Four down, four to go ..

[Derek Cohen]

Just a quick update on the Lingerie Chest.


Four drawers done. They take 3 full days each to build (1 1/2 weekends). This includes thicknessing/sawing/shaping all the parts, dovetailing, and fitting.


The gaps between the drawers will be sorted out once all are done. There will be 1/16" between the drawers.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Linergrie%20Chest/Drawers/Four%20Drawers/Four-drawers1a_zpsynhxipyk.jpg


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Linergrie%20Chest/Drawers/Four%20Drawers/Four-drawers2a_zpsvzoqnugo.jpg


And the obligatory dovetail shot :)


The dovetails increase progressively, as with the size of the drawers.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Linergrie%20Chest/Drawers/Four%20Drawers/Four-drawers3a_zpsdhlbmsxq.jpg


Next post will be after all the drawers are done.


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Chris Hachet]

Highly impressive, and truly an inspiration....for a guy like me who has maybe ten percent of your natural talent, this just makes me want to go out and work in my wood shop all the more....

[Brian Holcombe]

Looking sharp Derek!

[george wilson]

Coming along very nicely,Derek! Up here you'd have a fortune in the woods!

[David Eisenhauer]

Very good stuff.

[Jim Koepke]

Very impressive work.

For some reason an old Beatles song "Eight Days a Week" keeps playing in my head.

jtk

[Prashun Patel]

+1 to all comments below. Thanks for posting. Question on the gaps. How do you deal with creating the side gaps? Do you plane the entire drawer side or just a rabbet on the front edge?

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Prashun

I am not following your question. What "side gaps" are you referring to?

Perhaps you mean fitting the drawers? I dry fit drawers without measuring diagonals or using a square - a little tight is good, just as long as they go into their recess. Then glue up and slide back in to dry. Once dry I fine tune the drawer. This may mean planing the sides.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Prashun Patel]

Hi Derek. yes, I meant fitting the drawers.

When you plane the drawer edges to have an even 1/16" gap, do you just plane near the front face, or along the entire depth of the drawer?

That is, say you trim 1/16" off the top edge of the drawer front, do you plane a 1/16" off the top edge of the drawer sides too?

Even trickier: when you plane 1/16" off the side edges of the drawer front, do you plane 1/16" off the drawer sides as well? Doing so will introduce side/side movement along the carriage of the drawer. But NOT doing so will create a rabbet going up and down the drawer side near the drawer front. Unless there is a better way, my solution has been to blend that rabbet into a gentle slope over an inch or two of the drawer side. This makes it less noticeable to anyone but me, but does not (in theory) introduce slop in the drawer travel.

I am sure you have a more elegant solution.

[george wilson]

Gee Whiz,Derek!!! How much lingerie does she have?????

[Jim Koepke]

Gee Whiz,Derek!!! How much lingerie does she have?????

Apparently enough to motivate him in to building a special cabinet to hold it all.

I don't think we will see any pictures of it loaded up or in use outside of our imaginations. :(

jtk

[glenn bradley]

Go Derek, go. She's looking great!

[Terry Hatfield]

Beautiful work Derek!!

[James Pallas]

Very nice Derek. If that jarrah is as hard as you say it must be tricky to work those small pins, doubly so if it is brittle as well. Could that be why you have adopted your drilling methods?
Jim

[Derek Cohen]

James, that is exactly so. This Jarrah, in particular, is too hard to chop into. It splits off well ... sometimes too well.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Coming along very nicely,Derek! Up here you'd have a fortune in the woods!

Hi George

This wood could cost a bomb, but fortunately it was accumulated over a few years - what others reject because it is too figured and interlocked, I grab with glee! It is only the secondary wood for the drawer sides that is an outlay now.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Robert Norman]

What does the hardware look like? Looking incredible so far!

[Phil Mueller]

Wow, really nice Derek. I've hesitated doing drawers for fear of those darn dovetails, but the skill many of you have here is certainly inspiring. Look forward to the rest of the build.

[John Kananis]

She's a beauty so far - really admiring your work.

[Derek Cohen]

What does the hardware look like? Looking incredible so far!

Robert, that is a nightmare. I have drawn up a design for the handles and am searching for African Blackwood to use to build them out of. Not easy to find in Oz. Below is an example that is very close to the design I have in mind ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Linergrie%20Chest/Drawers/Handles%20and%20hinges/Drawer%20handle_zpst3gpe9jv.png


Originally I had planned to make the handles using some scrap from the drawer fronts. That would, obviously, be a good match, but not the best way to go.


