I've often heard the last 5% of a build takes the longest to complete and I have to agree. I've slowly been applying finish to the now complete cabinet. Since my finishing process is classic thinned layers of shellac with subtle scraping between every few coats... it can become tedious. However, the beauty of the increasing lustre and the emphasized wood grain overcome the tedious process. The ambrosia maple is coming to life now and I am more than pleased with this selection of wood. Some other final adjustments and fitting have also been completed including the fastening system of the cabinet to the stand. Here I simply use a series of dowel pins which serve to both align the cabinet to the stand and to keep them attached together. This also allows the cabinet to be separated from the stand quite easily for movement of the cabinet. I install mechanical fasteners towards the end to combine the cabinet and stand into one unit once it is in its chosen spot.
The cherry is slowly becoming darker, which contrasts well with the cabinet. At this time I am installing the unobtrusive small latch for the right hand door. This will keep the door closed against the small door stop I had previously installed. The contrasting maple interior and ambrosia exterior of the cabinet is a nice touch, something I had never done before. The pale maple interior helps to naturally light the interior. The different interior and exterior woods also remove any monotony which might occur with too much of the same wood.
The interior of the cabinet harmonizes with the top and bottom panels leaving the exterior doors, side panels and back to flaunt the wild and colorful ambrosia graphics. With the doors open, the book-matched ambrosia back panels come to life with the surrounding maple. The cherry drawer fronts harmonize with the stand although the darkening of the cherry will occur at different rates but eventually fairly well match. Next I continue to apply finish with much lighter coats with scraping and polishing afterwards. Some shots of the fairly complete cabinet to the left and above. You can see larger, more detailed images by double-clicking any of these smaller photos. On another note, the crisp fall weather is in the air.. they're calling for some frost overnight. It was hot here only a few days ago.
