# Greene and Greene media cabinet



## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

I'm starting a project to make a small (1m wide apx) media cabinet to house the Hi-Fi and telly decoder with the TV on top. Inspired by recent articles in FWW, I'm going for a Greene and Greene style in oak with the classic pegged finger joints, cloud lifts etc. No drawings I could post here, I dont have the patience to do CAD, I work from crude pencil sketches with construction notes. 










It will have a finger jointed base frame, frame and panel sides and a face frame with two hinged, glazed doors at the front plus a solid top with oversize breadboard ends.

Made a start yesterday by milling up some of the parts, notably the base frame and the components for the face frame in some nice quarter sawn oak, plus it's equivalent at the back (butt frame ?). Then got stuck into cutting the finger joints for the base frame. A recent article in FWW suggests a matching roundover router bit and bearing guided trimmer for the finger profile to create the interlocking curves. 

http://www.finewoodworking.com/woodworking-plans/article/green-and-greene-blanket-chest.aspx

I dont have a small enough bearing guided trimmer, so I drilled the inside corners of the fingers and cut up to the holes with the band saw, then rounded over the edges with a matching radius cutter in the router. Seems to work OK.


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## Travico (Dec 25, 2012)

I can say that those FINGER JOINTS look really nice!! This should be a good build to watch.


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## Masterjer (Nov 6, 2012)

The G&G I hers look really nice! I look forward to watching this build progress.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*A bit more progress*

Bit of progress these last couple of days despite numerous distractions, notably problems with my ancient 4x4 - more of that another time.

Finished preping the frame parts for the frame and panel sides and cut most of the mortices and tenons. Ground to halt when the bit in the hollow chisel morticer snapped off.   
New ones on order ! 










I think I will glue only the bottom third or so of the rather wide tenon (bottom of the frame) to allow the upper edge to move if it wants to. 

Next job is to cut the grooves for the panels, on the TS I think.

After that it's the panels - I've found a couple of huge oak boards 2.5m by around 500mm width and 20mm thick in the stock I brought with me from the previous house, I'd forgotten I had them. They should serve very well for the panels.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

Not had much free time to work on this, but made the two end panels today and got the first one glued up. From what I could find on line, Greene and Greene didnt use raised panels much - mainly solid or flat floating panels as here.










I was rather pleased with the ray fleck in the panel : 










...and with the little low angle block plane I sneaked in on the order for a replacement mortice chisel !


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## vcsawduster (Sep 1, 2012)

Greene and greene is my favorite style of furniture. I had the pleasure of attending Darrell Peart's details class when he was at William Ng's school of woodworking several years back. It was his methods that I used to build my own greene and greene several months ago. I love what I see so far. The details can't be rushed. Take your time. Remember, this piece will be around for many years to come.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

vcsawduster said:


> Greene and greene is my favorite style of furniture. I had the pleasure of attending Darrell Peart's details class when he was at William Ng's school of woodworking several years back. It was his methods that I used to build my own greene and greene several months ago. I love what I see so far. The details can't be rushed. Take your time. Remember, this piece will be around for many years to come.


How right you are - I have a couple of pieces in the house that I compromised in a rush to finish them and I can never see them without thinking about the disguised errors they contain. I'm slowly learning not to compromise, but it's sometimes hard !


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

vcsawduster said:


> Greene and greene is my favorite style of furniture. I had the pleasure of attending Darrell Peart's details class when he was at William Ng's school of woodworking several years back. It was his methods that I used to build my own greene and greene several months ago. I love what I see so far. The details can't be rushed. Take your time. Remember, this piece will be around for many years to come.


PS - I've just viewed your piece posted nov 2014, terrific ! If I can do half as well I'll be pleased.


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## vcsawduster (Sep 1, 2012)

Chataigner said:


> PS - I've just viewed your piece posted nov 2014, terrific ! If I can do half as well I'll be pleased.


Thank you. That was the result if about five months worth of evenings and weekends. 106 individual pieces of ebony were required. There times that I Wanted to cut the number down on Ebony but I'm glad I didn't the end result is what I was after


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

Once in a while you do something of such mind numbing stupidity that you wonder if you should be handling sharp objects... or at least I do.

When my new set of hollow chisel mortice cutters arrived, it contained a 10mm cutter, a size I had not had previously. I'd used 8mm for the frame and panel ends of the media cabinet 'cos it was nearer to the ideal size than the 12mm which was the next size up that I had. However, when I started to cut the mortices for the second end, I thought, why not use the 10mm, it's a better size for the job, so I did. Worked beautifully, very pleased with the cutters.

