On 3/3/2014 11:22 AM, wrote:
Man Leon, those look great. I'll bet in person they are even more impressive. In fact, I have no doubt. When I was there at Christmas they were still just a twinkle in the eye and an image on the screen...

So with all the details on that work it seems you have been pretty busy! I am sorry you have to keep on project of you Dad's health. It is a project, and when I was taking care of mine it was more tiring and exasperating than anything I have ever done. My thoughts are with both you and Kim.

Anyway, looking at the album saw the cabs less the glass and studied on the configuration of the uprights over the base. Years ago I built a small display care from walnut, and the uprights only extended about 2 1/2 feet above the base and then had the top secured to them. I had to replace one of the uprights as it twisted just enough to make it noticeable and then it affected the glass measurement as well.

How did you make sure your wood for the uprights that frame the glass was stable enough to keep from twisting? I used American Black Walnut (looks like the wood you used) but it wasn't kiln dried or anything like that. Down to the hard wood supplier and (no picking the pile at our local suppliers as they wound up with enormous piles of unusable crap after about month of that from the cabinet guys)and I got what I got.

I know you got the wood while I was in Houston as Karl showed me a pic you sent him, so it certainly hasn't had time to acclimate in the garage.

So... howdja do it?

Robert



Thank you Robert, compliments from you and Swingman and several others
here mean a lot to me. Cuz I know y'all know, having been there your
selves. ;~)

Dad is doing better every day but not near fast enough for my bystander
siblings that think they are helping out by telling me what we should be
doing by their vast knowledge of how he sounds on the telephone, should
they actually call him, much less go to visit him, if you know what I
mean. His doctor likes what he is seeing and we do too.

The top section is four rail and stile panels, each built a little
differently to accept glass, mirrors, or nothing. The front and back
panel stiles have rabbits to accept the side panels assemblies. That is
an indexing thing more than anything to aid alignment during glue up.

And yes I bought about 9~10 1x10x10' pieces of Walnut. I went through
probably 100 boards to get the straightest. Hardwood Products, where I
bought the wood, stands their lumber on end so culling was not too big
of a deal but I had my daily work out after going through the stack.

Sooooo twist was not too much of an issue but then again the rabbits
indexing the fronts, backs, and sides helped to keep every thing square,
straight, and fully seated in place during clamping.

What I did not anticipate was the flex of the panels when clamping the 4
sides together. On the ends near the top and bottoms rails there was no
issue but as I worked toward the centers, where there is no rail or
panel for support you would have witnessed the cool, calm, and collected
Leon about poop his pants as clamps began falling off as the center of
the panels flexed. ;~) The quick solution was to cut exact fit spacers
to act as temporary rails at each clamp position. That absolutely
worked splendidly and you see the result, so there was no twist or
distortion. I was lucky to have thought up and implemented that
solution as the glue had already been applied with panels and clamps in
place when I was cutting those exact length scrap plywood spacers.

A picture is worth.......

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb11211/12911341615/

And yes, the wood is American black walnut.

All of that aside, I did come up with a great way of indexing my rails
perfectly at the ends of the stiles when gluing up rail and stile frames
that have no center panels. The results again were perfect with no need
to address a slightly too long or too short stile after the glue dried.

That is what is going on here, less the side clamps that squeeze the
stiles into the ends of the rails.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb11211/12912012314/