Soul of Bespoke Cabinet Furniture Artistry

Soul of Bespoke Cabinet Furniture Artistry Benjamin works on both his own designs and client commissions.

Benjamin crafts unique cabinetry, furniture, jewellery, boxes, home wares and stand alone artworks in his small workshop studio in Healesville, Victoria, Australia.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Gold leaf drawer box bases 1 and 2 out of t...
02/06/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Gold leaf drawer box bases 1 and 2 out of the clamp jigs. Ready to have the outside boarder edge lightly trimmed before Wenge edgings added.

The last of the tweak cutting done for the painters case drawer box internal panel bases 1 and 2 which they are now in the clamp jigs. Also drawer box base panel no 3 is cut and glued up in the clamp up jig.

Now working on drawer box bases 3 and 4 for the gold leaf case soon after this the painters removeable tool tray base.

Heaps going on but making more progress.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for All the clamp up jigs are finished. I made ...
30/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

All the clamp up jigs are finished. I made a few extra sizes to speed up the gluing process. ( not shown on camera). I removed the clamp wedges from the previous clamp up jigs for the drawer box cavity frames.

Moving my way through the final cutting stages of the internal panels for the drawer box bases. Drawer box 1 and 2 internal panels for the base frames are cut for the gold leaf case and are now glued up. Ill remove these from the clamps next week, remove tape and light excess glue clean up. Using the spacer and adjustable screw approach means I can make 0.1mm or less cutting adjustments.

I just have a little bit of tweaking but I've almost fin cutting the internal base panels for drawer box 1 and 2 for the painters case. These will get glued up next week.

I decided to have the New Guinea Rosewood faces facing up in the clamp up approach. Reason so I can make sure all the gaps are closing up plus effectively remove the glue excess. Most of the glue excess on the base sections will go onto the tape. Worst sections of step ( which actually decreased when glue was added was ranging from 0.3 to 0.7mm ). In a few areas there was a tiny bit of panel flex which is why I added the mdf cauls at the top. I actually clamped one of the clamp frames to a torsion box panel because I found the panel had a bow in it which was transferring to the base panel frame. All flat now :).

This process is quite slow for cutting the panels but its ensuring I'm getting effective results within the 0.1mm range. Construction steps like this are heavily crucial. Slightly out creates a horrible ineffective glue up. So slow is fast.

Once all the drawer box base frames are glued up ill need to lightly trim the outside edges. ( potential panel frame flex) and add the wenge edgings. Same approach that I did for the drawer box cavity frames. Luckily I can use the already made trim table saw jigs just with different adjustable fences/ spacers.

Alot going on but Im making more progress.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Machining spline channels into the internal...
28/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Machining spline channels into the internal panels for the drawer box / tool tray bases.

I machined the panels with the New Guinea Rosewood face down as the housing shoulder needs to match with the frame rails/ stiles. ( 1.9mm). I started with a shoulder of 2mm. Machined all the housings than adjusted by 0.1mm as splines were abit tight. Cutter says its 2mm but its more like 2.2mm

I kept the offcuts to use a test pieces.

Each frame I had to adjust the splines/ some stiles. Just abit of tweak sanding here and there. One of the trouble shooting issues I mentioned in the last post was that some of the oak splines were slightly tilted. ( I stopped clamping the splines down when I found some were tilting. It was only a few). This meant I checked every panel / frame parts ensuring everything sat flat with no potential tilt.

Im going to clamp these panels up with the New Guinea Rosewood faces facing down. If any spline sections are slighly loose everything will drop down thus creating a flat surface. Ill lightly sand these through the drum sander at 120 grit. ( after scraping away any epoxy excess. ) ill use clamp cauls to ensure everything stays flat while glue cures.

Im going to use the clamp up approach I used for the drawer box cavity frames. Ill layer the base with baking paper though this time. Ill grab the lock wedges from the other clamp jig platforms. Saving time in making new ones.

