first piece with doors/drawers

[Bill Carey]

After making lamps, tables, Stickley knock offs, island carts, boxes, houses, spiral stairs, decks, etc. I decided it was time to make something that had a drawer and a door. So I found a picture of a night stand I liked and got started on a small night stand for the grandson. A week later, here it is:
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What I learned:
Strike 1:measure the depth of those mortises twice. After making the mortises in legs, and cutting the curves, I assembled the sides and then installed the stretcher at the front and the tenon blew out the bottom of the mortise on one of the front legs. I had the sides glued up, so I made fake thru mortises on the legs.
Strike 2: figure out how the drawer is going to slide, and be held in, before assembling the darn thing. And avoid individual rails in favor of an "assembly"
Strike 3: Since I hate trying to flush things up, I wanted to hold the door in a skosh from the frame. And of course my layout was off, and there proceeded a lot of fiddle-f'ing around to get it to work.
Strike 4: those mortises in the legs can get awfully crowded. I became friends with the concept of stub tenons. Ya, I know, too bad the stubs weren't the strike 1 tenons.
Strike 5: putting the door frame together and then routing out a 1/4 x 1/4 rabbit on the back is the wrong choice. It worked ok, but didn't look or feel as good as making a dado in the frame before assembly.

But it was fun, and it came out looking ok, I think. I know the kid'll love it.
So on to my trestle table desk, with, of course, 3 drawers.

[John TenEyck]

That's a fine look piece, Bill. Of course if you didn't already know that a well detailed drawing would help eliminate those issues along the way you do now. But where's the fun in that!

John

[Mel Fulks]

Not usually a Stickley fan, but that has a warmth to it. Reminds me of story book furniture. How old is he?

[Bill Carey]

He's 10. And not sure if this is stickley .I like his tables mostly .This is from a picture i found on Google. And to John's point I had no real plans other than i wanted it only 24 inches tall. What I really like about it is the slight recurve at the top of the legs.

[Bill Carey]

Thanks John. And it is kinda fun to make it up as you go. But when that tenon shot out the side of the leg it was not fun. But making the false thru tenon's was cool. I suppose I should learn SketchUp or something.

[Bruce Volden]

Bill,

I like this!!! I made a table for my son with very similar styled legs, he called it "cankles".
Your grandson will always remember this.

Bruce

[Charlie Jones]

Nice. Its always good to come up with an idea like your fake tenons to salvage a project. I have a few of those in my repertoire.. LOL

[Bill Carey]

Bill,

he called it "cankles".


Bruce

LOL - that style will always, from now on, be cankle style. I may change my name to Bill Cankle......

[John TenEyck]

Bill, I find SketchUP to be a big help because I can more easily modify things than with a hand drawing, but I drew by hand before I learned it. I don't think drawing takes away from the creative process at all, but it forces me to confront issues before I'm looking at pieces of wood that don't go together as my mind envisioned they would.

How you draw doesn't matter.

John

[Ralph Okonieski]

QSWO is my favorite wood. Beautiful night stand. Nicely done.

[Ron Citerone]

Very nice proportions. Do you have the overall dimensions?

[Bill Carey]

24" tall, top is 13 wide x 12. The top overhangs the cabinet by 1/2" all around.

[John Redford]

I like it - nice job!

[Rob Luter]

Excellent work! My favorite wood and my favorite style. I like how it morphs from Stickley on top to something more organic at the bottom. Where in NW Indiana are you?

[Marshall Harrison]

384226


Strike 2: figure out how the drawer is going to slide, and be held in, before assembling the darn thing. And avoid individual rails in favor of an "assembly"


Looks good Bill. I love anything in the Stickley style.

I'm curious what you meant in point #2 about using an assembly. I'm not sure how an "assembly" fits here. But I'm willing to learn if you can enlighten me.

[Ron Citerone]

24" tall, top is 13 wide x 12. The top overhangs the cabinet by 1/2" all around.

Thanks! I really like the proportions.

[Bill Carey]

Beautiful Morocco IN.

[Bill Carey]

Thanks Marshall. After I made the case I started working on the drawer and realized that the space was very limited and hard to get to. I think it would have been easier to make some sort of "thing" (assembly) that held the drawer rails and drop it into a dado or something. I just didn't think it thru basically. Being a construction estimator for the last 40 years I think in terms of assemblies: collections of parts that fit together. All I am certain of was that getting the drawer right - after the case was assembled - was the wrong way to go. Even putting the drawer rails on the sides before assembly would have been much easier.