Greene and Greene Inspired 9 Drawer Dresser

[gee-dub]

Did ya ever notice how the projects for your own home tend to take forever since everything else comes first?   There is a bedroom set that people seem to like.  I have done them in cherry and mahogany.  This one is for me so it is walnut.  I also altered the dimensions some what to make it fit better for me and my home.  This is the general idea:

It is a carcass with web frames although the drawers will use full extension slides and not rest on the frames.  Other folks prefer side-hung with wooden runners and I am happy to do that.  For myself, I like being able to get to the whole drawer.  The web frame parts are hard maple, half-lap at the corner and dado'd for vertical dividers in some places.

The frames have a groove along the long front edge to accept the drawer divider trim.

The side panel frame parts I get from resawn lumber in order to make the figure similar. 

The SU drawing doesn't show it much but, you will see the side detail which is an oversized tsuba shape created with some opposing cloud-lift shapes later on.  I use templates for this and due to the different dimensions I had to make a few new ones.  I use 1/4" MDF, rough the shape out on the bandsaw and then fair it with rasps, scrapers and files.  I even have an old shave that I use for this.

I gang the side frame parts and dado them for the web frames.

I use a Mortise Pal to make floating M&T joints for the side frame construction.

You can see the recess for the floating panels here.  The small upper and lower "connector" pieces will get rabbeted to complete the shape of the recess.

Gratuitous clamp shot.

Part of my design uses a shallow, but wide, rabbet at the top and bottom of the side frame assemblies.  These accept the trim you will see in a little while.

There is discussion now and gain about part selection out of a board as opposed to just grabbing the next board in the stack.  Here I am selecting the portions that will serve as the floating panels in the end frames.

These panels get a groove for a spline.

And I end up with this.  The floating panels are pre-finished so I don't get any peek-a-boo bare wood during seasonal movement.

I find it easier to attach the web frames to one side at the bench.

You can sort of see how the frame fits into the shallow dado and acts as a keeper for the floating panel.  the picture is not real self explanatory but, I can talk about that more if anyone is curious.

And its starting to look like something . . .

Some more templates that had to be done to accommodate the different scale of this one piece.

The drawer divider trim is cut from one board to retain some figure consistency.  I run a couple of dado's on the router table and then rip off the trim at the table saw . . . rinse and repeat.

I lay out the front cloud lift divider trim and things start to come together even more.

And more still.

Time for the lower trim parts.  I cut a lot of exaggerated finger joints.  I have fouled enough of them to get pretty good at it and now just do this at the tablesaw.

I make my own leveling feet.  These are made out of an old red oak door that I scrapped out.  I can't remember how many levelers I have gotten out of that free old door.

Very few parts make it from machine to assembly.  That is particularly true of the cloud-lift profiles drawer parts.

More fingers.  Since several of the drawer fronts are asymmetrical I only get to gang cut a couple of sets.  I am doing that here . . .

Here's the drawer parts all roughed out.

This may be interesting.  I want the full thickness of the drawer sides to show in the finger joint but, I also want full extension glides that require clearance.  My solution is to bury the glide in the drawer side.

Closer and closer.

I have a low angle block that I have fitted with a bob tail.  I use this as a sort of a #3 for fitting drawers and so forth.

Alright, everybody's moving in and out real nice.

Time for a top for this thing.

I route a tongue all the way around as the top will float in a frame.

Making the frame parts exceeds the depth of cut on my tablesaw so I finish them up by hand.

And here the roughed out parts for the top are dry fit together.

I round the ends of the fingers.

The corners of these joints are held with pegs which are hidden by the square pillow plugs later on.

Figure 8 connectors in 8 positions hold the top.

And its time for some pulls.

Once again some sort of hand tool seems to be involved in almost any part.

You can see here that the pulls are pulled from a single board.  Its just something I like to do on things like this.  Some folks notice and mention this to me, some never do.

I use a "strap" detail that comes from a small letter box in the Freeman Ford house.  I choose my material.

In this case I will use the right and left pieces and return the middle to stock.

They get coved.

And template routed.

I then use a thin kerf medium tooth count blade to cut the easment where the strap will mate to the bottom trim.

A sanding block shaped with the profile of the trim assures a good fit.

As an aside, here is a foolproof way to mark your depth.

Now it is ready for some touch up surface prep here and there and I will lay the finish on.

It may be into next week before I get the first coats on.  As per the norm, something else gets priority for the next few days.

I'll continue this as I start to apply the finish.  I will need to make a bunch of ebony plugs.  I make these in that hang-time that comes between coats of finish.  I add the plugs before the last couple of coats.

[Coop]

THIS will be a cool build with great progress and design so far.

[Guest]

Wow.  Looking good.  Nice clean work.  What did you use to finish the panels? 

[Eric.]

Awesome.  You do beautiful work man.  Clean.  I appreciate your attention to detail.

But shame on you for those metal slides.  We can talk about that later.

[JosephThomas]

Wow that's beautiful, excellent board selection for the drawer fronts

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Llama]

WOW! Very nice work.

As @Eric. said, metal slides. I have to ask why bottom mount slides were not used for this. 

[Guest]

I am on the fence on metal slides.  He did a nice job recessing them so it does look nice and clean.  For a functional item that is used everyday they are very practical.  I have huge humidity swings in my house, about 20% in the winter and 60%+ in the summer, and that is with HVAC running 365, 24/7.  A friction fit drawer simply won't work, I don't care what anyone says. Side hung wood slides do work, but will be loose in the winter.   

[wdwerker]

The undermount slides like the ones Blum makes are more expensive but they work very well. Plus you can get the soft close feature. But I guess it's a little late for this project.

[Mick S]

Really beautiful work, gee-dub! Great attention to detail from grain/figure selection to putting the small radius on the sanding block to match the trim blocks. Great work!

