|
This island includes a concealed trash can and a flap door on one end through which trash is deposited. This door is trickier than it may appear.
 First we cut the door blank to rough dimensions -- slightly over sized. Then my shop assistant and I plane the blank faces smooth and to the proper thickness. Next we trim the finished blank to proper size and square on the table saw.
 Then we cut a piano hinge to the proper length, lay out the screw hole locations, and drill pilot holes for the screws.
 It's chilly in here today and my assistant requires frequent trips to sit in front of the little space heater in her "break area".
 Once the hinge is installed on the door, we tack it in place in the opening with just a couple of screws and check for fit and operation. Again we get out the block plane and shave it down as needed so that it swings freely, but without excessive gaps.
 Because the barrel of the hinge is along the inside face of the door, the flap does not want to hang straight down, but cants inward at the bottom. To equalize the weight distribution and get the door to hang properly, we attach a wooden counter-weight to the lower part of the inside face. We use carpet tape for temporary attatchment and adjust it until the size and weight are just right to get the door flap to hang properly when at rest. The door is in the Left end in this picture.
 Now we must think about drawer fronts -- only one of which is a real drawer front, the rest are false fronts installed over the stiffener panels.
These pieces are tall enough that we will not get them out of a single board, we will have to glue two together. We could glue several pieces together into a panel then cut the panel into pieces the right height, but that would mean having glue joints scattered randomly around the drawer fronts. I prefer to keep the joint centered, so that the handle will hide much of it -- just in case the grain matching doesn't work out as well as I hope. This means a little more waste, but produces a better looking panel.
So we begin by cutting boards into pieces that are a half inch longer than the drawer fronts will be wide. Then we surface plane them, and rip saw the edges.
Next we match up the pieces for best appearance and highest stability, mark them so we will get them back this way, and joint the mating edges for gluing.
These billets will sit in clamps overnight.
|