The aim is to not let the handles dominate. I want to keep them on the small side (approx 4" long - this is not a large chest), and only have a single handle in the centre of each drawer.


However, I am mindful that the figure in the drawers is pretty wild, and any small pieces from the drawers placed on top (in the form of a handle) will have a clash of grain. I think that will detract. Consequently, the handles need to be a uniform colour, and it will come down to either bronze (my wife's preference) or black (my preference).

The other area is a hinge for the lift up top, which will house a mirror. Either I use Brusso Quadrant hinge ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Linergrie%20Chest/Drawers/Handles%20and%20hinges/BR-QHXX_big_zpsy0qu7sre.gif

This is quite bulky. The alternative is the Smart Hinge, which is significantly smaller, and claimed to take the same stresses. Both open with a stop, with the SH just hidden in the mechanism.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Linergrie%20Chest/Drawers/Handles%20and%20hinges/sh_header1_zps6au4crs7.png

Interested in the thoughts of others.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Holbrook]

Beautiful Derek, and very inspiring. From other posts I am assuming you are working that wood with custom Veritas Bench Planes. Whatever you used, the surface are beautiful. You have an eye for choosing wood which is exceptionally interesting to look at, though I imagine it isn't quite as pleasant to work.

I am in a rough furniture phase, reading Schwarz's new book "The Anarchist's Design Book" on Staked & Boarded furniture. Planing to build furniture for a timber framed retirement cabin in the mountains. Maybe building rougher furniture will disguise my lesser skill set. Derek's chest design seems to demand the unique skill set he employs.

[Stanley Covington]

Excellent work Derek! Beautiful wood. Which drawer will be the esky for her grog?

Stan

[Derek Cohen]

Excellent work Derek! Beautiful wood. Which drawer will be the esky for her grog?

Stan

That's in the secret drawer at the rear ... of course! :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Beautiful Derek, and very inspiring. From other posts I am assuming you are working that wood with custom Veritas Bench Planes. Whatever you used, the surface are beautiful. You have an eye for choosing wood which is exceptionally interesting to look at, though I imagine it isn't quite as pleasant to work.

I am in a rough furniture phase, reading Schwarz's new book "The Anarchist's Design Book" on Staked & Boarded furniture. Planing to build furniture for a timber framed retirement cabin in the mountains. Maybe building rougher furniture will disguise my lesser skill set. Derek's chest design seems to demand the unique skill set he employs.

Thanks Mike. I have been using the Custom #7 a lot. Outside of my wooden jack I built, the smoothers switch between a Custom #4 and the LN #3. The other planes that have been useful for the bow drawer fronts has been a Stanley #93, used as scrub for the inside curve, and a LA Jack with toothing blade ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Linergrie%20Chest/Drawers/Planing-bow2a_zpspwjdibmp.jpg

I have not found enough interest to buy Chris Schwarz' new book. I am more interested in contemporary styles.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[george wilson]

Re: others rejecting figured woods: Derek I know what you mean! Furniture manufacturers do not like figured woods. I was friends with the president of American Drew Furniture Co. in N. Carolina where I taught shop for several years back in the 60's. They would give me the CURLY maple that arrived with their other batches of wood. I had so much I made a workbench out of some of it.

I don't mean it was so tightly curled that I wasted it. But,it was too curly for them to bother running it through their thickness planers and molders. Obviously it would chip out and cause wasted effort on their part.

I hope blackwood will hold up for those drawer pulls. I have a little bit,but it's all about 3/8" thick. Pretty old stuff,too. It was given to me many years ago by a friend who got it from a cutlery factory which went out of business some time ago.

You can't plane the stuff without it tearing. I can only work it by running it through a sander,or rasping it into shape after bandsawing its form out.

Though this wood is really a rosewood,it is very dark,and I'm sure that after getting a little oil from hands or whatever on it,it would turn quite black. So,what's wrong with ebony?

Blackwood is also quite oily.

Love those smart hinges! But,I'd be concerned if anyone ever opened the lid quickly or carelessly,like kids might. The Brussos obviously are stronger,if more bulky. But,I don't mind CLASSY bulk! I assume you don't have any little rug rats or crumb crunchers?:)

Oh,as tall as that case is,though,it'd be a long time before they could reach it! Still depends upon the kids,however. I repaired a VERY mangled pair of 18th. C. eye glasses for my patron. They had sliding temple pieces and were made of brass. I mean,they were really roughly folded and badly squashed. She said her step grand son had done it. I was thinking he was 4 years old,until I found out he was 15! Just a hateful thing for him to do. I did get the glasses back together. Tricky job,though.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi George

I think that Brusso are beautifully made. I've used their hinges before - solid, well machined.

