8 Drawer 2 Door Dresser

[Chestnut]

3 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

rotating through a series of the exact same outfit, like you-know-who.

I honestly didn't know that about Einstein, thought I'd say Paul is closer than I am. I at least have different colored t-shirts, sweaters, and pants.

[JohnG]

A number of big names have multiples of the exact same outfit that they rotate through. One less decision to make each day.

[Mark J]

23 hours ago, Chestnut said:

I'm excited for this project to move along. 

You think you're looking forward to the end of your project.  Just imagine how Megan's going to feel in a few months!  

Just catching up here.  Congratulations to you and Megan.

[Chestnut]

More progress and a question.

I got the other side assembly glued. Below is a picture of the space balls glued into the groove with CA glue.

I also used the little LN plane i bought recently to add some chamfer details to the legs.

The tool is a joy to use, and it also gets quite a bit of interest from non-woodworkers. The panel for the 2nd side turned out much better than the first. Below the left side assembly is the most recent one who's grain I feel looks better. It incorporates some sapwood but I think that could look interesting in time. This will likely be the side of the dresser that won't be directly against a wall in it's initial home.

So now my question. You may need to reference the design. I have some stock for the front dividers that is a perfect use here as it will present very strait grain. They are also off cuts so it's also a way to eliminate material from the shop. However because they are almost perfect quarter sawn cherry there will be some cherry ray fleck, see below. The ray fleck isn't super consistent, so that said would it look odd or bad for the divider material to have some of that ray fleck present. I did my best to highlight the grain so you can see what I'm talking about in the images below but on the whole it does blend well. I'm asking for the higher level woodworker opinion. I know that 99.9% of people won't notice, but at this point I don't know if the client the dresser is intended for will have a discerning eye or not....

Personally I'm on the fence. I think it looks awesome but the uneven nature leads me to 2nd guess my self.

[treeslayer]

I would get off the fence on this one, I like it and I think it’s only going to get better with age, great work so far as usual

[curlyoak]

I always offer defects or odd and different as long as it is solid. It accentuates the natural. From my prospective...

I make book match panels per each divided area. In other words on your project I would have 3 book match with narrower center styles, as opposed to 1 book match interrupted by styles. Nonetheless the one you like is very nice.

 

 

[wtnhighlander]

Drew, I love the appearance of the ray fleck, but if this were a piece for sale, or a commission, I would avoid that stick for its lack of uniformity. Its a big risk any bits that stand out will be loved or hated by the client. If YOU are the client, then only you (and Megan) can decide.

[Chestnut]

I had a bunch of PM work meetings so I only got a few hours in this past week, other than the weekend. I've started on the large task of making the dust/web frames. I got a rough idea of the material needed and milled up parts.

For some of the dust frame parts I needed a cherry edge band for the visual face. The past few times I've had to do banding I've gotten into the habbit of using my bench as a caul. It works amazing well to distribute pressure evenly along a joint where one of the pieces is very flexible.

I needed to get everything to finished thickness to figure out some relative dimensions with in the case of the dresser. Once I figured out the thickness I could measure the width and cut the front rails and begin the back structure. I also need a middle divider with rails to support the dust frames in the middle of the case. This will connect to the back of the dresser to provide additional support to the frames. The front bottom rail will be very small and delicate looking so the weight from the drawers will need some additional support. The case is upside down in the picture below.

Making the dust frames has been mentally challenging. I've needed to try and figure out dimensions and ways to trim the frames such that everything is square. To aid in this I made a glue jig on my spare work bench. I took the extra leg I made just in case and clamped it down. I then squared a corner I then placed the plywood so the 2 sides that were square would provide me a square corner to clamp into.

When gluing the dust frames I just made sure that the frame was against the piece on the right and the plywood snugly. Each of the frames came out nice and square this way. Some of the frames I made a bit oversized and will be cut down later. Now that most of the dust frames and together I put glue on the rear structure and glued it together. I will then remove it from the case to cut a rabbet for the plywood backer.

I'm trying to create as many sub assemblies as possible so when the glue up happens it has as few of parts as possible.

[Chestnut]

I finally took the time to finish my Clamp Extenders (tm). I used maple to make the cap, cutting the groove with what ever table saw blade was on at the time. I sized it so the bar would be a little tight. This addition makes the extended clamps easier to use. They don't flop around any more.

With all the dust frames together it was just sizing and making joinery. There were 2 odd dust frames for the cabinet section where I joined a dust frame to some cherry ply to provide a smooth bottom.

