Miters, Mortises and More...

Continuing with the work on the lower webframe, I milled some mahogany to band the edges. To help align the edgeband with the webframe, I'm using a continuous narrow spline along the entire edge. Below, you can see that at the corners I'm using an L-shaped spline that goes deeper into the mitered area to help reinforce that joint.

After fitting the two shorter end edges, they were glued up. Then, the long edgebands were fitted and glued. The cabinet bottom is getting similar treatment.

The photo below shows one of the deeper L-shaped corner splines that I'm using for the wider edgebands of the cabinet bottom.

I should also note that I'm cutting the miters on the table saw, however, in order to get a nice tight fit, I'm using a shooting board and cutting the final surfaces of the miters with a block plane. After the fitting comes more gluing.

And here's the rough result.

After hand planing away the rough edgeband material, as well as the glue squeezeout, the final mitered joint is now visible, below.

While I'm working on the cabinet bottom, I also want to get going on the solid mahogany stand. I've milled the legs, making sure that the end grain is on the diagonal. This ensures pleasant grain lines on the faces of the legs after they are sculpted to match the curved shape of the legs on the client's existing china cabinet.

Using a full-size printout of the leg from my SketchUp design model, I trace the curved faces onto the legs.

Then, the mortices are laid out to receive the rail and stretcher tenons.

The end rails and front and back stretchers are milled to size and cut to length. Then, the tenon shoulders are cut on the table saw and the tenon cheeks are cut on the band saw.

After final fitting of the eight tenons, I made a dry run of the assembly.

To fine tune the fit of the tenon shoulders onto the legs, I planed the surfaces of the legs that receive the rails and stretchers. Finally, it was time to cut the leg shapes on the band saw.

I followed this up with a spokeshave to smooth the curves, and then softened the edges with a spokeshave and block plane. I then used 800 grit sandpaper, followed by 1,000 grit, to give the surface a uniform sheen and knock out some of the loose mineral deposits in the large pores of the wood. To match the existing finish in the client's home, I'm using the same Sam Maloof Poly/Oil Finish used by the maker of the existing pieces.

This type of finish goes on very easily; just a simple wipe-on/wipe-off. I usually don't show much color on the blog until a piece is finished, but I'll make an exception this time so you can see a little better how the finish material brings out the color in the mahogany.

It feels good to work with solid wood again after so much panel core build-up and veneering. Next, I'll be focused on completing the cabinet bottom and getting ready for the end panels.

Hej då!

Craig