Anatomy of a Shaker Wall Cupboard with Joshua Farnsworth

hello I'm Joshua Farnsworth and welcome to my traditional woodworking school here in Early's Ville Virginia and in this video I wanted to show you the anatomy of wall cupboards like this one for example [Music] so those of you who may have been following my videos and blog in the past saw that I did a an Anatomy video of end tables because a lot of people they just are kind of confused about how different kinds of furniture fit together and in that video I showed how how to I didn't show step-by-step how to build it but I showed how all showed how all the joints fit together and how that everything works together in a table like that and I wanted to do that was really really popular so I decided to do that again because I think a lot of people want to know how these fit together so this particular wall covered is a shaker design that I've kind of came up with based off of some other antique shaker covers that I've seen in the past and I really wanted to share this with you so that you could see how to not necessarily just build this one but how you can build other ones like it just by understanding how everything fits together if you're if anyone's interested in in plans for this I haven't drawn any up but let me know and I could probably draw some up and put them up in my store for a reasonable amount and but yeah let's go ahead and I'll walk you through how this and other wall cupboards are constructed so I first prepared all the cherry on this I move it all up with power tools and then got all the machine marks out with the hand plane and this particular wall cover it fits together with an cut dovetails and that forms the carcass for the case of the wall cover you can see shouldn't have to give too much more pressure than just hand pressure and they get a little bit of light to happen [Music] here's another shot a close-up shot show you how the tails fit on to the pins you can see by my thumb there that there's a groove going through as well and that accepts the back of the cupboard which you'll see in a little bit so here's what it looks like and you can see inside there's dedos going across for the shelves and in the back there's a groove cut on each side for the back to slide into here is how the dedos work the Shelf fits right inside each of the dedos should fit snug but not too tight so that it will break your case just snug it up these shelves of course will require just a little bit of glue but not so much that it come spewing out really in this particular design if you really didn't want to glue the shelves in I think that would probably be okay too because we're gonna put a face frame on the front let's see it fits nice and snug in there and this is how it looks there's the groove in the back because this particular backdrops down inside so then in the here in the next step I just glue the face frame pieces on the face frame is what will help you to attach the doors to the carcass of the cupboard I'm just using Titebond 3 here some PVA glue but you could also use other glues like traditional hide glue those would that would work just fine but I just put enough on so it doesn't squeeze out everywhere not too much just spread it out nice and even and then just set the face frame on and line it up alternatively one thing that will make it could make it easier is if you attach the bottom before you put the face frames on and then you can just slide it down there so just kind of go in the order that's easiest for you and then I stick the clamps on try to give some equal clamping pressure and just tighten it down just make sure you add enough clamps just spread out the pressure now here's the bottom in this situation I'm using a different type of glue this is the liquid hide glue just make sure it's not too old because it does expire this is the old fashion style glue that there's people who are making it in handy liquid form so you don't have to melt down the crystals and then I just put it on rub it to spread the glue then you can add some clamps on here I found that putting nails in the bottom isn't really necessary you can if you'd like to but I found that the glue seems to hold it just fine it's not structural and then I go ahead and sand down and scrape and plane and put a finish on what I've got put together so far and this is because I'm going to put the back end so I pre finish the back you can see it slides right in to that groove and bottoms out and then I have a nice little shaker handle at the top and you can see here as an illustration of the other type of backs that you find on cupboards here's a spice cupboard I made with shiplap in the back it allows the back to move back and forth but it just sits into rabbit then you'll nail it in to the case right there so that's how some other styles work but for this one I really liked the back that just slides in and then the top will hold it in and then you can hang it on a shaker peg here comes the top just to show you how it fits on there so the top actually holds the back in so yes I'm switching back to another glue it's just whatever's most handy for me all right again spread it on the top but I don't get to closest to the edges so it doesn't squeeze out on to the finish I already created then I take cut nails and put a little wax on them I drill some pilot holes and then I pound these cut nails and and set them and I do make sure that the cut nails both long edge is running with the grain so it doesn't cause splitting it's now on to the doors this is how the mortise and tenon frame and panel doors fit together and as you can see here I'm gonna show you each step twice one in a close-up mode this is how it goes with the rails going into the Stiles and you can see the grooves that I plowed in there that's where the panels are gonna fit in there's the center rail going into the style you can see here how it fits in you can see the tenon haunch fits right into the groove of the door perfectly like that then I can put in the bottom panel and the panel also is pre finished because as it moves over time it's gonna expand and contract you don't want to see an unfinished part of the panel coming out in the wintertime when it contracts back so just put them in and this is how the top fits on and this is what the finished door looks like once it's assembled and this is what it looks like when it's glued up now after that cut some little hinge mortises first with chisels and then with a little miniature router plane I use the same on the doors so the particular finish I used on this wall cover was Danish Oil I like how it gives a nice rich penetration but also offers some protection but it's not a table it's gonna be hanging on the wall so it doesn't need a really protective finish it can just be more of a beautiful hand-rubbed finish and before I put screws in the doors I like to put some wax on it this is a good three in one oil wax mixed with beeswax that my friend David dry pine who teaches here showed and we just set the screws so they're even with each other that's not necessary but it looks nice and then I just turned a little knob on the wave nothing fancy just a modest shaker knob and I made sure I turned the tenon of the knob to fit a drill bit that I had that I would put into the door you can see here now I'm putting some nice danish oil on the knob I always love this part looks beautiful coming off of there so this is a how the tenon knob goes in to the door and this particular one is designed to also be a lock so I fashioned a little a little latch there and line up the holes and I take a little nail a wire nail and I cut off the sharp end and size it just right the right length so it doesn't hang over and I set it inside of there I just take a little ball-peen hammer and tap it in until it goes flush and this knob doesn't need to be really tight not because you want a little bit of a play in it it's just tapped in and then you can see that the knob is able to turn and that's your little locking mechanism and this is how it works push the door closed twist it and it keeps the door closed you can see some of that cherry will darken up over time and even add a little bit and it will just be beautiful hanging up on some nice shaker pegs so that is how this particular shake recovered fits together and you can make any kind of cupboard you want kind of using these same principles this is Joshua Farnsworth if you're interested in learning traditional woodworking with hand tools visit my website at wood and shop comm where you can find free video tutorials workshop tours of amazing traditional woodworkers and tool buying guides you can ask questions and share your projects with thousands of woodworkers on my free traditional woodworking forum make sure you subscribe to my regular blog posts and also check out my 10 steps for getting started in traditional woodworking enjoy

Channel: Wood and Shop

Views: 26,633

Rating: 4.9508929 out of 5

Keywords: woodwork, woodworking, traditional woodworking, roy underhill, woodwright's shop, chris schwarz, lie-nielsen, hand planes, hand saws, chisels

Id: eKrZmEDDcs0

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 31 2019