Bedroom Dresser Part 5

I've been ploughing through this project. It was June 13th when I fitted a new blade to the cabinet saw and I've been working full speed ahead ever since. At this point most of the remaining work is refinement and assembly:

But there is one last piece to make. If you were paying attention in part three you'll remember there were eleven (11) pieces of the mahogany frame, but so far only ten (10) have been installed. The eleventh section is essentially invisible because it is installed below the cabinet and provides a central support. This piece starts off like all the others as a 1-1/4" square section where a tenon has been cut at the front (center below). The tenon fits a mortise at the center of the front lower rail, and this section is 18-1/4" long excluding the tenon.  

Mahogany blocks which are also 1-1/4" thick have been added above and below. These blocks (1-5/8" at the top and 3-1/8" below) take the total size to six (6) inches in what will be the upright dimension.

 

I drew a quadrant with a radius of 3-1/16" onto a piece of 1/4" plywood and cut out a template:

I used the template to transfer the radius to the workpiece, and then I cut away the bulk of the excess material with the bandsaw.

Of course I could have achieved the above more quickly by just drawing a curve directly onto the workpiece. The remaining excess material could be removed with a drum sander or with files etc., but the advantage of taking a few minutes to make a template is that I can now use it as a guide for the flush trim router bit:

This is after tidying up all three curves, rounding over the non-mating edges with a file and sanding to 220 grit: 

That's it for what you might call "manufacturing" but there is still some refinement to be done to the frame before final assembly. The inspiration piece has a non-standard curve to the frame which I would like to replicate:

 

I managed to figure out that the radius of the curve is around two (2) inches, and I used this knowledge to acquire a suitable router bit. According to the advertising, this bit is designed for making fretboards for guitars and other stringed instruments.

I experimented with scraps of 1-1/4" square mahogany..... 

I ran out of scraps and had to mill some pieces of fir down to 1-1/4" square before I could finalize the amount of curvature I was looking for:

It became clear that getting the best result from the router bit would require the prior assembly of the frame. In essence this is because I want the curves to flow around the internal corners. I chose to glue-up both side frames at the same time because this way I can guarantee they will be exactly the same.

This is the inside face of the right side frame after light sanding to remove excess glue:

The router table I built at the end of last year made the next step a lot easier, and gave a better result, than using the handheld tool:

This is the outer face of the right side after all the edges have been attended to:

It was not practical to assemble the larger sections of the frame, so these parts were only partially shaped at the router. Where the front rails make internal corners I was sure to leave plenty of excess material:

The frame was then re-assembled at the cabinet and the internal corners where the frames meet the front rails were completed by hand with round and half round files:

With that done the frame was subjected to ye olde sanding/wood/filler/more sanding routine. Most of this work was done with the frame in situ. The filler was made from mahogany dust and wood glue:

The final step prior to attaching the frame to the cabinet is the application of stain. I'm using a mixture of half a can of "classic black" from Varathane™ and a full can of  "true black" from Miniwax™ which is what comes from shopping at two different big box stores. I tried not to stain the parts which will be glued.

While I was waiting for the stain to dry I switched over to working on the false drawer fronts. All that's left to do is bore the two (2) holes for the draw pulls I'll be installing. I cut a piece of plywood to the same dimensions as the drawer fronts and drilled a pair of 3/16" holes at the desired locations:

The template can be clamped to a false front, and the holes bored at the drill press. The holes are located above the central horizontal plane, so consideration was given to aligning the best long edge of each front upwards.

I made a similar template to fit inside the drawer boxes, and used it to bore another pair of holes:

These holes were countersunk for wood screws at the interior side of each drawer box. This will be the primary attachment point for the false fronts.

The next time I came into the workshop was on a Friday after work and I was delighted to find that all the wood stain was dry. I celebrated in the only way I could think of....by clamping up the final dry assembly:

The next photo was taken during the glue-up. Getting to this point is always comes with a feeling of accomplishment mixed with stress. The glue-up has to be done quickly and any unforeseen problems can be catastrophic. This time everything went to plan, I did have enough clamps, and Samuel Sheep was around to provide an extra pair of hands when I needed them.

In addition to plenty of glue, the cabinet was secured to the frame with #8 x 1-1/2" wood screws. deployed into the upper side rails and rear legs. Sometimes you just can't beat a good gluing and screwing!

The next day was a bright Saturday morning. With the assistance of family muscle I was able to move the cabinet onto its back and then I could attach the central support to the base. The "middle leg" is secured with a mixture of wood glue and long structural screws. 

