Bedroom Dresser Part 3

At this point in the build, I have constructed the basic cabinet and filled it with drawers. The next part of the process is to make the "frame" structure which supports the cabinet. It is helpful to look back at the inspiration piece here - the cabinet sits within a darker frame and only the frame touches the floor. 

I'm making the frame from African mahogany. I've got a lot of experience working with oak and walnut and I've used teak before. The last time I came near mahogany was back in the 80's when I worked in the carpentry shop at a funeral directors....and even that was limited to "puttying up" and sanding. This project is the first time I've bought what you might call expensive material. I began by cutting the stock into pieces that are a few inches longer than I need:

The material was then ripped into sections which are approximately 1-1/2 inches square. 

There was a satisfying dark band in the dust collector when I was done with the sawing:

I spent the next few weeks - or more accurately parts thereof - working on other aspects of the dresser. The mahogany was left to warp, twist or bend to its hearts content....except it really did not; every piece remained perfectly straight, and milling the material down to the final dimensions was a piece of cake. The upper front rail measures 1-5/8" x 1-1/4" and all the other pieces are 1-1/4 square. This task was made a lot easier with a really nice digital caliper.

The "cage" or "frame" consists of four corner posts, four side rails and two front rails. There is also a central front-to-back rail below the cabinet which is invisible when the structure is assembled - so eleven pieces of mahogany which will be built into a frame with mortise and tenon joinery. The rough tenons were cut on the cabinet saw. This was bit laborious since I had to use the regular saw blade - I still don't have the correct insert for the dado stack.

The tenons require careful refinement with a file:

Rinse and repeat a total of thirteen times...

The upper front rail is recessed 5/8" into the cabinet which means it is constructed from wider material. The fitting of this rail followed the "little and often" mantra....

....which resulted in a perfect fit - the rail stays in place without clamps or fasteners!

The four corner posts - or legs - were taped together and cut to the final length of 31-1/4". 

The taping also makes it much easier to mark out for all the mortises at the same time. The side and front rails meet the corner posts at the top and at around three inches from the base. In addition, the front corner posts mate with both the front and side rails, so a double mortise is required at these intersections. 

I used a piece of scrap mahogany to set up the drill press. I bored 5/8" diameter holes with a spade bit to remove the bulk of the material: 

All holes bored!

Excess material is cut out with a chisel - this process is known as making a square hole out of a round hole.

Test fitting components:

The tenons were all cut a bit longer than needed to allow for any variation in the depth of the mortises, so some trimming was required.

One down, another twelve to go:

Part way through the mortise and tenon refinement process I took a break to work on the cabinet. I've been working through the wood filler/final sanding/more wood filler/ more final sanding routine in the background and now I'm ready for stain. The cabinet needs to be stained before the frame will is attached because the mahogany will be stained much darker.

I'm looking for something close to the inspiration piece, so I made up a quick test palette out of some scrap material using wood stain I already have:

There was no good match, so I took the two closest stains and mixed them at various ratios:

The best match was a 1:1 ratio of English chestnut and gunstock. This mixture looks pretty dark when it's going on:

And dries like the picture below:

Back to fine tuning the mortise and tenon joints. Where two tenons plug into the same front corner post/leg....

...both tenons must be trimmed at 45 degrees. The upper front rail is also recessed into the cabinet by around 3/8" which means 100% concentration is required for these cuts and the painstaking micro adjustments.

Checking the fit at the bench:

The frame I'm constructing will raise the cabinet exactly six (6) inches off the floor. I made some blocks by milling scraps of 4" x 6" lumber (which is really 3-1/2" x 5-1/2") to exactly 5-1/4" thick and stapling on pieces of 3/4" plywood. This allows me to build the frame on top of the table.

Dry fitting the fame to the cabinet:

At this point the frame is (mostly) constructed from 1-1-4" square mahogany. I will be rounding of some of the corners prior to glue up, and the frame also needs to be sanded, stained and attached to the cabinet. After that I have twelve (12) false fronts to make and install. Stay tuned!