The Smart Hinge, on the other hand, is elegant. They basically state in their advert that most of the quadrant design is unnecessary for strength. These hinges are being sold by Andrew Crawford, who is argumentatively one of the top box makers around at present. I did a workshop with him a few years back.

This is what their site says:

1 – smartHinge is not a quadrant hinge
– but nevertheless stops the lid securely at 93˚. At the heart of this innovative hinge is a beautifully conceived but simple hidden stop incorporated into the knuckle. And because there’s no separate stay to accommodate there’s no fussy, angled excavation under the hinge flaps, and no problems screwing in the back screw around the stay when you come to fit …
2 – smartHinge isn’t L-shaped
– doing away with this redundant legacy feature [only ever necessary on cheap hinges made from sheet material but doggedly perpetuated by certain ‘quality’ hinge manufacturers] means that no expensive template/setting up is needed and fitting is hugely facilitated.
3 – smartHinge has a perfectly round knuckle
– almost all other similar siderail hinges achieve the stop by having a square, or partially square knuckle. This requires an extra machining operation to allow the knuckle to rotate and spoils the look of the back of your box.
4 – smartHinge is extremely easy to install
– the smartHinge’s three key features – no quadrant stay, no ‘L’ shape and a traditional round knuckle – make the smartHinge extremely simple to fit. And because they are precision made and absolutely consistent the result is 100% accurate, every time. One pass for each leaf using an 8mm [or 5/16” for US] cutter on a table mounted router, drill and screw in place and … job done! No messing around with unwieldy hand held routers or expensive templates, no second passes with tape on the fence to widen the cut – and remember: NO awkward digging out under the hinges to take a stay!
5 – smartHinge comes with high quality brass countersunk screws
– 8 x 5/8″ no.3 brass countersunk wood screws plus spares, [and hopefully steel screws for pre-threading eventually – when I can find some!]. The quality of screws supplied with many ‘high quality’ hinges is obviously a common problem and regularly moaned about in WW forums …
6 – smartHinge comes with full online fitting fitting instructions (http://smartboxmaker.com/smarthinge-instructions/), and a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEhM9nuUPm8)
– most box hinges come with NO instructions at all, a lamentable lack of support for what is an extremely stressful, and crucial, part of making a box.
7 – smartHinge is designed from scratch
– this is not just a marginal upgrade based on an existing hinge. Every element, from stock thickness to the leaf dimensions, from the size, spacing, format and positioning of the screw holes to the exact stop angle has been carefully considered to ensure that the smartHinge is the very best box hinge you can buy.
8 – smartHinge is not mass produced
– all British made in the West Midlands, precision machined from solid brass the smartHinge is carefully made to exacting tolerances achieving a level of consistency not possible using normal mass-production techniques. Every stage of the manufacture is regularly monitored to ensure that the smartHinge is the most accurate and beautifully made hinge there is.
9 – smartHinge is good looking!
– you could be forgiven for thinking that all this emphasis on the ease of fitting and function would in some way involve a compromise in the way it looks. But definitely not – the simple, elegant good looks of the smartHinge will fit in with almost any style of box.
10 – smartHinge is extremely easy to fit retrospectively
– we’ve all done it, avoided the hinge issue until it’s too late! The result? – you have a perfectly good box for which you can’t find suitable hinges. Well, the smartHinge is the best hinge there is to solve this all-too-common problem. As long as your box has a wall thickness of 10 mm or more, the smartHinge will do the job for you. Simply, easily, elegantly.



Thoughts?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Eisenhauer]

The Smart Hinge looks more sleek, elegant, unobtrusive to my eye - but the Brusso appears to offer more "beef" to support the open/close action over the long haul. I would have to give the Smart one a try if it were my project.

[Jim Koepke]

Those are nice hinges.

Around here the problem is most folks do not want to pay that kind of price for a fancy box let alone the hinges.

I guess I need to find a higher class of customer.

jtk

[Brian Holcombe]

How would a quadrant hinge install into that lid? I assume the lid is thin, but would it make available enough room for the quadrant's required mortise?

