Doors for Basement Kitchen Cabinets

I set up a couple jigs to do the mortise and tenons for the doors. This one is for the mortising. It holds the work piece, and has stops, so you adjust the length of the mortise. It look me a while to build, and while to setup. It was difficult to get them centred, I used my electronic calipers, to help dial it in. It needs to be centred, because I have a stop to position the piece, so each mortise is done from the opposite side. I used a spiral up cutting bit, and cut about 1/4" per pass.

Here are 3 of the mortises. I left them rounded, and just trimmed the tenons to fit the curve. Might not be the best way, but it was easier. I tried squaring one on a test piece, but my chisel seems slightly over sized, and I ended up splitting it.

This is a simple sled I built for the router table, it runs along the edge. It's supposed to have hold downs, I need to buy those next time I go to Lee Valley. I just clamped the work piece on in the meantime. It took a long time to cut the tenons, would be faster with a table saw jig I think. I only cut 1/4" per pass, so I was constantly readjusting the piece.

Here's on of the finished joints. I used a 1/4" slot cutter on the router table, to cut the slot. I cut the haunch in the tenon, using a small Japanese saw, and did a little trimming with chisels.

Here's what the haunch looks like from the end. It's easier to do this way, because you can cut the slot all the way through, otherwise, you have to do a stopped cut.

Here are the door frames, sitting on the cabinet. Now I need to build the panels. I have to mill some more wood, and glue it up for that. The doors fit tight now, so I'll have to plane them to fit the opening (this was how I was planning to do it). I made the rails and stiles 2 1/8", so I'd have material to trim off.

I don't have a jointer, so I'm going to do a setup on the router table, so I can joint the piece for the panels. I've seen a couple setups on the web, seems to work well for material up to 3/4". Well it's taking me a lot longer to get these cabinets done, since I've gone back to work. I haven't even started on the drawers yet. I've only really been doing one day per week on this, so I guess it's not so slow.

Spucing up the workshop

I've had the top for this router table for almost a year, so I finally started building a base for it. Here I am, finishing off the drawer. I'm going to add another drawer, but one should do for now.

Here's the router table with the Lee Valley top and fence. I build it out of scrap I had lying around. The melamine and pine are taken out of our bedroom when we demoed it. The case for the router fits perfectly at the bottom (I didn't even plan it that way). There's room for another drawer, when I get the time to use it. I'm still getting used to the router table, figuring out how not to get tear out etc. I want to customise the fence, so I can mount some featherboards on it. It seems really precise, almost more precise than I need. There is micro-adjust on the fence that moves it in thousandths of an inch!

This the portable planer I just got today, it's General International. I need to make some 1" thick trim, for above the doors. I made a small test piece today, using the bandsaw to cut to 1-1/16", then planing the remaining 1/16' off. The finish looked really smooth, but I've heard you still need to sand, otherwise marks show up, when you put the finish on. It had a dust collector, to collect the chips.

I also go this contraption, the Dust Deputy. It works with your shop vac, and had cyclonic action. It collects 99% of the dust, before it gets to the vacuum. I've only used it today, but so far so good. It's a lot easier to empty the bucket than the vacuum as well.

I got a couple new blades for the bandsaw too. A 3/4" thin kerf blade for resawing, and 1/4" blade for cutting curves. I tried the 3/4" blade today, and it worked great. I set the fence for the new blade (you need to do that for every blade), and it cut great. We'll see how it goes with resawing a 6' piece.

I'm going to build a base for the planer too, eventually. I'm going to build it as an extension table for the tablesaw, and then store the planer in there when I'm not using it. I'd like to build some drawers under the workbench as well. The shop is small, but it could be a lot more organized. It gets a little better every year.