Now to cut the tenons... Ah, yes, I'd already cut the tenons while I was waiting for the mortice cutter to arrive hadn't I - at 8mm of course.   

Not enough of the original board left, so remaking the parts is not really an option, the match would not be good. Sooooo, spent an hour or two resawing some offcuts into 1.5mm thick veneers and gluing them on to the tenons. Tomorrow I'll recut the tenons at 10mm.

In the meantime I think a whisky is in order.


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## Smith Brother (Dec 9, 2012)

I have ALWAYS liked PRONOUNCED JOINTS, like in post # 1. 

Looking good,

Dale in Indy


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*Greene and Greene media cabinet - doors made*

Made the doors yesterday. These will be glazed, so just frames, but with shaped parts. 










I book matched the central pair of stiles, hopefully it will add something when the finish is applied. Bit of glue squeeze out to deal with I see...










The construction is a bit unusual in that I wanted the top rails to meet in the middle so as to accentuate the cloud lift effect. This meant cutting tenons on one end of the part and a mortice on the other. No real problem except for getting the shoulders square on the tenon since the part is tapered, so there is only one reference face. Solved that by fitting a temporary guide on the crosscut sled parallel to the main quide so that the stile could be turned over and referenced off the back while still using the same end stop to keep the shoulder position. You have to hold the part against the pressure from the saw but its not too difficult. 










I suppose I could have cut the tenon before shaping the stile, but this worked really well.

Taking the stiles to the edge of the door is not conventional construction, but I seem to recall Woodbloke doing something similar to highlight grain. The doors are quite small and light, so I dont imagine there will be any stability issues.


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## vcsawduster (Sep 1, 2012)

Chataigner said:


> Made the doors yesterday. These will be glazed, so just frames, but with shaped parts.
> 
> I book matched the central pair of stiles, hopefully it will add something when the finish is applied. Bit of glue squeeze out to deal with I see...
> 
> ...


Great idea.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*Case assembled...*

Another major step today, case ends and face and back frames assembled, plinth assembled and the two fitted together. 










Plinth was assembled with dowels punched down below the surface to leave room for the ebony plugs which will be one of the last jobs.










Alignment is assured by making the cabinet a little bigger than the plinth, then routing a rebate all around the cabinet which sits down a few mm into the plinth. While doing that I broke into the M&T but it's only a tiny part of the joint, so no real harm done.










Next step is the top.

Also photographed today, the router with its new extraction arrangements plumbed into the shopvac that is installed in the attic above the workbench. Auto start wired to a dedicated socket on the end of the bench. Sanding has become a real pleasure, almost nothing escapes. It's a real transformation.


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## Chamfer (Sep 6, 2014)

Fantastic looking!

I wish I had that much light in my shop.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*top panel in glue up*

Prepared the boards for the top over the weekend, this morning I've glued them up. The top is made up of three sections all cut from the same board, with biscuits for alignement, then clamped up on the workbench with cauls across the top to prevent the assembly from bowing. Notice the section of benchtop removed to facilitate clamping - this is a useful feature of the bench design.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*Top assembled*

Cut the tenons and made the oversize breadboard ends for the top, and today assembled it. 

The tenons were cut by defining the shoulders on the TS, then using a router to remove the waste up to the shoulder cut. The router works fine for cutting the cheeks on a long tenon like this (45cm), but I dont trust it to get the shoulders spot on, so hence the TS to define the shoulders.










For the ends, I cut the mortice (8mm) the whole length of the tenon using the router in a router box with an 8mm spiral upcut bit, then drilled for drawbored pegs to pull it all together. The front of the assembly is pegged and glued, the back has a slot in the tenon for the peg to allow the panel to expand and contract and of course is not glued. I offset the holes by 1mm to give the draw bore effect, worked nicely, it's all pulled up tight without too much violence on the pegs. The holes nearest the middle of the top are over the real pegs, the outer ones are just for decoration.










After allowing the glue to dry, I've since cut the square recesses for the ebony plugs. Did this with the 10mm hollow chisel from the morticer, separated from its drill bit and given a good hard whack with a mallet. The cuts are then deepened and cleaned out with a 10mm chisel. It was essential not to use the edge of the cutout to lever out the waste, the edge deforms and the resulting cutout is not pretty at all. Fortunately I tried the idea on some scrap before attacking the top...


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## cps (Jun 21, 2013)

Chataigner said:


> Made the doors yesterday. These will be glazed, so just frames, but with shaped parts.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I like the idea of book matching the stiles....I am working on a project with doors and I think I will do the same.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*Finishing questions...*

I've more or less completed the construction, so now it's finishing time. Decisions to make and I'd appreciate some ideas/reflections...

