Thread: Repurposed Art Nouveau Buffet & Hutch Workbench WIP

......continuing on....


Now, I don't know if it's just me, but I reckon this is a well-crafted and absolutely gorgeous bit of furniture. I cannot understand why it is unloved and gone unnoticed by so many. It has been listed for at least 6 weeks and was heavily discounted by the time I clapped my peepers on it. From the photos, it appears the sideboard was being stored undercover but outside. It was only a matter of time before it deteriorated any further. Impulsively, I decided it was up to me to rescue the piece.....


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For something made more than 100 years ago (Art Nouveau was predominantly between 1890 and 1910), this old girl is still quite solid. But she's not perfect. Check out the ruts from more than 100 years worth of drawer usage. The ruts are at least 10mm deep and the bottom of the drawer sides have been so worn down that the pin nails used to secure the drawer slips are now showing !! There's the obvious split to the top. There have been some attempts to glue it back together but it really should have been taken apart, re-jointed, and then re-glued. The panels in the doors have also started to split and the door locks are missing and the handles are not original. The interior "drawer", if original, has been modified. I loosely all it a drawer because technically it is more a box as there are no runners for it. As it is, it doesn't even sit flat because the drawer front has a lip on the bottom. It may have originally been wider and ran on the two standoffs at either side. It seems the drawer may have been made narrower by cutting a section lengthwise down the middle. The sides while still dovetailed to the each half of the drawer fronts have been re-joined with a new rear piece and bottom panel. I'm guessing this was done because a previous owner wanted to fit something taller in the space. Why they wouldn't just get rid of the whole interior drawer setup to begin with is beyond me.


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The old girl arrived this morning and in no time I had her top off !!! Am I allowed to say that ? I had to resort to using a hand brace flat screwdriver bit with this tiny 1/4" bit driver/socket ratchet to undo some of the screws attaching the top assembly to the carcase. After that, I could use that same bit on my Yankee brace to unscrew all 36 screws connecting the top frame to the top planks. And that's where I hit a bit of a hurdle. The frame was still glued to the top planks. I've got to do some research to find the best process of undoing hide glue. Until next time........




Cheers,
Mike.

Hi Mike. Great project. I assume that once you put in all the time required it won't stay in the workshop but get to move inside?

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi Mike. Great project. I assume that once you put in all the time required it won't stay in the workshop but get to move inside?

Nope, it will stay in the 'shop and earn her keep as a proper workbench. It will even have a couple of vises and a sliding deadman (with a twist !). The Shaker will still be my main "handtool" bench where I will doing most of my planing/chiselling/sawing/etc on. I plan to make this bench a few inches taller (aiming for 950~965mm) as I see it more for powertool usage, as a desk, assembly surface,etc. In other words, it will be more of an all-rounder.

Before deciding to build my Shaker, I seriously contemplated originally this exact approach, i.e. repurposing a buffet/dresser/sideboard. I discounted the idea at the time because I wanted my Shaker to be an island bench (i.e. not against a wall) with the drawers accessible from both sides. When looking for a suitable buffet/sideboard at the time, I found most of them tend to be quite shallow depth-wise with most being around 400~450mm deep. This wouldn't have been an issue if the shaper was going to be up against a wall, but I thought it would have been too shallow for an island bench and a risk of toppling over under heavy planing. For the record, the cabinet of my Shaker is 660mm deep and its footprint is 790mm with the plinth. Funnily enough, this Art Nouveau sideboard is deeper than most with a cabinet depth of 520mm and a footprint of 565mm. And by the time I've done my workbench modifications, the footprint will probably around 650mm. That's probably deep enough for an island bench. It's something anyone looking to follow in my footsteps should take into consideration.

Another thing to consider with this approach is that most buffet-sideboards aren't designed or built to withstand the weight of a 4" hardwood Roubo top or the stresses required of a workbench. I've seen some units sag in the middle just from regular usage.

Very fancy then!! A bit like the sideboard Christopher Schwarz has in his workshop in the U.S.

