Daughter's dresser - WIP

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Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Well, I didn't get to go to the show today as the LOML's mother fell and hurt her hip yesterday. I did get a little shop time to work on the dresser I have started. I am building it out of cherry that I have had for some time. All the internal components (drawer sides, frame members, etc) will be white oak.

I got the legs cut out, mortised, dovetailed, dadoed, and rabbetted. I am attaching the the front and back rails to the legs with dovetails. I have used rabbets and dadoes in the past to attach rails, but I just think dovetails are stronger for this type of connection.

legs.JPG


I made a little jig for cutting the dovetails into the legs. Nothing special, just some dadoes and stopped dadoes in a piece of baltic birch ply. Where I got a bit smarter than ususal (at least I think I was) is that I made sure the sizes of the dadoes were the same size down to .004 with a set of calipers as I needed one set of through dovetails and one set of stopped dovetails.

176_7677.JPG


For the cutting the sliding dovetails on the rails I made another jig to slide on the fence of my router table. I did one thing wrong with it though, I should have made it out of 1/2" ply instead of 1/4" as the toggle clamp flexes the plywood slightly.

sliding_dovetail_jig.JPG


I made the side panels out of 3/4" cherry plywood. Normally, I would glue up boards and make a solid panel, but I told my wife I would not buy any wood, I had the ply from a project that fell through for my brother in law, you won't be able to tell it is ply, and it is some very pretty stuff. I cut a 1/2 inch tenon on the sides with the shaper (very easy to use) and notched them with a handsaw and a chisel.

side.JPG


Here is a side assembly dry fitted.

side_assembly.JPG


And here are the parts I have so far for the carcass dry fitted.

carcass.JPG


Thanks for looking
 

Ray Martin

New User
Ray
Travis,

Looks like you made some good progress on the dresser. What kind of a finish will you put on this piece?

Ray
 

cpowell

Chuck
Senior User
Looking really good, Travis. I've started using the calipers more now when dimensioning and setting up repetitive cuts. It's nice to be able to set up the test piece then just run the stock through.

That's some nice looking cherry. It's gonna make a purdy dresser.

Chuck
 

NZAPP1

New User
Nick
Nice work Travis. That is looking great and the DT will add a lot of strength to the project. How are you going to finish it?
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Thanks all. I am going to do something different finishing this time, I am going to spray Target USL and not stain, dye, it or anything.
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
I got some more done on the dresser, honestly, what I consider the worst part, gluing up the carcass. Around 10 clamps and 30 glue joints I now have the carcass assembled. Overall, it went pretty well. I found one smudge of glue that I missed, but fortunately it is in an area that I can sand it out pretty easily.

Next up, top, door, and drawers

177_7755.JPG


177_7756.JPG


Dresser_side.JPG
 
M

McRabbet

Nice work and great progress -- lucky girl to have such a skillful Dad!

Rob
 

cpowell

Chuck
Senior User
Travis, that looks really nice. Is that curly cherry ply?

What joinery did you use to fasten the drawer shelves/slides?

I like your idea of DTs for the rail-to-post connection. :icon_thum I have used M&T joints in the past but am now re-thinking my approach going forward. I'm not so sure I could pull it off so well. Your joints look very tight!

Chuck
 

DavidF

New User
David
That's a really nice looking piece there Travis. I will be interested in how the colour looks after spraying. I intend to spray a coat of the target Ultra sealer Shellac first to add some warmth and then Target USL as a top coat (3)
 

Monty

New User
Monty
That looks really nice! I think I may use a similar type of construction with some future projects - this will serve as inspiration!
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Dave, actually, I intend to do the exact same thing. Target waterbased Shellac and followed up with the lacquer.

Chuck, the drawer supports are just tongue and grooved into the front and back rails. I glued the front tongue, put one nail in the side, and the back one free floats in the groove for expansion and contraction. As for the Cherry ply, yes, it seems to be curly cherry. I cut the best sections out of the ply to use for the sides since they are "show" pieces. On the down side, I am using cherry wood I bought 5 years ago for $4.50 a bd ft. It is some pathetic stuff. More like #1 common instead of select.
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
Last night, I got the top glued up. The cherry I had was not what I would call number 1 common, unfortunately I paid for select, but I don't think I can get a refund after 5 years. Lesson learned, never buy hardwood where you don't get to inspect what you are buying.:-(

Overall, it looks pretty good.
top_glue_up.JPG

I worked on it with the #8 plane I got from fsdogwood (thanks it works well), and my #4 1/2.
top_plane.JPG

I did the handplaning after I ran it through the drum sander. I have just gotten to where I can use a handplane somewhat, and I use it primarily to get the ripples out from the planer, jointer, and drum sander.
top_sand.JPG


Other than that, I did get all my drawer parts rough cut tonight. The sides and backs are going to be 1/2 inch white oak. It is pretty rough at the moment, but the planer will clean it up nicely.
drawer_parts.JPG


I will be breaking in the PC4212 I bought a while back on these drawers. It will be my first time using this set up, so if I get some shop time tomorrow night :eusa_pray after I get all the drawer parts planed and sized I will play with the set up of it some on some test pieces. I have a Leigh, but it takes quite a bit of time to cut a lot of drawers.


The front HB dovetails will not show as the LOML has determined that I will be putting cockbead around all the drawers. I got the hang of it after I made a jig to use on the table saw to cut the miters.
 
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