To ensure square they were over sized and trimmed to fit. Joinery is goign to be mostly domino joinery to make sure things are in the right spot. There should be enough long grain glue surface on the dust frames that anything more substantial isn't needed. I used a piece of ply cut to 6.5" which is the drawer opening height for all the drawers. I used it as a fence for the domino. Below shows how the fence was used and how the parts came together.

I didn't take pictures of this part but after joinery was all completed I cut a rabbet in all of the dust frames for a plywood panel. To make clamping during assembly easier I plan to install the panels at a later time. I also rabbeted the back for a plywood panel, the back plywood should increase stiffness.

I completed multiple dry assemblies to get an idea of how the glue up would go. I finally decided to make the internal structure a sub assembly and then join the remainder of the case together after. In the image below i circled in red the structure that I glued as a sub assembly. The dresser is upside down.

Following the drying of the internal subassembly, I did another dry fit for the sides and dust frames. I determined that I needed to glue in the plywood for the rear panel before the final case glue up. This did create some problems for the eventual glue up. To solve those problems I drilled some strategic holes in the back plywood to allow clamps to be poked through. Once the dresser is against the wall no one will notice the holes. Also the holes will help prevent air pressure from building up in the case making the drawers hard to close.

The final step was to take the plunge and apply glue. I used epoxy for the final glue up to provide enough working time. It's a good thing I did this as the glue up took me a full episode of wood talk. about 3/4 through I ran out of epoxy and had to mix a 2nd batch as well.

The bottom 3 parallel clamps are through holes in the back of the plywood. I wanted to use my bench as a caul to keep the whole assembly flat, which i accomplised with the green handled clamps in the picture.

There was a lot going on in the glue up. I wish I'd have set up a time lapse camera on a tripod as I had a good method but it's hard to explain without pictures. In the picture below you can see some of the smaller f style clamps that i put through holes in the back. This was to attach the center divider to the back to increase stiffness in the entire structure.

The bottom clamp in the above picture was tightened down, but during the process I determined that I needed to remove it to get the through clamps in place. After I got the through clamps in place I forgot to put it back on. Luckily the joints at the bottom side were clamped tight and didn't separate. So oops that could have been bad.

[wtnhighlander]

Sounds like a good plan saved you a lot of headache. The carcase is looking good!

[Coop]

Air pressure build up!

Helluva glue up. Looking great Nut! 

[gee-dub]

On 1/10/2022 at 11:50 AM, Tom King said:

I would use drawers instead of cubbies.  The diaper changing stage will pass before you know it, and then it would be more suitable for a regular bedroom in the future.

I dealt with this same issue.  There are 'baby things' that are tall for a drawer but it can be hard to reach specific items in a cubbie while changing a baby.  I added a tray at the end of the changing pad corral that fit the top of the dresser. This kept everything right at hand and was made removable. 

Sure enough, before you knew it that topper was off and the dresser is serving more typical dresser duty.

[Chestnut]

So i should go into this a bit more. The cabinet doors we're just something that both Megan and I thought was cool and added something interesting to the dresser. It may have uses for changing it may not. It may have good uses in the future for  storage of tall awkward items that don't fit in a drawer it may not. We liked the design for what it was, and not it's potential for temporary or interim uses. We've since hashed out some plans and it's unlikely that we'll use the cabinet areas for "changing" storage any way.

We'll just be purchasing a changing pad, these things are so inexpensive and for short uses it makes little sense to make anything. As a point of information, there are standards for changing stations and it appears that having dies on the ends does not meet the standards. A lot of kid items have best practices and instead of trying to one up typical practices I'm just going to buy stuff. If it were up to me I'd just use a towel on a bed....

[JohnG]

Different things work for different people. I like your design and wouldn’t change anything about it because of changing table “norms”. Most of the marketing points of changing tables/stations are pointless anyway.

We use a cheap changing pad on top of my wife’s dresser (wide and low dresser) and keep the wipes and diapers in a spare plastic bin on the dresser. 

[Chet]

If you decide down the road that you would like to use the cabinet area as a drawer area, I am sure you could find a nice wicker basket that would fit in there.

[Chestnut]

It's been a while. I've still be chugging away but the Olympics are on and I dialed back shop time to watch curling and a few other thins with Megan.

Out of the clamps and right side up the case looks pretty good. It has a nice delicate look and feel which was one things I was aiming for. It is by no means delicate though.

