St. Peter’s Back Altar – part 6

I picked up a sheet of birch plywood to create a back panel for behind the tabernacle. I set it up in the new CNC and cut out the shape I wanted.

I sanded the edges and clamped it temporarily into place. 

I believe this panel will eventually be painted but until then, the swirly birch grain will look nice.

Next up is the cabinet doors.

First I cut rough blanks for the floating panels in what will be some simple raised panel doors.

Then I cut 2.5″ wide strips to make the frames of the doors.

This profile was cut into the ends of the eight short pieces.

Then I set up the matched bit to cut the groove into the eight long sides as well as the eight short ones.

When both shapes are cut, the ends of the short rails fit perfectly into the groove on the longer sides.

Together they create the frames of the doors.

After the frames are done and I make sure they fit the door openings correctly, I measure the inside opening and add 1/2″ to the height and the width to get the final size for the panels. After cutting the panels to their final size, I can set up the large panel cutting bit and start cutting the floating panels for the doors.

I went with a simple mission style shape to match the simple square edges of the altar.

After sanding all of the rails and panels, I can do a dry-fit.

The entire point to a raised panel door is to leave the large panel floating in the center of the door frame. It will expand and contract with the change of the seasons. I have learned that you need to apply finish to these panels before permanently glueing them into the frames. If you apply finish after the door is assembled, then the center panel shrinks, you can see the line where the finish stops. This effort will prevent that because the entire panel is finished.

Since I don’t have a large spray booth, I went ahead and sprayed the back panels for the arched icon openings as well. May as well get some of the small stuff done while I am spraying anyway.

To prevent the floating panel from rattling around in the door frames, I cut and apply foam tape into the groove of each door side. The foam will press gently against the center panel and be flexible enough to handle expansion and contraction.

All the grooves were prepped and when the polyurethane was dry on the panels, I could go ahead and start applying glue to assemble the doors.

I lined up all of the edges and clamped the door frames together while the glue dried.

While that was drying, I went ahead and gave the arch back panels a second coat of polyurethane.

After the door panels were dry, I pulled them from the clamps and sanded all of the glue joints to make sure they were perfectly flush.

Then I took the panels to the drill press and drilled a large 35mm pocket for each door hinge. I am using 110° European style door hinges with a soft close mechanism so the doors will not slam shut. The 110° limit prevents the doors from being opened too far as well.

Instead of door knobs or handles I am creating an undercut at the bottom of the panels on the router table with a 1/2″ cove bit.

This gives a simple, subtle groove to grasp when opening the doors.

With the doors done, I moved a couple more items into the spray booth, the arched back panel and the dome.

These got their first coat of polyurethane applied.

While that was drying, I moved back to the door panels and installed the door hinges.

Then attached them to the cabinets. I don’t like the hinges sticking so far past the frames so I will probably cut a piece of oak to attach back there just to prevent people from snagging their clothes on them when reaching in.

The hinges are fully adjustable so I made some minor tweaks to align the gap between the doors perfectly as well as to keep the tops and bottoms in line with each other. When those were done, I took them all apart again and set them aside for finishing later.

Next up is the base for the tabernacle. It is basically two different blocks stacked on top of each other that will raise up the tabernacle below the arch.

I started by gluing up some panels for the tops of the boxes, then cut the sides of the boxes.

Since the underside of the boxes will not be visible, I will be using pocket hole screws to hold the pieces together while the wood glue dries.

After drilling all of the pockets, I can start assembling the box sides first.

Then I can pull the clamps from the top panels and cut them down to match the box sides that I just assembled.

The top panel will be visible so I applied a full bullnose to it to give it a slightly more decorative look.

There is a requirement that the tabernacle be firmly attached to the altar so I drilled a hole into the top panel and a smaller hole into the bottom one.

This allows me to run a concealed lag bolt through the box into the altar. The tabernacle can then be screwed down into the top box and it will be firmly attached.

Bouncing back to the spray booth, I sanded down all of the first coat of polyurethane with 400 grit sandpaper  to remove dust nibs and any raised grain to prepare for a second coat.

Then the second coat gets applied and left to dry.

I have a few trim pieces left to make as well as several coats of polyurethane on the rest of the components but I am almost finished the back altar. Which is good since it gets installed next week…