Wednesday – Installing Leaves

It was cold again this morning, so I stoked up the wood stove and while I was waiting for the shop to warm up I completed a bid for a custom curio cabinet for Marilyn. Click any picture to enlarge it.

Once is was workable in the shop, I set up our panel sled and cut the leaves to finished size. This is one of those things where I tend to measure, lay-out, then recheck a couple of times before turning on the saw. If I mess it up, I have to remake the entire panel.

I didn’t mess up.

Then I pulled out our sewing machine leaf hinge jig. It’s a nifty gadget that routes precisely placed pockets for the leaf hinges. Not so amazing – lots of hinge jigs are out there, except that these hinges have ROUND ends. So I had to make this jig just especially for this project. When properly set-up it places the hinge pockets on both the cabinet top and the leaf to that they line up perfectly. Before I cut into the good stuff I test it out on a piece of scrap to see that I have the depth set correctly. Once the pocket fits the hinge properly, I’m ready to move on to the cabinet parts.

After all the hinges are installed and tweaked to proper alignment, the cabinet is almost done. All that remains is to install the knobs. And that completes the construction of Dan’s cabinet. In these photos there is no finish on the cabinet, it's just the raw walnut. Here’s a look at the back side.

It is at this point that we stop and wait for the second payment to be made (per posted policies).

Now I have to e-mail Dan and make sure he knows where we are on his project. And that will do it for today.

Doug-Bob