POPULAR WOODWORKING April 200352

If you had been shopping for a magazine cabi-net in 1910 and came across this piece in GustavStickley’s catalog, chances are you would have

turned the page with barely a glance.The photo of the No. 72 Magazine Cabinet in

the 1910 catalog is horrible. Someone in GustavStickley’s art department mangled the picture, andit bears almost no resemblance to the real thing.The legs look both spindly and lumpy. The shelvesdon’t look sturdy at all.

In real life, this piece of furniture is impressive.It was one of several pieces of furniture designedby Harvey Ellis, an architect, painter and design-er. Ellis’s short stint with Gustav Stickley’s com-pany before Ellis’ death in 1904 was remarkablyfruitful. Under his talented pen, a fair number ofStickley’s massive and overbuilt furniture forms be-came lighter and a bit more graceful.

MagazineCabinetThanks to Harvey Ellis,

this set of Arts & Crafts

shelves has subtly tapered

legs and arched top rails that

transform it from stocky

to stylish.

by Christopher Schwarz

Comments or questions? Contact Chris at 513-531-2690 ext. 1407 or chris.schwarz@fwpubs.com.

Phot

o by

Al P

arris

h

G U S TAV S T I C K L E Y ’ S

N O. 7 2

Phot

o by

Al P

arris

h

popwood.com 53

The No. 72 Magazine Cabinetis a good example of this period.The curved top rails and taperedlegs all conspire to make this piecelook more delicate than it is.

Like most Arts & Crafts proj-ects, this one is straightforwardto build. I used about 15 boardfeet of 4/4 mahogany, four boardfeet of 5/4, and six board feet of8/4 – I had a little wood left over,but that always beats a secondtrip to the lumberyard. The plansfor this project were developedby Robert W. Lang for his newbook “More Shop Drawings forCraftsman Furniture” (CambiumPress, 800-238-7724). This isLang’s second book of Craftsmanfurniture plans, and it featuresmeasured drawings for 30 piecesof museum-quality classics. If youare an Arts & Crafts fan, this bookis required reading.

Start With the SidesMost of the work on this projectis in the two assemblies that makeup the sides of the cabinet. Andthe heart of these side assembliesis the side panels.

These two panels have atongue on the two long edges thatare glued into a groove in the legs.

Dados in the panels hold theshelves in place. And the rails aretenoned into mortises in the legs.Finally, the top is screwed downto the cabinet using cleats.

The first task is to prepare theside panels to be glued betweenthe legs. I used a traditional tongue-and-groove joint. It’s more elab-orate than simply gluing the panelbetween the legs without join-ery. However, it also guaranteesyou will have no visible gap be-tween the legs and panel.

If you want to do things in thismore traditional way, begin bymilling a 1⁄2"-wide, 3⁄8"-deep and313⁄4"-long stopped groove on theleg in the location shown in thediagram. Square out the groovewhere it stops using a chisel.

Now cut a matching tongueon the two long edges of yourpanel. You want the fit to be asnear perfect as possible.

To keep things neat, I used abacksaw to cut a small shoulderon the bottom corners of the panel

WHO WAS HARVEY ELLIS?Though Harvey Ellis worked forGustav Stickley for only about ayear until he died in 1904, Ellis’swork left an indelible impressionon Stickley’s furniture. Chunkyforms became lighter. Rails be-came curved. Legs became ta-pered on the sides. And – perhapsmost significantly – some furni-ture became inlaid.

Before Ellis’s stint withStickley, Ellis led an itinerant lifeas an avant-garde painter, graphicdesigner, draftsman and some-times architect, according toscholars. Born in Rochester, N.Y.,in 1852, Ellis displayed an earlyknack for art as a child. His fatherdecided he needed more disci-pline and sent him to West Pointin 1871, according to the HarveyEllis papers at the University ofRochester. Ellis was dischargedfrom the military school for “tar-diness, personal untidiness andgross neglect in his French assign-ments,” according to the papers.There also were rumors of anaffair with an actress.

Ellis went to New York tostudy art at the National Academyof Design, but he ended up as anarchitectural draftsman for ArthurGilman instead. He returned toRochester in 1877 and set up anarchitectural office with hisbrother, and together they de-signed many public buildings.After seven years or so Ellis leftthe firm and designed houses andpublic structures for cities acrossthe Midwest. He rejoined hisbrother’s firm in 1894 and alsostarted designing interiors andbecoming interested in the Arts &Crafts movement.

After separating from his wife,Ellis joined the staff of Stickley’smagazine, The Craftsman, andbegan designing furniture andwriting stories for the influentialpublication. He died in January1904 at the age of 52, in part dueto acute alcoholism, according tothe university papers.