[mat60]

Great.work..Like.the.idea.of.undermount.slides.but.never.have.used.them..I.think.you.dado.the.bottom.of.draw

[wdwerker]

Typical undermount slides need a 1/2 deep recess under the drawer bottom. A knotch is cut on both sides at the rear of the drawer and a catch/ locking device is screwed on in both front corners.

Usually either 1/2" or 5/8" thick drawer sides are accommodated . A 5/16 to 3/8 clearance gap is left on both sides of the drawer. It's smart to get the slides first and do a sample/test drawer so you understand the process before you make the drawers.

Blum and Grass make a good product that has adjustments to get the drawer level and plumb. Some of the cheaper off brand undermount slides are harder to install with less or no adjustments. I tried 2 off brands and the savings is not worth the time and frustration.

[Immortan D]

Really beautiful.

[Chet]

That is a really awesome dresser gee-dub.

[gee-dub]

8 hours ago, Mike. said:

Wow.  Looking good.  Nice clean work.  What did you use to finish the panels? 

Thanks all for the kind words . . . I use an oil varnish blend with a alkyd resin, mineral spirits and BLO in a 1:1:1 mix with a dash of japan drier.  The side floating panels get a bit of brown dye to make them contrast the balance of the piece. 

You can see the contrast here on the tall boy.  I forgot to give my usual disclaimer that I am lacking the photographer's gene.  There's nothing wrong with the camera.  My photographer friend takes great pictures with it .

8 hours ago, Eric. said:

Awesome.  You do beautiful work man.  Clean.  I appreciate your attention to detail.

But shame on you for those metal slides.  We can talk about that later.

I accept all the deserved abuse on the metal slides .  Pieces made for others have had side hung on hard maple runners or piston-fit riding on the frames and a center rail.  I also usually put panels in the web frames as some folks like to over stuff their drawers and I don't want things getting hung up in there.  The tall boy that this unit matches is built this way so the lowboy will be an experiment.

Under-mounts would give me the full extension and the clean look.  Maybe I should offer that to people.  This one is a mate for a tall-boy already in place so I went with the same side mounted, recessed slides and agree that hidden would make for a better overall product.

[Unknown craftsman]

Looks great and a nice work flow.

Wow that's a lot of clamps.

 

Aj

[wdwerker]

I just noticed the cloud lift built into the drawer fronts. That is an incredible feature ! Consider me completely impressed .

[Immortan D]

I can't get enough of this dresser. Visited this thread like 10 times already. It's a damn Ferrari.

 

[treeslayer]

absolutely beautiful gee-dub, i am a big fan of G&G, Henry and Charles are smiling down on you, can't wait to see the finish go on

[RichardA]

Makes me feel like a rookie!  Damn nice work young'un!

[..Kev]

I'm not a huge fan of G&G but, certainly appreciate the craftsmanship and attention to detail!  Also, I like what you did with the drawer glides!

[Southwood]

gee-dub for president, yea it's that good. Great work old friend 

[Just Bob]

Absolutely beautiful!

[mikemenifee]

Absolutely fantastic! Great work.

[gee-dub]

Shucks fellas, thanks again .  On the G&G stuff I use oil varnish blends.  I avoid colorants as a rule but, do add a bit of blue/green to genuine mahogany since I feel it is too orange.  I do nothing for the sipo and sepele cousins. They oil up a toasty brown all on their lonesome. 

For walnut I like to add a colorant that will maintain the "new" oiled walnut color over time.  Unlike something like cherry, walnut lightens over time with sun exposure.  Now I'm no finishing guru and don't declare this a recommendation but, here's what I do.

I sold this tip to a magazine but, since it has been out in print for awhile I'm sure I'm not breaking any agreement by sharing it here.  I used to fuss with measuring spoons and cups for mixing.  Over time one develops a comfort zone so now I just use ratios.

You want a fairly straight sided container for this.  Grab a piece of scrap and stick it in your jar, mark a line where the "full" level will be.  You now have 100% of that container by height.  For a 1:1:1 ratio put marks dividing the remaining length by 3.  For 50/50 divide the remaining length in half.  Mine is 1:1:1 plus a total equal amount of a mixture that is colored so my stick looks a bit weird but, you get the idea.

Drop the stick in the jar.  Add you first ingredient till you hit the first mark.  Add your second till you hit the second mark and so on.  When you're done, use the stick to stir (and later re-stir) with.

Here is the top with 3 treatments of this oil/varnish/color blend. This pretty well sets the color and matches what the material looks like without color which is just what I'm after.  After I have used this mix for the whole piece I let it alone for a day or two.

I then return with a 1:1:1 blend of alkyd resin, BLO and mineral spirits to build film.  If I am not getting the build I am after I add a bit more varnish.  If the mix gets syrupy too quickly I add a bit more mineral spirits. At this stage their are no colorants so adjusting the mix is pretty safe and easy.  Usually 3 or 4 coats of this blend does the trick.

[gee-dub]

On July 22, 2016 at 6:08 PM, Lester Burnham said:

How long have you been woodworking, if you don't mind my asking?

Thanks Lester.  Long ago and far away I had a small business making sound reinforcement speaker cabinets.  These were basically lock mitered plywood boxes that were coated with fiberglass a-la 1970's Cerwin-Vega.  Nothing much like the furniture I always wanted to make but, junior high woodshop paid off a bit and I managed to keep all my digits.  Life intervened and after a nearly 30 year hiatus I started making furniture about 10 years ago. 

I have a day job so clients need to be patient.  Four months to deliver a relatively complex piece is not unusual.  So far word of mouth keeps me busy but, I hope to retire before I get too tired to enjoy it and make more pieces per year.  This may require a lot of naps but, we'll see