39 Comments

  1. Hi Paul,

    Another great video, with a great quote in it that really resonates with me:
    That’s what you want when you go through life… You want people to say: “he cared”.

    That said, maybe I missed this in a previous video, I found interesting how you mounted your router on a piece of wood. How to prevent it from scratching the piece you are working on? Is there a video where you show this interesting mod?

    Thanks!
    // Francesco

    1. It’s probably a Swann- Morton. The Stanley model Paul uses is not readily available from domestic sources here in the Colonies. The blades look very similar.

      I have gotten Paul’s Stanley through Amazon. But it’s double the price of the Stanley sold here. The domestic Stanley is nowhere near as good. HTH.

  2. why would anyone do it differently, I feel quite jealous of the younger generation that I was in my late 40’s before being taught the “correct” way to do these tasks and they can get this info whilst still young enough to get a lifetimes use out of it, thanks team.

  3. Such an amazing tutorial I even felt myself leaning forward to blow out the dust?

    Paul can I take this opportunity to wish you a belated happy birthday for the fourth…………thank you again for all you have taught me…..John (two vices)

  4. Hello Mr. Sellers,

    could you please elaborate on your choice as to why you created the frame instead of using a full width board? Shouldn’t there be more stress due to different shrinking in the sides of the cabinet and the frame?

    As an overall suggestion: In learning woodworking it would seem helpful if you could explain your decision making process more often. Sometimes you say things are best done a certain way – however if you don’t understand the abstract rule/guideline/thinking behind it – it’s hard to apply it in other scenarios or project.

    Thank you very much

    1. Andrej,
      I was wondering the same thing. Are there certain advantages to creating this panel over a solid divider? Or are we doing this more as an exercise (as Paul mentioned) as training for the doors? Would love to know the “why” as well s the “how”.

      1. He said just that. Frame and panel is over-kill, as well as chopping mortises to accommodate it. It’s all an exercise to increase our skills and bag of tricks, and practice for making paneled doors.

  5. Hi Paul. I am enjoying building this cabinet along with you. Lots of new tricks and skills for me, and as usual, your teaching is superb! I have a question about one of the frame pieces. It appears in episode 7, that the rear frame piece is too long so far. It looks to be as long as the front piece including its thru tenons (32″). Will we be cutting it to length so it fits from dado to dado, or will we be chopping additional mortises in the back of the side pieces as we’ve done in the front of the side pieces? Thanks much!

    1. Episode 8 answered my question. I never thought ahead well enough to realize that cutting the back frame piece to length AFTER it was assembled and glued would give us a perfect place to hit with a hammer on either end to disassemble the frame–without damaging the parts that matter. As usual I appreciate learning these cool little convenient tricks.

  6. Paul used a metal plow plane with a 1/4″ blade for the frame and panel groove and a matching 1/4″ chisel for the mortises. The wooden plow plane I have has blades that are just over 1/4″ and just under 1/4″. Apparently this is typical for wooden plows and it makes it clumsy to cut a mortise of matching width. Should I simply cut a 1/4″ mortise in the middle of the oversized groove or try to match the groove width? Or would it make more sense to cut an undersized groove and let the mortise sides extend past the sides of the groove? Any one of these presents problems. How would an 18th century cabinetmaker have approached this? Thanks for any suggestions.

    1. Harold,
      I’d file / grind down the oversized 1/4″ blade to an exact 1/4″, matching the chisel. A coarse diamond plate sharpening stone would probably work best. You shouldn’t have to do the whole length, just about an inch should do it.
      Best,
      Craig

      1. Thanks Craig. I was reviewing the bookshelves project just now and see that Paul addressed this issue there. In that project he put a 3/8″ mortise in a 5/16″ groove. He used his mortise guide to pare the sides of the groove to 3/8″ and this seemed reasonably straightforward. I’ll try this next time.

    2. Based on Pauls making the mortises in the front board, it would seem best to go undersized on the groove, and the make the mortise holes the correct size. Paul used the mortise guide an 1″ chisel to pair the side of the groove back to the correct sizes.

  7. I had to go get the wife to come in and watch at the 35 min mark when Paul says

    “this could be a bookcase, this could be be… ooooh,….”, “this will end up in the house instead of in the workshop”.

    She laughed as hard as I did when Paul said that…. Priceless, Thanks Paul.
    Ted

  8. Paul, I’m just curious if you would consider building this tool cabinet using ply and veneer? Wouldn’t that take the worry out the bottom two drawers not fitting right in the future as a result of wood movement in the sides and bottom?

    1. You should always remember that solid wood will always outlive plywood. Dovetailed corners don’t come out well with any manmade board either. I am not sure what the concern is. I have made my drawers to hit the back and so should the sides shrink the drawer might protrude a millimetre or two or it could expand and the drawer recess a millimetre or two. My experience is that wood will in general be just fine on a project this shallow. I am doing it this way to give the wood a chance. Now then, the point is a good one and one that was taken care of very simply on most furniture pieces where there might be counterpoised grain orientation surrounding drawers. If you live in an area of constant change, this is a definite consideration. In the UK we have relatively constant levels of humidity. Not high and never low. Having lived in different parts of Texas for 20+ years the differences can be phenomenal between east and west parts if the state. You can add two small blocks 1/4″ x 1″ x 1″ (plywood works well for this) to the bottom board of the cabinet just under the drawer and the thickness of the drawer front from the front edge of the cabinet and to each side of the drawer. This was very common and still is even in industry. That way the drawer need not go to the back of the cabinet or you can use both. The blocks can be simply glued and clamped or, as was the most common, nailed with small pins.

      1. Thank you for explaining this, Paul. I live in southern Ontario, Canada which has massive swings in humidity over the course of a day, let alone a year, so wood movement is really a concern of mine.

        Mitchell

  9. When plowing the grooves for dust panel, in the drawer assembly, it seems the simple solution to registration and negotiating grain issues would be to plow the front board first and then just use the same registration face for the remaining 3 pieces. The mistake here is to mark the tops first. Simply plow the groove first and then put all of the registration faces either down or up depending on what you had to do with the front piece.

  10. I am in the last stages of building a saw till and using mostly hand tools. I connected with your comment “isn’t this better without the goggles, dust mask and hearing protection”. That is the essence of my connection to hand tool work and you Paul Sellers have pushed me over the edge into it. I have a drawer that is coming together, hand cut half blind on the front, through on the back and a bottom groove for the bottom ploughed with my Stanley 45. Good quiet fun and now waiting for the glue to set to make final adjustments. I am enjoying this and am happy to financially contribute to a worthy education, thank you sir for providing it.

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