Posts Tagged With: Thorsen House Cabinet

I’ve been a little worried about being able to pull this door off without screwing it up, but so far, so good.  I got several hours logged in the shop today, and the door is looking mostly complete.

What makes this hard?  I’m glad you asked.

The first complication is the glass channel on the back.  That means the ends of the rails have stepped tenons on the to work with the rebate for the stained glass panel that will go in the door.  That’s not overly concerning, I had to do the same thing on the “Brydcliffish” cabinet, and the came out great.  No, the tricky part is the asymmetrical mullion and muntins.

I started by milling the rails and stiles.  They are all 1″ thick, which means I can put a 1/4″ mortise right in the center, and have 3/8″ on each side.  I did the mortises with my spiffy new mortiser, holy cow did that save me a lot of time.  I almost feel guilty, shouldn’t I be chopping those by hand?  As penance I’ll do a batch of mortises by hand.  That said, chopping a 1/4″ x 1/4″ mortise 1″ deep would be a trick to do by hand.

Mortises all cut

Then I cut the rebate for the class, 3/8″ wide and 1/4″ deep.  The side of the rebate should just hit the edge of the mortise.   Then I cut the staggered tenons and test fit it the door frame.  The tenons are all a decent fit, one could be a little snugger but it holds together so it should glue up just fine.

Tenons cut and the door frame is test assembled

A view of the back shows the glass channel and the exposed mortises.  If you look closely you’ll notice the the rebate is wider on the stiles.  That because the rails get a “cloud lift” detail cut into them, so part of the channel will be removed.

Back of the door

Next I made the mullion.  The mullion is only 7/8″ thick, set back from the outer face of the door by 1/8″ — so it’s flush on the back.  It has rebates on both back edges — the glass in the door is actually two panels, separated by the muntin.  The mullion also has a through mortise an a blind mortise for the muntins.  When the sawdust settled I had a nicely fitting mullion.  (before the door is finished the inside edges of the frame, and the edges of all the crossbars will be a 1/8″ round over.

Mullion in place

Of course the mullion has staggered tenon ends too, to work with the rebate on the back.

Exploded view

Finally I started on the muntins.  I cut extra materials because I was concerned I’d have troubles, and I did make a mistake on the first cloud lift muntin, but the second attempt came out perfect.  The short muntin on the right is 1/16″ too short, so I’ll need to remake it.  And there is one more muntin that goes below it.  All of the muntins are only 1/4″ thick.  They are set back 1/8″ from the mullion, and the glass will be immediately behind them.

Muntins being fit, I need to re-make the short one on the right, and make one more that fits just below it.

Tomorrow I need to make the two short muntins, then cut the cloud lift detail in the rails and round over all of the edges.  Followed by a healthy dose of sanding.  Oh, and make 12 small mortises for the ebony plugs.  I really wish I’d ordered those square chisels from Lee Valley last week, it would really simplify that job.

Then I should be able to glue up the door.  Fingers crossed.

After finishing off the re-assembly of the guest bedroom yesterday morning (on top of an absolutely insane work week) I planned to go out to the shop and make some progress on the Thorsen Cabinet.  And I did, right after a short power nap.  I sat down to watch a few minutes of a Paul Sellers video on making a Craftsman-style lamp, and I just sort of folded up.

Once I made it out to the shop I picked up where I left off.  I had the top cut to size, flat and square – but I noticed that it had slightly bowed. as had the sub-top in the cabinet.  The main top panel was easy to re-flatten, I’m still dealing with the warp in the assembled cabinet.  I put a clamp on it to pull it back straight and left it overnight, hopefully that will let me glue it up today.

I should explain the construction on this cabinet a little.  The sides of the cabinet are 3/4″ thick.  There is a 1/2″ thick top that is glued/screwed into a rabbet cut into the sides.

Cabinet with only the 1/2″ thick sub-top in place

Then there is a 7/8″ thick top that is longer and wider than the cabinet that will be attached to the cabinet.  In the video they showed driving six screws through the sub-top into the larger overhanging top, then plugging all six screw holes.  I didn’t care for that approach, so I am planning on just gluing it — but no matter what the two surfaces need to be true to have a clean glue up.  Here is the cabinet with the unshaped top sitting in place.

Cabinet with the unshaped top mocked up

The larger “over top” needs to be undercut along the bottom to produce a 5/16″ profile.  I made a giant tall fence for my table saw out of MDF, cranked up the blade to 2.5″ and made three rip cuts to remove the 5/16″ waste.  The first pass I undershot a little (shown below) and only removed about 1/4″.  I re-set the fence (measure twice, cut twice) and remove the rest of the material.  The resulting surface was not really acceptable, there were minor differences in height between the end cuts and the long rip cut at the front (maybe 1/32″).  I used my low angle jack plane and a shoulder plane to clean up the surface, right up to the reveal.

