Tweed Cabinet Build for Me Now

Some of you may know, I acquired a March of 1958 Twin last year. It was in not so stock shape... The circuit had been completely messed with. The cabinet took a hit in an international move in the 70's and was cut down into a head.

I redid the circuit last year when I got it. There's a thread around somewhere.

I through it into a home brew cabinet I had done a few years ago... It was ugly, but it got me under way. I've used it a buncha times gigging. But, I promised myself that as much as I love this amp, I wanted to put it into a proper tweed cabinet. Being a carpenter by day, I decided i would build it myself. I was following along with @dunehunter's thread and had some input on measurements and some construction stuff.. I finally got some other projects out of the way, so the Twin's cabinet hit the top of the list.

I picked up some nice clear pine a few months ago, cut it to rough length and let it age in the shop. )Thee pics are from when I first brought the wood home)



One tool, I really love is my Fastcap Tape measures. I use the lefty/righty every day. When I'm starting to cut up stock, sheet goods, or long flat boards, I love my flat back layout tape. It'll reappear a few times as I roll along here int eh early days.



In Dunehunter's thread, we talked about some measurements, thicknesses and sizes. This is how I measured some of them. M<y really old calipers. I sue them a lot... I inherited them form my Grandfather. So, they're pretty old. But, still accurate!





One thing I was really surprised by was the actual thinness of some of these pieces. The facia boards turned out to be 1/4" thick... and so did the speaker baffle!

 

Now, today's progress....

The first thing I did was make a new, bigger crosscut sled. Here's pics of some of the rough cutting... Didn't realize I hadn't taken a pic of the completed sled. I'll do that next time I'm down to the shop.

Hey, look, the flat tape is back! Also, one of my old trusty friends... My tool guide. I've built hundred of kitchen/bathroom cabinets and furniture with this bad boy and my Ridgid worm drive saw. It is always the first step with sheet goods, or any cut bigger than my table saw can handle.



One thing discussed in Dunehunter's thread was that Fender used some kind of jig or template to size the insides of the cabinets. I decided i liked this idea. My final cabinet exterior dimensions will be 18 1/2" tall by 26 1/2" wide, 10" deep at the bottom and after another measurement of the old cabinet, 9 5/32' at the top. So, that means my interior template will be 25 3/4", 17 3/4".

How's this for close enough?



It's also perfectly square too...

Anyway... Set that board aside started craning out exact length boards for the actual cabinet.



You can see the new crosscut sled in the pic above.

I cut them all 1/8" long. I will sand down the fingers that stick out after putting it all together and the glue dries.

Now some quality time with a new-ish tool that I really, really love.



I did two test runs with scrap. The first one was a touch tight, the second was perfect. There are some YT videos about how easy the iBox is to use. I'm really happy with it.....

End results.



It was time to go cook some steaks for Sunday Family Dinner. My wife and I do it every week, our son and his wife still come over... and when our one local daughter is not working (she works in the restaurant/bar industry) she comes too. Anyway, that was all the progress I made today. Tomorrow I'll be tapering the sides, and probably gluing it up. Stay tuned.

 

Yeah, The old cabinet got cut down into a head and covered in crappy black tolex. The old speaker baffle and sides were simply cut down to size and the bottom was then reattached... and the back corners cut off at a 45 degree angle. I'll show some more pics of it as I go along.

Actually, this is probably a good time to show some of the 'as purchased' stuff and some other research pics.

Here's the ugly thing in it's ultimate ugliness:







And, how it's been housed for a while now:



This was a 2x10, blackface Tremolux size cabinet I did a few years ago ti use with my Bassman 50. It's 3/4 cabinet grade plywood, butt jointed, with a half inch thick baffle. It's worked out well and held up better than I expected. But, it's just time.

 

Someone, somewhere (TGP maybe?) stated that Minwax's Colonial Maple was a perfect match for the old color of the sanding sealer Fender used on the old cabinets.

I did a test, and sure as Shinola, it's a perfect match!



You can see what's left of the original baffle...

I put out a thread a little while ago about tweed fabric and trying to find the best available. The stuff I found at Angela is about the best I could find"



Anyway, really, that's enough from me for tonight.

 

That was why I cut it to length and let it sit in the shop for so long.... It has been absolutely disgusting with humidity here in Central Virginia for the last few weeks, especially. I live less than a mile away from the Rappahannock River and we've had flood waters up to 19 feet just last week. Supposed to rain all day today too.

If I can, I try my darndest to buy wood way ahead of a project and get it into the workshop to stabilize. It rarely happens for my professional pieces as everyone wants their cabinet, or whatever, yesterday. A lot of the time for my personal stuff, the wife wants it three weeks ago. But, when it comes to stuff like this, it usually ends up being the last thing I get a chance to do anyway. So, the wood gets some time in the shop on it.

My boards are still almost full width. I plan to rip them down and glue them together pretty quick. But, they have been sitting in the shop for several months now, on a flat surface with weighted stuff on them. They're actually pretty flat still. I was very, very happy about that. No need to join them. Good thing, too. i don't own a joiner... I do own a few joiner planes, but was hoping to avoid that in my laziness.

 

The iBox is a fancy schmancy box joint jig. It works on a table saw or a router (although I would think the router would take forever cutting a deep fingers like this). I've had a few tools made by Incra over the years and loved every one. The iBox is no exception. Their products are always well made, well thought out and sturdy.

The iBox has an adjustable guide that goes from a single blade width out to a pretty big spread. The coolest part is it has this micro adjustment wheel on the far side from the pic above that adjusts in the thousandths of an inch range. A couple of ticks goes from a touch tight to just right.