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Very fancy then!! A bit like the sideboard Christopher Schwarz has in his workshop in the U.S.

I tried Googling "Christopher Schwarz sideboard" and I couldn't find anything remotely what you could be referencing to.

Sorry for the obscure reference. I have read somewhere and heard both C.S. and Nancy Hillier (his work offsider) talk about the building in Kentucky (I think) where the workshop and headquarters of Lost Art Press is and how it was once a bar. When retrofitting as a working and teaching space they kept the fairly ornate bar and used it as a secondary workbench and storage area. Once I realised what I was looking at (curtains over open shelving at floor level), I began to see this ex bar in a lot of photos. And this reminded me Mike,of what you were doing.

OK....I think I've found what you are talking about in this video. And no, mine won't have any curtains !!

No progress on the Sideboard Workbench, but a lot on the lathe/drill bench......


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I may yet add some boards to create an overhang as a proof of concept for a feature I want to incorporate into the Sideboard bench, but other than that, this one is pretty much done. I sanded the top with 40 grit on the ROS and finished it with a couple of coats of Minwax WOP. I can't believe how well the top has come back up. It was looking very tatty after 3years of heavy use. There's still plenty of dings/nicks/gouges/etc but that just gives the bench "character". I can't believe how well the Acacia panels from Bunnings have stood up. I'm very happy with how this one turned out - not bad for $100 cabinets (for the pair)!

Most of my workshop time since my last update has been taken up by my shop re-org and setting up my new toys......

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.....and building a mobile cabinet for the pedestal drill.....


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......but I have managed to get some work done on the Art Nouveau Bench.



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First, I removed the doors and also the boards between the cupboards and drawers to get a better idea of what I'm dealing with. I was also wanting to lighten the base to make it easier to move around. Next up was removing the feet pads.....


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To do this I lay the bench on its back. Removing the boards and door did little to lighten the base.





To be cont....

.....continuing on...


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The feet appear to have masonite stuck on them for protection. I chisel these off to access the screws securing the feet pads to the legs. Now that the easy part is done, I move on to the next step....



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....fixing the drawer runners.


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I clean up the bottom of the drawer sides with the table saw referencing the top side on the fence. I make sure not to overshoot my mark and cut through the front by using a MagSwitch 400 as a stop block. This is quite easy to do on the inside sides of the drawers but the outer sides (i.e. left side of the LH drawer and right side of the RH drawer) are actually canted at an angle. It's hard to tell from the photos due to parallax error, but the drawer faces are not actually rectangular. They're actually trapezoidal with the inner sides at right angles.

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So to trim the left side of the LH drawer (and the right side of the RH drawer) I double-taped a thin strip of Rosewood so that the drawer sits plumb and references the fence correctly. Thinking back on it, I could have just tilted the tablesaw blade to match the angle but I would only be able to do that to one of the drawers as the tablesaw only tilts one way.

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Here's the resulting cut. Notice that the blade went through one of the pin nails that was used to attached the drawer slip. Other that a few sparks, the SawStop did not skip a beat. On two of the cuts I also had to move the tablesaw fence to the RH side of the blade. It's quite a rare occurrence and quite handy to be able to do when the scenario calls for it.


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I used a chisel and a chisel plane to trim what the table saw left.


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These are the boards I salvaged earlier which I used to patch up the drawer bottoms.


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And here's the result. I chamfer the leading edge so that it doesn't dig into the drawer runners again.


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One of the drawer sides also need patching on the sides and not just on the bottom. I use my router to cut a 1/2" groove and fill it in with another strip. I chose to use thick CA glue for all the drawer repair because I didn't want any glue creep.


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And here it is cleaned up. It's not invisible but it should do the job of keeping the drawers sliding straight. I had thought of using Spotted Gum for the drawer repairs because it's harder and "waxier" but I thought it was best to use the same material for the drawers (Tassie Oak) and replacing the drawer slides in the carcase with something harder. That way, the drawer bottoms will wear instead of the drawer slides in the carcase which are a lot harder to replace. Speaking of which, that will be the next ste but that's for another update.




Cheers,
Mike