Ive just machined up the clamp station base plates. Ill need to machine another panel ( acts as the final size of base panel frame) which will be used to press up the clamp wedges to before screwing in. ( gets clamp wedges in the correct squared / parallel position. )

Once the jigs are completed ill cut the panels to their final size using the new micro adjustment jig for the table saw and drop saw. Ill do dry runs in the clamp jigs and adjust panels accordingly if needing to. I also need to cut the middle stiles / splines to their final length.

Heaps going on but making more progress.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for All the drawer box / tool tray cavity frame...
26/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

All the drawer box / tool tray cavity frames have their outer wenge edgings flush trimmed. Next up will be final trimming/ light level sand. After that joinery time for the case floating tenon mortise connections, drawer box magnet catch housings, guide / rail connection spline housing, front cavity edging spline housings, back case stile housing and drawer box stop housings.

Ill put these on temporary hold and get a wriggle on with the drawer box base construction. Ill jump back onto the drawer box cavity frames while the drawer box bases are being glued up/ edging glue up.

So I adjusted the middle floating tenon mortise in the front/ back rails for the middle stiles. This is the base frame that wraps around the internal panels.

Ive cut most of the internal panels to the machine size I need. ( still need to cut the panels for the tool tray base). So for machine size I mean the panels are over sized by 2mm in length and width. Once I've machined the spline housings ill final trim the panels to their finished sizes. Ill use the trim jigs/ screw micro adjustment on drop saw for this, creeping up to the internal miter lengths of the rails/ stiles. Obviously spline housings made deeper.

The panels sit flush with the outer frame on the top face. ( New Guinea Rosewood ) but there is a step underneath on Black Walnut face. You can see this in last image tech drawing. ( few measurements have changed)

There is a step to accommodate magnet catch lamination plate but also so base frame/ paneling doesn't touch the surface it sits on ( workbench etc) for protection. As these drawer boxes need to come out of the carry cases and be used as mini tool trays.

Ill talk more about the next construction steps plus reasons for design of these drawer box bases / some trouble shooting issues in next post I know I'm going to run into.

Heaps going on but making more progress.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Cutting the last of the miters for the Weng...
23/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Cutting the last of the miters for the Wenge edgings for the left and right side sections for the drawer box/ tool tray cavity frames.

After trimming the edgings flush these will go back onto the skim trim jigs on the table saw plus drop saw to bring them to their final dimension. I find on this scale there can be the tinest what seems like a bow after clamping. ( either slight differences in clamp pressure or slight differences in edging thickness). On large projects this is nothing to worry about just on this scale / specifications I have I have to be aware of this and prepare for it.

Now working on adjusting middle stile mortises for the drawer box base frames on the front and back rails. ( I mentioned this in a previous post. They are spot on now with no slight step)

Once these are assembled these parts will also be skim trimmed on the table saw jigs ( just make new spacer fence / adjustment spacer) before the outer Wenge edgings are attached. I still need to cut the internal panels to size and machine in spline housings.

Trimming the Wenge edgings flush on the cavity frames. Using the same flush trim jigs as before.

Heaps going on but making more progress.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Cutting the 2nd miter stage for the first l...
23/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Cutting the 2nd miter stage for the first lot of wenge edgings that get glued to the drawer box cavity/ tool tray frames.

I made a long fence for the Dewalt drop saw to cut the Wenge edge miters. Nothing wrong with the Kapex I've just got it bang on 90 degs and dont want to adjust the set up so ill temporarily leave the Dewalt at 45 as I have a fair amount of mitered edgings to cut.

I glue the front and back Wenge edgings on first before cutting the last miter for the left and right side edgings / gluing on.

I used my longer Quick Grip clamps as my other clamps were creating too much flex to the frames. ( the frames are only just sitting slightly over 8mm thick ). I also used ply caul bars to limit damage to edgings.

After curing ill attach the side Wenge edgings.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Behind on posting so more will follow strai...
23/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Behind on posting so more will follow straight after this.

Skim trim to the drawer box/ tool tray cavity frames for both cases. ( only taking off about 0.2 to 0.3mm ) on each side just to get a straight / square edges before adding on wenge edgings.

