Tuesday, February 13, 2018

More Kitchen Cart

This past weekend was a good shop weekend with few interruptions and little need for running the streets. It is amazing how much can be done with several hours of uninterrupted shop time.

The cart is close to finished. All that is left is finishing and installing the drawer. The drawer box is made and awaiting glue once the bottom is finished. The drawer also needs a front and handle/pull of some kind.

My first thought was a Baltic Birch plywood bottom for the drawer but after thinking about the span I decided to go with a solid wood bottom. I found a Honey Locus board that was almost perfect size in the wood pile. Simple cut it in half, glue the two parts together, run a rabbet around it, maybe relieve the thickness a little and I have a bottom. The only problem with the plan is one end of the Honey Locus board had a curve, little wind but it was a little spaghetti like. I'll pull it out of the clamps in a sec and see if it is useable.

The bottom board in clamps with the drawer box:


The other question is what to use for the drawer front. I've a couple of candidates. One is a matching Cherry board and the other is some of the last of my South American Walnut. I expect I'll go safe and use the Cherry but with oil the South American Walnut turns a rich very dark brown. A really pretty wood with a oil finish.

The cart with the first coat of Danish Oil and the two drawer front candidates:


I just pulled the bottom out of the clamps, it has a slight wind but there should be good thickness left after clean up. I believe it is a go.

ken




 

2 comments:

  1. Use the walnut - once it turns browner it will pop against the oak and the maple top.

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  2. Ralph,

    I expect you are correct. I may make a front out of both and see which the boss likes more.

    I've scraped the glue line on the drawer bottom panel and one side sits solid, the other has a small rock. I thought about working on the panel and the drawer this morning before work but decided to wait. Mistakes will happen when rushed for time.

    Instead I sharpened one of the Japanese chisels with a JNAT as the final stone. The JNAT's are not as fast as the Shapton's nor do they polish as much as the higher grit Shapton's but the the chisel make a very clean effortless cut after being on a JNAT. Of course they do the same on the high grit Shapton. I'd be hard pressed to pick one over the other.

    ken

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