I'm tackling a double dresser for a room in the house. If you have followed my posts "Upgraded 18th Century Funiture", I worked thru the design with the help of the folks with the design knowledge that I'm slowly gaining.

Anyway, the double dresser in my case is not the vertical type that were common in the 18th century. mine is a horizontal version. 3 drawers across the top and 4 drawers side by side.

The piece will be made with walnut as the primary and poplar (or as my wife says popular wood!) as the secondary. I started by jointing, planing and glueing up 3 panels 20" wide. The bottom panel was painful. after I glued it up and dried overnight, it warped like a so and so. Since the panel was 1" oversized anyway I ripped it apart on the glueline, and reflattened, joint, glued it back up. the thing that really rips me, after I initially jointed and planed I let the boards sit for 2 days.

I'll be posting pictures in the next couple of days. Sorry for the tease.

Alright here are the pictures I promised. I'll try to put them in order.

Basically I started by making the 3 panels for the sides and bottom. Bottom board gets tails on both ends for half blind DTs. The 2 sub top boards get 1 large tail.

Dry fit and make sure all the joints come together, check for square.

I made all blade measurements from the top. I used a 3/4" router bit to cut the 1/4" deep grooves. I should have used a plywood bit, but I didn't want to make a special trip to the store. the blades are 13/16" strong. Don't know the exact measurement, didn't care. I rabbeted a small rabbet on each blade to fit tightly into the groove. The blade fronts are mortice and tenon joints. I held the start of the groove 3/4" from the front edge. the first two inches are 5/8" deep. I used a pluge router for the grooves and mortice. The only change I did was rotate the depth control thingy to make a deeper mortice where needed. So I only needed to clamp up once, route the groove, turn the depth thing, route the mortice. It worked pretty quickly. definatley put this into the bag of tricks!!!
Next I started working on the inner structure. I was unsure how to make the runners or how to join them, yada, yada, yada. What I decided to do was install a blade along the back into the groove. for the runners I decided to mortice and tenon the joint. The front M&T is glued to the walnut blade, the back is loose, even though the back blade is glued in place. I then routed a 3/16" deep dado for the divider, using the same router setup from earlier, just reduced the depth of cut. cut a very small rabbet on each side of the divider to make it as centered as possible. I only routed a small mortice for the divider. no need to route the entire length of the runner. The installed runner will be long grain glue joint.

Continues...

Next was cutting the rabbet for the side runners. I used a cutting gauge to mark a 1/4" rabbet going as deep as I could, then followed up with a utility knif to make the cut even deeper. Next used a rabbet plane to cut the rabbet. I could have used the Tablesaw to make the cut, I decided to knock it out by hand. make sure the runner fits TIGHT! Trim to length leaving the runner about 1/4-3/8" short of the rear blade or back panel. Only glue the front 1/3 tap in place with a mallet.

Install the runners next. I used a framing square clamped the the blade and flush against the divider. I glued all but the last 3". clamped in place.

Last thing I did this weekend was to tack on the back panels. I ordered proper nails from horton's.

IT'S MILLER TIME!!!!!!

Hi Barry.

Sweet looking little plane! Almost as nice as what you're doing with iy...

Paul
the little guy

I’ve been traveling quite a bit between Charlottesville, VA and home in NC. I’ll be going back and forth for the next month or so. Not complaining, just get tired of restaurants and hotels real quickly.

The last time I was able to work on the dresser was weekend before last. I was able to get the legs cut out, curves faired, and finally attached to the molded frame. Pictures pretty much sum up the work.

BTW, last time I talked with Ben he recommended that I cut the ogee feet on the bandsaw. At first, I thought it would be a painful process, compared to using the table saw to cut the cove portions. However, once you build the stand, rough out the foot as close to the line as possible, it was quick work with a rasp, file, scraper, sandpaper. Furthermore the stand does double duty when it comes time to clean up the saw marks. Just clamp it to the bench.

Looking great! how long would you say those ogee feet take you?

Would there be cross grain issues with those glue blocks / vertical supports for the ogee feet?

