first furniture project

[Jeff Dunlap]

Hi all,
I wanted to post my first real furniture project, it is a dresser for me and my wife's first child. It is red oak, with a red mahogany finish, it still needs hardware but it is done on my part. I enjoyed this project and learned alot doing it. Well please be gentle i know it's not that nice compared to most people's work on here but hopfully one day i can get there. Thanks

[keith ouellette]

I think its great. That first piece of furniture is always a worry to make. Some nice drawer pulls will make it stand out more. If your wife is like my wife she should have her choices narrowed down in a month or so.

good job.

[Todd Trebuna]

It's a beautiful and functional piece. Well done.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Very nice Jeff. Please be sure to post another pic when the hardware is attached.

[Von Bickley]

Jeff,

The chest of drawers looks GREAT. If that is your first furniture project, I know we will see a lot more in the future.

Great Work Jeff.....

[Martin Shupe]

For your first project, you did great!

However, no matter how good you get, there is always room for improvement.

Next time, pay a little more attention to grain matching during your glue up of wider pieces.

It looks like some of your drawer fronts are more than one piece of wood. I would suggest trying to use a single piece of wood for each front, or, if you must use two pieces, look for a book match.

Chris Schwarz had a excellent article on grain matching in an issue of Woodworking magazine. I am not sure which one, but if you can't find it, you can email him and you might be able to buy a back issue.

(The only reason I know this, is because I made the exact same mistake on one of my first projects.)

[John Thompson]

Very well done Jeff. Ditto Martin on watching the grain match on those drawer fronts. You will get better at that each time you do a project and other than that the execution is very well done.

Congratulations on the piece and the soon to be arrival...

[Jeff Dunlap]

Yeah i know about the grain matching and yes all but the top two drawers are glue ups. I planned on using 1 board per front but the lumber yard i went to had a limited selection, everything wider than 6 inches were either around 5 feet and i would have been wasting 2 feet per drawer and really didn't want to do that so it is what it is, even the 5-6 inch wide pieces had a limited selection. If i took a pic of the top i think i did a good job of grain matching their. so hopefully the changing table i am about to start i will get a chance to do a better job. Thanks for all the comments and words of encouragment.

[John Keeton]

Jeff, good job all around. Red oak (oak, ash, in general) is tough to get a good grain match. Particularly when one does not have a lot of stock from which to choose. It looks good, and the hardware will help on the grain situation.

[sean m. titmas]

Well please be gentle i know it's not that nice compared to most people's work on here but hopfully one day i can get there. Thanks
Jeff,

don't compare your work to what other people do. there are so many variables that go into making up a woodworker that just comparing the outward appearance of two pieces doesn't really do anything good for you. instead, compare your current project to the last thing you built and you will soon begin to critique your own work and than you can adjust what it is that you want to change.

nice work for your first piece of furniture.
personally i don't like the look of stained flat cut oak because it is so overused that it tends to become tired but your project it a great starting point for your portfolio. what did you do for drawers?

[Jeff Dunlap]

The drawers are just pocket screwed together the drawer fronts conceal the screws. I would like to try dovetailing drawers soon but i lost my job recently and can't afford the jig i want, but once i do that that is how i will do my drawers. I also thought of using a this rabbet dado drawer joint i saw in a magazine seems easy and straigt forward but i thought since i did this project mostly with pocket screw i should see how the drawers turned out with them. I agree about the oak, i honestly dislike oak, I would have preferred a maple and walnut combo, but it's what the wife wanted so i used red oak. She really likes oak, oak bedroom furniture, amish made before we were married which actually where this design came from, oak floors, oak china cabinet, the only thing i got her to not to do oak in is the kitchen and vanity cabinets. Hopefully i will get her to come around to other woods, especially contrasting and different wood species in the same project, i just love that look but she's not to keen on it right now.

[Jay Jagerson]

Jeff, it looks good.

I started with a book case for my first child 11 years ago and now have made both of my children each a toddler bed, twin size beds etc.

The one thing I would suggest if you have not done so already would be to date and signed your name to it that you made it. They may take that piece with them at some time and the name and date will mean more than the piece.

Its kinda neat to move a piece like I did a few months back to see a date on it that is already 10 years old, time does fly by, seems like yesterday when I ran that board thru the planner!

Keep up the good work and make some more stuff for you and the family.

Jay

[Martin Shupe]

Jeff,

I remember what it is like to make every piece of lumber count.

Your workmanship is first rate.

You might consider dados over pocket screws next time, they might last longer.

You don't need a jig to make a dovetail, come over the quiet side, all you need is a saw and a set of chisels.

[John Thompson]

I'm going to back-track a bit here Jeff on my statement ditto'ing anothers comments about the grain match. I can assure you the comments were well intended and simply an attempt to alert you to future builds. It appears you were limited in what you could do with the circumstances you mentioned.

I will add that even someone that does attempt to grain match can run into similar circumstances. Budget can be a factor and so can local availability. I have been building pieces for 38 years. I built a 5 drawer chest similar to yours about two years ago. It was red oak from a stash of about 800 board feet of local blow-down from storms I milled and air-dried.

All was well with grain match until I got down to the last 200 bd. ft. and my 5 drawer chest came up to build. I was trying to keep a 5 piece bedroom suit within that 800 original bd. ft. But.. by after the bed.. a 6 drawer chest.. TV stand.. shoe rack.. the red oak that was left after carefully chosing for the other pieces was what was left over. To stay within my budget with what was on hand.... I used it anyway and the grain was a bit on the wild side...

I knew that before I built but gave myself a green light anyway as it was what I had and within my budget at the time. That chest was posted on this forum about two years ago and I did recieve some comments about the grain match could have been better as I should have. So... what we have said here about grain is simply to en-lighten you as when I first got started I was clueless as to what is and what isn't the best approach.

Again... excellent job on the build and I am sure your wife is delighted with the piece just as mine was with the 5 drawer chest I mentioned as she knew the limitations I was working under with a limited selection.

Regards...

[Brent Ring]

I think it is just funny that my first job (bookcase) was red oak with red mahogany stain!:D

Not job - well executed piece!

[Brent Ring]

I meant to say nice job!