There are actually another two (2) small pieces of the cabinet that I still need to make! I don't have much mahogany left, but I did find a piece that I was able to mill down into a 7/8" x 2-1/4" block. After making some careful measurements, I used a hole saw mounted in the drill press to remove a bit more than a quadrant from each end of the block:

After a bit of "flattening of the curves," and liberation from the main block, I was left with two (2) identical parts. The next photo was taken after sanding and boring two (2) holes into each piece.

Black stain was applied and the pieces were glued and screwed to the internal corners at the base of the frame. Because the cabinet is still lying on its back the view in the next photo is taken from below. I'm not sure how much strength these "brackets" actually provide, but they are present in the inspiration piece so I copied them regardless.

At this point in the process all that was left is a few bits of wood filler at the frame, sanding, removal of any remaining glue residue and a little bit of stain touch up etc. etc., none of which is worthy of photography. When all of the above was finally accomplished the cabinet was righted and I began installing the false fronts. The first four (4) fronts are the simpler ones:

The upper eight false fronts have the more ornate look. If anything is not perfectly square, this is where it matters! Each front is held in place with two (2) #6 x 1" wood screws which are deployed from inside the drawer box. 

With all the false fronts aligned and secured, the next step is to extend the 3/16" pre-drilled holes into the drawer boxes.

I've never enjoyed applying "finish" to my projects, but fortunately this is Amy Sheep's favorite bit and  she was happy to pitch in. We are using Rubio monocoat again because we have had great results with it in the past.

Shop Cat Luna was also around to supervise and provide commentary.

Cabinet finished:

Drawers finished:

We gave the Rubio a week to cure and then I installed the "drop pail" style pulls which are similar to those at the inspiration piece:

With assistance the cabinet was hoiked up to our bedroom and leveled:

The front of the dresser stands on the rug, so shims were need at the central and rear legs:

Done!

Bedroom Dresser Part 4

The reason this episode of the dresser build is dropping so quickly after part three is that most of the work in this post was done at the same time as I was building the frame. This time I'm focusing on the last remaining major part of the build: false fronts for the drawers. The starting point for each "front" is a piece of 3/4" maple veneered plywood and a selection of 3/4" wide by 1/8" thick maple veneer:

The fronts are all the same overall size (20-7/8" x 5-15/16") but have two different styles. The four lower drawers are the simple ones: A plywood panel which measures around 1/4" less in each direction than the final size is wrapped with 1/8" maple veneer....and that's it for embellishments.

After glue-up and basic sanding the false fronts were trimmed again to eliminate any variations in the thickness of the veneer:

The repeated application of maple wood filler and sanding to 220 grit was followed by staining with the same 1:1 mixture of English chestnut and gunstock used on the cabinet. Looking pretty good, right?

While the fronts were great, the edges were a different story because marks from the circular saw blade were evident throughout:

To deal with this unexpected issue the edges were sanded to 80 grit to get to the bottom of the indentations and then to 220....

....and the stain was reapplied. I did this for all four edges of each drawer front, and then they were finally ready for installation.

The eight upper drawer fronts are more complicated. The embossed style dictates that the starting material needs to be 1/8" thinner than the lower fronts. Running the plywood panels through the planer is the simple solution to this issue, but the drawback is that the veneer is lost from one side of the plywood:

As previously mentioned, I wanted the plywood to be undetectable, and I came up with a labor intensive but unusual way of doing that. I actually trimmed the plywood down to 1/2" thick, so 1/4" or 2x pieces of 1/8" thick veneer away from what I actually want. The perimeter of each panel was then wrapped in maple veneer as above 

I'm making up 1/8" of the thickness with strips of maple veneer installed at the perimeter of the rear-facing side of the drawer fronts - the veneered edge is the only portion which will be visible when the drawers are assembled, so the central area of each panel was padded out with bits of scrap material of the same thickness:

The front face is treated with the same maple veneer as above except the corners have been mitered. These pieces of veneer were stained ahead of the install and any tooth marked sections were either turned over, sanded or discarded. 

I used wood filler made from fine maple sawdust and wood glue, followed by sanding, to eliminate any gaps in the veneer....

....and applied wood stain:

There were no unexpected teeth marks this time around, but the stain did highlight some stray blobs of wood glue, which were removed by light sanding and the areas re-stained.

Staining the drawer boxes was a two-step process which began with applying stain to the veneer at the top edge.

Any imperfections that came to light in step one were dealt with and then the inside of the drawer and the two outer side panels were stained. I didn't bother staining the front, since it will be covered, or the back or underside, since these areas will not be visible.

At this point I have twelve drawer boxes in two sizes and twelve drawer fronts in two styles. I also have the cabinet and the frame which I made earlier. Stay tuned for the final assembly!