pierced tin pie safe, info needed

[Roly Nelson]

I have built a pie safe, kind of like the one that great grandma used to have at the turn of the century, to keep her freshly baked pies in, and so the mice couldn't get to them. It's all built, but I need some clues about doing the piercing of the pierced tin door panels. I want them to look kind of old, but not rusty. I'm gonna pierce them myself, probably with an isometric view of a teardrop trailer, with some kind of mustache piercings in the corners. If anyone has some pointers for me, I'm all ears (or eyes).

I need this cabinet to contain my many woodturnings that are kind of sitting all over the house. If you are curious what a pie safe looks like, just Google it, there are a bunch of them there. I'm amazed that some cost over 3 grand! Mine isn't for sale, and will probably end up in my daughter's living room, right next to my Hoosier Cabinet that I restored some months ago. Help!
Roly, keeping busy in the ol' wood shop

[Shadow Catcher]

Traditionally it was done with a nail which leaves you with a cheese grater inside, fine for a nice big pie safe but not I would think your purpose. Best bet I would think is to just drill it and de-bur the inside. Using galvanized "tin" would be the ticket giving a texture look, I have seen it done locally for reproduction purposes.
You can btw to some extent date the pie safe by the shape of the piercing, square, old round not so old.

[Mary C]

Roly, I was going to build one 15 years ago and did a lot of research and what I found was that there are very few places to get old tin. You could use galvanized but it will sploch with time. What I decided to use was copper it is readily available and it does age really well and you can age it , I am not sure how right now i would have to go back and look, Acid shines copper so I remember it was an alkaline mixture. Shadow was right about the nail punch too. Thats why a lot of them had old flower sacks on the inside of the metal. when i saw one with the material I asked about it it was put there by the housewife to keep her clothes from being snagged.

I was going to make a pie safe for my toaster and microwave and toaster oven. I had planned it so I would have a slide out shelf in front of the microwave and I could put other electrics on the other shelves. I have an old Iron coal stove that was made for the program In the Heat of the Night. It appeared in the show about 4 times. I was going to build a cook top and oven in a stand alone box that would look like a Dry sink. and put the dishwasher in a box that looked like a "ice" box. I had some great Ideas but reality happened and life just didn't let it happen but my idea was to build a primitive looking kitchen with just an opening of doors and lifting the top I would have all modern appliances available.

I am still disappointed that I didn't get to do it but I didn't get to buy the tools I needed to build the pieces and ...........Life goes on.

Good luck

Mary C.

[Woodbutcher]

I don't know what size panels you are using Roly. But if I was doing this project, I may look into getting some old tin ceiling tiles. They have a pleasing pattern and the age you want. Most flea markets and junk shops have them. You may also look into this site. http://www.vandykes.com/search.aspx?query=tin+punch
Sounds like a fun project. Let us see how it turns out.

[H.A.]

The tool to punch is a nail as others said, But consider modifying.
Keep the nail to use as punch, But pass the nail through a small block of plastic or something, Place another smaller & shorter nail through the block parallel to the punching nail.
Of course there could be many construction variations of this.

The point is,
Having a pin at a fixed distance off to the side of your punching nail is used as a distance guide. This keeps the punch spacings precise.
Of course the distance you set is whatever you want and/or determine what works best to create even punches without coming to the end of a punchline and have that last spacing too far or close.
Sometimes these irregular distances can be fudged & not so well noticed somewhat by punching a line starting at both ends and working toward the middle.

[halfdome, Danny]

Roly, I think Doug Hodder did some in the galley of his Woodie teardrop he built a few years back.
You might ask him.
Danny

[Roly Nelson]

Wow, thanks loads for the quick responses. Danny, I asked Doug about those pierced panels when I first saw his trailer and I believe he told me he bought them pre-punched. Yes, I agree that square punches are better and probably will date the cabinet to a much earlier time. I have done a bit of experimental punching on a scrap chunk of sheep metal, using a drywall screw driven into a 2x2 piece of wood. I then cut a slot down the side so I could see the tip of the screw, which I had ground down to a point, with 4 sides on it. Smacking the 2x2 eliminates and deformation of the metal, and I think it's gonna work. This will take a bit of practice, but I'm up for that. By simply sanding lightly on the back side, I can eliminate all rip-your-hand-apart danger.........I think. Copper may be the way to go, but I gotta do some experimenting to get the antique look I want. Good idea about the punch spacing, I was wondering about how I was going to do that. My tin panels are not very big, just about 14 x 12, if I remember correctly.
Thanks again all...Roly, the dreamer, sketcher, drawer-outer, and "very quiet", wood cuttin' fool (Quiet, because I just had vocal chord surgery to remove some leisons, no Cancer, and really no pain! Damn, it's hard not to speak for a whole week, my dog thinks I'm mad at her.)

[webbaldo]

just been watching the New Yankee reruns on TV, and it was the piesafe! Norm used a nail, plans here!

http://www.newyankee.com/index.php?id=5 ... id=7916498

[GuitarPhotog]

I'm having trouble imagining you not talking Roly

Best wishes for you getting well soonest. I'm looking forward to seeing you and your latest effort at the DAM Gathering.

<Chas>

[Corwin C]

My brother did some cabinet doors using this stuff and it seems to have turned out well. He used nails of various sizes (star shaped holes), a nail set (for smooth round holes), and a couple of small bolts that he worked over with a dremel to make an oval "seed" shape and a small horseshoe shape. I believe this is the website that gave him his ideas for tools and patterns. I'll try and see if I can't get some pictures to share.

[rebapuck]

Are you going to leave the doors open? I would think you'd want to see the woodturnings. Maybe you could use chickenwire. Then you could see the display.

[pmowers]

Back about 500 years ago, when I took metal shop, we used tinplate to make boxes all of the time. It came in a sheet about 2'x4' if I remember correctly. I am sure that it is still available. I agree, galvanized just wont make it. Are there any canneries around your area, you might be able to get a piece of selvage.

[Roly Nelson]

My pie safe is all built and sitting in the living room. I still have to do the tin work, which by the way, will only will be on the sides. There are 4 doors on the front which will have glass installed so the turnings will be visible. Oh, I learned something today. Never lean the cut glass for the doors against the back of the galley hatch on the teardrop. I inadvertently lifted the tongue up, which tipped it enough to make the glass panels fall over and break all to pieces in the shop floor. Bummer, now I have to make them again......I'm glad no one was here to notice my stupid move..........Oh well.
Roly ~~

[Vedette]

Hi Roly
Here is a tip for puching your holes.
Place whatever punch you make in your drill press. Set the depth stop so that the punch enters your metal (whatever you are using) the same amount each time.
The leverage you get from the handles on your drill press wil make this task easy!
I like to use a piece of plastic or urathane as the recieving base, as there is no grain like wood that can sometimes deflect your punch due to hardness differences.
Good Luck with your project.
We want to taste one of those pies at the Dam!
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[Roly Nelson]

Wow, Brian, that's a great idea. That's the way I'll do it. Thanks.
Roly~~