Vanity Basin Unit
Alan Holtham's freestanding unit is designed to take a modern basin that just sits on the worktop, Victorian washstand style
1.The raw material for the framework is rough-sawn European oak that has been kiln dried to a moisture content of around 12% and then conditioned inside the heated workshop for about two months
This unit concludes my mini bathroom series and, like the other pieces, it is constructed from a mixture of solid oak timber and oak-faced blockboard.
The dimensions are obviously dependent on the size of the bowl, and the brief in this case was that there must be doors below to hide the plumbing, rather than open shelves, which tends to be the current fashion.
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Glossary
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- Bandsaw
Glossary
Bandsaw
Bandsaws have a relatively small footprint and are often the first choice of machine as they can perform a variety of operations. A good quality machine accurately adjusted, with sharp blades can do rip cutting including deep ripping or even thick veneers, it can cut tenons for joints and various awkward shapes including tight curves if a narrow blade is fitted. For solid timber it is usual to fit skip tooth blades, these have a gap between each tooth thus allowing waste to clear quickly. For thin ply or MDF a fine tooth blade is needed.
- Planer Thicknesser
Glossary
Planer Thicknesser
Most planers are two machines in one, a planer for machining smooth accurate surfaces and a thicknesser underneath, which machines boards parallel and smooth. Different machines have slightly different methods or swapping between functions but they all give the same kind of finished output. The planer tables need to be machined flat and smooth and the fence must also be flat and accurately set in order to produce flat reliable surfaces on timber before it can then be fed through the thicknesser. 'Overhand' planing is done by hand feeding, whereas thicknessing is powered.
- Router
Glossary
Router
Most routers are plunge type, which means the motor body is plunged to allow the cutter to enter the workpiece and make the cut. There are a few fixed body types which are normally pushed into the work from the end of the workpiece as the cutter is already projecting beneath the baseplate. Routers use special high-speed carefully balanced motors that drive a spindle in which a collet is fitted at the bottom end. The spindle runs in special high-speed bearings and the collet can be interchanged depending on what cutter shank size is in use. A collet is different from a chuck in that it can only hold a specific shank diameter whereas a chuck can be adjusted to suit any diameter within its range. The collet is the most critical part and the best machines have much better more reliable collets. This is important as cutting speeds can be as high as 27,000 rpm depending on the cutter type and size. Routers work best with some means of guidance such as a fence or guide bush.
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top tips
- The ply in the door fram panels should be a reasonably tight fit so it helps to just lightly chamfer off the back edge with a sandpaper block to help you get it started in the groove.
- I leave any glue squeeze-out to dry and then chisel it off later, rather than wiping it away with a damp cloth, as is often recommended.
- If you're cutting a lot of veneered boards it might be worth investing in a circular saw with a pre-scoring blade. This tiny blade rotates in the opposite direction to the main blade and slices through the veneer ahead of the cut to leave a perfect finish on both faces.
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