And, yeah, I guess kinda like a reverse radial arm saw. it holds the panel you are working on vertically and you run it back and forth across a saw blade or router bit. I'm using an 8" Marples stacked dado set in my table saw.

I've built a couple of finger joint jigs in the past and spent hours messing with them trying to get the joints right and been nothing but frustrated. I've watched about ten or twelve different Youtube videos on making them and never have the simple success most of those guys have. So, when I new this project was coming, I blew my monthly tool budget (actually 1 1/2 month's worth) and am really happy I did. I've used it for a few projects now and it has saved me money already.

I build a lot of jigs. There's a nice taper jig coming up in this thread. I built the new crosscut sled yesterday, probably my tenth or so. I've got tall tables for my table saw to cut rabbits and tenons and such. I've built stair gauges for making replacement treads and risers, which works really well at measuring inside spaces for built ins too... I built a really complicated router swing to cut radius blocks for fretbaords. All of them worked okay. Many of them I designed myself from scratch, or took an idea from someone else and re-worked it to death. But, finger joint/box joint jigs have frustrated the crap out of me every time! No more with the iBox!

In all honesty, the only reason I could justify it is that I build stuff for a living and finger joints are a cool touch on drawers and cabinetry. I would never have purchased it for just this one cabinet. I'd have probably tried to 'save money' by spending three and a half hours making an accurate finger joint jig.

 

So, threw the box together this morning... just a dry fit. I think my finger joints are tighter than the original. Definitely less tear out

Except in one spot



It’s actually gonna end up on the outside. So, a touch of filler will fix it right up.

Then, I started doing a little figurin’ and cypherin’ and measurin’. Turns out the top of the amp is actually an even 9” front to back. That’s the narrowest point. But, because i’ll Be routing out for the fascia, I didn’t worry about making it any wider and ripped it down to a nice clean 9”. Then cut the bottom to a nice clean 10 1/2”.

Now, before I cut any boards I decided which side would be the back of the amp and marked all four pieces with the word back. This is now my reference edge it’ll always rise against the fence and any cuts come off the other edge.

So, out came the taper jig.



I looked at about thirty or forty different ones online and used a couple of ideas from a few of them. My one issue right now is that the fence is a little too flexible right now. Next one I build, I will stick with 3/4 ply for all the pieces. Or, maybe some fancy hardwoods. But, this’ll do the trick for this build.

I’ve been debating when to cut the tapers. Should I cut them, then do the glue up? Or should I glue it up and wrangle the whole box up onto the saw and jig? I dunno. Just haven’t decided yet... so, I sat down, and decided to post while I decide.

Waddy’all think?

 

In my typical fashion, I didn't wait.... LOL

My mother used to say, "Patience is a virtue. Cultivate it if you can. Seldom found in women, and NEVER found in men." She was pretty smart my old ma.

Anyway, I got kinda smart too... At least I thought so. I took the two sides, put them face to face, and secured them together with double sided tape. Cut 'em both at the same time. Worked like a charm.





Just used a couple of small pieces because I knew I was clamping them together with the jig clamps and didn't want to fight taking them back apart.

Because I had already cut the fingers, I also needed a good way to measure the two different sizes. I measured 9 inches from the edge of my taper jig and 10 1/2" and drew long lines. Then I lined up the two sides, and bright the fence of the jig up tight and clamped it all in place... The rechecked it about 30 times because I felt this was a rather important cut.



You can see how the fence rises up a touch under clamping pressure. Also, another reason for me checking and rechecking a go-zillion times.

One more dry fit and .... it looks great. The marks there are about where the fascia board will be installed. I was double checking myself to make sure there wouldn't be a gap on the angle.



More to follow....

 

So, on to glue up...

Having done a few finger joints over the years, I knew it would take me a while to get glue in all the fingers. So, I did a couple of things...

I put some of this:



Into one of my silicone glue trays and pulled out a throw away brush... Then brushed like mad. As the moisture from the glue got into the fingers they did swell a touch. I had to give each side a bit more of a whack with the rubber mallet than I did dry to get everything to seat... I also needed some regular bar clamps to do the last bit of persuasion. The joints really were a perfect fit.

So, two band clamps and three bar clamps and it was looking really good.

A touch of squeeze out everywhere, and checked for square


I love this little MIJ square. It is dead on accurate, very sturdy and has been with me building a thousand cabinets. I swung it around to check front and back of all four corners and the cabinets is about as perfect as anything I've ever built.

Oh, when I first cut the two sides, I laid them up against the old cabinet and it was a perfect match on the angle. So, it makes sense, top is an even 9 inches and bottom an even 10 1/2". Like so many things, they went for easy measurements, not weird calculated angles.

So, a couple hours int he clamps, then I pulled them off and set the cabinet aside to let the glue set over night. Probably not gonna get anything done on them tomorrow... My son and I are playing hooky and going down to DC to the Capitals Stanley Cup victory parade! Wednesday and probably part of Thursday I'm hanging kitchen cabinets for a customer. So, probably won't be big strides made this week... But, knowing me and my OCD, don't be too surprised if I do sneak in and do one or two things.

 

I am a huge fan fo the FastCap stuff, especially their tape measures!

The curse of being along time finish carpenter and cabinet/furniture builder.... Although, in my defense, I did inherit a bunch from my Pops and Grandfather.

That looks like the one @D'tar! I cannot remember where I picked mine up. I think I've had it 25 or 30 years. I keep it in the shop, it sits in the main drawer of my workbench and is NEVER taken onto job sites! LOL

 

Yeah, I had seen it discussed somewhere and happened across it on a visit to Woodcraft. Even with it, the stuff was getting mighty sticky by the time I had it on! Doing the last side, with two joints, was getting interesting! LOL