Stock Selection
Although the face frame stack is quartersawn, most of the original end panels in our house are plain sawn.

About a year back a neighbor game me some old growth fir.

Tasty!
This wood was beautiful and will become the most visible panel. I also resawed some old beams to create the stock for the second less visible panel.

I left the stock stickered for a few days before further surfacing.

I always lay my stock out with stickers. Never leave it laying without good air circulation, unless you want a cupped board.

Panel Layout
I set the rough length panels out and played with them until I got a grain pattern that pleased me.

The two center boards are from the same board and the outside boards are from the second board.

I marked a triangle across all four boards to preserve my layout.

I also mark “i” and “o” on the edges. This is a code for jointing. I hold the “i” sides inside towards the fence and the “o” sides outside towards the fence. If the jointer is off from 90 degrees this will create complementary angles that must add back to 180.

Jointing

Glue up
I have been doing my glue up on my table saw covered by plastic. I only have giant clamps and really need to get some 2 – 3 foot parallel clamps.

Cleaning Glue with a beater chisel
I try to get as much glue as possible. It is a boring step, but easier than cleaning rock hard glue.

I left the panels to dry overnight.

I unclamped the panels and spent some time scraping and sanding them to the following result.

I think the panels will look great in the context of the cabinets.

Preparing Plywood Parts
In order to conserve plywood I drew out a quick cutting plan to conserve the plywood.

A friend came over and helped me support the plywood for the rips. he is interested in learning how to build cabinets and made a few of the crosscuts.

I use a panel sled for all of my crosscuts.

The panels are surfaced and jointed, but I treat each panel like a fresh board by jointing it, ripping to final width plus 1/8”, ripping to final width and then crosscutting to length.

Here are the panels cut to size.

Incidentally I finally tried out the blade that came with my SawStop. I had stored it two years ago without realizing that it was an 80 tooth plywood blade.

The cuts are perfect: splinter and burn free.

I will be using this for all of my ply cuts from now on. Who knew?

*Final Plywood Part Sizes.”
Instead of working from my original drawings, I am working from the face frames. To determine the length of the plywood rails and bottoms. I clamped plywood and solid panel offcuts to the face frame to represent the panels. I used my folding rule to take an exact measurement.

Then I cut all the rails to the correct length at the crosscut sled.

All of the parts are sitting waiting to be joined.

Next time:
Joining cabinet parts.

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I finished the dining table “finish”. The boss came out to inspect.

We will put it together today!

I add denatured alcohol to a container and then add the shellac to the consistency of a 1lb or so cut. Very thin.

I am padding on the shellac with a clean t-shirt scrap wrapped around another scrap. I also used a glue brush and a larger brush.

I work from the middle out to the ends to avoid over collecting on the ends.

After one coat (Still wettish)

When the first coat and on are dry I sand with my little worn spongy sanding block to knock down the dust nibs /level the surface. You can do this with very worn sandpaper too. If I have nothing else I take a piece of 320 and rub it against itself to break the grit down to a softer texture.

I feel the grit of the finish with my hand and then sand very lightly until It feels smooth. The goal is to remove that grit feeling and nothing more.

Tint it
On the second and so on coats I added the dark brown dye to the shellac to add a little more color to the project.

Shot with final coat of tinted shellac

Finally I tackled the sapwood by adding a few more drops of the dye to the shellac. The sapwood lacks that tanins that enact color change via fuming. (By the way I find the liquid dye WAY easier to work with than the powdered).

I brushed the concentrated color/shellac mixture onto the sapwood only.

Before:

Brushing Shellac/Dye..

After blending with my shellac pad..

Better I think.

Dry time
I really want to finish this, but I am going to wait a few days to let the shellac cure before I wax it.

Watch the shellac dry.

Next time Wax

I originally sanded the piece to 400 but decided to sand to 220 this time. The loose tenons/tusks took forever to sand and detail.

Fuming Time

I have always wanted to try this. Two years ago I had a student whose dad owned a blueprint shop. He gave me a large bottle of super strength ammonia. I had bought an ammonia respirator in preparation for the job.

I build a simple tent from pine scraps and then stapled plastic to the outside.

I donned long sleeves, my respirator, chemical gloves, and goggles.

I poured two bowls of ammonia.

and stuck them under the tent.


The color change happened almost immediately.

We kept watch over it and then after about 3.5 hours we removed the tent.

I poured the spent ammonia into a large bucket of water.

I took the piece back to the shop to air out for the night. That stuff is wicked! Even with a respirator.

In the finewoodworking article, author Kevin Rodel indicates that the final finish will darken the piece while warming it up.

We will see. I plan on shellac and dark wax.

Sand to 220. Get in the grooves.

Making the washcoat to prevent blotching .. 90% Mineral Spirits

Washcoat Part 2: 10% Boiled Linseed Oil

Apply Washcoat with cloth.

Inspecting the coat. If there are any sanding marks or glue spots this is the time to get them.

Applying stain with brush.

Clean off.

Get into the grooves with a glue brush.

Cleaning excess stain with screwdriver and cloth.

After 2 coats.

Seal coat time: Slightly Thinned Dewaxed Shellac

Shellacing with a rubber(rolled cloth in another cloth).

Sanding between coats with 320. Just enough to bring down the tackiness.

Wiping on the Minwax Wipe on Poly.

3 coats of Satin!

Finally I am ready to install! Along with some more drawer fronts.

We finally got around to staining the dishwasher panel this weekend. Going to try to poly it during the week in order to get ready for installation.

After about a week, the room is finally sprayed with finish. We need to finish the kitchen by next Monday so that the floors can be done.

Meanwhile we spent time replastering, preparing the wood and fixing small problems in the cabinets. Tomorrow: staining the kitchen.

We were under the gun since our project was due to class by Friday night.

48 Hours to Go

The door is stripped.

One coat of stain on the fresh face

Our tight schedule: glue up bases while the poly dries.

Our first base cabinet assembled and receiving staples for insurance

This only took an hour and a half. I have got to get one of those biscuit slot gluers.

30 Hours to Go

Get a feel for the madness

Final touches to the drawers

With all of the parts stained or restained it was time for the finish. Only time for two coats; We figured it will get banged around on the journey to the contest. We will recoat with a thrid … next week.

The poly coated door fronts.

Time to build the second base cabinet.

Dry fit is critical for me

Flashback: About a month ago I woke up in the middle of the night realizing I had not planned for a drawer divider. Solution:

Staple it in.

24…. 24. Hours to go….

At 11:00 p.m. Thursday we came out to recoat the parts with poly. It was still wet. Aargh.

With only 24 hours till the contest we needed to:

• Add a finish coat.
• Connect the bases
• Attach the Face Frames
• Install the drawer sliders
• Install the drawers and fronts
• Re-attach the z-braces
• Install the doors
• Install all hinges, latches and pulls
• Drive it 30 miles to class.

Crunch time!!!!…

Kristin sands the drawer faces.

She is just pretending to enjoy this.

Two Step Staining
If you saw our video on staining douglas fir.. you know that we use a washcoat of mineral spirits and boiled linseed oil followed by mahogany gel stain.

To be exact.. I apply the washcoat, Kristin applies the stain, I wipe the excess stain.

Picasso adds her touch.

Door with one coat of stain.

We learned to let the stain sit for quite a while so that it flashes up and removes evenly.

The face frame with one coat