Wall Cabinet: Hinges

I'm close to completing construction on the wall cabinet. I spent most of today (it's Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, so no work) in my shop working on the hinge mortises.

Hinge mortises are one of those things which I do by hand. One of these years I may create a jig to do these with my router, but for now I'm content to do them by hand. I'd started them last weekend (I think). I finished up the mortises on the doors today. You may notice a very small sliver of wood at the back of the mortise in the picture. To prevent this from blowing out I clamped a piece of scrap to that edge to back it up while I was cutting.

I also spent a fair amount of time resharpening my chisel during the cutting of the mortises. The maple that the door frames are made of is hard and dulls the chisel pretty quickly.

After finishing the mortises in the doors I turned my attention to the case, and realized that I needed to plug the holes from the pocket screws that attach the sides to the top, because the hinge mortises extend into that area a small amount. So I glued in the plugs - I already had the maple plugs on hand.

Since I had to wait for the glue to set, I then spent a little time on the stops for the doors. And then there was a small shop accident. While retrieving a clamp from the router table I tripped (not sure if I tripped on the router table or my own feet). I landed on my knee and shoulder on the recently padded floor. See here for the impetus for the padding. The padding helped but I've still got a really unhappy knee. The shoulder doesn't seem too sore. As a result I spent quite a bit of time in commune with an ice pack.

I did make it back into the shop, after promising Amy that I would be extra super careful. I trimmed and sanded the plugs and finished the mortises on the case for one of the doors. I should be able to complete the mortises for the other door on my next trip to the shop. Then I'll be able to determine if any more trimming is needed on the doors. The last bits of construction will be to attach the stop/latch to the inside center of the top and attach the knobs. Then it's on to finishing.