Restoring/rebuilding grandfather's chest of drawers


IronSwalt

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Hi all,

I am about to start restoring/rebuilding my grandfather's chest of drawers (which he made for my grandmother to store LP records) and I'd appreciate some advice on how to proceed. I'm a good DIY'er and have made some wooden things around the house so I know a thing or two but I'm no expert on restoration.

Firstly, here's the chest as it stands:

Chest at start.jpg

The whole unit is quite unstable and loose since it's been put together mostly with screws and very little glue. Since it's not glued, I can disassemble it and repair/replace most of the parts. I'd like to repair the side panels since they're warped. Here's a photo of the side:

Side Gap.jpg

This is a photo from the bottom of the unit:

Side panels warped.jpg

How would I fix this? I guess in theory if I had access to a steamer and a press of some sort I could try flatten it. But would it be more practical to put it through a planer? What type of planer would work? And do I do several passes of gradually reducing thickness while flipping the panels over?

I would also like to glue them together (to increase stability) but the gap between them is about 4mm (5/32"). I'll have to insert another thin piece of wood between the two.

Thanks for any advice - much appreciated.

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Welcome to the forum, IronSwalt !

The problem with just gluing the sides up as one piece and screwing it all back together is wood movement. Wood movement was not taken in consideration when building this piece, hence the huge split in the middle. The grain is running in the wrong direction on the top. Im sure there are other areas to address as well.

As for flattening those pieces out, id probably just do my best with a handplane. Id just knock down the high spots. Not sure you will manage to get it perfectly flat and still have a good amount of material left, its pretty warped.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

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Have to agree with Shane, you will lose too much if you try to make those pieces flat. Are the sides and top made of 2 boards each, or one board each, that happened to split down the middle?

Going out on a limb, I'd say those are pine shelving boards (construction lumber), that wasn't completely dry at the time the piece was built, hence the shrink and warp. You MIGHT be able to clean up the panels and glue them into one piece again, but as Shane said, more attention is needed in re-assembly to account for wood movement. You have a lot of work ahead of you.

If you proceed, maybe post more photos at various stages of disassembly, and we can suggest ways to make it work.

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You could rip those planks into narrower pieces, joint the faces, plane to thickness, edge joint & then glue them back up. You'l loose a little bit of width & may have to add a piece to make it up.

Is the top square? If so, rotate it 90 degrees so the grain is running side to side rather than front to back.

As the other guys have suggested, there are probably other areas that need to be addressed with regards to wood movement.

The most practical thing to do would be to toss the whole thing in the fire, but if it has great sentimental value, it may be worth the effort to restore it.

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I'm going to go counter to what the others have said so far.  

Absolutely zero offence intended but by your question, it doesn't sound like you would have a jointer, planer, tablesaw and hand planes. most diyers don't. 

I would not attempt to turn the piece your grandfather into a seperate piece which it inevitably would if you end up joining the sides and tops , adding pieces to fill the gaps from lost width and so on.  my initial move would be to take the drawers out and see how you could block or brace it it make it stable.   then sand down and give a new finish. 

Although not a fine work to be displayed at a gallery,  your grandfather built it and with some maintenance could outlast you.

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I agree with Brendon. Reinforce from the inside where possible.  You must allow for wood movement. If adding a brace across the width of a wide board a screw can be put in the middle in a round hole, all the other screws should be put in an elongated hole. I use a round headed screw with a washer under it, I also wax the washer. Wide boards will expand and contract with the seasons as the moisture content of the wood changes.

I would do little to the exterior just some touch up work. 

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Yeah,  what they said.  I'd try to leave it alone as much as possible - otherwise it becomes something your grandfather *didn't* make.

Reinforce the case pieces where possible, and maybe clean up the outside a little.  If it were me, the only place I'd do serious work would be on the drawers to make sure they were solid and usable - no sense not making it a usable piece.  Given the history, would be a great place to store family items, pictures, etc.

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Hi all,

Thanks for all the posts! Glad to see this forum is active.

Disassembly is complete! As suspected, very little glue was used. Here are some pics for your perusal:Disassembly Progress.jpg

Broken Joint.jpg

All parts.jpg

I took the unit to a local woodworking shop and they suggested the wood is maranti. The top is not square, unfortunately, so I can't just rotate it 90 degrees.

The perfectionist inside me says I should go the rip-joint-plane route so that the finished product looks new when completed, but I appreciate Jfitz's comment about it being the piece my grandfather didn't make! I'm torn.

Let me start with sanding to bare wood and contemplate :)

Thanks again everyone!

 

 

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