Now it's time to fill the case with drawers. I'm using paper birch here, with semi-hand cut dovetails. The material is air dried which makes it a joy to work with. It was also dirt cheap.

Jointed planed the stack is a LOT less precarious. I was shooting for 1/2" thick. No ideal what it ended up being but all the saw marks disappeared so I stopped planing.

I cut a rabbet in all the material for the drawer bottoms. I glue plywood bottoms into a rabbet instead of capturing the bottom in a groove. I don't like the depth loss and like that the plywood bottom will add some rigidity to the drawer in the long run. This is how I make shop drawers that hold a LOT more weight so if you think there is a strength loss here think again.

The drawers will slide with in the openings with no runners or ball bearing slides. As a result some care needs to be take the avoid the drawer sticking. I accomplish this by making each drawer intentionally not square or rather trapezoidal not a rectangle. The rear drawer panel is slightly narrower than the front.

The rear will have a gap of about 1/8" while the front fits snugly. I want the fronts to be snug to provide some leeway for cleanup post dovetailing.

Once the front and backs are cut to size I started with the rear dovetails. Mostly to get practice, and it's good i did as some of the rear dove tails are a hot mess. I use a tepered jig with the band saw to do the initial cuts. TBH i don't know if these are the tails or pins, I think it's the tails but it's also not really a big concern of mine to memorize all this stuff.

The screw hooks the material so that once the fence is set you can make consistent cuts. I used my wheel gauge to mark the baseline so I knew how far to cut. Then it's as simple as making the cut flipping the board making the 2nd cut and moving on. After all the cuts were made I used the band saw to remove the waste in the center and chiseled the baseline.

This method produces a nice symmetrical result. Don't be misled though the slightly different board widths meant that each piece was still quite unique.

I then transferred lines to the ends of the back piece to cut the mating part. An important step here is to make sure the boards are lined up. Some use a blue tape trick some use a rabbeting plane. I have good luck just setting the piece up in the vise and using hand pressure. The end grain is marked with the angled line resulting in an angled cut, to help make future work easier the lines are extended vertically down to a base line marked with a marking gauge. These aren't as easy to cut on a saw so I did some wasting cuts on the band saw and with a coping saw.

I removed some additional waste at the table saw. I raised the blade so it was just shy of the base line. Think of this as handing the work off to an apprentice.....

After most of the bulk was removed I used a chisel to chop back to the base line. The base line was set using a marking gauge. The picture below shows a bit more what is left.

It may be hard to see but there is a vertical line. I slowly pare into the backer board working back to this vertical line. Once I'm close enough I drop the chisel edge in that line and pare towards the back using the knife line on the end grain. This takes a bit of practice but once I got the hang of it I was able to knock out all 4 corners of a drawer in an hour. That was marking, removing waste, chopping, transferring to pin board, removing waste, removing more waste, chopping baseline, and paring to final fit. The left pin shows the finished result.

Once the drawers were all done I glued them together and fit the drawer height with a hand plane. The little Lie Nielsen block plane i bought recently worked amazing to flush up the pins and tails.

I'm goign to jump forward and show some dovetail pics so you can realize I'm human and they are not all perfect and gap free. These are drawers now show pieces. This is one of the better drawers. Some have corners that blew out.

All the drawers in the case. This is before the veneer fronts were applied.

One of the arguments that I've seen against traditional drawers in favor of BB slides is being full extension. I'm not sure how much more full extension you can get than this. IMO this is good enough. The other argument is sticky or stuck drawers. That is a simple sizing issue and can present with ball bearing slides just as easily as wood on wood. Ball bearing slides don't operate nearly as beautifully silky smooth as waxed wood on wood.

To face the drawers I cut some veneer from some curly cherry stock I had. I went more for a color match than to grab the craziest curly board I had. The process isn't exciting. Cut some veneer and sand on the drum sander. Once done glue veneer to drawer face. I used a towel and my bench as a caul to get somewhat even pressure.

The drum sander leaves a surface that doens't quite allow this wood to put it's best foot forward.... I used my smoothing planes and my usually drawer trick to suspend the drawer off the side of my bench. I think this will show more of the beauty of the wood...

Yes this is the less curly stock....

[legenddc]

Very cool to see the process and I like the veneer fronts. Nice way to cover the dovetails and not waste space/materials with a 3/4" drawer front.

[pkinneb]

I saw this piece in person Saturday morning and its looking mighty fine! I'm in awe by how many pieces Drew has made for their home...someday  

[JohnG]

On 2/21/2022 at 8:39 PM, pkinneb said:

I saw this piece in person Saturday morning and its looking mighty fine! I'm in awe by how many pieces Drew has made for their home...someday  

I’m sure they look even better in person.

