Soul of Bespoke Cabinet Furniture Artistry

Soul of Bespoke Cabinet Furniture Artistry Benjamin works on both his own designs and client commissions.

Benjamin crafts unique cabinetry, furniture, jewellery, boxes, home wares and stand alone artworks in his small workshop studio in Healesville, Victoria, Australia.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett Removing the main waste bulk f...
21/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

Removing the main waste bulk from the back sections of the base panels. X2 passes than the panel gets flipped over for last run ( walnut face, facing up). 1mm of waste left at ends and back section which will be removed on a separate jig. ( vertical jig). This other jig will be for a finer clean up. Less vibration since only removing a small amount of waste plus cleans up corners. But more accurate as I'll have the ability for the micro height adjustment in the router. Another point in accuracy is not having to ensure a completely bang on 90 deg fence like with this jig. If just slightly out by 0.2 deg over a long span can throw everything out. My tolerances are abit tight in this back section. Ill chuck in a razor sharp spiral cutter when doing the final clean up.

This vertical jig will also be used for the final clean up on the drawer box stop housings plus stile housings on the drawer box cavity frames, housings for the horizontal divider panels for the pull handles in the painters removable tool tray plus other parts.

This current jig will be modified so I can machine in the back panel housings in the gold case top and the painters side panels as well. I'll be using the attachment router fence in connection to this. Im going this route as I'm not keen on doing multiple drop ins/ lift ups on the upside down router with large parts like this. Plus due to the long parts I'd have to modify my fences making them longer. My tolerances are abit tight so going this route I have more control in accuracy/ less chances of stuff ups.

Once the gold leaf base main bulk removal is complete ill adjust a few things with this jig and start the same process for the painters case base.

Once final clean is completed in the new jig ( still need to build). Ill start cutting / gluing in wenge edgings.

I think it was going to be best to tackle this waste removal first before machining the back panel housings.

Making more progress :)

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Update no 05 / final till more updates to p...
18/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Update no 05 / final till more updates to post about.

Machining the mortise connections for the back stiles into the base panels and top panel ( only for gold leaf case)

I used my test panel which I used for the other mortise joinery sections.

I had to make another jig set up for this which will also be used to machine other joinery sections in the project ( for example some of the drawer box cavity opening edging spline housings. You can see these in some of the photos)

This jig requires the add on router adjustment fence plus adjustment screw stops. The router adjustment fence rides along the edge of the jig.

Ill talk about this in more depth in a future post but alot of the back section of the base panels get removed and extra edgings get added. Ill need to make more machining jigs for this.

This is because these sections sit further in. The back edging of the base panels sit in alignment with the back edge of the back panel housing in the middle stile/ side panels. This allows both left and right back panels to be removed from the case independently. Sliding from the base of the case. This method looks neater and means less screws will be needed. Since its a carry case this back section is just as important as the front visually.

Making more progress. Next up will be machining the back panel housing slots, making the custom floating tenons and trimming the drawer box cavity frames to their final widths so I can machine in the cavity edging spline housings.

Stay tuned for further updates

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett Update no 04. Machining the mo...
18/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

Update no 04.

Machining the mortise connections into the back case stile ends for both cases and connection point in the top back panel for painters case.

A few different jig set ups had to be made along with packing strips. ( If I decide to make multiple sets of these cases or different ranges in the future I'll make separate dedicated jigs for each joinery section to create accurate/ efficient repeatable set ups. Right now some joinery sections I'm only making x1 or 2 mortises so I don't want to be dedicating huge time slots to certain areas).

I am making notes plus these posts will help when needing to do this in the future.

There was abit of a kink in the stiles ( slight warp) so I had to do some adjustment trimming to get it out before machining in the mortises. It meant the width had to be slightly lowered to the original drawings set width. Not a major issue though.

I had to also send the stiles through the drum sander to bring them down to their final panel thickness/ remove gunk.

These stiles will also connect into housings that will be machined into the back sections of the drawer box cavity frames. ( I'll talk more on this in a future post)

More updates in the next post.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett Update post no 3. A large vari...
18/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

Update post no 3.

A large variety of different set ups for different mortise connections.

