Wood plant

I thought I would take an aside from my research on wood ontology to do a little research on sustainable wood practices.

The FSC, or Forest Stewardship Council was mentioned today, and among a few other organizations, it seems to be the predominant society dealing with ethical and sustainable forestry practices, whose sole purpose is the coordination and development of forest management standards throughout the different biogeographic regions of the US.

Link to the 10 FSC Principles.

While the organization appears to be reasonable successful in providing a base for the development of sustainable forestry practices, it is designed for mass buyers of wood, like our friend Jeff. The industry really needs a stricter brand to advertise the fair practices endorsed by the FSC, like the ADA brand you find on toothpaste (I once bought a toothpaste without ADA brand, guess what the main ingredient was…Sugar), and their needs to be a stricter enforcement of these practices…

  John Tetreault, Associate Art Director 8 users recommend 
To cut the through-tenons on the shelves I simply clamped all of them together and used a hand saw to define the cheeks.
John Tetreault 
A router made quick work of removing the waste between the tenon cheeks.
John Tetreault 
When routing out the waste I nicked one of the tenons. If these were regular tenons the nick would have been hidden in the mortise, but since they are through-tenons and will be seen, I picked a similar grain from a scrap piece and made a tenon plug of sorts.
John Tetreault 
The scrub plane sure is a fun tool to use. I adjusted the blade to take shallow cuts and deliberately lined up the scalloping with the grain for all shelves. This texture will compliment the weathered texture of the case sides.
John Tetreault 
I marked the shelf through-tenons on the case sides and then drilled tiny holes at the four corners of the mortise location.
John Tetreault 
From the exterior of the case sides I used a forstner bit to drill out most of the waste and then carefully squared up the mortise with a chisel.
John Tetreault 
I cut slots on all the shelf tenons where wedges will be added later. After test fitting all the shelves, I disassembled everything and added glue to the shelf dados and a little drop on each of the tenon cheeks. Lots of clamps and cauls pulled it all together and one long clamp on opposite corners held the case square.
John Tetreault 
I cut the dovetails for the top purposely a little tight, so no clamps were needed once it was tapped in place. You can get away with this on a softwood like pine, but I wouldnt recommend using this technique with hardwoods.
John Tetreault 
To cut the through-tenons on the shelves I simply clamped all of them together and used a hand saw to define the cheeks.
Photo: John Tetreault


Furniture Lab Tech Cabinet - Part II
Follow along as Fine Woodworking associate art director John Tetreault constructs a cabinet using reclaimed materials found during our recent trek to southern Massachusetts.
Things are really beginning to speed up at this point of the Tech Cabinet build. The dados for the shelves have been cut in the case sides and the dovetails have been cut to accept the top. Next, I broke out the scrub plane to surface the interior shelves. The undulating surface that the scrub plane produces mimics the weathered exterior boards of the case sides. Browse through the photos above, where I show you how I made the through-tenons on the shelves and a little trick to cut mortises on the case sides when you want to keep the original patina of the wood.
Once the shelves were done, I was ready for the case glue-up. It was a little tricky with all those through-tenons, but I tackled the case first and then tapped home the dovetails on the top.
Ill be back next week, with the conclusion of the project and plenty of final beauty shots!
More Projects by John Tetreault
• The 3-Hour Cabinet
• Bending Dovetails
• Make Your Own Leather Chisel Roll
• Video: Build a Hybrid Roubo Workbench 
Watch the Furniture Lab Junkyard Visit
Be sure to read Asa Christianas story outlining the original idea and intent of Furniture Lab, plus, watch our original Furniture Lab junkyard visit. John Tetreault, Tom McKenna, and Anatole Burkin visited an old salvage yard for some quirky design inspiration.



Click Here and Start WoodWorking

Some projects get completed quickly. Some projects take longer than expected. Then there are those projects that turn into epic journeys, full of side tracks, dead ends, new skills and maybe even a trip to the emergency room. The Shaker Cupboard was one of the latter.

