In the Process part IV, It's not that clear

Using reclaimed material requires some decisions that you don't encounter when using new materials.

Most of the fir that I'm using in this project is far superior to the fir that I can buy new from the lumberyard. This stuff was clearly cut from old growth. The vertical grain in some of these boards is so tight that you would have to use a magnifying glass to count the growth rings. It's beautiful stuff, but it's also riddled with nail holes and their associated stains.

Normally, I cut out the defects that will show in the face of the project, but if I did that with the reclaimed, there would be a huge amount of waste. And waste is at odds with the concept of reuse that caused me to get interested in working with reclaimed material in the first place. That's why you see so much "character" in these pictures.

Here's where I am on the project:

The drawers are done. They ride on center mounted waxed wooden guides--just like they might have if this were built in 1925.

I still need to glue the doors together, and do the joinery associated with the curved detail.

The columns are done--on the outside, but I still need to figure out exactly how they will be attached to the cabinet, and I need to finish their special touches. the column on the left will be a broom closet. The one on the right will be wine storage.

Finally, I'll attack the mouldings. I'm planning on doing a built up crown mould that totals 7" in height and the base mould will be 9" tall.

In the Process III: The Pressure of the Clamps

The hutch building continues.

One of the marks of good craftsmanship is avoiding the use of visible fasteners. There are several ways to accomplish this goal. You can simply putty a nail hole, or you can use decorative or grain matched plugs to cover screws. I generally choose to use glue and lots of clamps.

Glued joints are amazingly strong. When done properly, the lumber will come apart before the glue joint. I do like to use mechanical fasters to complement the glue on moving parts like doors and drawers, but those don't need to show on the face of the cabinet.

Since my last post, I've built the upper cabinet box, attached the face frames to the boxes, and attached the bead mould to the curved part of the face frame. I also made a top and made the back using a joint called a half-lap.

Next up: Building the doors and drawers.

In the Process Part II

I'm making good progress on the hutch.

In the old days, the cabinet maker would have been working at the house, not at a cabinet shop. He'd nail things to the wall and build from there. That's why they called them built ins. They didn't have plywood so everything was built with sticks.

My project has the additional challenge of needing to be strong enough to move around. I'm doing that by building the lower part using a series of dadoes and tenons. This is the way some old dressers were built. Everything fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, and it can stand on its own even before I glue everything together.

The darker colored wood is recycled poplar--it was once a booth at The Old Spaghetti Factory. The lighter wood is reclaimed fir. It was once framing lumber in the old North Baptist Church in North Portland.

The bottom two pictures show some design details. I'm using a bead mould around all of the door and drawer openings. At this point, nothing is sanded, and only the face frames are glued together. The bottom picture shows how I arrived at the curves. The vertical pencil lines helped me to make sure that the curve was symmetrical. I still need to apply bead mould to that curves. That corner miter will be tricky, and the vertical section is a pretty tight bend, but I've got a strategy that has worked for me in the past.

Next step is building the cabinet box for the upper portion.