There are a variety of ways to cut the groove in the legs:A router table and a plowplane come to mind. I prefer to use a straight bit in a router with an edge guide.Thisallows me to see my cut at all times.

Cut the tongues on the edges of the side panels using a dadostack in your table saw (plus a sacrificial fence).You alsocould use a rabbeting bit in your router table.

When your grooves and tongues are complete, they should fitsnugly as shown. If you’re not up to this task, you couldsimply glue the panel to the legs without any joinery. Justmake sure you keep everything lined up so you’re certainyou’ll achieve a tight joint.

Sacrificialfence

that conceals where the grooveends (see the photo above).

Before you can glue the sidepanel between the legs, you needto cut the 1⁄4"-deep by 3⁄4"-widedados that hold the shelves. Usethe diagrams at right to lay outthe locations of the dados, thencut them using your dado stackas shown in the photo.

If all this seems complicated,the sides can be simplified. Makeyour side panels 9" wide insteadof 93⁄4" and don’t cut the tonguesand grooves. Cut the dados forthe shelves and then simply gluethe panels between the legs.

The long-grain joint betweenthe side panel and legs is strongerthan the wood itself – you’ll justhave to be careful about liningeverything up and making sureyour stock is milled perfectly toavoid any gaps between the legsand the side panels.

POPULAR WOODWORKING April 200354

You’ll need to notch the bottom of the side panel to fit in theleg groove.A backsaw makes quick work of this simpleoperation (above). Clean up the cut with a sharp chisel andyou’re ready to move on (right).

Cut the dados in the side panels using this setup on your table saw or a straightedge and a hand-held router. The gauge block on the right of the blade keeps thepanel from getting caught between the fence and the blade.

42"

13"

22"

12"

13/8"

3/4"

7/8"13/8"

7/8"

17/8"11/2"

13/4"

2113/16"

151/4"

101/2"

13/8"

317/8"

31/2"

11/2"

Front elevation Side elevation

Gauge block

popwood.com 55

NO. ITEM DIMENSIONS ( INCHES) MATERIAL COMMENTST W L

❏ 4 Legs 11⁄2 13⁄4 411⁄8 Mahogany❏ 2 Side stretchers 5⁄8 13⁄8 101⁄2 Mahogany 3⁄4" TBE❏ 2 Side panels 3⁄4 93⁄4 317⁄8 Mahogany 3⁄8" tongue, 2 edges❏ 2 Bottom rails 3⁄4 11⁄4 163⁄4 Mahogany 3⁄4" TBE❏ 2 Arched top rails 3⁄4 13⁄8 163⁄4 Mahogany 3⁄4" TBE❏ 3 Shelves 3⁄4 113⁄4 153⁄4 Mahogany❏ 1 Top 7⁄8 13 22 Mahogany❏ 2 Cleats 1⁄2 1⁄2 8 Mahogany Attach top to sides

KEY: TBE = tenon on both ends

GUSTAV STICKLEY MAGAZINE CABINET

22"

11/2"

9"

13/4"1/4"

11/2"

3/4"

151/4"

153/4"

113/4"

13/4"

1/2"

13"

13/8"

1/4"3/4"

7/8"

103/8"

9"

9"

3/4"

3/4"

3/4"

42"

13/8"

21/8"

91/4"

11/4"

1/8"

Front edge of shelf is 1/8" past rail,1/8" behind front of leg Plan section through rails

Plan section above shelf Side section

Illus

trat

ions

by

Robe

rt W

.Lan

g

To prevent tearout where the dado stack exits the side panel,put down a couple pieces of masking tape to support thewood fibers.This really works.

POPULAR WOODWORKING April 200356

NEWEST JIG FROM LEIGH MAKES PERFECT MORTISES AND TENONS

necessary using a block plane orchisel. When everything is fit-ting nice and snug, it’s time to cutthe mortise-and-tenon joints thathold everything together.

I usually cut my tenons usinga dado stack or a tenon saw. Whenit comes to mortises, I usuallychoose to drill them out on thedrill press or fire up the hollow-chisel mortising machine.

However, for this project, Iput the new Leigh Frame Mortiseand Tenon Jig through its paces.It’s healthy to be skeptical of anyjig that costs as much as a tablesaw, but this jig is one special an-imal. See the story titled “The

Though the Leigh Frame Mortise and Tenon jiglooks complex, it will feel instantly familiar if

you’ve ever used your router for pattern cutting.The jig uses snap-in templates that guide a

plunge router as it cuts both tenons and mortises.You merely select the size tenon you want to cutand snap that template in place in the jig.

