Thomas Pender
11-16-2009, 10:46 AM
We all do woodworking for various reasons - some for a living, some for relaxation, and some us to actually make things. I love the process and the actual achievement - I like to look at the work I do afterwards and I love to give them to folks in my family. Well, these nightstands are a bit of a special story.
I have one brother named George. He is ten-years younger than me and he is very important to me. For instance, I still remember him crying as I went off to VMI some 35 years ago. Partially due to him, I got involved in woodworking and he and I always talk about it. However, since he lives in Manhattan (NYC) it is tough for him to do serious woodworking.
Last Halloween, in a senseless and random act of violence, he was very badly hurt outside a subway entrance in the East Village. He suffered a fractured skull, a ruined eye socket, you name it. My sister-in-law, Alice, had the presence of mind to haul him to the hospital just a few block of away and they stabilized him. He was transferred to Cornell-Weill Medical Center where probably the greatest reconstructive surgeon in the world (Dr. Henry Spinelli) performed rather breathtaking surgery to rebuild the bones in his face and used lots of titanium in the effort. Since then he has had other major surgeries and is highly susceptible to any kind of sinus infection and can no longer tolerate cold weather because of the titanium. In addition he is totally and permanently disabled and cannot see properly.
While I have done some minor woodworking projects for him over the years, I realized he did not have something large and useful - something that I could show how important he is to me. So I asked him what he wanted. He said he and Alice need some nightstands and if they could look like Stickley that would be wonderful since he is a big Stickley fan and has some beautiful mission stuff in his apartment. I said sure and asked what they wanted. I sent them some sample drawings and Alice said she wanted nightstands with three drawers - seems to be a thing women like.
He visited me several months ago and we went out to Northland Forest Products which is just a few miles away and hunted through the stacks and bought some 5/4 QSWO. We hauled it back and within a few days had cut and glued the tops and while I started the smoothing with my LV Planes (BU Jointer, BU Jack, BU Smoother, and hand scrapers) he, with some difficulty, finished one of tops because I had to be somewhere else.
It has been busy for us - buying a farm, being a parent, etc. It took me a while and one reason was I had to have the finish picked out. I tied fuming the oak, but that was a bit dark because so much of it is quite brown to start with, plus it tended to obscure some of the smaller ray patterns on the QSWO. Eventually we settled on the formula in the old Popular Mechanics mission book, which is really close to Rocker’s Mission Oak gel. I also decided to put a satin varnish on it and selected Target’s EM 6000.
I also decided to go with no technology in the structure - no metal drawer slides, etc. Instead, I built web frames and reversed the normal dovetail pattern so the sides (made of poplar pre planed by NFP) could be adjusted to make the openings adjustable. I used my Akeda jig and tried to make the dovetails look machined - perfect spacing, which is typical of much of the mission furniture in various museums, but I did leave the outline dark over the poplar. The insides are shellac and the outsides are the Target over shellac. The slides are two simple oak sticks (3/4” x 3/8”) glued to the bottom of the drawers. The through mortises were cut with my Jet Bench Top Mortiser with a 3/8” bit. I made the tenons with a modified Pat Warner tenon jig and my router using a rabbeting bit with a 3/16” space on a collar - they cut very smooth (BTW - the bit comes from MCLS). The hardware is straight up Lee Valley - stuff I have used many times before.
The pictures I have did not turn out so well since I took them in the evening (perhaps I will edit to put new ones in), but this is what these two things look like. I also appreciate this is a very long post and I appreciate everyone’s forbearance, but in a way, this is the kind of thing that make woodworking the best avocation/hobby there is. To close, I think that while this project pales compared to some of the artistry our fellow creekers have accomplished, this project may be, personally, the most important I have ever done. When George and Alice come on Thanksgiving and take these nightstands back with them it will be “the best that I can.”
I have one brother named George. He is ten-years younger than me and he is very important to me. For instance, I still remember him crying as I went off to VMI some 35 years ago. Partially due to him, I got involved in woodworking and he and I always talk about it. However, since he lives in Manhattan (NYC) it is tough for him to do serious woodworking.
Last Halloween, in a senseless and random act of violence, he was very badly hurt outside a subway entrance in the East Village. He suffered a fractured skull, a ruined eye socket, you name it. My sister-in-law, Alice, had the presence of mind to haul him to the hospital just a few block of away and they stabilized him. He was transferred to Cornell-Weill Medical Center where probably the greatest reconstructive surgeon in the world (Dr. Henry Spinelli) performed rather breathtaking surgery to rebuild the bones in his face and used lots of titanium in the effort. Since then he has had other major surgeries and is highly susceptible to any kind of sinus infection and can no longer tolerate cold weather because of the titanium. In addition he is totally and permanently disabled and cannot see properly.
While I have done some minor woodworking projects for him over the years, I realized he did not have something large and useful - something that I could show how important he is to me. So I asked him what he wanted. He said he and Alice need some nightstands and if they could look like Stickley that would be wonderful since he is a big Stickley fan and has some beautiful mission stuff in his apartment. I said sure and asked what they wanted. I sent them some sample drawings and Alice said she wanted nightstands with three drawers - seems to be a thing women like.
He visited me several months ago and we went out to Northland Forest Products which is just a few miles away and hunted through the stacks and bought some 5/4 QSWO. We hauled it back and within a few days had cut and glued the tops and while I started the smoothing with my LV Planes (BU Jointer, BU Jack, BU Smoother, and hand scrapers) he, with some difficulty, finished one of tops because I had to be somewhere else.
It has been busy for us - buying a farm, being a parent, etc. It took me a while and one reason was I had to have the finish picked out. I tied fuming the oak, but that was a bit dark because so much of it is quite brown to start with, plus it tended to obscure some of the smaller ray patterns on the QSWO. Eventually we settled on the formula in the old Popular Mechanics mission book, which is really close to Rocker’s Mission Oak gel. I also decided to put a satin varnish on it and selected Target’s EM 6000.
I also decided to go with no technology in the structure - no metal drawer slides, etc. Instead, I built web frames and reversed the normal dovetail pattern so the sides (made of poplar pre planed by NFP) could be adjusted to make the openings adjustable. I used my Akeda jig and tried to make the dovetails look machined - perfect spacing, which is typical of much of the mission furniture in various museums, but I did leave the outline dark over the poplar. The insides are shellac and the outsides are the Target over shellac. The slides are two simple oak sticks (3/4” x 3/8”) glued to the bottom of the drawers. The through mortises were cut with my Jet Bench Top Mortiser with a 3/8” bit. I made the tenons with a modified Pat Warner tenon jig and my router using a rabbeting bit with a 3/16” space on a collar - they cut very smooth (BTW - the bit comes from MCLS). The hardware is straight up Lee Valley - stuff I have used many times before.
The pictures I have did not turn out so well since I took them in the evening (perhaps I will edit to put new ones in), but this is what these two things look like. I also appreciate this is a very long post and I appreciate everyone’s forbearance, but in a way, this is the kind of thing that make woodworking the best avocation/hobby there is. To close, I think that while this project pales compared to some of the artistry our fellow creekers have accomplished, this project may be, personally, the most important I have ever done. When George and Alice come on Thanksgiving and take these nightstands back with them it will be “the best that I can.”