Art Furnishings for Artful Living
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Art Furnishings for Artful Living Newsletter
Glue up steps on CD cabinet, and news
January 2011
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Dear Friends,

First I want to tell you that I will be a the Better Home Show at the Hampshire Dome in Milford, March 18 to 20 as part of the NH Furniture Masters, Booth 200. I hope to see you there.

I'm making great progress on the CD cabinet for Pam, and in this newsletter I'll show you how it's coming along.

Here's some news. You may have heard that the League of NH Craftsmen is building a new headquarters in Concord. I'm one of five artists working on the reception area, and my part will be a series of carved panels to go on a collaborative piece with David Little and Peter Bloch to go above it. The panels will be of a similar nature as the panels at Monadnock and Farmington Hospitals, with a theme of hands working in several different craft media. Very exciting.

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center section in clamps Last newsletter you saw all the parts for the cabinet and the model. You might want to look at my archives to refresh yourselves so you'll know where I'm going with this. Use the link at the bottom of the newsletter to go to my website, then 'View Archives' on the lower right.

This is just the center section in clamps. (It's upside down) I prefer to break down the assembly into as few steps as possible, so that I am only clamping in one direction at a time. That way I can check to see that everything is perfect. All these clamps for only five cross pieces in front and one in back, with a spacer (you can't see it) to hold everything square.
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spacers to predrill for slide installation Thinking ahead is pretty important. For this cabinet the drawers will be on 'over-extention' slides to get access to all the CD's. I know that once the cabinet is assembled I won't be able to get a drill inside to drill the screw holes, so I'm doing it in advance. The slides have to be all exactly parallel and properly spaced. I was once asked how I insure accuracy in such situations, and the answer is to avoid using numbers and measurements. Instead I've created a set of spacers 7 inches wide. I stack them up and drill using the slides and a self-centering drill bit. Can't miss.
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the cabinet in clamps Here one of the side cabinets is being glued, the other side is dry clamped to be done in a future step. That's the reason you see the back panel missing. I do have a confession to make. I am gluing to directions at a time because I couldn't figure how it could be done in two steps Happily I used my slowest setting glue and everything worked out fine.
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joinery to attach the top The cabinet is assembled, and the joinery is cut to attach, and here it is. You'll notice that the mortises for the hinges are already made, because had I waited I couldn't have gotten the router in place. Actually there was a saga involved in these hinges because initially I had in mind to use a less visible kind of hinge. I tried to make a mock up first and discovered that the geometry just didn't work out. You just can't anticipate everything on paper.

If you look closely you'll see pencil marks all over the tenons. That's one of my tricks for fitting things. When I test fit the tenons the graphite rubs off inside the mortises, and I know exactly where to shave away for a perfect fit.
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Since these photos were taken I've made even more progress - Carved one of the doors, cut out and shaped the legs,  and worked on drawer parts. So look for the next newsletter coming along sooner than later.

You may be interested to know that I'm planning to make a Ladies Vanity Desk with mirror for this year's Furniture Masters shows. That needs to be done in May. I could be tight since I have a lamp to make, two trips planned - Florida and Slovenia - plus the project for the League  mentioned above. Wish me luck. 

As always please forward this to anyone you think would enjoy it.
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phone: 603 436 7945
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