Cupboard project: making progress

Today I worked a while on the cupboard. Setting the lock on the door is nerve-wracking for me. I don’t do it enough, so each time I work a bit tentatively. It’s one step that I always take the time to cut a test run in a piece of scrap that’s the same thickness of the actual door. This time I did two. And it was worth it. I start with the keyhole - and to locate that I color the posts on the lock that are slightly protruding on the face that mounts on the inside of the door. Then press the lock in place and the color transfers to the door stile. The hole that starts the keyhole is centered between those two marks.

Boring, chopping with a chisel then I get out a file, a tool I rarely use for woodworking, to fine-tune the way the key fits. A lot of back & forth, testing & trimming until I get the fit I want. Not too sloppy, but loose enough to slide in easily.

The key has to fit through the door all the way into the lock until it bottoms out on the lock’s back plate. Sometimes that means opening up the hole in the door a bit. This is what I was looking for. Took some back & forth.

Then nail it in place (top photo) and hope it doesn’t shift during the nailing. The tolerance is very close - more so in this case because of the applied molding that wants to steer clear of the key as it turns. After some testing and measuring & re-measuring I bored pilot holes through the outermost molding then sprigged that in place with headless iron brads. I nailed to to the rails - it feels tight enough. If later I decide it needs more I’ll nail it to the stiles as well.

I got the outer and middle frames in place - the innermost one has a block that fits inside it and because I haven’t decided how I’m going to decorate that innermost block, I held off on installing that third frame for now. The stiles get applied turnings- but it’s that blank side panel staring me in the face that got my attention.

It has applied moldings and turnings coming its way. There’s three of these arches across the top of the panel.

This is part of the bottom:

I started mapping it out.

This is one area where I go to the bother of drawing things out. The first bits I’ll prep will be the oak arches across the tops of the two side panels. But not today…I know better than to start turned work near the end of the day.