From what I see by Internet, most G&G furniture is finished a fairly rich mid tone. My cabinet is currently natural, pale oak. I'm wondering how best (or indeed whether) to stain it to achieve the colour of the G&G pieces. 

If I go the route of a water based tint, I will need to raise the grain and resand everything. A spirit tint is not an option I feel as the piece is simply too big to get around before things start to dry and give second coat effects at the joins of wet and dry finish. One possibility is to use Danish oil or Tung oil for a paler, but more natural finish. Not authentic, but perhaps quite attractive, especially since I've gone to quite a lot of trouble to use bookmatched grain in prominent places ? I would top it off with Carnauba wax, I have both clear and tinted wax in stock.

Ideas please....


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## cps (Jun 21, 2013)

Chataigner said:


> I've more or less completed the construction, so now it's finishing time. Decisions to make and I'd appreciate some ideas/reflections...
> 
> From what I see by Internet, most G&G furniture is finished a fairly rich mid tone. My cabinet is currently natural, pale oak. I'm wondering how best (or indeed whether) to stain it to achieve the colour of the G&G pieces.
> 
> ...


Is the oak you are using a red oak? If so, and you use a Danish oil, it will weep for days and you will need to keep wiping it down.


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## vcsawduster (Sep 1, 2012)

Chataigner said:


> Cut the tenons and made the oversize breadboard ends for the top, and today assembled it. The tenons were cut by defining the shoulders on the TS, then using a router to remove the waste up to the shoulder cut. The router works fine for cutting the cheeks on a long tenon like this (45cm), but I dont trust it to get the shoulders spot on, so hence the TS to define the shoulders. For the ends, I cut the mortice (8mm) the whole length of the tenon using the router in a router box with an 8mm spiral upcut bit, then drilled for drawbored pegs to pull it all together. The front of the assembly is pegged and glued, the back has a slot in the tenon for the peg to allow the panel to expand and contract and of course is not glued. I offset the holes by 1mm to give the draw bore effect, worked nicely, it's all pulled up tight without too much violence on the pegs. The holes nearest the middle of the top are over the real pegs, the outer ones are just for decoration. After allowing the glue to dry, I've since cut the square recesses for the ebony plugs. Did this with the 10mm hollow chisel from the morticer, separated from its drill bit and given a good hard whack with a mallet. The cuts are then deepened and cleaned out with a 10mm chisel. It was essential not to use the edge of the cutout to lever out the waste, the edge deforms and the resulting cutout is not pretty at all. Fortunately I tried the idea on some scrap before attacking the top...


Are you adding ebony splines in the bread board? I also used the mortising chisel to cut the square holes to receive the ebony plugs. After number 86 I really started to hate ebony plugs. Keep it up. It's looking great.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

Yes, there will be splines. I'm keeping the ebony to a minimum for cost reasons, but anything forward or upward facing in the original pieces will be there. This will be against a wall, so I'm not going to worry too much about the back.

CPS - no it's white oak, there is not much red oak around in France.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

As far as finish goes, thats a good question. I dont know if id want to go as dark as G&G style stuff usually is. I think that white oak looks pretty good as is, and too heavy of a color i could see messing with the ray flecks. Personally, i like the look of straight white oak, maybe with a coat of BLO to bring out the grain pattern, but i dont thing that would contrast too well with the ebony plucs that are (unfortunately) synonymous with the G&G style. Maybe something in the middle? Something like a Minwax Gunstock stain, give it a brownish look with the lightest reddish hue:









Again, i still like the look of straight oak. Id go a light coating of BLO to bring the grain out, then finish off with some blonde shellac, orange if you want a deeper color


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

epicfail48 said:


> As far as finish goes, thats a good question. I dont know if id want to go as dark as G&G style stuff usually is. I think that white oak looks pretty good as is, and too heavy of a color i could see messing with the ray flecks. Personally, i like the look of straight white oak, maybe with a coat of BLO to bring out the grain pattern, but i dont thing that would contrast too well with the ebony plucs that are (unfortunately) synonymous with the G&G style. Maybe something in the middle? Something like a Minwax Gunstock stain, give it a brownish look with the lightest reddish hue:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The Minwax you suggest is pretty much what I've decided to do. We have different products here in France, but same idea.

