Thread: Chest of Drawers

Nice work mate, and nice looking machine shop.

Thanks, Riverbuilder.

I came to woodworking later in life, and learned just about everything I know about woodworking from a Time/Life book (which is wonderful) and this forum (many thanks to all those who have contributed to my education). I admire those who keep the old skills alive and do most of their work with hand tools, but I am not one of them. I like my machines because they save so much time and energy (and visits to the doctor for tendonitis).

However, machines make a lot of dust, and my shop was a disaster until the dust collection system was installed. Many thanks to BobL for his assistance during this project.

There’s old school machine techniques too you know, I’m very lucky to have been passed on these skills from my old man. Not a lot of guys around now who can grind a set of profiled spindle cutters, set them up, and run multi faceted mouldings with them.Curved work in timber is another. Agree with you about the dust, I’ve actually declined jobs in workshops after looking at the dusty conditions that they wanted me to work in.

And old school machines, too. I have some of my grandfathers hand tools, but would really like an old bandsaw.

Years ago I read an article about a large ancient bandsaw a bloke had somehow acquired. It was made from cast iron, and given that it was a large saw it weighed a ton ... or more.

The bloke who had it stripped it down, replaced the motor, bearings and all wearing parts. He fitted modern blade guides and a wide blade. When it ran, there was almost nil vibration, and the saw blade looked motionless when running. It made extremely precise cuts.

Now that's a bandsaw! The bloke who wrote the article reckoned this beast outperformed any new saw, and I can believe him. The only downside is its weight, but that's what prevents vibration.

As for dust ... my shop was so filthy even the vertical surfaces turned brown with their thick coating of dust. I performed a dummy spit and installed a cyclone dust extractor and six inch ducting. Most machines were re-ported to six inch. The set-up is not perfect, but it is very good. BobL guided me through the installation, bless him.

Eight web frames made over the weekend.

These days I make them a tad oversize to begin with. After the glue has set they go through the drum sander to flatten them to a uniform size, in this case a poofteenth under 24 mm. Then, using the sled I trim a few mm of each end so they are all exactly square and of uniform length. Finally, they are trimmed to uniform depth using the fence. This ensures I have all web frames a very uniform shape and size, which makes assembly easy and provides a strong unit.

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Carcass assembled except for the vertical drawer divider for the top drawers, which will be next followed by drawers ... eight of the buggers. Starting from the top, every drawer is 5 mm wider than the one above it.

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The unit is back on its feet. The trim pieces under the bottom drawer divider are in place.

All drawer components planed to thickness and whipped through the drum sander.

Drawer carcasses are surian cedar, for lightness. Draw fronts are NG Rosewood, to match the remainder of the cabinet. Drawer fronts cut to size and sitting in openings in the pic. Drawer carcasses yet to be assembled. Drawer fronts not yet raised on the router.

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Drawer fronts raised and rebates for sides cut with dado blades. Other components cut to size.

Pic shows raised drawer fronts after their trip over the spindle moulder but before sanding. Profile was selected by client.

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Looking mighty fine, didn't appeal to me when you first started but now ....

Thanks, Ray.

One about the best things about building furniture for family and friends is that you can give them exactly what they want. This design is not my favourite, but my nephew loves it. That's good enough for me. I cut a couple of boards into veneers and my nephew dropped in to select those he wanted on this cabinet.

He rang me a couple od days ago as he was watching TV, just to tell me how much he loved his new entertainment unit.

What I do like about this design is that it provides lots of drawer space, but with a minimal footprint, so it takes up less floor space than conventional designs with similar drawer space. A couple of lingerie cabinets with the same feature have been made, and they are a hit with the ladies.

This is fantastic. What an amazing way to coalesce a family.

You are bashing this out at a good clip

Starting to look like a chest of drawers.

Back goes on next, followed by making the top.

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Drawers are made by rebating the fronts. Carcass is glued and clamped up. Once the glue is dry, holes for dowels are drilled and dowels are driven through the sides and into the front, as seen in pic. Been doing this for a very long time and am yet to have any trouble at all. It makes for a strong drawer. Pic is from a job done for the same client a couple of months ago, because the stained dowels make them easy to see. Dowels for the current job are not stained.

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how do you do that dowelling John? Jig on the drill press?

No jig is required jpdv.

The drawer carcass is glued and clamped together as a first step. Once the glue has dried and the drawer is in one piece, I mark out the drill holes for the dowels and drill these holes, usually with the drill press. Then the dowels are glued into place. The dowels are a perfect fit because the drill hole is made through two pieces of wood that are already glued together.

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