In keeping with my pattern of starting out to do a quick and
dirty and then having a project get away - I started out to
build a small wall mounted cabinet for router bits. Saw the
idea in one of the recent WWing mags and it looked pretty
simple and straight foreward - some 1/2 or 3/4" ply for the
sides, top and bottom, drill some holes in some 3/4" MDF
and glue onto 1/4" tempered board which will ride in slots
in the cabinet sides. Slide one of the bit holders out, take
it to the router ... A simple solution to an existing problems
- bits in holes in various pieces of 2x4s, stuck in a drawer.
Figured three pull out shelves should do it. Four pieces of
ply, a little MDF and some tempered board. Simple.
Then I thought of bearing sets, allen wrenches, collets,
instruction sheets and so forth. A few drawers would
be handy.
But why use ply when I've got a bunch of honey - or maybe
it's black, locust. And maybe use sliding dovetails to
attach the sides to the top and bottom? They'd only add
about an inch to the width, why not - this thing will only
be 15-16" wide, 21=24" tall and maybe 7 inches deep.
While cutting some MDF for a prototype to be pocket
screwed together, cut the top and bottom oversized
to accomodate a door - to keep dust out.
If there was going to be a door, why not two? And
if there's going to be two doors - well why not make
them coopered doors?
And that's when I had to remember my geometry and
trig. 15 1/2" opening width, 2 foot radius curve. Got
the arc's angle, divided by two to get the angle for
each of the doors. Split that angle into three - each
coopered door will be made of three, initially the same
width, boards. Some more trig and I had the width
of the boards as well as the total angle between
adjacent boards. That total angle (about 6 degrees)
can be all cut on one face of each board or split half
and half and cut on both adjacent edges. The latter
seems to produce a nicer looking curve using MDF
for the prototypes.
Cut a 3+ degree set up block out of MDF on the
miter saw, set the table saw blade with it, set the
fence to the desired width and cut some prototypes.
Then things got messy.
The edges on the outside needed to be cut to line
up with the sides of the cabinet - and that cut
wasn't 3 or 6 degrees but 12 instead. And where
the two coopered doors would meet I wanted to
have each rabbetted for a 1/4" overlap - and they
don't meet parallel to each other but with a total
included angle of the 6 degrees.
Am also going to have to use knife hinges AND
figure out a way to hold the doors closed - bullet
catches perhaps.
Rather than continue to re-invent the wheel, other
than the few pages in Krenov's book about coopered
door making, does anyone have a URL for coopered
door making procedures or an article or book that
covers the subject in sufficient detail to semi-
successfuly make coopered doors?
If I can do the coopered doors I'll then have a go
at making parallel curved drawer fronts. No good
deed goes unpunished.
HELP!
charlie b
fun stuff this woodworking
Larry Jaques wrote:
snip
> Whoa! Wouldn't it be simpler to build the jig and just
> cut each stave to fit? Oops, forgot who I was talking to.
> <titter>
Ah - the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach!
Where's the fun in that? No geometry, no trig,
no spreadsheet?
But it's still necessary to find the angle for the
bevel on the staves unless I want to handplane
each pair.
The jig will make glue up a little easier though.
snip
>
> There was a FWW article on coopered panels a while ago,
> and this one covers gluing:
>
> http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pdf/FWW141-044.pdf
Excellent article. Lots of well illustrated "tricks". Will
use the jig and clamps method. Thanks!
charlie b
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 10:48:35 -0700, charlie b <[email protected]>
calmly ranted:
>Larry Jaques wrote:
>
> snip
>
>> Whoa! Wouldn't it be simpler to build the jig and just
>> cut each stave to fit? Oops, forgot who I was talking to.
>> <titter>
>
> Ah - the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach!
> Where's the fun in that? No geometry, no trig,
> no spreadsheet?
>
> But it's still necessary to find the angle for the
> bevel on the staves unless I want to handplane
> each pair.
Aintcha gonna SWAG 'em?
> The jig will make glue up a little easier though.
Build the jig for the curve you want, lay the ripped pieces
in the divot, and measure the gap. Shave half that much off
each piece. Refit, reshave as necessary, and glue. What's
to know?
> snip
>
>>
>> There was a FWW article on coopered panels a while ago,
>> and this one covers gluing:
>>
>> http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pdf/FWW141-044.pdf
>
> Excellent article. Lots of well illustrated "tricks". Will
> use the jig and clamps method. Thanks!
Thanks for making me search for coopering once again. It's yet
another of the 4,763,942 items on my learn-TO-DO list. I went
on a "field trip" with the SDFWA to a (Hmmm, was that the carving
shop or the veneering shop?) before I left LoCal. They coopered
the doors in the front office cabinets and that impressed the hell
out of me. Several were 20ish inch tall and some were 60". I tell
ya, that was the swankest broom close I've ever seen. It was, oh,
roughly 8' tall in a 12' entry and ranged downwind about 16'. Quite
the entertainment center for the receptionist.
- Metaphors Be With You -
http://diversify.com Web Application Programming
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 01:55:03 -0700, charlie b <[email protected]>
calmly ranted:
>In keeping with my pattern of starting out to do a quick and
>dirty and then having a project get away -
That is WAAAAAY understated, charlie.
>If there was going to be a door, why not two? And
>if there's going to be two doors - well why not make
>them coopered doors?
>And that's when I had to remember my geometry and
>trig. 15 1/2" opening width, 2 foot radius curve. Got
Whoa! Wouldn't it be simpler to build the jig and just
cut each stave to fit? Oops, forgot who I was talking to.
<titter>
>Then things got messy.
Understatement Alert #2
>The edges on the outside needed to be cut to line
>up with the sides of the cabinet - and that cut
>wasn't 3 or 6 degrees but 12 instead. And where
>the two coopered doors would meet I wanted to
>have each rabbetted for a 1/4" overlap - and they
>don't meet parallel to each other but with a total
>included angle of the 6 degrees.
>
>Am also going to have to use knife hinges AND
>figure out a way to hold the doors closed - bullet
>catches perhaps.
>Rather than continue to re-invent the wheel, other
>than the few pages in Krenov's book about coopered
>door making, does anyone have a URL for coopered
>door making procedures or an article or book that
>covers the subject in sufficient detail to semi-
>successfuly make coopered doors?
There was a FWW article on coopered panels a while ago,
and this one covers gluing:
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pdf/FWW141-044.pdf
>If I can do the coopered doors I'll then have a go
>at making parallel curved drawer fronts. No good
>deed goes unpunished.
Simple. Make another door on the same glueup jig and
bandsaur it down to height for several drawer fronts.
>HELP!
Grok that. Consider making the jig and doors, then match
the panel cuts to them. No calculations necessary.
- Metaphors Be With You -
http://diversify.com Web Application Programming