3 Drawer, Bow Front Chest Build – (Probably Too Many Pics)

[Mike Allen1010]

As part of my continuing effort to use up lumber scraps in the shop prior to the “post empty nest” move to a smaller place, I’m building this 12” tall x 12” wide x 9” deep little, 3 drawer chest – might be good as a jewelry cabinet or something.

It’s basic frame and panel construction. Here are the 4 vertical posts that will frame the carcass. I went full “belt and suspenders” here – both the triangle Mark and abbreviations to identify their location in the layout. When I’m looking at ¼ of a triangle on the top of the post, I regularly have a hard time picturing where it belongs in space (oh yeah, for sure I have fouled this up multiple times in the past), hence my need to add the letter abbreviations. (Sorry, this pic didn't make it to the post).

I use an old Stanley scraper (with LV blades) to create vertical beads on the post. This is one of my favorite tools as it’s virtually impossible to achieve a bad result.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/912/41852893422_a3f95b1a22.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp25J)3 (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp25J) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


Here is drilling out the waste in through mortises in the top and bottom of the carcass to accommodate the through, wedged tennons of the vertical posts. I really want to have clean margins on the holes with no chip out/spelching that often occurs on the backside of drilling large holes. The brace and auger bit are great for this job because you can feel when the lead screw breaks through the Far Side and then reverse the work piece to drill the remainder of the whole from the other side, creating a clean margin on both sides.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/973/41852893352_d7791cc2f6.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp24w)4 (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp24w) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

Here’s a couple pictures of the through, wedged M &T’s:


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/953/41852893192_dff129bef2.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp21L)6 (2) (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp21L) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr



https://farm1.staticflickr.com/870/41852893012_0f2577ccbf.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp1XE)8.5 (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp1XE) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr



I made raised panels for the frame and panel construction of the sides of the carcass. I didn’t take any pictures (my bad). IMHO making clean raised panels is a fundamental skill – one that has taken me a long time to learn how to execute effectively. A fenced rabbit plane with super sharp blade and cross grain knicker precisely aligned to the edge of the blade make things a lot easier. I also rely heavily on card scrapers, sanding blocks etc. to try and get the depth of the reveal and the corner miters where I want them. FWIW, my best suggestion regarding frame and panel construction is go the extra mile to get the dimensions of the panel (e.g. height, width and importantly thickness at the edges) spot on. The alternative is dry fitting the panel and finding you have to plane off so much of the edge of the panel to fit in the frame that the raised field is no longer centered/uniform.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/903/40996990785_f1d2330136.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25sLi3H)7 (https://flic.kr/p/25sLi3H) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

I made the curved drawer fronts out of glued up blocks of Poplar because I have no idea how to do curved, strip laminations – seems like lots of clamps, forms etc. Solid wood is more my wheelhouse – easier to hog off the waste with coarse Jack plane and fair the final curve with spoke shave’s/card scraper. For me easier to shape the curve of the drawer fronts cross a block it can then be ripped into final width of drawer fronts than to try and shape 3 individual curved drawer fronts consistently.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/904/40996990735_3d3b584433.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25sLi2R)9 (2) (https://flic.kr/p/25sLi2R) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/960/41852892852_fa6c2ceb21.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp1UU)9 (3) (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp1UU) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

Using carving gouges to create rough rabbit on the drawer front for the drawer bottoms.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/912/41895734931_27099fdedd.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbAnr)9 (https://flic.kr/p/26QbAnr) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


Decorative Drawer fronts are challenge for me because I’m not very good at using veneer – commercially available veneers are so thin I frequently plane/sand through them in the final steps of the project, ruining the finished product after lots of time/effort has been invested. I’m going for a central field of Burl veneer surrounded by vertical grained walnut border separated by 2 lines, one dark (Ebony) and one light (Holly). I’ve never tried this before (yeah you can see the train wreck coming can’t you?) In retrospect, I would’ve been better served to put the entire drawer front together, using commercially available veneers of the same thickness, held together by veneer tape on the show surface, and only then gluing the completed veneer surface to the curved drawer front.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/977/41852892782_ec31093dcc.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp1TG)11 (https://flic.kr/p/26Lp1TG) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/966/41895732101_b9803128d7.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzwD)12 (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzwD) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

Here are pics of material/tools for veneering and clamping veneers between blocks for “jointing” with the sanding block.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/949/41178730784_9245bcfa14.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPL1Y)13 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPL1Y) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/907/41178730664_875fc48895.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKYU)15 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKYU) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

Here are the Elm Burl veneer’s glued up. I made them slightly oversized so I could square final dimensions to provide a uniform space for the surrounding walnut veneer.





https://farm1.staticflickr.com/953/41178730374_f30d20f074.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKTU)16 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKTU) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/953/41178730374_f30d20f074.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKTU)16 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKTU) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

Here’s using a simple jig to slice uniform thickness Holly for the banding. I didn’t have any ebony veneer, so made the stringing out of solid stock – probably were things started to go wrong. Pics of the glue up.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/905/41178730294_71b3e3bd11.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKSw)17 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKSw) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/972/41895734421_5945b23788.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbAdD)18 (https://flic.kr/p/26QbAdD) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/946/41178730124_0687ccb57e.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKPA)19 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKPA) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

