Red Cedar chest of drawers

SWMBO mentioned a Facebook Cedar chest giveaway (free :D) in our suburb.
We expressed our interest and received it the same afternoon.

Mostly all there and some really nice Cedar.
Drawers are Cedar fronted Pine.

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It has its issues.
Someone seems to have stripped the shellac but luckily it doesn't look to have been sanded.
Still has a lot of old red stain which I'll clean.

Some issues ...

The top will need a good clean. Can't wait to see what the grain looks like polished.
Split in the lower molding. I'll clean it out and re-glue.
A few chunks missing that I'll patch.

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The regular issues ...

The wear in the rails is too deep. I'll have to splice in some patches.
Case drawer runners worn right through.
Drawer runners were pinned in a previous restoration. This will never end well.

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Someone 'restored' the molding around the top edge.
Some sort of Ash profile tacked and lightly (thankfully) glued to the front edge. Maple boards tacked to the sides.
All removed now.
This chest would have been cross-banded around the edge.
I have access to another chest with very similar proportions that had a fairly subtle rounded cross-banded profile. I may try this.

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The front pillars are missing some details.
The similar chest I mentioned above, had carved corbels and shield plates.
Not sure what I'll do here, but it'll be a while before I get to that.

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I'll post some progress pictures as I go ... unless you tell me to stop :-

Working my way through the drawers.

Runners built up on the sides

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This is the first time using the Moxon vice in a restoration.
Great for scraping out drawer joints.
Great for planing and trimming drawer runners.
I think I'll keep it :D

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Gluing up.
I had to teach the smaller drawer a lesson in geometry.
The larger drawer behaved.

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An interesting find on one of the drawer sides.
The maker messed up his dovetail cuts at the back :doh:

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Might have been made after workshop happy hour :drink2:

Happy new year all!

Time to post some progress pics.
I should get a chance to finish it this weekend.

Patched a few spots.

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The rails.

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There was dry rot in the corner of the baseboard that required patching.

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Original case runners were shot, so I milled up some Kauri Pine and Cedar.

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I decide to use flat cross-banding.
I had some nice thick Cedar band-sawed veneer that was squared up on the shooting board.

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The cross-banding was pinned with with fine panel pins during gluing and planed flat with a skewed block plane (after removing the pins :D).
I don't believe this chest had any corbels as there is too little overhang on the top.
Figured Cedar side shields have been added, the first few coats of shellac have been applied and I'm starting to fit the drawers.

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All that's left is to lightly clean the escutcheons, drawer locks and knobs before a lot more polishing :U

A few more pics to close off the thread.

The red stain was cleaned off the knobs. They ended up being a warm brown pine colour.

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Drawer fronts were polished.

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Drawer stops were added.

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All done and moved into the house :)

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Thanks for looking in ....

Excellent restoration. Thanks for sharing.

Looks good!!

Thanks for all of the photos.

what a great result you achieved there. Most impressive. such a nice looking chest with decent proportions and grain. I really like the crossbanding and delicate pillers on the front, really nice details.

Hi TT. Thanks for sharing your resto. Where are you sourcing the replacement red cedar from?

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Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi TT. Thanks for sharing your resto. Where are you sourcing the replacement red cedar from?

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Thanks for looking in!

I have access to a fair bit of new (old milled) Cedar from my Dad's shed in Wauchope (Timber Town).

The Cedar I use for my restorations mainly comes from old orphaned furniture parts.
My father in law has a couple of massive sheds full of unrestored colonial furniture and parts in another part of the country.
We won't run out of projects and stock any time soon :)

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My biggest issue is to find buyers for restored pieces as our houses are already fully furnished with some pretty nice furniture.

Might have to open a shop in the future.

Wow. :D this is me, green with envy. :)