Thread: Silver Ash chest of drawers- a two-month saga almost finished

Each of the four web-frames has four M&T joints, the mortices (Photo 1) were routed on the Rocker morticing jig, see http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=13836 . The tenon shoulders were cut on a crosscut sled with a clamped on stop (Photo 2), and the tenons were cut on the Rocker tenoning jig (Photo 3 and http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ead.php?t=6993 ).

The completed web-frames were then glued in their dadoes (Photo 4), but, in order to avoid cross-grain problems, the epoxy glue was applied only to the front 50 mm of the webframes and the front 50 mm of their dado.

The four biscuits in each mitre joint between the top and the sides provide plenty of reinforcement, but I decided to add three jarrah dovetail keys to each joint to provide a decorative feature (Photo 4). These were routed on the edge of a wide jarrah board, using an 11/16", 8-degree dovetail bit, on the router table. It is tricky to get the width of the keys right, and it helps to have a micro-adjustable fence on your router table. I routed the keys about 0.5 mm too wide, and then fine-tuned their width by planing away the broad edge of the key until it was about 0.1 mm less than 11/16" wide.

To rout the dovetail slots for the keys, I clamped on my slot-routing jig, see http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=17974 , and used a cunning arrangement (Photo 5) to hold the cabinet at an angle, so that the platform of the jig would be horizontal during the routing process.

To be continued.

Rocker

G'day Rocker

In pic 5, I note the old 5l bottle of turps to help the clamp technique

Looking good so far. I'm looking forward to see the next installments. Keep us posted (so to speak!)

A pic of your re-sawing setup (esp high fence, assuming you use one?) would be good too.

Cheers!

Hi ya Rocker,

Is it my imagination but is the timber in the panels (picture #2) suffering from blue stain?

The five drawers were graduated in height from 200 mm high for the bottom drawer to 120 mm high for the top one. The drawer sides and backs were glued up using 12 x 135 mm dressed Tassie Oak from Bunnings. It was an expensive option, but the retailer from whom I had previously bought dressed Hoop Pine, seems to have gone out of business.

In order to keep the forces of Darkness at bay, I dusted off my Leigh jig to rout the half-blind dovetails used to join the drawer sides to the drawer fronts (see photo below). The Leigh jig has lots of screws and knobs that must all be carefully adjusted and tightened; it is pretty easy to make a mistake in setting it up, but, if you do everything right it will produce consistently good results. I was easily able to complete all the dovetails for the five drawers in a few hours. I hate to think how many hours it would take to complete so many half-blind dovetails by dark-side methods. But then I imagine most Dark-siders just do through dovetails, and use a false drawer front to hide them.

The jarrah drawer pulls were made on the router table using the same 11/16" dovetail bit that was used for the dovetail keys.

Tomorrow, I shall attach the drawer pulls, do the final sanding, and start the finishing process - I intend using wipe-on Minwax poly, which got a good write-up in the current FW.

To be continued.

Rocker

Originally Posted by Rocker

But then I imagine most Dark-siders just do through dovetails, and use a false drawer front to hide them.

Hi Rocker,

No, I know that several of the darker-hued amongst us try and do half-blind DTs (ask Guru-Borer; he could use a kitchen knife and turn out a drawer with half-blind DTs, mitre'd DTs and whatnot in half an hour. Well, perhaps not quite, after all, there have to be a few excuses left to have such a gorgeous collection of LNs and such...)

If I've a few to do, then it's the trusty WoodRat for me. Much less complicated than most of those jiggy things, and you can choose 1:6, 1:7 or whatever, - and you get to choose your own spacing - equidistant, reducing in size and / or spacing. What's more, it's all repeatable.

False drawer fronts: yup, sometimes, but not for reasons of hiding DTs!

Cheers!

Steve,

Yes, indeed. I knew I was sticking my neck out a few months back, when I said I thought I had enough Bessey clamps. Of course, I was wrong, so the turps had to help me out this time.

To re-saw the timber, I first cut the 50 mm thick boards to a width of 140 mm, and then just used the regular saw fence to resaw them to about 21 mm thickness. I used the slightly hazardous method of sawing right through on the second pass, but have found that, if you are careful, to use a suitable push-stick, this can be done without any dramas.

