Fine woodworking low dresser/chest of drawers build

[rrich1]

After completing my son's bedroom set it was time to turn to my daughters set. They currently share a room until my youngest is able to sleep through the night. Then the boys will share.

 

I decided to make her set out of walnut with ambrosia maple. I found some nice pieces of walnut from a local Sawyer for a really good price. The plans for this project are available from www.fineWoodworking.com

 

First I had to pick out the lumber and rough cut it to size on the band saw, jig saw, and circular saw. Non square boards shouldnt be cut down on a table saw due to kickback and binding.

 

There are A LOT or mortise and tenons in this build and decided to do them by hand/drill press/ and router table. I don't have a hollow chisel mortiser. This went surprisingly quick. I did manage to mess up and place a mortise where I didn't need it. I took a piece of scrap, oriented it in the same grain direction, and rounded over the edges. Once glued in I planed it down and was virtually gone from sight.

 

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[rrich1]

With the legs partially done, more work needed to be completed at a later step, it was time to focus on the horizontal rails, front and rear. These needed dual tenons to fit into the dual mortises. I cut them on the table saw. The white part shows what was cut off.

 

I accidentally made the two middle front dividers too short front to back and had to add a piece to the rear. I glued them up and flush trimmed them on the router table. I then cut them to the correct dimensions. Worked really well and got to use scraps up.

 

To cut out the half lap style joints for the rear dividers to hold the drawer slides on I used a router template to hog out the waste. I then chiseled the edges square.

 

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[rrich1]

With the rear joint pieces cut out either by router or table saw it was time to focus on the front mortises. A lot of these were dual tenons as well. See second pic for all the white! This didn't even include the top rails which added even more! A drill press made pretty short work of hogging out the waste. The rest was all chisel work.

 

After those were done I mathed out the placement of the groove for the panels to fit in to. I nailed it on the first try and was extremely happy. The side panels were actually two panels with a divider. I again used the drill press to hog out the mortise, chiseled it, and fit the tenon from the table saw.

 

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[rrich1]

After the grooves were cut I put a taper on the legs. I used a router jig and flush cut bit for this. I cleaned the pieces up on the jointer.

 

Up next was the top rails. The tops of the legs needed a groove cut out to accept the joinery for the top rails. Table saw made quick work for both the legs and the rails. Once that was cut I rough cut out the curve on the band saw. I finished it up with a drill press drum sander and then a card scraper.

 

Next were the vertical dividers. There is a large one that runs from the bottom to the top down the middle as well as two smaller ones for the top row of drawers.

 

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[rrich1]

The vertical divider required me to cut a notch in the horizontal rail. A whole lot of measuring before I actually cut these.

Pic showing one of the drawer runners and their tenons.

Next it was on the panels. I resawed 4/4 boards on the band saw and book matched them. This is where you can never have too many clamps. [emoji16] About here is where I realized 2 of my back panels were too short. I rough cut them to length of the side dimensions and not the rear. This made me scramble looking for off cuts of mine to use for new panels.

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[rrich1]

I made new rear panels (quick...guess which ones) and the are held in place with the previously cut groove. They are thicler than the groove so they needed a slight rabbit on the back. The panels are locked in with each other with a ship lap joint. A small chamfer on the edges gives depth and hides any alignment imperfections.

I chose the side panels from the nicest figured and colored pieces I had. While not all the same they look good together.

Next I cut the front pieces down to give depth to the piece. You can now see shadow lines and puts them on a different plane than the legs. I really liked this detail.

A quick left chamfer on the bottom helps to keep from getting any tear out when being moved.


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[rrich1]

After cutting the front edges down this exposed a mistake I caught earlier before it got worse. I mis lined a mortise and cut too close to the edge. I stopped myself and corrected it but the damage was done. To fix it I took the off cuts from cutting the front edge off and made small strips. I put super glue in the hole and bent the strips into the hole. This makes it look close to a knot and not a hole. No one will even notice it but it is front and center for me to see.

 

Once that was fixed I put a seal coat of shellac on. I then epoxied the ends together. Once that was dry I epoxied the rest together. The drawer runners are not glued in and I don't think I will either.

 

While that cured I rough cut the lumber for the drawers.

 

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[rrich1]

With the carcass done it was time to move on to the drawers. I found a big piece of ambrosia maple to use...I think it is anyways. There were two large cracks that needed to be filled as they were right in the middle of a drawer. I used black epoxy to help blend it in with the spalting of the wood. This worked incredibly well.