Waste material removed from the underside on my table saw

Then I used an 5/16″ ovolo bit to shape the reveal, and a 3/16″ round over bit to shape the edges.  I perhaps could have done these steps with some hollow moulding planes, but I only have odds and ends, and I haven’t spent the time to get them all sorted out.  Maybe I’ll block out a day this week to get the ones I have set up and figure out.

Anyway, the router made quick work of the edger treatments, and I followed that up with a round of sanding to make everything nice.

The reveal on the underside of the top shaped

With the top sitting in place on the cabinet you can see the final effect.  I did a dry run for the glue up, and decided I wanted to try to convince the sub-top to go back to being flat before I glued this.  I put a clamp on it to pull it slightly past flat in the other direction and left it over night.  I’ll get this glued up one way or another this morning.  Then I have a little work to do for the cabinet back, and finally on to the door construction.

Top mocked up, this shows off the undercut and profile

One more view…  I need to clean up the shop and put away tools before I start the next step.

This morning I’m puzzling over what hardware to use on my G&G cabinet.  Specifically, the pull/latch combination.  I’m trying to get my ducks in a row so I don’t get blocked on finishing the cabinet in the next week or two.

Option number 1 is to use a knob and latch combination.  To hold the door closed I’d probably use either a small wooden stop block with a rare earth magnet or a double ball catch.  The magnet is simple and not at all fussy to install, but looks a little clunky when the door is opened.  The double ball catch is a little trickier to get installed right, but is visually nicer.  It serves as both a stop and a latch, and having installed one on the coffee cup cabinet I made I’m confident I could do it (and do a better job).

Double ball catch

That leaves the knob or pull to sort out.  On the design I’m copying from Dale Barnard, he used a pull he has made locally that looks similar to the latches used on several Greene & Greene kitchens.  I like the look, although in the video the latch looks like it’s attached on the inside with largish threaded studs and hex nuts.  I don’t care for that, and the price is a little more than I’d like to spend.  But it looks really nice in place on the cabinet.

Same cabinet design by Dale Barnard with the “G&G Kitchen Catch” pull

Looking at this picture I’m somewhat swayed to use that pull and call it done.  I looked at other original G&G knobs, but I haven’t seen one that works for me in this cabinet.  For example:

Carved and inlaid Ebony knob from the Culbertson sisters’ bookcase

Or this one from an earlier sideboard:

Carved knob on a reproduction of the Blacker House sideboard

Behind door number two is using a more original approach.  The original cabinet in the Thorsen house — and indeed most cabinet doors in similar G&G furniture — used keyed locks with carved wood escutcheons and key handles.

Escutchions and key on cabinet doors.

I like this look a lot, but it presents several challenges.  I’ve looked at full- and half-mortise lock sets, and the backspacing (distance from the edge of the door to the center of the key barrel) for ones that would fit in a 2″ wide stile is only 5/8″ — which puts the key and escutcheon fairly close to the edge of the door.

Mortise Lock for Cabinet

It also presents more technical challenges, like shaping and inlaying the escutcheon.  Mortising the lock itself doesn’t overly concern me, but doing a clean job on the inlay is a little worrying.  And with the lock approach I still need to provide a backstop for the door.

I’m open to suggestions, especially if you see a better alternative.  Right now my thinking is to do a sample escutcheon and inlay it into a piece of scrap to work out the details.  That should give me a better perspective on the process.

I was so excited about getting the skirt wrapped up yesterday, it wasn’t until later I realized how bare and unbalanced this cabinet looks at this stage.  It has this nice, fat skirt attached to a think box.  So I decided I’d better make a start on the top, and while I was at it, the shelf.

The top is 10.75″ wide, which in some woods might be a little tricky, but wide Sapele boards don’t seem to be a problem.  This one was just over 12″ wide, I have another that’s 13.5″ and there were wider ones in the pile.  It turns out the my pickup bed is my favorite combination saw bench and finishing work station.

Wide 4/4 Sapele

This is “4/4” Sapele, and except for the rough sawn texture it’s dead flat and generously thick.  After jointing and planing I could have finished this at almost an inch thick (.993″), that impressed me.  Most places I buy 4/4 it measures out less than an inch, and if it’s S2S it is usually closer to 7/8″ or 13/16″.

I dimensioned the top, but I still have to shape the underside – it will be cut back 2.5″ on the underside all around, leaving a rounded step.

With the sized-but-unshaped top you can start to see the proportions. Squinting helps.

This is more like what the top will look like after it’s undercut and shaped.  I’m not sure how I’ll do this yet, the current front runner is with a tall fence on the table saw.

Detail of how the top will be cut and shaped

I knocked out the shelf, this was a quick job.  Since I have put together a CAD model it was simple to print a pattern for half of the shelf, cut it out in 1/8″ MDF and trace it onto the shelf blank.  A little filing and sanding finished it off.

The shelf is finished

I’m hoping to finish off the top and glue it on today, and make a good start on the door.  I updated my plans last  night, but they are not as well organized at this point so I’m going to hold off on posting them until I have a chance to clean them up.