Almost three years ago, my wife and I, along with our friends Dave and Sarah, visited the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky. I didnt know it at the time, but I took the picture that would inspire this project. In the back of the Centre Family Dwelling, I saw this step-back cupboard:



About a year later, I decided to create my own version - based on the Pleasant Hill cupboard, but with modifications made to fit our needs. I made some sketches, some simple plans and got to work. I had no idea how long a project this was going to turn into. In the end, the cupboard, in various stages of completion, was in the shop for about two years. Obviously, I did not work on it constantly, or even consistently.

I didnt decide to take pictures of the process until it was already underway. My intention is that this will be a photo essay, and as such will be more images than words. Ill try to keep it to short captions at most.

Attaching the cupboard back: bench and tools (coins were for spacing the T&G boards).



Bench with tools and cupboard.



Cupboard with back complete.



Detail of adjustable shelf supports in lower section of cupboard - shelves get notched to fit around vertical supports.



Still life with hand tools (So I like pictures of working tools - gotta problem with that?)



Shelves in place.



Face frames installed - its starting to look real. I spent a lot of time making sure that the shelves could still be removed after the face frames and doors were in place. They can - just.



Frame and panel door mock-up.



Rail, stile and panel test joint. In the end I decided against the beading.

These are the stair rail mount brackets.  The mounting base for both has a curved top, yet the holes for fastening the bottom rail are on the bottom, not the top.  This makes them inaccessible.  If you mount them with those holes up then the curved "top" is down.  I think that the mounting block should be attached to the base the other way around so that the screw holes are accessible.

Bottom mounting bracket on the deck rails.

Bottom mounting bracket on the stair rails.

Dont have time to work on my version of the instructions yet, as I need to do some SketchUp models.

Part 5

Well, after a small prescribed burn, I have at least one corner of the shop decent enough for some pictures.

First is the new wood rack doing its job quite nicely:


I didnt realize how much 6 stock I had picked up. This was mostly because the old rack couldnt handle 8 stock in an easy manner. Now that I have a much better rack, I can go back to buying longer, and thus more versatile, stock.

As I mentioned in a comment on the previous wood rack post, I added plywood "decking" to the second and third shelf to both increase the racking resistance (earthquakes) and allow for easier storage of shorts. Also, I added sliding trays under the bottom platform to handle even more shorts.

And here is the GGTC - Gigantic Green Tool Chest:




The body of the chest is made of 3/4" birch plywood that I found buried at the bottom of the old wood rack. I dont use plywood very often anymore, but this was leftover from my table saw days and much too nice to send to the landfill.

This is going in to my school shop to safely keep unsupervised hands away from sharp tools.

Now its back to the shop overhaul - next up, the new wall!

Playing with the mouldings for the cupboard - ovolo and cove.



Put together as a built-up profile.



Mock-up of crown moulding in place - I liked it, but it was to "colonial" for this cupboard.



A simpler crown moulding mock-up - better - but I would eventually remove the thumbnail top and just go with a simple cove moulding. This also shows a test of one hinge design - taped in place - I liked it, but in the end went with one that had removable pins - it was easier to work with.



Doors complete - final fitting with the planes.



Doors fit - the end is in sight!



Hinge work - and a new appreciation of the Stanley #95 butt gauge.



Close-up of chisel scoring of hinge mortise.



Finishing the mortise with a router plane.



Testing the fit.



Making pilot holes with awl - a sharpened finish nail chucked in old cobblers awl - the twisting motion seperates the wood fibers - I have more control than with a drill.



Lower doors hung.



Upper doors hung and knobs installed - I turned the knobs on my spring pole (shock cord) lathe - definitely the craftsmanship of risk - I need WAY more practice, and I think I should have used air dried birch rather than kiln dried pine.



Detail of knobs - the conflicting grain patterns wont matter once the cupboard is painted.



Speaking of which... milk paint of course - Union Blue from The Real Milk Paint Co. The cove mouldings had also been added to the top and the step.



And its done! "Make Way! Blow the trumpets!"

There are still a couple of tweaks needed. I dont like how bright the hinges are - one day I will dull them down a bit. And I might add a second coat of milk paint eventually, but that depends on how it ages... But for now we are very happy with it! And I am very glad to have it out of the shop and in the house! Finally!



A group shot of the tools used on this project. The two contraptions at the bottom are my shooting board and the main part of the treadle lathe (w/o treadle). Missing from photo: miter box.