I then laid out the drawer fronts. I decided to cut away the pieces that the dividers occupy instead of cutting one line and making that the edges of the drawers. This gave me room to cut as the board was not straight, planed, or jointed. I used registration marks to make sure the drawers stayed in line. I transfered those lines toy cross cut sled when I cut the final sizes down.

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[rrich1]

Drawers cut to fit. Most are tight and will fine tune once completed.

 

I am extremely happy with the alignment of the drawers!!

 

Now to my current state. I am dovetailing the drawers by hand. I had planned to use a friend's Omni jig but plans change. The fronts are halfbblinds while the rears are through dovetails.

 

My first set of rears I am not impressed with. The second set is better. The front half blinds turned out well but I cracked the front and had to glue it back. Hopefully it hides well.

 

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[rrich1]

Five out of seven drawers are dovetailed. Almost there!

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[rrich1]

Drawers are all dovetailed. I started to route the grooves for the bottoms but it got to late to run the router and I stopped for the night. Pic of most of the waste. I swept up some earlier but it gives you a size comparison vs a gripper.

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[rrich1]

The drawers are all glued up and roughly fit in. Some drawers were more finicky than others.

In order to spread my time management out better I stopped working on the drawers and started on the top. I milled the two pieces down and cut them to width. I didn't quite get the width I wanted but it will work fine. I'm shy by just over 1/2". There is still an overlap just not as much.

I used my newly acquired domino to help join the boards together. I had to stop at this point for the night.

I have a small insect slot on the top side of the board. I plan to fill it with clear epoxy as it is in the sapwood. Should I go ahead and use epoxy to glue to top up or go with tightbond 3 with the darker brown color. I've used epoxy for everything else.

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[rrich1]

With the top all glued up it was time to put a curve on the ends. I made a template from mdf and plywood. I cut the mdf to the size of the top plus enough room for 3/4" piece of plywood on each side. I marked the center and every 1/4" to help with laying out the curve. I used a flexible curve guide to make the curve. This template is flexible yet stiff and has screw holes to hold the shape that you want.

Once I was happy with the curve I used a flush trim bit to trim the mdf to the curve. The curve wasn't perfect and I used a sanding block to do the final shaping.

After the shaping was finished I glued on the plywood pieces which allowed the jig to stay aligned while on the table top. I shimmed one side with painters tape to center the jig.

I put the jig on and traced the curve a d the back line of the jig to reference where I would place the blue tape and to cut the excess off of the front.

I then used the flush trim bit again on the router table and trimmed the top to the jig. This worked very well. The larger size of the jig allowed me a spot to start the bit to the piece.

Before adding the bottom round over I am going to measure the top to the base and Mark my lines.

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[rrich1]

Routed the underside of the top yesterday. Will put either a mild chamfer or just break the top edge. Haven't decided yet.

Also started to make/install the drawer guides. No pics but turning out to be a major pain so far.

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[Bigmikez]

Looking awesome!

[rrich1]

Update.

I made the drawer pulls from Jon Peter's art and home design. Pretty easy to make. I then bit the bullet and drilled the holes for the pulls. This took a lot of measuring and re measuring. I made a jig to aid in making the holes. I started with the bottoms and worked upward. This allowed me to trim the top of the jig and reattach the cleat to keep it in place. I'm really happy with how they turned out. I can't wait to get finish on everything and see the colors together. I was worried about pulls hiding the wood grain vs a knob but these worked very well and don't hide anything.

I then worked on the gaps (after pics taken). I'm pretty happy with the gaps and am not to the point of sanding everything and then adding finish. Some how this part always takes me the longest to get done.

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[rrich1]

More pics

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[rrich1]

Sanded to 320 grit and then applied a wash coat of shellac on the drawers and top. I decided to try and make my own shellac with flakes this time. Overall it worked well but I feel like it was more streaky than using seal coat. Before sanding the wash coat down I will sand clean up the frame from any epoxy that seeped out from glue up and sand to 320.

I also used an iron to steam out some light scratches and dents. In the pic the horizontal dent is Midway on the pic.


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[rrich1]

Today was a good day. I got the first coat of tried and true oil/varnish on all of the drawers and the carcass. I did not get to the top a d the drawer pulls yet. I ran out of room to apply the finish. The oil/varnish really bring the air dried walnut to life.

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