Position the tenonstock in the jig and setyour depth of cut(which will be thelength of your tenon).Then plunge yourrouter. A pin on therouter’s subbase(included with the jig)follows the outsideedge of the template.Your tenon is done.

To cut the mortise,position the stock inthe jig and place thepin into a slot on theinside of the sametemplate you used forthe tenon. Plunge yourrouter and make yourmortise. If the joint istoo loose or too tight,you merely need toturn a small dial on thesubbase to adjust thecut in .001" incre-ments. Simple.

The Frame Mortise and Tenon Jig – like all jigsfrom Leigh (leighjigs.com) – is an impressive andwell-thought-out piece of engineering. As I start-ed using the jig, every single question or objectionI had was addressed in the manual and thoughtfuldesign of the jig.

For example, most people would wonder how

well this jig clamps long workpieces in place;some face-frame stiles can be 5' long after all.Well let me tell you the clamps on this jig areimpressive. They engage with only fingertippressure, but exert so much force we couldn’tdeflect long pieces, even when we tried leaningon them harder than we should have.

Setting up the jig for the first time takes acouple hours. The manual (a paragon of clarity)walks you through the process of installing yourplunge router (most models will work easily) andgetting it locked down to the subbase. Once thisis set up, however, you can easily remove yourplunge router and return it to the jig in a matterof moments. This is a one-time thing. After yourrouter is in place, you’re ready to make test cuts.

With the assistance of your plunge router, you can cut almost any mortise-and-tenon joint with this new jig from Leigh Industries.

Sure, you could setup your router

table or table sawto cut the notchesin the shelves. But

a sharp backsawworks just as well.

Before you glue anything up,however, you’re going to want tofirst cut the mortises in the legs.So set your parts aside and fit theshelves in their dados.

The Shelves are SimpleCut the shelves to finished sizeand mark out the notch that needsto be cut in the corner of eachshelf. This notch allows the shelvesto wrap around the legs. You canrig up some fancy setup with yourrouter table to do this, but I pre-fer using a backsaw for such a sim-ple task (see the photo at left).

Now fit your shelves in thedados and make any adjustments

The templates snap in and out of place with fingertippressure. Pick your tenon size and pop it in the jig.

Outside edge of the template cuts the tenons

popwood.com 57

You can connect dust collection to the back of the jig,which I recommend. It doesn’t get all the chips, but itcuts down significantly on the mess.

Center the table over your tenon using the slide-outwindow. Lock the table in place and put the router upon the jig.

Select the size tenon you want based on yourproject’s design. By changing which diametercutter you use, tenons of almost any thicknessare possible (a chart in the manual guides youthrough this). Snap the template into the jig.

Now mark the center of your tenon on theend of your workpiece. Then you center the tableover the tenon using a little slide-out window. Itworks kind of like a bomb sight. (One side note:Though you think that someday you’ll forget toretract this plastic sight and rout it to pieces,that’s actually impossible. The jig is designed topush it out of the way if you forget to.) Themanual shows you how to set up a stop (includedwith the jig) that positions your tenons in thesame place every time, without using the sight.That said, after a week of using the jig, I found Igot better results by marking the center of eachtenon and adjusting the table slightly (usually

less than 1⁄64") each time I made a cut. It takesabout three seconds to do. The variability, Isuspect, comes from the factthat wood can warp a bit as it’sripped to width.

Set your plunge router forthe depth of cut you want (3⁄4"in this case). Plunge and thencircle the jig’s pin around thetemplate. Cut all the tenons foryour project this way.

Mortising uses almost thesame procedure. Mark thecenter of your mortise, clampthe piece in your jig and centerthe table over the cut.

Turn the turret depth stop onyour router so it makes a slightlydeeper cut (this keeps your

Now fit your partstogether and tuneup the notches in

the shelves with asharp chisel so you

get a tight fitbetween the sides

and the shelves.

Newest Jig from Leigh” for moreinformation on this precise joint-cutting system.

Details Lighten the LoadWith the tenons and mortisesmilled, it’s time to make a fewcuts that visually will slim thischunky box a bit.

The first order of business iscutting the curve on the top rails.Mark the curve using the dia-grams and a flexible piece of scrapwood. Cut the curve using a cop-ing saw and clean up the saw marksusing a spokeshave or sandpaper.

Now cut the tapers on the legsusing the diagrams as a guide. I

tenons from bottoming out in the mortise). Liftthe router subbase and place the pin on theinside track of the template. Plunge and make afew holes first. Then move the jig back and forthto clean out the walls of the mortise.

