wood panels.

I will be finishing the panels before the doors are assembled, because sanding the panels throughly in the assambled door would be slower and more damage-prone.

Panels are rough cut.

First Coat

As always, I sanded with 320 grit between coats, in order to remove all the whiskers that the finish raised. The resulting surface as a nice satin feel to it.

Second Coat. I really like how this Danish Oil works.

 The other side was given the same treatment.

Cutting the Groove

Now that I have a stack of lumber of reasonably predicable dimensions. I will now rip it to final width, and cut the groove. The groove is used to retain the center panel.

Wood ripped to width.

The bit used to cut the groove.

A good test peice - ready for production!

...and done!

Next step is to cut all pieces to length, and cut the tongues on the verticals.

Cabinet Doors

Next project is the fabrication some doors for a previous project.

These doors will have frames made of Philippine Mahogany, with a 3/16" plywood panels. The projcet will be finished using Danish Oil.

Good joinery starts with wood that is accurate, consistent and straight. The wood for the frames is close, but not close enough... (hardly seems worth buying planed wood, you just re-plane it anyways...)

The wood - not that it needs to be straighter....

The wood was set on edge, so the wood can air out, and assume a more stable form...

The first step finished - the wood jointed on two sides.

Once the wood had sat for a time... I jointed two sides perpendicular to each other. Next step simulates the effect of a thickness planer, and cuts the wood to a consistant thickness. Before I do that, I rip the other narrow side to parallel.

The setup for ripping the wood - the use of a push-stick is mandatory!

First Pass...

... and the Second pass finishes it!

The aftermath

Wood ready for use.

The end result is a pile of lumber that is both straight and of consistent thickness. The next steps is to cut the grooves and tongues using the router table.

The Stereo Stand in action

The stereo stand in action

Finishing (Part 6) - The End of the Line

These are the last steps before the furniture is complete and ready to be placed in service....

First coat of Finish applied to the first shelf...

While the shelves are drying, I install the sleeves for the shelf pegs. These sleeves prevent the pegs from crushing the wood when the shelf is under load.

Sleeves for the shelf pegs.

First coat on the second Shelf...

First shelf has been finished.

Second one is on the way....

From here it's just a matter of drying time, and then assembling the shelf, and placing it in service.

Assembly (Part 6) Adjustable Shelf Assembly

This is the last assembly step for this project... after this is just preping and apply the finish.

First the corner blocks must be cut and drilled. The the shelf frames are assembled, and the plywood shelf is then glued in...

Stock for the corner blocks...

Corner blocks - ready for use.

The shelf member need to be trimmed to length...

...short member are cut to length...

Adjustable shelves are now ready for assembly.

Starting the assembly of the first shelf...

...first shelf is assembled, and is drying...

...first shelf is dry, and is ready for finishing.

Second shelf is now drying...

Next is just finish work... The stereo shelf is almost done!