After staring at the real “Thorsen house cabinet”, I noticed that the door in the Barnard design is different from the left hand door in the real cabinet.  I don’t know if the change was intentional or an error, but the lift pattern in the long mullion is upside down.  In the original door this detail follows the lift in the top rail, in the Barnard door it doesn’t feel as harmonious.  And after looking at the video and photos of the Thorsen dining room there is clearly a pattern of echoing the same shapes in adjacent parts.  So I updated my CAD model to see what it would look like – I like this better, although I’m not sure about having it hinge on the left side yet.  I also slightly raised the short mullion which is closer to the original left door I think.  The rails and stiles look a little too wide compared to the original too, I’m not sure I want to mess with that for this project though.

Updated model with mullion oriented to match the top rail

Barnard version, with the mullion reversed

Original Thorsen Cabinet from “Poems…”, the left door is a mirror image of the right door.

I had a good day in the shop yesterday, and nearly finished the skirts for the Greene & Greene cabinet I’m making.  Sooo close, but they need more finessing before I’m ready to install them.

My day started out by resawing stock to make the back.  I’m not happy with my re-saw setup, I get too much blade drift, but luckily I had plenty of material to surface out the discrepancies.

Resawing stock for the back

I already had the stock for the skirts dimensioned, so getting the finger joints cut wasn’t that much trouble.  Getting the length on the long skirt bar on the front was a little tricky as it needs to be exactly the same width as the cabinet.  Once I had the front at the right length I trimmed the side pieces so that they were exactly the same length as the case sides.

Finger joints cut

Skirts test fit, the board for the bottom is sitting on top of the case

From there it was a matter of chopping the square mortises for the ebony plugs and rounding the corners.  But just running a round over bit along the edges isn’t enough.  First, it doesn’t do an acceptable job on the inside corners, and second I’m using two different sizes, larger on the ends and smaller on the edges.

I used a file to work in all of the inside corners, and to “pillow” the ends of the fingers.  Instead of a flat end with radiuses on the corners I was a smooth pillow or dome.  In this picture I’m nearly there on the side skirt, but more work is required on the front piece.  I just takes a bit of time with a file and sand paper.

Smoothing out the details on the finger joints

Before I can mount the skirts to the case I need to prep the outside of the case and finish sanding the skirts.  The I can screw the skirts to the sides, and glue in the bottom of the case.  Then I need to round over the inside opening of the case.  It’s a lot of little details, but it’s important to get them done nicely.  Oh, and somewhere along the way I need to glue in the ebony pegs.  The front skirt is held in place by some rare earth magnets that I recessed inside of the finger joint.  This gives me a tiny hiding place.

The other think I played with was to have a mortised lock instead of handle or cabinet pull on the door.  I looked through my G&G books and this certainly seems to be the more common approach to cabinet doors outside of the kitchen.  I played with shapes for an Ebony escutcheon and I think I’m pretty close on this one.  Now I need to order a full mortise cabinet lock, I’m thinking of using this one from Whitechapel:

Mortise Lock for Cabinet

I need to add hinges to the model, and I want to play with hinging it from both sides to see if one works better than the other.  This particular door style in the original cabinet was hinged on the left.  Take a look at the original again:

Original Thorsen Cabinet from “Poems…”

Comparing with the original cabinet, it also looks like the bottom mullion on the right side of the door should be a little higher up.  In fact, maybe both mullions should be a little higher up.  And you know what else I just noticed?  The lift in the mullion goes the wrong way simpered to the lift in the top rail, look how in the original it mimics the lift in the rail, while in the Barnard design it’s just doing it’s own thing.

I definitely need to organize a trip up to the Thorsen house one of these weekends.

Updated rendering with a carved Ebony escutcheon instead of a cabinet pull

I’m working away on the “Thorsen Cabinet”, and have the skirt nearly finished.  One more trip to the store to get some screws and the router bit I need.

While I’m working on the skirt and other parts I’be been working up a sample board to check out how I’m planning on finishing this project. I know that’s weeks away, but I’m eager to see how it will look.

This sample was sanded to 320, and then I wet it to raise the grain.  I scuff sanded it with 320 after it dried and put on one coat of Trans-Tint Brown Mahogany dye.  After that was dry I rubbed it with a white Scotchbrite bad to take off any grain fuzzies, and gave it a coat of Linseed Oil.  I left that to dry overnight, then padded on two coats of garnet shellac, rubbed with steel wool and waxed with Dark Brown Briwax.

It looks good, although I think I want a hint more red in the finished cabinet.  I think I’ll try either the Reddish-Brown or Red Mahogany dyes and see how that looks.  Maybe a different color wax too, although that is pretty subtle and probably won’t make much difference.

Finished sample next to sanded, bare Sapele.  Photographed outside in open shade

Same parts, photographed outside in direct sun.

Same sample, photographed inside in natural light.

I think this sample is pretty close to the color of the original cabinet, maybe with a couple more coats of Garnet Shellac.  Whatcha think?

Original Thorsen Cabinet from “Poems…”