Here I have started the glue up of the rails on to the panels.
And here the divisions and shelf on to the base.
And then the sides and drawer panel.
A mock-up of the sideboard top was made in MDF in order to get approval from the client on the chamfer detailing and sculpting before committing those to the real walnut top.
Here you can see the curved chamfer on the underside of the mock-up top.
Below we can see one of the longer panels with its side lippings already glued on and the front lippings mortised and ready to be glued up.
And here the two smaller panels having their side lippings glued up.
I marked up the veneers, cut them and prepared them into packs.
Trimming the packs in a router set up.
A pack of veneers sandwiched between two sheets of MDF and then trimmed with a bearing cutter on the router.
Some of the packs trimmed and ready for taping together.
Book matching the veneer leafs prior to taping.
It's best only to tape together enough veneers to press in one day. If the veneers are taped and left overnight the sellotape tends to stretch and can pull apart, causing glue lines during pressing.
Taping together veneers.
Using a small veneer roller to apply pressure to the tape.
Once they're taped together the veneers can be held up to the light to see if there are any gaps between the leafs of veneer.
Dry run - all the panels laid out with their corresponding veneers on the pressing platens.
With the urea formaldehyde based glue applied and in the press, pulling a good vacuum of about 13psi.
The next morning, after taking the veneered panels out of the bag press, I removed the tape and scraped off any glue that had squeezed out during the night.
The veneered panel scraped, sanded and ready for cutting.
After the Walnut had acclimatized in the workshop I started machining up the components of the sideboard carcass.
I purchased 52mm boards so that I would be able to cut a 5mm veneer from both faces of the board and still have enough thickness to get my carcass boards out of it. The veneers will be used to make up the doors.
It was pure carnage in the workshop while machining the boards and cutting the veneers. Some of the veneers were 8" (200mm) wide. I thought my 20" Wadkin BZB bandsaw might have difficulty cutting them - but it worked a dream, although I did manage to get through eight bandsaw blades.
You can see here the setup on the bandsaw.
After all the main machining was completed the workshop was filled with stacked veneers, sideboard carcass components, and offcuts.
At this point most of the components have been labelled with their numbers and marked up for handing. Certain components will also be paired so as to ensure continuity in the grain pattern, for instance with the handles, in the image below.
The next thing was to get the main boards of the sideboard carcass planed up with the No7 jointer plane, and then glue up the panels. I used loose tenons in the edges to assist with marrying up the boards, and a pair of winding sticks to ensure a twist free glue up.
After all the panels were glued up, I started the substantial task of planing them flat and thicknessing them by hand.
By locating the high areas and marking with a white pencil, and planing the length and width of the boards, it is possible to achieve a very flat surface, again using winding sticks to eliminate any twist.
A large pile of shavings after the first day of planing.
Once I was happy with the panels I moved onto marking out the lap dovetails of the top of the sideboard carcass.
Some of the panels were over 2 meters long so I made up a frame and fixed it to the end of the bench to support them while I stood on the bench cutting the dovetails with a gents saw, and coping saw.
I drilled out some of the waste around the pins and then chiselled out the rest.
Note the left and right-hand skew chisels used to get into the corners around the pins.
I marked out all the mortises and drilled out the waste on the pillar drill. I then pared back to the scalpel line ensuring the faces of the mortise are square and not under cut as this would produce glue lines later during the clean up.
Once the mortises were complete it was possible to mark out the housings and tenons.
I made up a temporary frame to support the panels while dry fitting.
The moment of truth!
While fitting the side panel mortises on to the tenons for the first time with the help of a wooden block and mallet, I could hear the tension building up in the side panel.
A good fit on the mortises, however the housing needed a bit more attention.
All Clamped up during a dry fit.
Now we can make out the housing for the shelves.
If you want to make great furniture, you need to start with great timber, so sourcing timber is a critical part of the overall process. I source a lot of my specialist timber from Tyler Hardwoods, but the Walnut for this particular sideboard came from Thorogoods, as you can see in the photo below.
When I arrived at the timber yard they had pulled out two unopened packs of 52mm Walnut for me to look through; a short pack and a long pack.
After looking through all of the short pack I decided there was more chance of getting all the timber we needed in the longer pack, as there was an average of 4 planks to a log in each pack.
I settled on two logs in the end. The one on the right had four nice boards which are ear-marked for the internal faces of the piece.
The log here on the left has 6 long good boards which I will use for the top and most of the saw-cut veneers on the external faces. There is one board in particular that has lovely looking grain pattern and I think will be great for the drawer fronts.
After getting back to the workshop I stacked the Walnut in stick so as to leave it to acclimatize in the workshop's controlled environment for 5-6 weeks.
You can see here above the the 4 plank log again
The boards are stacked in sequence from when they were cut from the log and labelled on the saw mill table.
The label in the image below shows the 4 digit pack number (bottom right) and the 6 digit log number followed by the 2 digit board number. This is what makes it possible to rebuild the log as shown in the photos here, which is great for matching grain and colour through the making of the piece, and also for book matching the veneers.
