Often, the reason I decide to head out to the shop and build a project is that something suitable can't be purchased at a reasonable price. On a recent trip to my local home centre, I was disappointed with the range of doorbells that were offered. White plastic is the material of choice for most economy doorbell covers, while the premium models sport ugly approximations of woodgrain with shiny gold accents. So, with my $12 builder's chime in hand it was back to the shop to figure out an alternative. I used 3/8"-thick quartersawn white oak for this project, in keeping with its arts and crafts look. If you don't have a thickness planer, ask your supplier to plane it to size. The thin stock is necessary for the scale of this project.
About Face
Start by ripping the 1"-wide pieces for the face frame and sides, then cut them to length. To make the half-lap corner joints on the face frame, mark the shoulder of each one using the 1" stock as a guide. Set the depth of your tablesaw blade to half the thickness of the wood, then make multiple passes to mill the joint. On the inside edges of the stiles, ease the edges slightly using a router equipped with a 45' chamfer bit. Create the same chamfer on the shoulders of the rails where they meet the stiles using a sharp utility knife to pare away the material. Glue up the face frame and set aside to dry. While the face frame is drying, cut the four top and bottom pieces to size. The outer top and bottom get 45' chamfers on the bottom edges of the front and sides. These small pieces are best handled with a table-mounted router. Set the depth of your router to remove 1/4" of material and make some test passes on scrap stock before risking real parts.
Image at left: Two small brads are all that's needed to secure the new cover to the chime.
Final Assembly
Create the box that houses the chime by attaching the side pieces to the inner top and bottom. The 1/4" gap between these pieces allows the sound of the chime to escape. Next, glue and clamp the face frame to the box. Finally, glue and clamp the outer top and bottom pieces. If you have enough small clamps, the whole glue-up can be accomplished at once. If not, simply wait an hour between steps for the glue to grab.
Finishing
To give the white oak that classic Mission colour, I used two coats of Minwax special walnut stain followed by two coats of Circa 1850 Antique Oil. Both products were wiped on with a soft cloth and result in a low lustre finish. By the way, don't toss that plastic cover that came with the chime -- it makes a great stain tray.
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1 Comment
The image doesn't enlarge when you click on it. You have a really good magazine with very creative and unique plans. However, it would be very convenient if you would post the plans, with the accompanying article summarized, into one downloadable PDF. It's really tedious to have to print each page, pdf, and image individually. At the very least, could you make it so that the entire article prints -- without all the extraneous ads and web stuff -- when you click the "print" link, instead of each page???