Bedside Table: Project Completed

Status
Not open for further replies.

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Today I put the final touches on a bedside table that my wife asked me to build. It is made from Sapele, which I had not worked with prior to this project. The wood has very straight grain with a ribbon-like pattern, it is easy to work with and produces a nice finished look. As for the finish, I used Watco Danish Oil (dark walnut) followed by five coats of wipe-on poly. I used a Leigh Suoer 18 jig for the dovetails. This was my first experience using the jig for dovetails, my initial experience was making finger joints. The jig works well, I simply need more experience working with it. Although I cannot cut dovetails by hand, I now understand those who say they can hand-cut them quicker than they can using a jig.

Overall, this was a fun project, I really enjoyed building it.

Donn

 
T

toolferone

Wow! What a beautiful piece. I am slowly working on a small kids doll dresser out of sapele. It is great to see how it will look when finished. Do you have any construction pictures or of the drawer dividers?
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Thank you all for your kind remarks about this project, I am very appreciative. Toolferone (Tom) and Eyekode (Salem) asked for a few additional details. I modified a plan from PlanNow. Their plan was for a much smaller version of the one I built. The original was 20"Wx22.5"H,16"D, mine is 28"Wx28"Hx16"D and it works very well as a night stand. Due to the increase in height I was able to add a fourth drawer (the original had three). As for construction details, the two sides and the back panel are basically comprised of grooved stiles and rails to allow for the 1/4" ply panels with the rails having stubbed tenons to fit in the groove of the stiles. To keep the back and side frames in alignment during assembly of
the cabinet, a shallow 1/4" rabbet is cut on the inside face of both back stiles.

The front of the case is made up of a pair of vertical stiles glued to the front of the side frames. Then, rails and facing
strips are added. Start by ripping the front stiles to width, then cutting them to the same length as the side frame.
DADOES. Next, to accept the front rails, I had to cut 1/4" x 1/4" dadoes across the back of each stile. (Measure the location of the dadoes from the top end of each stile.) To mount the front stiles to the side frame, first cut a rabbet along
the back (dadoed) face of each front stile. Then glue the front stiles into place.

Measure across the inside of the case at the back to determine the length of the four front rails. Then cross-cut them
to this length, and rip to finished width. To form tongues on the front of the rails (to fit the dadoes in the stiles), cut two rabbets on the front edge of each rail. These tongues also will hold the facing strips. After the rails are glued in place, the facing strips are can be ripped to width. Next I cut a groove on the back face of each strip to fit onto the tongue on the front rails. Note: The groove on the top and bottom strips is offset on the width. Finally, I cut the strips to length to fit between the front stiles, and glue them in place.

Please note I did take a few pictures, but they really do not show any of the details I tried to describe above.
Donn
 

Cato

New User
Bob
Really nice work. I have never used Sapele before, but I really like what you have done.

Looks very very nice and you should be quite pleased with the result. I am sure your wife is!!!
 

eyekode

New User
Salem
Donn,
I read this a couple times... but I don't get it. I will look up some plans. It is too hard for me to get without a picture :).
Thanks again for taking the time to type it out though!
Salem
 

planecrazy

New User
Holland
Fantastic Donn! You've convinced me to hold off buying a DT jig and hone my dovetail cutting skills... By hand. Thanks!
 

Ed Fasano

Ed
Senior User
Great work and excellent pictures! Thanks for sharing and for taking the care to photograph it so well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Premier Sponsor

Our Sponsors

LATEST FOR SALE LISTINGS

Top