Barry,

Looking good. Seems to me you are making quick work of it, especially with the travel schedule.

I'm glad to see you go for the ogee bracket feet instead of the shaker/contemporary versions you previously showed.....This is simply my taste, however, for those that disagree!

Cross grain issues with feet......I agree the horiz blocks seem to eliminate most of this, but if you only glued a portion of the block (which I assume you did due to the expansion gap at the top of the block) you will be fine.

Cal

All,
Man I catching grief all over the place about those cotton-picken glue blocks. Eli posted something on the Facebook, ya'll are getting on me here, and a guy I work with who can barely hit a nail with a hammer is giving it to me.

No, I'm not mad, I know there is a cross grain problem. I could have used other methods. I did what I did. done.

I've been getting the wood squared away for the drawers. Lemme put it like this......I've been making FIREWOOD !!!!!!! I thought I'd be smart and resaw the sides and backs from 4/4 stock. I set my bandsaw up for a 9/16-5/8" thick cut. Well some of the boards got jacked up and turn up 9/16" of the top and 1/4" at the bottom. Not a happy camper. Any how, I had to mill up some more lumber, at least I have plenty of thinner material for the drawer bottoms.
The drawer fronts were interesting as well. I thought I had 3 boards that would look good for the drawers. I rough cut everything to 51" and started to square things up. when I layed the boards out on the table to get a look at the nicely planed faces, 2 had nice straight grain, the 3rd well, not so nice. the grain went everywhere. I'm left at an inpasse. Use it as firewood, or use as is.

Furnituremaking, ARGH!!!!

Re: "Furnituremaking, ARGH!!!!".

Doncha just love it?

Paul
the sarcastic little guy

Not seeing the boards certainly limits the advice one can give. However the design has left-right symmetry but not vertical symmetry. You can further emphasizes this, at a more subtle level, by using similar grain on the bottom 4 drawers that is different from the grain of the top 3 drawers. After all its made of wood not wallpaper.

Here are the pictures of the parts in question. These parts are still oversized.

Nice, nice.

UGH!!!!!

Updated picture. I know there is sapwood. I'll fix it when I do the finish, it's not that bright in the shop, the flash accentuates it.

(which Given your clear bias for straight grain it seems pretty clear what to do, doesn't it?

[quote="jlsmith5963]Given your clear bias for straight grain it seems pretty clear what to do, doesn't it?[/quote]

It's not so much that I'm after straight grain, I just want some consistentcy.

I was thinking about different ways of doing things. Since all the parts are still over sized, I could slice off a piece and veneer it to the crazy grained piece. I would have to apply cockbead to the drawer.

I'm so ticked right now over the drawer stock. all of it is now warped, twisted or bowed. don't know why. needless to say I'm livid. I'll be painitng this weekend instead of woodworking.

Ok so here is a little push back...
Does that mean if all the boards had consistently 'crazy grain' your dilemma would go away? In my experience the term consistency is some times a stand-in for safe, conventional, homogeneity, which if not highly executed can become lifeless (no matter the medium).

As I am sure you know these twists and turns (pun intended) come with the territory and therefore one must become adept at 'handling' them. Many speak of the pleasure of woodworking (when things are going well), the zen-like quality one can derive from it. That same attitude (for it is an attitude) can be brought to bare in situations such as you now find yourself.

Good luck with the painting...

I see your point. To be honest if all the pieces had the crazy grain, I would not have a problem with it. So yes, I'm looking for the easy out .



And again I see where your coming from. thing is I have really never had boards warp and twist like this. The only thing I can come up with is the boards were sitting close to the floor. We've had some bad rains lately, so maybe the moisture has crept up through the concrete. . I really don't know. So all I can say is thanks for calling me out!!