If so, personally I prefer the look of the quadrant hinge, I think they're far better looking than side hinges. They're also quite sturdy, I have three boxes around the house with quadrant hinges and I really do not worry about them.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Just read the whole thread. for the hinges I'd say you can't really go wrong with any of them but it seems that you're looking for someone to push you over the edge in favor if the smart hinge, so perhaps install a smart hinge into a simple mock up (could be two pine boards) and test it for strength, if it's good, you'll sleep better.

for the handle I'd have to say I don't really care for black or bronze in this case. isn't this for a WOMEN? I mean the woods are beautiful but the most feminine things about this chest is the white oak drawer sides and the tapered shape. jarrah + black\bronze is kinda more manly in my eyes. so maybe some pink Ivory? or bronze with Porcelain, Crystal\Glass might be special... or just something more femininely shaped.

Just looking at LV's overwhelming selection - diamond are a girls best friend! http://www.leevalley.com/US/Hardware/page.aspx?p=71009&cat=3,70806,43521,44008&ap=1 and it has some black in it too :p

Edit: if your not yet tiered of hearing it - wonderful work! !

[Christopher Charles]

Hello Derek,

I'll add to the echoes-- looking fantastic, all of your early design efforts are coming together nicely. I can imagine that the hardware choice is keeping you up at night... I'm also attracted to contemporary design, but Matthew makes an interesting point for sure given the intended contents... A challenging challenge!

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Matthew and Christopher.

The handles are a sensitive area - my wife is totally over discussing them! She, in fact, does not want handles, believing that this would spoil the line. I point out that the drawers must have handles since a recess (as a handle, such as that which Brian made on his cabinet) would be visible and alter the line even more than a sympathetic handle (Brian was able to hide his drawers behind doors). then she would prefer the handles to be the same wood as the drawers, to blend in. The problem here is that the drawer fronts have quite wild grain, and handles will not match the surrounding wood, and this would likely jar to the eye. Consequently, one comes down to using plain, unfigured Jarrah for the handles. That is one option. Alternately - my choice - I'd prefer them to be dark (black).

If a metal was used, it would have to be the same as the hinges, which will be polished brass. They would not work. I have considered antique brass on the fronts, but cannot find something similar for hinges. Glass or China handles are definitely out.

A sympathetic handle shape was just one part of the headache!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Patrick Walsh]

I prefer the Bruso.

[Mel Fulks]

It's an unusual piece and so ...not much guidance from tradition to be had. The type of drawer graduation used makes the pull choice more difficult,too. You mentioned you favor black for the color : I propose a single tapered black piece of wood
back beveled and sawn into pieces. From just a couple of feet back the pulls would look like one tapered piece of ebony.

[Jim Koepke]

Here goes with some wild imagination…

Could there be springs at the back of the drawers so pushing in the drawer and then releasing would have the effect of pushing the drawer out enough to then use the sides of the drawer to pull it out?

Maybe rare earth magnets imbedded in the front of the drawer and then a single handle to attach to the magnet to pull out a drawer.

Motorized remote control?

jtk

[Brian Holcombe]

Derek,

I think your wife is on the money, the grain may not match but Jarrah handles would be quite suitable. I think bronze contemporary handles sell the cabinet a bit short.

Cheers
Brian

[Christopher Charles]

I agree it would be a shame to break up the beautiful grain patterning. How about relatively long, thin pulls that were dark/black like those on box 35 here:

http://www.mekwoodworks.com/52-boxes.html

Might even be able to put them at the bottom of each face, though that might be too unbalanced.

I'm sure you'll land on the brilliant solution.

[Derek Cohen]

Here goes with some wild imagination…

Could there be springs at the back of the drawers so pushing in the drawer and then releasing would have the effect of pushing the drawer out enough to then use the sides of the drawer to pull it out?

Maybe rare earth magnets imbedded in the front of the drawer and then a single handle to attach to the magnet to pull out a drawer.

Motorized remote control?

jtk

Not so wild, Jim. That was my plan right at the start. I went so far as to research this and have a box of them ...

"The drawers will also open with push stoppers to keep the front clean and handle-free.", I wrote in the opening post.

The problem is that these catches, although well made, cannot be relied upon to last indefinitely. The realisation of this forced us to look at handles.

Mel and Christopher propose a "I propose a single tapered black piece of wood back beveled and sawn into pieces."

I have built handles similar to this in the past. They are fine for small boxes, but lack the grip to pull out what may become a heavy drawer (when filled with all that lingerie! :) ).

Brian, I agree that bronze may sell it short. Jarrah is better. If I was to use a metal handle, my choice would actually be stainless steel! Very modern and dramatic. However I doubt I could fly that past my wife. After all, this is a process that demonstrates pleasing the customer while still satisfying one's own aesthetic.

Regards from Perth

Derek