Bow-front chest

[rpike]

Hello all,

I'm looking for evryone's advice on constructing a bow-front chest. I've recently been askedmto build one and having never build anything bowed (on purpose) I'd like to know how yuo all do it? In particular how do you construct door panels and drawer fronts? Do yo prefer bent lamination or start with 8/4 material and hog out the waste?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Beechwood Chip]

The New Yankee Workshop online (reruns of old shows) had a bow front cabinet recently. He took vertical planks, cut the edges at a slight angle, glued them up to form a "stepped" curve, and then hogged out the waste tor form a smooth curve.

[Bob Rozaieski]

You can do it in several different ways depending upon the design of the piece and what tools you currently have.

For something like a chest of drawers, I wouldn't go the bent lamination method. I'd be afraid of any potential for springback. For something like that, all the drawers and drawer blades need to have the same curve in order for them all to close flush and even. I think the best way to do a chest of drawers would be to start with thicker stock and saw the curve in the drawer fronts from it.

If you are just doing something with one drawer or one door, where you don't have to match curves between parts exactly, the bent lamination method will save lumber, at the expense of time. This method requires that you build a form though, and that you can accurately saw and plane/sand very thin veneer like slices to a consistent thickness. Many home shop thickness planers can't plane material that thin without tearing it apart, so your left either hand planing the thin stock, or needing a wide belt sander, or being very careful with a hand held belt sander.

Then there's also the method mentioned above that Norm used, which is basically coopering. You cut a bunch of narrow pieces at an angle on their edges and edge glue them to form a polygonal "curve" that you then fair to a true curve with planes/shokeshaves/scrapers/sanders or whatever else you have. The benefit of this method is that you can make a realy stable substrate for veneering this way. You can also make the substrate from less expensive materials like pine or poplar and only use the expensive figured stuff for the veneer. You can make really stable solid wood doors this way.

You can also use a similar method for drawers. Drawers are even easier because there are no angles involved. You just brick-stack small pieces of pine and/or poplar to make a wide, thick glue-up. Then you saw your bowfront shape into the thick stack just like you would if you started with 8/4 stock. Then you can veneer the stack with your figured veneer and edge it with primary wood.

[rpike]

Thank you to both of you for your responses thus far. Bob, thanks for your advice and podcasts. They're a great help. I'm a recovering power tool user getting tired of the dust, noise and costs associated with continual upgrades. This bow-front chest is my first major mostly hand tool project. I had considered coopering the two door panels as they must be glued up anyway. As for the 5 drawer fronts I like the idea of starting with wider stock and hogging out the waste. For the concave side of the drawer fronts what plane would you recommend Bob? I've considered converting an old woody to a type of compass plane by cutting a radius alone it's length.

[nateswoodworks]

Very fun project! I have made several curved projects and they are also about my favorite projects to date. Laminating and solid stock will both work and it is somewhat a preference thing, basically both have their advantages and disadvantages. Coopering works well for doors if the curve is pretty gradual but if not you have to use so many narrow strips that you can't get a continuous grain pattern. I have never done the brick stacking with veneering method Bob suggested but it was common on older antiques. With the laminating as long as you make a decent jig, choose stable stock, resaw and prepare your parts consistently and take your time you should be fine. Like Bob said there can be issues with springback as well and that is one of the main reasons I prefer a 2 part sandwich style jig vs a form because, at least for me, I seem to get better results. It takes a bit longer to make the jigs and you need a bit more materials for the jig but I think it is well worth it.

I think the main things to consider are

#1 If you want to pony up the money for thick stock, depending on the bow you could be taking high price tags but when talking heirloom furniture it is also worth it.

#2 Even when you get fairly straight grained wood when you cut your curve into your stock the results can be a gamble. Grain changes/patterns and color differences can be way different than what you were thinking so just beware.

#3 The other downside with thick stock it the movement after you form it due to the release of the interior stress. If you do go this route try to get nice and stable stock that is at a low moisture level, rough saw your curves leaving quite a bit extra and leave it sit for a while to let it acclimate and settle down before going any further.

#4 If you want to see lamination lines. This is one of those things that I think only us woodworkers really notice but it does lay heavy on ones mind. One way to get the best of both worlds is to wrap it in trim, something like cock beading (what perv thought of that name for the trim anyway??)

#5 If you are going with a faceframe I would suggest matching your frame to the drawers instead of the otherway around like you would normally do, this helps get perfect lines that match seamlessly.

A compass plane would be perfect no matter if it is a wood bodied of steel, I have never used one but have certainly drooled over them! I have just used planes, spoke shaves, and sanding blocks-I think it is best to just make a few quick sanding blocks to match the curves.

Tommy has awesome videos here following his Bombe that offer a bunch of hints and tips.

Sounds like I great project, I am jealous

Nate

[Bob Rozaieski]

As for the 5 drawer fronts I like the idea of starting with wider stock and hogging out the waste. For the concave side of the drawer fronts what plane would you recommend Bob? I've considered converting an old woody to a type of compass plane by cutting a radius alone it's length.

The plane will work, but if you use the plane alone it will take you a llllloooooonnnnnggggg time to plane the concavity. Instead, draw out the curve on the edge grain of a piece of thick stock. The stock should be just thick enough to get the curve out of, but not too thick or you'll spend a lot of time removing a lot of extra material. If you use a band saw, you can band saw over sized and plane down to the line to clean it up. If you don't use a bandsaw, make a bunch of crosscuts across the drawer face down to about 1/16" shy of the curve line. Make the cuts about 1/2" to 1" apart. Waste out as much of the material as you can with chisels and/or gouges. In-cannel gouges are wonderful for this task. Once you pare close to the line with your gouges, clean up to the line with compass plane and card scraper (or just the card scraper if you don't have the compass plane).

I make cabriole legs a similar way. It's much faster than trying to bowsaw to the line, which never works well in thick stock, because the thin bowsaw blades flex too much to saw accurately square across thick stock. Much faster to make a straight rip with the big rip saw and then gouge down to the layout line with incannel gouges and clean up with a spokeshave and scraper. I don't have a compass plane. Haven't found much use for one...yet.

[rpike]

Nate and Bob, thank you for the further tips. I was going to ask about your prefered method for hogging out the waste on the drawer fronts as I will not be using a bandsaw, but you answered that already. I have studied tommy's videos on shaping the bowed fronts and sided of his bombe, and really the only thing I plan to do differently is not use my TS and dado stack to hog out waste material. At least I hope don't wuss out and resort to that.

The customer is giving me 100% control over the design but did request a complete semi circular chest with lots of storage. I drew up a couple rough sketches for her and showed her the storage advantages of a more traditional bow front chest, so I don't plan on having an aggressive radius to work with. I'm really looking forward to this project as it will stretch my capabilities and force me to develop better hand tool skills. That's something I never aquired as a finish carpenter by trade. I've been power tool dependent for too long.

Thank you gentlemen for the pointers, and keep them coming if you think of anything that could help. Also, I apologize for typos. I work on an iPad and typing sucks. I also can't use sketch up on it, so I still make all working drawings by hand. I throw the iPad in the trash if I didn't need it for my real job. Oh well.

Ryan

[nateswoodworks]

As for the compass plane I was only thinking for the final shaping but for roughing it out Bob gave great advice. I rough out my stock with the bandsaw and then fine tune with the typical planes, chisels, scrapers and sandpaper. Keep us posted and have fun, it sounds like a blast.

Nate