Jointer & Cabinet Maker Complete!!!!

[Bob Jones]

Whew!!! One year and 3 months later I am done with this chest of drawers. I don't get in the shop much in a given week. It is not exactly to the book, but it is built with the same methods (mostly). Confessions (not apologies) first. I used my circular saw and bandsaw for sizing the rough-cut lumber. Only hand tools after the boards were about the right size (all surfacing and joinery). I used plywood for the drawer bottoms and the panels for the frame and panel back. Everything else was solid wood (mostly cherry, some maple, cypress, and cedar).

Now good stuff - I HIGHLY recommend the book from Lost Art Press, The Jointer & Cabinet Maker. This was my first case-piece, ever. This was the most complicated thing I have made from wood. The next was the schoolbox on top (also from the book). Anyway, the book was great for a beginner. For true beginners, I also suggest The Essential Woodworker (LAP) as a great compliment.

Other notes
The Cherry was a craigslist find. Sawn from a tree close-by in MS. All from 1 log. Air dried. $1/bf. Lots of scrap, but the good boards were REALLY good.

The top is 2 pieces. Both from the same board. One is about 16in wide.

The drawer fronts are all 1 piece. The all have cathedral grain that points in the same direction. The top has the same pattern.

Only hardware are big knobs from LV. Heavy brass.

The base is not according to the book. It is a M&T frame with an arched front to match a bed I made 5 years ago.

The box was my first experiment in dovetails. This chest was the second. I am still slow, but they look much better now.

I hope that these pictures will motivate some people to jump in and take on pieces that they are not "qualified" to build. I was certainly not qualified to build this. Next up - a proper tool cabinet. Hopefully that will not take a full year. :)

[Bob Jones]

Just a few more pictures. Any non-critical comments are welcome :)

[Bob Jones]

Forgot to mention sizes. The drawers are 8in, 10in, 10in, and 12in deep. 20 in deep chest and about 59in tall. I made up the drawer sizes to fit the boards that I wanted to use. For the record, 12in deep drawers are too deep. My wife requested deeper than normal drawers. Next time 10in is the max. :)

[Chris Vandiver]

Beautiful! Excellent!! All the superlatives apply.

[James Owen]

Beautiful work.

That is some really nicely grained cherry; nice that it is local, too!

Great looking box, too.

[Jim Koepke]

Very nice.

jtk

[Tom Scott]

Great job Bob. If you weren't qualified to build this when you started, you are now.

[Sean Richards]

Nice looking chest of drawers - great job!

[Tom Stenzel]

I have one criticism: It's not at my house.

Beautiful work!

-Tom Stenzel

[Jerome Hanby]

Nice job. I'm reading the book now and am just finishing the section where Thomas builds this chest of drawers. There is an episode of Saint Roy where the Scharwz is talking about the book and going through all the "exercises" it contains. Never had any desire to do anything strictly with hand tools, but the projects from this book are tempting just to add some practical skills to my personal tool set.

[David Weaver]

Looks great, Bob. Really nice tidy work.

[Greg Fletcher]

Awesome!!! Are the drawer sides cypress? Any pics of the inside of the carcass?

[Will Boulware]

Fantastic work with a beautiful outcome! Great job!

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Looks great, love it! What's the finish?

[Brent VanFossen]

That is a fine looking chest. You should be very proud.

[Paul Cahill]

Lovely work.

[Mark Wyatt]

Very, very nice!

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Beautiful chest! It just glows.

[Zach Dillinger]

I haven't seen a better chest since Racquel Welch...

[Chris Griggs]

Wow. Great work. Very inspiring! Makes me want to build my way through the book.

[Don Jarvie]

For the 2nd time doing dovetails those look very good. Very nice.

[Jim Barrett]

Bob,
Nice job! Looks great and a piece of furniture you will look back on and smile :)

Jim

[Jon Toebbe]

For the 2nd time doing dovetails those look very good. Very nice.
Agreed! Did you keep the same overall dimensions as the chest of drawers in the book? Your version looks taller than I was envisioning from the illustrations in J&C. Regardless, the workmanship is beautiful!

[Steve Branam]

Looks great! I love that book, it really is worthwhile.

[Bob Jones]

Thanks for all of the kind comments. Let me try to answer the questions raised.

The finish is 4 coats of BLO. I wiped it on, waited about 5 minutes, and wiped it off really well. If I left any built up on the surface it makes it "sticky". I wiped on and off with old t-shirts. I stopped at 4 coats because it looked right to me. Talk about a fool-proof finish. FYI - I did not scrape or sane any surface. Planing everything with the same bevel angle seems to make cherry look better to me.

The drawer sides are cypress. I wrote a thread a while back explaining how I made them from strips cut from a 2 in think board. I did that to get QS stock. I wasted a bit to get stable boards, but the end result is pretty nice. I used maple for the runners inside the case.

The dimensions are very different from the book. I made mine taller and not as wide, based on what my wife wanted and the wall space available in our bedroom.

Thanks again everyone!

[Larry Fox]

Outstanding project Bob. One question though. How much reveal is around the drawers? From the pictures they look really tight. Congrats on being able to get them to fit properly with such a small reveal and are you at all worried about expansion making them stick?

[Bob Jones]

The drawers have very little clearance. They slide freely, but with no "slack" on the sides. I am going to watch them closely this summer. I made each one oversized a touch and planned them to fit by hand. It took a while.

[Ashwini Kaul]

Bob,

Excellent work and very inspiring.
Whats even more creditable is how you were able to find the time/energy with your young kids around!

One question - since I have not read the book - whats the drawer slide mechanism?

[Mike Allen1010]

Very Nice work Bob! In particular, I really like the way you chose and arranged boards to really show off that beautiful local cherry! Congratulations --I'm sure this is a piece that you and your family will be proud to have in your house for many years to come.

Bob thanks for sharing your work and the recommendation about the book -- I wasn't aware of it. I really like the Lost Art Press stuff and will definitely check it out based on your recommendation.

BTW, IMHO it is never a mistake to incorporate "design requests" from the Boss into furniture projects. During 20 years of marriage I have found getting the Bosses input and buy-in up front on the current project, makes for a friendlier reception when you come home from the lumberyard/tool store with supplies for the next project!

This comes from a guy whose first few pieces of furniture somehow never found "the right place in the house" and therefore always seem to end up with friends!

All the best, Mike

[Zahid Naqvi]

Just a few more pictures. Any non-critical comments are welcome :)

Come on dude what's the fun in that ;)
but
1. You did a great job with the dovetails
2. Drawer fitting is immaculate. Inset drawers are the hardest to align (specially if you are looking at multiples as in a chest) as there is no where to hide you mistakes.
3. You obviously gave a lot of thought to grain orientation, which shows in the finished product.
4. Choice of hardware is also good, with the grain this nice you don't want flashy hardware drawing the eye away.

You work at about the same pace as me, you just do better work. Considering the potential of this chest of drawers to span more than one generation the one year construction period is not bad.