All the woodworking is done on the hardware cabinet formerly know as the 'toolbox'. I got 5 coats of shellac on it and I had to re do the dividers on one drawer. That is behind me now and looking ahead, I have to stuff 10 pounds of hardware crap into a 5 pound test box.
some of the hardware from one of 4 boxes
Almost all of what is on the top is the hardware I bought to make the original toolbox. I changed my mind on just about everything there and I have 2 and 3 of the same parts in different sizes or configurations. It won't go to waste and I'm sure I'll use it on some future project. I might even make the toolbox again and do it right this time.
starting loading it up
This hardware cabinet is mostly for my clock stuff. The big bottom drawer will hold my collection of quartz movements. I don't know how many of the other drawers I'll need for the other clock parts I have.
new home of the hardware cabinet
Most of the crap at the bottom is my clock parts collection.
this drawer is being scrapped and new dividers made
There is too much open real estate in this drawer. Just from stuffing things in the other drawers I know that I have to divide this up like the one to the left of it.
have two small cross dividers
These fit but I need one more. Since I need the third one to be a dead nuts match, I tossed these aside. I made 3 new ones so I'll know they will all match.
it starts here Frank
My friend Frank said he didn't understand how I did this so here is the how. The dividers are a 16th under an inch wide. I set the saw blade to be exactly 2 frog hairs over the 1/2" set block. This way the half laps will clear each other when I slide them together.
my first one is toast
This cross divider is one frog hair too short. I want this to be a tight, snug fit.
got it
These fit but it is snug and they bent slightly which is what I want for a fit at this point.
dividing the long divider into four equal parts
I start by using one of the cross dividers to mark the end.
stepping off with dividers
I eyeballed what I thought was a fourth of the length and placing the left leg on my pencil line, I stepped off going to the right.
close
The space between the right leg and edge I have to divide into 4 and increase the spread of the legs 1/4 of that. I want the right leg to end on the right edge.
two more tries and I got it.
I marked the right leg on each step as I went from the left to the right. The mark is the right side of the 1/8" slot for the half lap. If I mark the left side edge with the cross divider and step off right to left, I'll have the left side of the slot.
ready to make slots
I don't need both sides of the slot mortise but if you did it is easy to mark. This layout applies to any width of a slot/dado/groove along with however many spaces you need to be equally spaced. No math involved.
used a centering rule for the cross dividers
marked one end of the dividers
sawed the slots first and then planed the long divider to fit
I shoot for having the divider self supporting. Since I only had one long divider it didn't matter which end I shaved to get this fit. If I had two or more, than it would matter. On more then one I would only shave the same amount on each and from the same end on all of them.
sawed the center slots first and then fitted them
These I planed off on the same end. This way if my slot isn't exactly dead nuts, by shaving all from the same end it will make all them line up the same.
you can't argue with this fit
in it's new home
special box
After 2 months of a lot of failures for various reasons I finally made a hand sawn dovetail box. It is clunky looking but it was my first one to fit without any gaps between the tails and pins. I was having a lot of problems with the half pins and ugly gaping spaces in my tails in pins.
what I used
I made a couple of more boxes with this saw and the guide and I was able to repeat what I did with box #1. From here I slowly starting using just the saw without the angle guide because I wanted to make dovetail boxes by hand. Without any sawing aids or jigs or any kind. I went through the same steps with a handsaw that I did with this saw and guide. Half pins and tails/pins with varying degrees of gaps. Over several months the gaps diminished to almost nothing. I made a lot of boxes over the past few years and I now consider myself to be a pretty good beginner.
this will become just a knob box
I have all kinds of crap in here besides knobs. Having just one thing in this box will help me remember what and where I have things.
shelf pin boxes
I have two styles of shelf pins because I reordered the wrong ones the first and second time. Each one has a drill bit for the shelf pin sleeve and one for the pin. I also waxed these after I put on a billion coats of shellac. The shellac was a good idea the wax wasn't. These two boxes are so damn slippery that they slide like crazy when I handle them. I can't tell how many times I've done the bounce test with them.
drawer slide buttons
I knew I had these but I didn't know the where. Now I do. I'll be transferring these from here to the new hardware cabinet.
I have a few spots left to fill
the other 4 drawers
The main goal I had was to get all of my clock stuff in this cabinet and I did. I actually had a lot of space left over that I didn't think I would have. The bottom drawer will only be used for clocks and clock stuff. The rest of the drawers are for hardware and special screws etc etc.
my main hardware storage
My last job threw these away. They cost the company a lot of money. The big drawers on the bottom went for over $40 each. I only got one set out four the company had. I learned about them tossing these too late. I saved what I could.
I have a few empty ones
4 of them are for box nails. I miss the old hardware stores with the nail bins and being able to buy nails by the pound. I also hate buying nails at Lowes and Home Depot in those little boxes.
The blue cabinet is my take on a Paul Sellers class project. I made one like he did in the videos and then I made this one with a door. Nobody wants it and I don't have any wall space to hang it in my shop. It's been living here for a couple of years now.
fixing the iron storage
I used my 1/8" chisel as a scraper to remove enough wood to get 3 irons to fit. I kept at it until the 3 irons that came with the plane fit and the lid opened and closed without hitting or binding on them.
lids clears them going both ways
I still have more stuffing of crap into the hardware cabinet to do. What I can't get in there will go in the plastic storage bins behind the drill press. All that is on hold because Amanda just came home with her friend who has a 3 year old girl and a 1 year old baby boy. Amanda was getting some practice in with babies and I joined them to get some too. It's been a very long time since I have been around kids this young.
accidental woodworker
trivia corner
What american industry introduced the 5 day, 40 hour workweek ?
answer - the steel industry in 1923. Henry Ford did it in 1926