The jig is capable of cutting just about anymortise-and-tenon joint you can think of, includ-ing double, triple and angled tenons. Slip-jointsare also a breeze. To be sure, there are less ex-pensive ways to cut this traditional joint. The jigcosts about $700 and comes with one templateset and a 5⁄16" cutter. However I know of nobetter or faster way to cut mortises and tenons,and it’s worth a close look for your shop.

— Christopher Schwarz

Mortises are just as easy as tenons. Here you can see the pin on thesubbase that rides the outside of the template for tenons and the insidefor mortises.

Pin that followsthe template

POPULAR WOODWORKING April 200358

cut the tapers using my band sawand cleaned up the cuts with asmoothing plane. Keep the off-cuts because they are useful whengluing the case together at theend of the project.

Now sand or plane down allyour parts and glue up the side as-semblies. In order to attach thetop, screw the cleats to the topedge of your side assemblies andbore a couple holes through thecleats. Break all the edges of yourparts with 120-grit sandpaper.

Now comes an important de-cision. You can go ahead and as-semble the case and then finishit. Or you can tape off the joints,finish the individual parts andthen assemble the case. I took thelatter course.

I kept the finish simple on thispiece. I wiped on Minwax’s “redmahogany 225” stain on all theparts. This stain is available atmost home-center stores; 8 ounceswill cost you less than $3. Allowthe stain to dry overnight.

The next day, apply a few coatsof your film finish of choice. Isprayed M.L. Campbell’s Magnalacprecatalyzed lacquer (satin sheen)using a HVLP spray system. Sand

between the second and thirdcoats with 320-grit stearated sand-paper. Remove the tape from thetenons and then glue up the in-dividual parts of the cabinet. Usethe falloff pieces from cutting theleg tapers to clamp the lower partof the case squarely.

If you haven’t figured it outyet, magazine cabinets aren’t muchgood for storing modern maga-zines (unless you stacked themflat). But they do make handybookshelves – especially for an-tique volumes.

Once I set the cabinet in placenext to my fireplace and loadedit up with books, I took a secondlook at the picture of the origi-nal in the 1910 Gustav Stickleycatalog. Someone in his art de-partment should have been firedfor butchering that photo. Thisis a nice piece. PW

A spokeshave cleans up your saw cuts on the top rails quickly.After working withthe fancy Leigh jig, it’s a relief to pick up a tool that’s simpler than I am.

Most people don’t notice the tapers on the legs. (My wife didn’t, and she has a sharp enough eye to always findmy car keys.) The tapers are critical,however.You definitely would noticetheir absence.

SUPPLIESFrame Mortise and Tenon JigLeigh Industries Ltd.P.O. Box 357104-1585 Broadway St.Port Coquitlam, BC, CanadaV3C 4K6800-663-8932leighjigs.com

Lie-Nielsen Small Bronze SpokeshaveLie-Nielsen ToolworksP.O. Box 9Warren, ME 04864-0009800-327-2520lie-nielsen.com

Corners of shelves notch @ legs

Lower stretcher is 5/8" thick

163/4"

151/4"

1/4"deep dadosfor shelves

3/4"

3/4"

3/4"

3/4"

93/4"12"

103/8"

9"

9"

1/2"

11/4"

411/8"

I’ve been collecting and building Arts & Craftsfurniture for more than a decade now, and I’vebeen waiting for this book (and its predecessor“Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture”) forabout that long. In fact, it’s a wonder that noone has written these books until now.

Author Robert W. Lang essentially presentsyou with the keys to the castle: 30 shop draw-ings of some of the most well-designed

Craftsman furniture from this important artisticand cultural movement. You get measureddrawings of the plan, profile and elevation(usually called a three-view in design circles)and at least a couple exploded 3D drawings(called isometrics). Plus there’s a cut list.Intermediate woodworkers will be able to gostraight to work. For the beginners, there’s asection in the front of each book that explains

basic construction techniques. However, first-timers would do well to get a couple simplerprojects under their belts first.

For more details on these books, visit thepublisher’s web site: cambiumbooks.com. Youcan order these books direct from the publisherby calling 800-238-7724. Each book costs$22.95 plus shipping.

— Christopher Schwarz

“MORE SHOP DRAWINGS FOR CRAFTSMAN FURNITURE”

The illustrations in “More Shop Drawingsfor Craftsman Furniture” are black andwhite, like the drawings shown here.

popwood.com 59

Shelf locations

Detail of shelf notches

Finished stand