Shaker Chimney Cabinet - Part 6 the front doors

 With the long vertical face frames attached, I basically have three major operations left - the cabinet doors, the drawers, the top.  On projects, where there are choices for the order of operations, I prefer to do the harder stuff first.  Of these three options that would be the doors for me.  On the mini ATC chest I made earlier this year (or was it last year .... it all blurrs), I had made a frame and panel door for the top of the chest.  As such, I was comfortable with the process.  Mostly I need to make sure the wood is square and twist free.  As such, I really took my time doing this.

I cut mortises first then tenons and fit the tenons to the mortise.   Not sure if everyone does the order of operations like this or not or if there is some pins vs. tails approach.  I don't think there is but honestly, I try hard to avoid reading those kinds of debates much.  I'd rather woodwork and try various ways to do something and learn when one way might be more applicable than another.

I used my tabletop mortiser and then cut the tenons by hand and got a good fit.  Before I could fully insert the tenons, I ran the grooves with my small plough plane.  I really like this tool and after this project I think I finally feel confident that I can make good grooves.  It took a while to get there but I think I finally feel good about that skill.  

The one error I made was cutting off the haunch on my tenons.  Grrrr.  Not the end of the world.  Filled the gap with plugs and then made flush.  Unless you are looking for it, it won't be noticed.

Cut the cherry plywood and used continuous grain from top to bottom pannels.  The glue up was uneventful.  Given the break out issue I had in the back, I was mindful of being sensitive during this glue.  Only minimal hand planing was needed to get the surfaces flush.  I was careful in using my reference faces and this really helped.

Since I had spent a lot of time on layout, there was only minimal fitting I needed to do after I cut the horns off.  I like using horns on frames and panels as it is traditional and helps minimize the chance for end grain blow out.  The hinges were done by hand and it was reasonably uneventful.  Bought both the hinges and cherry knobs from Horton brasses.  Knob installations was uneventful as well.  Before cutting in the final piece, I did try a scrap just to make sure I was getting the proper fit on the hole.  Closing in on getting the woodworking done.  Now, onto making drawers.