I was recently reading a blog entry, and while I can't for the life of me remember which blog it was ( I have over 20 book marked and read at least 15 more than that) one of the guys actually keeps his floor covered in shavings. Not a huge amount, and they were of the thicker variety, but he said they make for a much softer footing, help absorb any spills (I know some restaurant/ bars use saw dust) and adds a modicum of insulation for the shop floor. He said that he changes them out about once a year. Re-reading prior to posting, I think I sound like a sales man, but for the record this is not something I do, but I have been giving it some thought. Due to the fact that my shop is really just a screened in porch, I do put down some shavings whenever I get a little water in on the floor, but since this is also the route for the dogs to go in and out, I think I will keep full floor coverage on the back burner.

I'd be wary of leaving too many shavings/dust on shop floor. Then can become a significant slip hazard. Since I didn't have much of a dust collection system my typical day in the shop ended by using my dust re-distribution system to clean up. That's right. I'd open the garage door, turn on the leaf blower and share all the shavings and sawdust with my neighbors. I try to be environmentally concious and generous to my neighbors

I know that by leaving shavings on the floor you will naturally gather the dust as well, but the goal, as unachievable as it may seem, is for shavings only to be on the floor. Like I said, not something I do, but I thought I would throw it out there. And as Rat said, safety is always paramount. If it's not for you, then it's not for you.

Brother WoodRat, your generosity to all is well known here. It's nice to know it extends to your neighbors as well.

Paul
the little guy

It looks like another trip to the lumber yard to me Barry. I think you're correct about the grain being so different and I don't think you'll be happy if you use it.

For me personally I'd keep the crazy and dump the straight but that's just the way I roll.

Well it's been almost a month since I've made any posts on here I thought I'd give an update. The drawers are almost done. I have two bottoms left to fit up and a bunch of stops to install. The drawers have taken up a majority of the time. Never thought I'd get sick of cutting DT joints. but trust me I'm done. The last drawer was getting sloppy, because I wanted to be done with it.
I do have one question for y'all, should I screw or nail the bottom panel inplace? I know it gets attached only at the back. just unsure on the method.

Here are the pictures, enjoy.

Looking good Barry. Either way nail or screw the bottom into the back (assuming the sides and front are in grooves). Ideally a screw so that if in the future the bottom shrinks you can loosen the bottom, slide it forward and rescrew in a new position.

Cal

Cal,
I'm leaning more towards a screw with a slot to adjust the bottom if need be.

Got the drawers finished tonight. I have a few more stops to install and tune up. should be able to start on the finish real soon.

Last night I was able to finish with the hardware installation. I started Sunday afternoon when I was driving to pick up some groceries. Now you may ask "how in the world is he driving a car woodworking?" Well, I had been wondering how in the world would I make a jig to drill the holes consistently. The lightin my brain turned on during the drive. I'm whacky like that.

Basically the jig is a 1/4" piece of ply the same width as the largest drawer front, and as narrow as the shortest drawer. Square the ends and draw horizontal & vertical centerlines. carry these lines over the edges as well. Next determine the placement of the hardware. in the recent FWW there is an article that explains different settings for the different hardware types and placment. I chose to set mine @ 17 1/2" apart. The article recommends normally no less than 18". On my 24" drawers with 3" centers would put the bail too far out for my taste. With the jig being the same width as the drawer it gives you some room to work out the placement. Take you time. Cause once you drill the holes there's no filling them! .Anyway figured out the placement and mounted the bails to the jig and made sure eveything looked good.
There are a couple ways you can drill the bolt holes. One use the bit sized for the bolts, using this may jack the holes on the jig up. Two, use 2 drills. one with a centering bit to predrill, then follow up with the normal bit after the jig is removed.
One the drawer fronts, make centerline tick mark on the left and right edges. Top & bottom will require lines on the face. Clamp the jig in place, say a prayer, and start drilling. This by far was the most nerve racking part of this build so far. Bottom line, TAKE YOUR TIME!! Took me about 5 hours to install 12 pulls, including making the jig. most of the time was checking and re-checking measurements.

Looks like the dresser is coming along quite nicely. (I am not going to say anything about the grain )

Have you read David Pye's The Nature and Art of Workmanship? In the book he discusses the concept of the 'workmanship of risk' which drilling the holes is a clear example.