I still have a good quantity of the oil based stain I used on this small 3 drawer cabinet. It's low risk 'cos I know how it turns out - this was made nearly 10yrs ago :


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*The ebony has arrived !*

The ebony has arrived ! After stroking it for a minute or two (I've never handled any before) I've ripped one of the long strips to 11 x 11mm x-section 1mm oversize on the bandsaw (smallest kerf I can achieve) then hand planed it to size. One end of the strip then gently domed and sanded to 400 grit, then sawn off to create a plug 10 x 10 by 5mm. You can see it installed here, along with some shavings - cant bear to throw them away !

I was amazed how easy it was to plane, being hyper hard, I expected it to be more difficult. 










More plugs to be fitted at the weekend !


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## jspadaro (Mar 20, 2015)

Chataigner said:


> Another major step today, case ends and face and back frames assembled, plinth assembled and the two fitted together.


I really like how the stiles look. :thumbsup:


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

That's looking great!


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*Ebony details added*

Quite a bit more done today, the two splines at the front cut and fitted and the first of the plugs in the plinth too.



















Got quite a production line going for the plugs. I cut a strip to approx x-section, hand planed it to size, then put in the lathe chuck and turned the pillow end. Finished with 400 grit sanding in the lathe, cut it off with a mini hacksaw blade with the lathe turning (smallest possible kerf to minimise waste) then glued in with cyanoacrylate. I see I've not cleaned off the dusty finger prints all over these before taking the photos, but they clean up really well. Once everything has a finish they should look nice and shiny.

I also see that one of the plugs in the top is not in quite square - we'll see tomorrow if it's still possible to move it !!


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*Nearly done !*

Fitted the last of the plugs in the plinth today and started to polish it using carnauba wax. Very hard work - it really takes some rubbing out. I like the result though.

The shelf to go inside the top of the plinth is just waiting for the stain to dry and I can assemble all the major parts.



















Next question is whether to fit the dummy straps around the plinth that were often used by G&G ?

Also, should there be plugs at the top and bottom of the face frame uprights ?


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

I'm no G & G expert for sure. I just know I like what you've done so far.


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*Alternative decoration*

What do you think of these alternatives : 









The above is as is now.










With pegs in the face frame ends










With pegs in the doors










With pegs in both doors and face frame ends


As for the doors, I'm going to put some obscured glass for now, but the long term idea is stained glass panels à la Tiffany. This would be quite authentic, lots of G&G pieces have stained glass and as it happens a friend just up the road runs stained glass workshops....


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

For now I'm into making the simulated leather straps. Because my plinth is rather chunky (I'd make it thinner if I was doing it again) these have to be quite big. 










Others have made them from the solid I believe, but I dont have material thick enough to hand so I've decided to make them from three pieces mitred together. First cut the cove using the TS slicing on an angle and gradually raising the blade. No problem. Round the outside edges with a hand plane and clean up the concave part with a scraper. Cut the mitres, again on the TS using a tilted blade and a crosscut sled. But how to glue them up ....?

Answer - make a pair at the same time, use my much loved Veritas framing clamps to pull it all together, then cut the assembly in half on the bandsaw. Works well and the finished component does not have any end grain exposed.










An aside for those not into G&G - the origin of these is G&G's idea of fitting leather straps around the plinths of their pieces to stop them scratching floors or table tops etc.


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

I like it with all the pegs. Ingenious idea for the strap.


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## sanchez (Feb 18, 2010)

Chataigner said:


> What do you think of these alternatives :
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Since you're asking for opinions, I like this one the best.

Your project is beautiful. Great job!


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## Chataigner (May 30, 2013)

*More plugs and the handles fitted*

I decided to put small plugs (6mm) in the doors for now, I can always add more, but you cant take them off if you overdo it.










Made some handles from the spare ebony today. I felt screwing into something as brittle as ebony from the back was too risky, so they are made by drilling and fixing from the front with the screws counterbored and plugged. I turned the 6mm tapered plugs on the lathe, interesting challenge !

The catches are rare earth magnets in the top of the doors and the underside of the face frame, they hold the door without it actually touching anything, so there is no click when they pull closed.










The obscured glazing was left over from another project and fitted temporarily as I plan to use stained glass eventually, but have to learn how to do it first.


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## vcsawduster (Sep 1, 2012)

Looks awesome. If your looking for info on greene and greene glass check out "Make a Greene & Greene Wall Cabinet" by Dale Barnard. Great DVD with hours of details.


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## Smith Brother (Dec 9, 2012)

Nice piece, the plugs are neat, one needs to be careful NOT to overdo adding them. 

A good salesman KNOWS when to STOP selling, 

Good work,

Dale in Indy


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

Very nice. I like the glass you used, but I'm sure stained glass will make it pop.


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