Product Description

My sister Marsha – keeper for the family artifacts – sent me a box from our grandmother Twyla’s trunk. It contained quilting scraps, patterns, pages from old (circa 1940) magazines, and templates.

One template – a circular disc – was singular: centered was the picture of a demure young woman in half profile.

Why had my grandmother carefully cut this from something keeping the woman’s face centered?

You theories are solicited.

Anyway, I decided that these artifacts deserved a display cabinet with the mysterious woman’s profile prominent.

Two doors with a center roundel on the left door behind which I would somehow array the disc.

The case was straightforward: edge-banded 3/4” ply joined with pocket hole screws.

So much for the easy part.

The chief challenge of the two doors was the joinery. Would 1/8” stub tenons be sufficient? Can I enhance the structural stability by using Gorilla Glue to adhere the glass into the frame kerfs?

I have had good success gluing glass to wood, but as you may know, Gorilla Glue foams as it cures. This foam is simple enough to scrap clear at a joint edge, but damnably difficult to clean away from the narrow gaps between the glass and the frame kerf.

Trying a new method, I diluted the glue with acetone, loaded a tiny syringe and tried to carefully minimize the glue application at the bottoms of the kerfs.

A little Gorilla Glue goes a long way.

This technique was, in the main, successful. I was a bit heavy in some places which resulted in glue spew and the requisite &#!*&!!%^**ing getting it off.

Now: the hinge mortises. I used a Rocker mortise jig. This jig is more attuned to larger cabinets – The Twyla is only about 65 x 60 cm.

Worse, the cutting edges of the pattern bit supplied with the jig are about a millimeter smaller than the bearing which follows the opening of the jig, which is supposed to mirror the footprint of the hinge. Oi!

But we soldier on, hinge mortises imperfect and as it turned out too deep; a fact discovered in the final fitting.

Of poplar with purpleheart trim and a clear urethane finish.