Brett Robson
09-14-2014, 1:22 AM
So I finally dragged this project across the finish line. After nearly a year of pounding and cussing, this piece emerged from my shop last week.
It's a loose reproduction of a museum piece in, I believe, Colonial Williamsburg. While mine's certainly no professional reproduction, I'd say it's at least a fair facsimile of the original.
I build the piece just from a single photograph which I scaled up to the known dimensions of the original. Had I sought out more (or any) construction details rather than just puzzling my way through it would have made the build easier. I'll probably do just that in the unlikely event that I ever build another one of these!
It's made from cherry, poplar and cherry veneers. The finish is dye and garnet shellac - no oil on this one as the wood didn't have much figure.
As there's no finding a monster slab of 12/4 cherry here in Colorado and spending $10,000 on a huge slab of mahogany is out of the question, I built the sides from a big glue up (a workbench top style glue up) of 8/4 poplar which I shaped to the bombe shape then veneered over with cherry veneer.
I read somewhere veneering over lesser woods was a common European technique of making bombe sides in the 18th C. so I didn't feel too guilty using that technique on mine as opposed to shaping them from some giant slab of solid hardwood.
The bottom three drawers were the hardest part of the entire build. I made attempt after attempt to get the compound angles correct on the drawers. I started with the side and front of the bottom drawer cut about 8" too long to give me room to cut off the dovetails and start over in the event I didn't get it right.
Well, it look many attempts to get it right and I used every bit of that extra length in the process! There were a few moments during the drawer construction that I had serious doubts whether I'd be able to pull off this build!
fortunately I eventually figured it out and the rest of the build went reasonably smooth.
I took a few pictures along the way which I uploaded in a simple slideshow on youtube, if you're curious. I didn't take enough pictures to really be any kind of how-to, but at least you get the idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYB29fo2WyE&list=UUfU8cx6U0-FK7psdgNepoVw
Sorry for the poor quality phone pictures. I have a better camera coming soon and I'll add some hopefully better pictures when I can.
Comments and/or criticizm is welcomed, as always!
It's a loose reproduction of a museum piece in, I believe, Colonial Williamsburg. While mine's certainly no professional reproduction, I'd say it's at least a fair facsimile of the original.
I build the piece just from a single photograph which I scaled up to the known dimensions of the original. Had I sought out more (or any) construction details rather than just puzzling my way through it would have made the build easier. I'll probably do just that in the unlikely event that I ever build another one of these!
It's made from cherry, poplar and cherry veneers. The finish is dye and garnet shellac - no oil on this one as the wood didn't have much figure.
As there's no finding a monster slab of 12/4 cherry here in Colorado and spending $10,000 on a huge slab of mahogany is out of the question, I built the sides from a big glue up (a workbench top style glue up) of 8/4 poplar which I shaped to the bombe shape then veneered over with cherry veneer.
I read somewhere veneering over lesser woods was a common European technique of making bombe sides in the 18th C. so I didn't feel too guilty using that technique on mine as opposed to shaping them from some giant slab of solid hardwood.
The bottom three drawers were the hardest part of the entire build. I made attempt after attempt to get the compound angles correct on the drawers. I started with the side and front of the bottom drawer cut about 8" too long to give me room to cut off the dovetails and start over in the event I didn't get it right.
Well, it look many attempts to get it right and I used every bit of that extra length in the process! There were a few moments during the drawer construction that I had serious doubts whether I'd be able to pull off this build!
fortunately I eventually figured it out and the rest of the build went reasonably smooth.
I took a few pictures along the way which I uploaded in a simple slideshow on youtube, if you're curious. I didn't take enough pictures to really be any kind of how-to, but at least you get the idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYB29fo2WyE&list=UUfU8cx6U0-FK7psdgNepoVw
Sorry for the poor quality phone pictures. I have a better camera coming soon and I'll add some hopefully better pictures when I can.
Comments and/or criticizm is welcomed, as always!