Acornhouseworkshop

As I mentioned in the previous post, I am making a new cabinet to house my planes, along with a rust inhibitor. I decided, since this was just for the shop, to use poplar for most of the stock. (I can’t really justify using more expensive wood for shop storage. Mebbe if I was one of them thar teleovision woodworker’s and needed everythin to look purty…) This was also another chance to get some dovetail practise, since I hadn’t done any in about a year.

After measuring ALL of my planes, I figured out a layout that would give every plane its own compartment, while taking up the least amount of overall space. The inner walls/dividers were 1/2″ resawn poplar, dadoed in. I am having the planes lean back towards the back, with a simple stop in the front; no need for any other elaborate fastening systems. This will also allow me to transport them lying flat, if the need ever arises. One of the main determinants of the case’s width, was the big #608 jointer plane, which I wanted on the bottom, so I didn’t have to lift that monster over and over.

After milling, jointing, dadoing, assembling, glueing and clamping, I test loaded the planes in to check the fit. All of the stops were positioned according to the angle each plane needed to clear the front. Then, I had to put that aside to work on the earring box build. While working on that I noticed that all was not right in the plane cabinet. While I had made the carcase nice and strong, I hadn’t allowed for the weight of all the planes on the shelf/divider material. OOPS! The lowest shelf above the jointer plane had developed a serious sag, opening up most of the dado joints.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

There was no way to change the design now, if I wanted to keep the #608 IN the case, protected from the damp. So, after testing how I could slide the plane in and out, I made up a couple of braces, one in back on the left, and one in front on the right that the jointer would slip behind. This provided ample support for the upper shelves and closed up (mostly) the gaps. It also gives me another compartment for something.

Ah, the weight of the world can be a heavy burden sometimes.

This entry was posted on August 24, 2010 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Acorn House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.