Machining the mortise connections for the top front and back panels into the ends plus connection points at the front and back sections of the side panels at the top.

Remembering there are left and right set ups. Some mortises I had to attach a depth stop plate to the front of the domino since I only wanted to go into the panels 10mm deep. ( It's max depth setting is 15mm. Im pretty sure you can buy depth adjusters but didn't want to wait)

I had to drawer my mortise centre lines onto some of the toggle clamp pressure pads so I could see where I was needing to machine when lining up the center point on the domino.

Follow for more updates in next post.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett Update post no 2: Dry run on t...
18/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

Update post no 2:

Dry run on the top tool tray cavity frame to top back, front and side panels for the painters case.

Im just under 0.2mm height placement difference to top back and front panels to side panels in the top chamber height. Which is pretty good. The top front and back panels are higher so ill adjust these when coming to the main dry run.

Now you can see why I wanted a different veneer arrangement to the top of the side panels compared to base. A full veneer wrap around in the top chamber.

The top front and back panel plus cavity frame just sits above 1kg but will go down further with more mortises / housings to machine out.

The top back panel and cavity frame are still slightly oversized and will be trimmed down before main dry run.

More updates in the next post which will be machining the next lot of mortise connections.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Behind in posting so the next few posts wil...
18/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for

Behind in posting so the next few posts will be a variety of photos showing what has happened. ( This is post 1)

Connection mortises machined in the back of the painters top tool tray cavity frame. Spacing abit different to the front due to the back case stile.

Machined the cavity frame mortises into the top front and top back panels utilising this hold down jig that was attached to the domino jig station. I used x2 different raised packing strips that acted as a stopper. ( to create 10mm deep mortises) but also to create x2 different mortised shoulder heights as they are different between the top front and back panel. ( shown in tech drawing the top back panel being wider to the front panel)

I did tests to ensure I got the correct placement / depth.

Follow for information in the next post update :)

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett Last update post ( x4 in total...
12/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

Last update post ( x4 in total for this update)

All the mortises are machined into the drawer box cavity frames.

Now to pull apart jig and postion it into a different way to start machining the mortises in the front and back sections for the painters tool tray cavity frame.

The back and front mortise locations are bit different this is due to the back case stile.

Im using a multiple of domino locations for a few reasons. Increased strength but also to prevent weakness compared to a full length channel for a spline ( more so creating weakness to the torsion box frame for the panels)

So the multiple floating tenon locations still give that long grain glue surface area like a spline but doesn't create weakness with a full amount of structure taken away. The strength would be put back when spline is added its more to not create a weakness point during other process stages before major assembly.

Some of the floating tenon sections will be slightly eaten into due to the latch catch system at the front but not much to worry about structural integrity.

Heaps going on but making more progress.

Next up machining the floating tenons and making a few different mortise jigs for the other joinery sections.

Stay tuned for further updates.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett Continuation from previous upd...
12/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

Continuation from previous update posts as im behind. More of a photo process dump.

Mortises for the floating tenons machined into the drawer box cavity frames.

As you can see from the tight areas with the drawer box cavity frames internal sections will need to be oiled before assembly.

Still a fair amount of mortises to machine which now I've made a to do check off list which make sure everything is completed before I move onto the next step.

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett (Update carrys onto the next f...
12/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

(Update carrys onto the next few posts as im behind)

All the mortises for the floating tenons are machined into side and division panels.

Im just using the normal domino floating tenons as testers. Ill be making my down custom floating tenons.

The connection of the base/ top panel to side panels will have a shadow line which will run into the door connection.

Ill be machining the mortises for the drawer box cavity frames with this same jig.

More info/ photos in the next post

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett This next update spans over th...
11/07/2026

More updates on the gold leaf and painters signwriting tool carry cases for Lance Corlett

This next update spans over the next 4 posts as im behind in updates.

Centre points drawn out on the panels for the edge mortise locations for the floating tenons.

Jig completed for the domino mortise station. I had to make a raise plate so I could get the located mortise postion I needed. For the thinner panels I needed to make packers that would sit under the panels while machining the mortises.

Made story stick plates so I could easily see the mortise centre lines as these stick plates also acted as a pressure clamp plate.

More updates in next post.

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