I continue to struggle with keeping up the blog. I could write something trite about my New Year’s resolution to be a better blogger, but there are more pressing things to make resolutions about this year and that excuse would be three months too late.
That being said, here is the latest installment of the long (and slow) running blog about the “Low Sideboard for Modern Living.”
Low Sideboard
One thing that is often overlooked on furniture projects is the back. For this project I decided to use a traditional design strategy but stood it on its ear. A shiplap back is traditional, but given the length of this piece it would not be practical. And since I am not overly concerned with water leaking into the back of this cabinet, function would come second to form in this instance. Besides,personally, vertical shiplap looks more elegant.
Shiplap Back
One hurdle to overcome is finding twenty-four linear feet of quarter-sawn cherry that matches in color and grain. Not impossible, but more easily accomplished by purchasing 16/4 (“sixteen quarter” or 4-inches thick, every profession needs to have their own language to keep the general public guessing.) flat-sawn or plain-sawn cherry and resawing it into quarter-sawn myself.
Re-sawn 16/4 Cherry Board
Whenever resawing material you can expect some wood movement and should plan accordingly. Under normal circumstances I would only need to rough mill the material 1/4 of an inch over in thickness, but since I am resawing I cut the boards at 4/4, a full 1/2-inch oversized. But knowing that all the boards will match in grain and color makes this process and waste worth while. I frequently use this technique to match the grain and color for kitchen cabinet face frames, rails and stiles.
The resawing process is simple. You can use a bandsaw or table saw, but which ever you chose make sure you have a thin-kerf blade to reduce waste. I prefer using the band saw and generally use a 1 1/2-inch wide blade that has 2 teeth per inch. It makes for a rough cut, but I am going to have to finish mill the pieces afterwards anyway.
Yates 36-Inch Band Saw Set Up For Resawing
1 1/2-inch blade with 2 teeth/inch
I use an auxiliary fence to help keep the board a uniform 1-inch away from the blade and if I am resawing a wide piece I would clamp another board to the fence to help keep the cut parallel to the face.
Bandsaw Fence and Resaw Mid Cut
When resawing you also need to make sure you give the wood a chance to move before finish milling. I usually give the boards a couple of days before I start milling and while they are still rough sawn I start off clamping them to the bench in the same order they came out of the board to try and limit the rapid loss of moisture and wood movement. (If you are interested in learning more about wood and wood movement, I highly recommend Bruce Hoadley’s Understanding Wood.) After I start to mill the boards down I make sure to keep them stickered.
Stickered Shiplap
I needed to drill holes for the pan head screws (I choose these to keep the head from splitting the end of the board.) and to counter sink the heads, so I set up a simple guide to make the process of creating multiples go faster. Many people tend to over think these jigs with stop blocks and hold downs, but when drilling on a drill press these steps are a waste of time. I used a stop to keep the holes the same distance from the edge and then simple pencil marks to align the edges to put the holes in the same place in relation to the edges of the board. Also keeping your work area neat and organized helps when creating multiples.
Drill Press Set Up
Simple Jig to Aid In The Creation of Multiples
In the vein of simple jigs, I frequently use what is at hand to aid in construction and for repeatable results. Here I used my 12-inch Starrett (my most frequently used tool in the shop) to space the shiplap exactly an 1/8 of an inch apart.
Shiplap Spacing
Here is the finished product before finish, note the consistency in color and grain.
Shiplap Completed
Shiplap