Major,

You are right; about a quarter of the boards I used have blue stain, which seems to have been the result of the activity of some borers. I used all of the stained boards on one side of the cabinet, where they form an interesting decorative feature, but the rest of the cabinet is clear. I suppose the staining was the reason that Peter Mikk was selling the silver ash relatively cheaply, but I don't think it has detracted unduly from the appearance of the cabinet.

Rocker

Lookin good Rocker . Can't wait to see the finished job . The silver ash with jarrah pulls should go well together .

Peter

Originally Posted by Rocker

Major,

You are right; about a quarter of the boards I used have blue stain, which seems to have been the result of the activity of some borers. I used all of the stained boards on one side of the cabinet, where they form an interesting decorative feature, but the rest of the cabinet is clear. I suppose the staining was the reason that Peter Mikk was selling the silver ash relatively cheaply, but I don't think it has detracted unduly from the appearance of the cabinet.

Rocker

Rocker,

I think the project is looking GREAT!! & as you say doing all those ½ blind dovetails by hand would drive you up the wall!!
Good move to use the Leigh for it!

So tell me Rocker I'm interested in what you think of Silver Ash to work with?

Major,

I like silver ash a lot, but the interlocked grain would make it a nightmare to work with Dark-side methods, although perhaps high-angle or scraper planes could tame it. However, it routs nicely with negligible tear-out. Some boards come out of the thicknesser with quite a bit of tear-out; but I just hit it with the ROS, which, starting with 60-grit paper, and working through the grades, can soon get the board smooth again - that grinding sound you hear is Derek gritting his teeth at my heresy; he would get out his cabinet scraper, I suppose; but, as someone kindly pointed out recently, I only have a limited time before I shuffle off to the retirement village

Rocker

I forgot to mention that I was compelled to venture close to the Dark side to level the dovetail keys after glueing them in their slots. I got out the back-saw, which I confess is a bit rusty from disuse and neglect, and sawed off the bulk of the waste. I then used the router to level the keys to within 0.5 mm of the cabinet surface, then the ROS to complete the levelling. I was pretty happy with the fit of the keys in their slots, which was almost flawless on all the keys.

Rocker

Well the woodwork on the chest is complete; all that remains is some final sanding and the application of the finish.

I added a plain moulding to the base, with biscuit-reinforced mitres joining the front moulding to the side mouldings. The front moulding was glued to the front edges of the cabinet sides first and then the side mouldings were glued to it and were attached at the back by screws driven through slotted holes in the chest sides to allow for wood movement. I added glue blocks to the inside corners to strengthen the attachment of the front moulding.

Photo 1 shows a front view of the completed chest before the application of the finish; Photo 2 shows a close-up view of the mitred top corner and the dovetail keys. Photo 3 shows the blue-stained boards used for one side of the cabinet. I am still debating whether I should have used walnut rather than jarrah for the drawer pulls and dovetail keys, and whether I made the dovetail keys too large; however I am reasonably happy with the outcome. I will post a final picture when the finish has been applied.

The building of the chest was greatly facilitated by the jigs that I used; these were: morticing and tenoning jigs, three different crosscut sleds, a dovetail-slot-routing jig, and a Leigh dovetail jig. You could use a saw with a sliding table instead of the crosscut sleds, but the slot-routing jig is essential.
You could, at a pinch, manage without the other jigs, if you are that way inclined. I estimate that the chest took around 120 hours to build, including the resawing and milling of the stock. So it is easy enough to see that there is not much money to be made in building pieces like this for sale, unless you can charge really fancy prices, or unless you are a much faster worker than I am.

Rocker

The chest is absolutely superb Rocker!!! Can't wait to see it finished. Love the contrasting jarrah.

Cheers
RufflyRustic

A superb series, Rocker, and a great chest. I'm still building up to try a chest one of these days.

I think the keys are just the right size. Look forward to seeing the finished piece.

Hmm: 120 hours, at say, $50-$100 per hour = $6000 - $12000. As you say, hard to compete with the furniture borg. Resistance is futile...

Have a greenie, while we're at it.

Beautiful Timber my friend, and craftsmanship to match it. well done.
-Ryan