Popular Post Dknapp34 Posted January 22, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted January 22, 2017 Need a dresser for my son's room, so here goes. I like the contrast of cherry and ash, so the body of the dresser will be cherry with ash for the drawer fronts. I had a bunch of air dried Cletus cherry that I got off of craigslist that I was planning on using. Once I started milling it down, however, I discovered that the color was butt. Lots of greenish streaks. There was some nice figure, but the color just wasn't working. So I hopped over to the lumber yard and picked up some new cherry. I'll probably use the Cletus wood for the bottom, since it won't show. I mostly finished milling the new cherry for the top and sides, just need a few more passes through the planer. To see how the grain will look once it's glued up, I dry clamped the boards together: Kind of hard to tell from the crappy phone pic, but the idea is that the finished panel will have cathedrals in the middle and straight grain on the outside. The two outside boards have about 6" of straight grain each before the grain starts getting wonky, and middle board is around 9" wide with straight grain on either side of the cathedrals. The plan is to have the finished panel be 20"W, so I should have just enough stock to get the grain match I'm looking for, once the two outside boards are ripped down to size. The plan is for the case to be mitered with the grain waterfalling down the sides. The miters will be reinforced with dominos (can't wait to put that thing to use!) and dovetail keys. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dknapp34 Posted January 22, 2017 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted January 22, 2017 Don't want this to become a commercial for Festool or anything, but holy crap the domino is awesome! Just finished gluing up the panel for the dresser and it was one of the easiest glue ups I've ever had. No messing with cauls, no tapping with a mallet to get one spot aligned only to knock another spot out of alignment, no rushing to get everything close enough before the glue sets. Just knock it together and everything is perfectly aligned. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dknapp34 Posted January 30, 2017 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Made some more progress. Mitered the panels for the case. Here's the setup I used. TS blade at 45 degrees buried in a sacrificial mdf fence: Test fit: Got a little more tear out than I would have wanted. I think I was putting too much downward pressure when I was feeding the cut through, which caused the blade to flex a little. It's not too bad though and it should clean up fine when it's all done. Next step, I made some web frames out of cletus cherry and cut stopped dados into the center divider and side panels. Test fit of one side of the case: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Man, this thing is looking great. Good choice in going back for some neat grained cherry. Son and dad both will be proud of this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Looking good ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeslayer Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 this is going to be a nice ride, thanks for taking us along, and great work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat60 Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Very nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 I've never seen the 45* with the sacrificial fence done before. Cool idea but not sure why you did it this way? Enlighten me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dknapp34 Posted January 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 2 minutes ago, K Cooper said: I've never seen the 45* with the sacrificial fence done before. Cool idea but not sure why you did it this way? Enlighten me. It makes doing the miters pretty foolproof. With the blade buried in the fence, you can't over cut the miter. You just set the blade height so that the outside edge of the teeth are the same height as the thickness of your stock. Think I first saw this technique in in an old fine woodworking. I used it before with good success. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Any issue with the off-cut kicking back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Looks great ! Are you going to domino the case miters? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 It works on the miters and the offcut can go flying but knowing this and standing off to the side is prudent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dknapp34 Posted January 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 6 hours ago, shaneymack said: Looks great ! Are you going to domino the case miters? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Yup. I'm domino-ing everything. By the time I'm done, the dresser will be about 40% domino. 6 hours ago, wtnhighlander said: Any issue with the off-cut kicking back? What Steve said. Plus, the off cuts are so small that they don't do much damage. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Coming along nicely. Thanks for taking the time to do the journal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dknapp34 Posted February 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Finished the other two web frames and did a dry fit of the entire case: Miters on the top come together pretty well (no clamps applied, just a dry fit): Miters on the bottom, not so much: My cletus-wood bottom panel potato chipped on me after I glued it up. I'm not that concerned though. I think it will come together once I get clamps on it. I'll probably make some corner clamping jigs to help with the glue up though. I used the ugly cletus cherry for the web frames, which I left recessed an inch back from the front of the case. I will be cutting some 1" strips of the good cherry to glue to the front of the web frames, bringing them flush with the front. Since they will be showing, I wanted them to be from the same wood I used on the case. I probably could have made thee entire front piece of the web frames from the good cherry and then notched it so that it fit into the stopped dado and was flush with the front, but I figured if I cut a separate strip and glued it on after the case was together, it would be easier to get a perfect fit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted February 4, 2017 Report Share Posted February 4, 2017 I missed this when you first posted. I found it when you referenced it in Isaac's Miter thread. But it looks like you have some nice work going on DK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dknapp34 Posted February 17, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2017 Progress slowed down a bit because I got sidetracked with some other things, but I did manage to start making the drawers. This will be the first time I've done half blind dovetails by hand. I've cut a fair number of regular dovetails, but it's been about two years since I've done that, so my muscle memory is completely gone. All in all, I'd say they came out not too bad. Hopefully by the last drawer they'll be perfect. Unfortunately, I dropped my naniwa 8000 grit waterstone on the ground while I was mid-drawer and cracked it in half. On the bright side, I've been meaning to try out different stones, so it was a good opportunity to do that. I bought Shapton 8000 and 16000 grit glass stones to replace it. I honed up all of my PMV-11 chisels using the Shaptons and I have to say, I'm impressed. Not sure if its the stones of the fact that I'm going to a higher grit, but the edge was fantastic--better than I've ever had. I'm also starting to experiment with freehand sharpening. I did the primary bevel with a guide, but I freehand sharpened the secondary bevel and it worked well. I might try to go all freehand soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prov163 Posted February 17, 2017 Report Share Posted February 17, 2017 Looks like you hand cut those half blind dovetails. Getting good at hand cut dovetails in all their forms is my joinery goal for this year. I like the whole project. Design question: what made you decide to use center glides instead of side hung wooden slides? Is it based on size and expected weight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted February 17, 2017 Report Share Posted February 17, 2017 Hey, those half blind dt's look great. Don't know how you can improve on the last ones. Looking good dude! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dknapp34 Posted February 17, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2017 10 hours ago, prov163 said: Design question: what made you decide to use center glides instead of side hung wooden slides? Is it based on size and expected weight? Nothing in particular. I saw that Marc used center glides in his modern dresser guild build and it looked like a good option, so I went with it. 8 hours ago, K Cooper said: Hey, those half blind dt's look great. Don't know how you can improve on the last ones. Looking good dude! Thanks, but notice I didn't provide a close up shot... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dknapp34 Posted March 8, 2017 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted March 8, 2017 So I've been working away on the dresser, but forgetting to take pics of the progress. All of the drawers are dovetailed and half of them are glued up. I'm working on finessing the fit of the ones that are glued up. I also put a coat of shellac on the case. I'll probably do one more coat when it's all done before applying a wiping varnish. Pics of the dresser with the three glued-up drawers: Dovetail glamour shot: 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted March 9, 2017 Report Share Posted March 9, 2017 Darn nice! Keep up the good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prov163 Posted March 9, 2017 Report Share Posted March 9, 2017 Really looking great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted March 9, 2017 Report Share Posted March 9, 2017 Darn nice dovetails. What muscle memory you have left is more than I ever had. I like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dknapp34 Posted March 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2017 4 hours ago, Ronn W said: Darn nice dovetails. What muscle memory you have left is more than I ever had. I like it. Thanks, Ronn. That's the last drawer I did and I definitely got better as I went along. Some of the other ones didn't come out as well, but overall I was pretty happy with how how they came out. Definitely an improvement from the last time I did hand cut dovetails. The biggest difference, I think, is that I got a good marking knife since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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