Someday is what I keep telling myself too.

[Mark J]

@Chestnut, I'm curious about the trapezoid shaped drawers bit.  How much narrower is the back of the drawer as compared to the front?  Does the deliberate deviation from square complicate the dovetails?

[gee-dub]

Coming along just beautifully.  Cherry is so satisfying to work with.  The proportions feel just right to me with a good solid stance while not being visually 'heavy'.

[Chet]

I like all the proportions on this.  Nice design and nice work.

On 2/21/2022 at 8:09 AM, Chestnut said:

I cut a rabbet in all the material for the drawer bottoms. I glue plywood bottoms into a rabbet instead of capturing the bottom in a groove. I don't like the depth loss

Another way to go about this is a groove in the bottom of the sides, front and back and a rabbet in the bottom of the bottom piece.  So if you are using something like 1/2 material for the bottom, you would cut a 1/4 inch grove a 1/4 inch up from the bottom of your draw sides, fronts and backs.  Then cut a rabbet all the way around the bottom side of the bottom.  This leaves a tongue around the top side of the bottom to fit in the grooves and still gives maximum depth to the drawer. 

[Chestnut]

21 hours ago, Mark J said:

@Chestnut, I'm curious about the trapezoid shaped drawers bit.  How much narrower is the back of the drawer as compared to the front?  Does the deliberate deviation from square complicate the dovetails?

About 1/8" narrower at the back then the front. I've done 1/4" before but that turned out to be a bit excessive. It does not create issues with the dovetails. I just cut them like normal, with the 18" deep drawers the amount they are out of square is difficult to measure.

@Chet That is an excellent way to do drawer bottoms, I've done them that way as well.

 

[Chestnut]

Man I'm kinda slacking on updates. Last weekend I applied the finish so I've been sitting on pictures for a week. The doors were simple frame and panel doors make them a bit big and size them to the opening. Installing the hinges threw me for a loop, as a result I didn't take any pictures. My chisel was too large to fit inside the door opening so there was a lot of swearing that occurred before I realized that I had socket chisels and I could take the handle off and use a shorter handle.... butt chisels take a hike! I lifted the dresser on my bench and installation was easy after i had shorter chisels.

After the doors were installed there was probably 3-4 hours of easing edges and touch up hand sanding. I also applied shellac to the inside and outside of all the drawers, runners and inner cabinets. The I applied 3 coats of wipe on poly, regretted the decision to apply as much as I did and then split the piece into parts. The evaporating mineral spirits was a bit much Megan wasn't around but i had to wear my VOC respirator all day Saturday. Sunday the temp got around 35 so i threw open windows and doors and off gassed the shop.

Megan helped me move it into place. All the drawers, doors, and top were off so it was relatively light maybe 45 lbs. We tried a few knobs but ended up on the tried and true dark ages brass knobs Megan prefers from Horton Brass. I think I mentioned I was going to turn then. I made 1 and then decided that I didn't want to spend 20 hours at the lathe making knobs that weren't going to match...

I left everything open to let the wax and finish off gas and thought it kinda looked neat.

Differnt angle top down.

Door hinges. My thoughts on Horton Brasses hinges are that they are awesome. Top notch quality and the wide variety of finish choices is really nice. All hinges come with steel and brass screws,

Open. I still need to switch in the brass screws that match the hinges.

Some drawer details.

I intentionally wanted all the drawers to sit recessed about 3/32". When i started I thought this would be closer to 1/32" but in playing with the drawers this looked right. I like the added depth it adds to the front and brings some visual interest to an overall simple design. From a functional stand point it allows me to round the dividers more so the corners will be more durable with time. Also if they get nicked I could just make the rounder over bigger to fix the damage and not hurt any gap reveals.

The finale.

Each drawer is signed. I dated a few of them. I also left notes to nutmeg (our nickname for her until she arrives yes coop it had to be nut related ) for her to find some time in the distant future if she ever pulls the drawers out and turns them over. It'll be my Easter egg for her to find, I'm not even planning on telling Megan about it.

[treeslayer]

Beautiful work as usual Drew and an instant heirloom, I like everything about it you nailed the proportions, joinery, finish and fit, I do sometimes leave a message hidden for the person who gets the piece, daughter still has not found the message on the bottom of the hope chest I made 15 years ago