First was to clean up both front / back edges on the trim saw jigs. I moved away from the orginal method of micro screws and just used drum sanded spaces for each new cut ( cut 1 convex side than cut 2 concave. As some frames had a slight pressure warp from clamp jig). If the jig was slightly out I added some masking tape ( acts as a 0.1mm packer )

After the trim clean up on the table saw I trimmed the ends on the drop saw using a freshly sharpened blade. I used a feeler guage spacer of 0.25mm at the screw stop when needing to set up for both cuts. Some of the frames were the tinest out of square from the clamp up but all smicko now.

Next up cutting the last of the miters for the wenge edgings and gluing them to the frames.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Drawer box cavity frames glued up for both ...
16/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Drawer box cavity frames glued up for both cases. Now to move onto cleaning glue excess after taking them out of the clamps and working on the skim table saw jigs before cutting the wenge edging miters and gluing them to the frames.

Most of the frames are pretty good inregards to slight pressure warp. The worst is the painters tool tray cavity frame with a warp of about 0.3mm. Though this didn't really help when the long rails had a slight warp in them ( edge direction wise) from the beginning. No biggie once corrected you will barely notice.

A few of the last photos will show where these frame placements will be within the cases.

The reason for the added middle stiles for most of the frames is to keep them more square but also they will act as part of the rib cage system for the cases keeping them stronger.

After wenge edgings are glued to frames / trimmed next up will be machining the magnet catch housings, installing exposed lock pins through the middle still floating tenon connection points and machining the front drawer box cavity opening edge spline housings.

Ill also be working back on the drawer box bases. This will include tweaking middle frame mortises, cutting panels to size and machining in spline housings. Also I might have to go the same assembly route as the drawer box cavity frames as I'll need to start planning that with more lock wedges/ base plates. Ill test one first before committing to the rest.

Heaps going on but more progress.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Gluing up more drawer box cavity frames for...
14/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Gluing up more drawer box cavity frames for both the carry cases. As well as making more frame clamp stations.

I glued up the first panel frame. I made sure the good side is facing up so I can clean epoxy squeeze out easily with acetone. Any glue squeeze out on other side ill clean with a sharp chisel tomorrow. I find techni glue slow cure epoxy you can easily remove unwanted squeeze out after 24 hours with a sharp chisel but dont leave it longer than this as it will eventually go rock hard. Fast cure different story.

The previous frame I clamped up the other day has a bow in it which I was aware this would happen as the long rails were slightly bowed. I made sure both bows were running in the same direction. This wont matter as the frames will pull in when connecting into side/ division panels plus connection point into back case stile plus backing screws.

There was also a very small amount of pressure warp on the rails from clamping. About 0.15mm after checking with the feeler guages. Ill place these frames on a trim sled for the table saw with micro adjustment screws to just skim the edges so the outside edges are running parallel before I glue the wenge edgings to the frames. Reason for a sled instead of against saw fence is because I have greater control with micro adjustment. I only want to lightly skim edges. Ill skim the frames all at once after assembly. If there is a convex bow cut that first.

Just did a dry run for some of the next lot of frames which ill glue up tomorrow. Alot of back and forth tweaks. Especially with the cavity frame for the painters case top removable tool tray.

Heaps going on. Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for First drawer box cavity frame glued up afte...
12/05/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

First drawer box cavity frame glued up after jig/ wedges were modified. Glue choice techni glue epoxy.

In one of the photos I'm using a tooth pick to show the scale I'm working with.

I cut a panel the exact size of the frame and use it as a starting point for the lock wedge placements.

Check squareness by measuring both diagonals ( both internal and external points) and using the 3, 4, 5 method in corner. Plus measuring both sides of length and both sides of width. I do use the tiny engineer square in the internal part of the frame but don't heavily go off it encase there was a slight dip from sanding or a very slight flex in frame ( if there is would be minimal)

Next up making the rest of the clamp jig stations for the other different sized drawer box cavity frames. One of these steps required making more lock wedges.

Next up gluing up more frames, ( after doing final cut of middle stile and dry runs ) , cutting / gluing down the external wenge edges to the ready frames and making more jig clamp stations.

Stay tuned for further updates

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