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Materials:
- 3' - 1x8 cedar
- 6' - 1x6 cedar decking
- Tongue-in-groove pine or cedar (or bead board if you can get
it) - you don't need much, and it is often sold in packs, so you
might have to make several cabinets to amortize your tongue-in-groove
investment
- 2" copper boat nails and 'roves' - available at Lee Valley Tools
(www.leevalley.com)
or at a boat-building supply house
- 1 ½" copper boat nails (for attaching copper handles to cabinet)
- 1/4 inch flexible copper tubing - available in the plumbing
section of your home center
- Shelf-support pins
- Brass hinges - the thickness of your doors will determine the
size of the hinges you buy - the ones we used are 2" x ½
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Tools
- Measuring tape
- Speed square
- Saw
- Pencil
- Drill
- Safety glasses
- Non-skid vinyl mat, or clamps
- Hammer
- Ballpein hammer
- Bullnose nippers or End nippers
- Awl
- Screwdriver
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Tools you might not be familiar with
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Cut list:
- Doors (1x8 cedar) - two 18" boards
- Cabinet sides (1x6 cedar) - two 17" boards
- Cabinet top, bottom and shelf (1x6 cedar) - three 12 1/2" boards
- Backing (tongue-in-groove) - 17" lengths, enough boards to cover
opening of 12 1/2"
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Tips:
- When you buy lumber, the shortest length of board available
is usually six feet, so you may be stuck with extra scraps
of the 1x8 material you need for the cabinet doors. Also,
bear in mind that lumber mills usually skimp on dimensions,
so a 1" x 8" board usually measures 3/4" x 7 1/4".
- Because materials vary from region to region, you may
not be able to get some of the materials used on the show.
So the trick is to cut the doors first, and lay them flat
with a 1/8" gap between them. Measure across the width of
the doors (including the 1/8" gap), and let that measurement
determine the width of your cabinet. Then you can cut the
pieces for the frame to the appropriate lengths with whatever
lumber you are able to get in your area.
- The doors are cut a bit taller (18") than the 17" frame
to give the cabinet a more polished look.
- The cedar decking that is specified in this project is
a full inch in thickness, but standard 1x6 cedar boards
are only 3/4". If you can only get the thinner ¾" material
in your area, that's fine, but the cabinet won't end up
being quite as wide, so measure your doors first! (see above)
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Steps:
Marking
Cedar with speed square
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Cutting
Cedar with Japanese saw
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Marking
the sides for drilling the peg holes |
Lay the two sidepieces out on your work surface.
Measure and mark matching pairs of holes on the two 17" cabinet
sides. These holes will hold the shelf-support pins. |
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Detail
of a Brad Point Drill Bit |
Drilling
the Peg Holes |
Drilling
for the Copper Nails |
| Clamp the boards in place or use a non-skid vinyl mat, and
then drill the holes the right diameter and depth to fit your
shelf-support pins. |
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Copper
nail with rove |
Hammering
in the first copper nail |
Hammering
in the last copper nail |
| Pre-drill and then nail each corner of the cabinet frame together,
using copper nails. Use a speed square to make sure the cabinet
is square. If not, reef on it to pull it into alignment. |
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Bead
Board example |
Tongue-in-grove
example |
Fitting
the Bead Board backing on the frame |
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Attaching
the Bead Board backing |
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| Center the backing boards on the cabinet frame, and then nail
them in place once they're lined up nicely. |
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Copper
tubing door pulls |
Making
the door pulls using a round jig |
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Make cool handles out of flexible copper by bending the tubing
around a cylindrical object (even a jar works fine). Then,
using a ballpein hammer, or even just a regular hammer, pound
the tube-ends flat on a hard surface (the flat top of a vise
works well if you don't happen to have an anvil).
Now drill one small hole in each end of the handle, so you
can affix it to the cabinet doors. (Before you drill the hole,
it helps to make a dimple in the copper using a hammer and
nail; the dimple will prevent the drill bit from skating around
on the hard metal.)
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Using
copper nails to attach the door pulls |
Cutting
off the end of the nail using the bull-nose nippers |
The
copper door pulls attached |
Attach the handles to the cabinet doors using copper nails.
The nails will be too long, so snip the sharp ends off flush
with the inside surface of the cabinet door, using bull-nose
nippers. |
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Cabinet
assembly with door overhang and side configuration |
Detail
of cabinet assembly with door overhang |
Attaching
the hinge to the door |
| Attach the brass hinges to the cabinet doors,
using an ice pick or awl to mark a starter hole for each screw.
Use a hand screwdriver rather than a power drill to drive the
screws, because brass is so soft it will strip if you use a
power tool on the delicate heads. |
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Attaching
the doors using a pile of books for support |
The
finished cabinet |
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| Now attach the hinged doors to the cabinet. Use a pile of
books to hold the door level while screwing on the hinges, and
try to create a slight gap between the inside edges of the doors
so they don't bind on each other. If they do bind, plane the
inside edges using a hand plane, or coarse sandpaper. |
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Artisans'
work featured on this episode:
(click pics for Artist info and larger
images)
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