Linen Cupboard: Episode 1

Posted 23 September 2020

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This is the opening video in the series, making a linen cupboard and, throughout the instruction, Paul wanted to ensure the important details for wood selection and preparation paved the way to a successful project. The things he looks for in these areas are discussed throughout, as well as the methods he uses to reconcile discrepancies. We edge joint with the jack plane for a pristine joint line, and crosscut to knifewalls so that planing the ends ensures a dead square cut to a planed finish, ready for the joinery yet to come. We take the wood from the wood suppliers at machined levels to finished panels jointed, glued, and clamped in a matter of minutes.

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26 Comments

  2. Great video! It’s so nice to see more of the process at the start of a project than we usually see here on masterclasses. It really helps. Another area I wish we would see a little more of is the joint fine-tuning needed to close up smaller gaps and such. I look forward to the rest of this series. Thank you Mr. Sellers.

  3. I agree, nice to see what the end result is before you start. It’s been a while since I’ve viewed any videos, but originally, in many projects, there was a dimensioned drawing along with a material list as well.

  6. Thanks Paul.
    I love my number 5 type 9, and swear by it (and my number 4 type 9). Given a pine board 60 inches long, l think the majority of us would do a better job combining it with a shooting board to tackle the end grain rather than straddle it like a cowboy

  7. Greetings, Paul!

    A suggestion on trying to hold the two boards together when flipping. If you have two of those inexpensive spring clamps you can set your boards on the pencils, then place a spring clamp on each end of the boards. When you flip the boards they stay in place and you can remove the clamps quickly and easily when you are done.

    I’ve really enjoyed your videos/techniques/projects over the years and recommend you, The English Woodworker, and Chris Schwarz to all my wood working friends who want to get started or get better with using hand tools in the shop!
    Thank you for sharing your life and skills with us!
    Don B

  10. Question for the masterclasses team or members here – Paul mentioned something offhand In the beginning about fixing a severely cupped board by ripping the board down the center, jointing the edges, and gluing it back together. Can anyone offer more detail on that? It’s not a fix I’ve seen before, but it sounds useful. Is the idea you joint them with one board flipped so that the cup is more of an “s-curve” or something?

  11. Hugo, personally I haven’t had much luck with the approach you’re referring to with a big glue-up like edge jointing – I think it has something to do with the way PVA glues cure. I just haven’t had that good of a bond unless I find a way to clamp it. One alternative you can look into if you don’t have large sash/bar clamps like the ones Paul uses are “nail dogs” which Paul has used in the past. You can imagine they’re like big staples, where the prongs are canted in toward each other. You set them in place straddling the joint line and tap them into the end grain, and that gives you a little pressure on the joint without clamps. I’ve got a half dozen of them or so, but they could easily be made.

  12. @MMahan

    That’s not quite what he’s getting at. This can be hard to explain without a picture.

    Think of the cupped board as a large “U”. The idea is to cut the “U” in half and flatten the faces independently. Then you’ll square and joint the edges and reglue which “pulls” the U flat.

    In effect you’ve removed the cup by taking additional material off the two face-edges.

  13. Dear Matt,

    Cupping and bellying, to me, stand for warp perpendicular to the length of the board. Ripping the board apart at the maximum of the cupping generates two new boards, each with half the cupping/bellying of the original one; thus necessitating the removal of 50% less stock to get them flat.

  14. Ah, got it – thanks Austin and Sven. Makes theoretical sense to me (will have to put it into practice). So essentially if you have a board that has a 1/8” deep hollow due to cupping, then by ripping it into two new boards you’ll only be looking at A 1/16” deep hollow to remove on each. And you still have to hit the belly on the opposite face, but same theory would apply there. Thanks again!

  15. I’m sure @sojansson was not trying to be quantitative when he said 50% less stock to remove when ripped in half, so not trying to correct any one. But, in reality one can reduce the amount of a waste a lot more that 50% when a cupped board is ripped, jointed and glued back. In the ideal case of a circular arc, the dip at the centre goes as square of the chord (width of the board in our case) (d ~ L^2/8R). So when ripped into two , you reduce the dip by 4 times and stock reduction by 4 times in volume.

    1. Hi Roger,

      Paul says:
      I don’t think it’s important. I think the most important element is how the grain will ultimately look and I will find some way to plane up the surface, even if the two pieces are in opposing directions.

      Kind Regards,
      Izzy

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