With both lines of Holly/ebony banding glued in, cleaning up the surrounding field for the bordering walnut.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/967/41178729794_0846972e05.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKHU)22 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKHU) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/974/41178729694_c07f87583c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKGb)23 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKGb) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/905/41178729614_c89bc08c2f.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKEN)24 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKEN) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/866/41178729444_9486b7f475.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKBS)25 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKBS) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/905/41178729184_f5e0022d59.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKxo)27 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKxo) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

Surrounding walnut veneer was slightly oversized which I cut to dimensions with veneer saw. I kinda just swag the miters. You can probably see there’s a couple of defects with both the surrounding walnut and the banding that required waaaay too much time and effort to fix.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/832/41178728904_6f10824b2c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKsy)29 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKsy) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/960/41178728794_2bab3d6857.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKqE)30 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKqE) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

[James Pallas]

Excellent
Jim

[Mike Allen1010]

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/863/41178728714_9dfc5983bb.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKph)31 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKph) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/825/41895733591_e9dfed719f.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzYk)32 (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzYk) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/965/41178728474_9ccbe74d66.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKk9)34 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKk9) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

Next was sawing dovetails for the drawers – through dovetails in the back and half blind in drawer fronts.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/957/41895733461_92160c0a93.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzW6)36 (2) (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzW6) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/954/41178728284_bc0aa84cb8.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKgS)36 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKgS) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

rl=https://flic.kr/p/25JPKdA]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/955/41178728094_7e128386c2.jpg[/url]37 (2) (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKdA) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/943/41178727924_1302b19b2c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKaE)40 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPKaE) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr




I re-saw some aromatics Cedar that will be glued over quarter-inch plywood for the drawer bottoms. Because the Cedar so thin I use blue tape to hold the glue joint together.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/959/41178727704_1fac253e7d.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPK6S)42 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPK6S) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

Next step is using the profile the drawer fronts to saw 1/8” thick paduk for cock beading that will be glued to the drawer fronts. Scraper blade use freehand is helpful for creating the curved profile.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/944/41178727544_5851553858.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPK47)46 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPK47) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/872/41895732781_4a4dbf2e6c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzJn)49 (2) (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzJn) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/944/41178727384_c5c1a13502.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPK1m)50 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPK1m) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/829/41895732681_9411679dd5.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzGD)51 (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzGD) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

=https://flic.kr/p/26QbzFr]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/948/41895732611_70f7063aeb.jpg[/url]52 (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzFr) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/962/41178727084_d9d27bdfa2.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/25JPJVb)53 (https://flic.kr/p/25JPJVb) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

Here’s a picture after the initial coat of oil/varnish. A closer inspection would reveal more than a few defects but I’m willing to live with the results and drive on. Finally stop blocks for the drawers at the back of the carcass, to try and establish a consistent reveal at the front.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/903/41895732491_c0b56f578c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzDn)54 (https://flic.kr/p/26QbzDn) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr
\]

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/979/41895731921_8c3d8357eb.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/26Qbztx)55 (https://flic.kr/p/26Qbztx) by Mike Allen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/157847244@N02/), on Flickr


Remaining steps are drawer pulls, drawer bottoms (hopefully opportunity to get the horizontal reveal between drawer’s consistent), shellac and turning feet. I’ll post more pics when finished.

Thanks for looking, Mike

[Todd Trebuna]

What an amazing piece of craftsmanship. Beautiful piece.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Really fun thread to follow. Thanks for sharing. Love the idea of shaping all three drawer fronts out of one solid glue up. Did you rip the drawers with a handsaw? If memory serves, you have one or two of those in your shop, true?

[Mike Allen1010]

Really fun thread to follow. Thanks for sharing. Love the idea of shaping all three drawer fronts out of one solid glue up. Did you rip the drawers with a handsaw? If memory serves, you have one or two of those in your shop, true?


Joe, you know me too well – I plead guilty as charged, waaay too many hand saws. I ripped the drawer fronts with a sweet Atkins # 53, 8 PPI ripsaw – because who doesn't want to have the ideal saw for every job?:)


Maybe that's just me – " Hello, my name is Mike and I have a bad handsaw problem".


Cheers, Mike

[ken hatch]

Mike,

As always great work and a good build tick tock. I wish I could remember to bring the camera along with the build, but it almost never happens.

ken

[Patrick McCarthy]

Michael, as always, a great read and a beautiful result. I always REALLY ENJOY your posts. Thank you for sharing. Patrick

[michael langman]

You certainly have an eye for detail and beauty Mike. I always love to watch your builds. Thanks for posting them.

[Christopher Charles]

Mike, many thanks for the post. That's the most elegant use of scraps I've seen :) I especially like the balance provided by the walnut banding on each drawer.

And very best of luck on the move. Hope the new place is smaller but with a bigger/better shop :)

Best,
Chris

[Mike Kreinhop]

Mike, this is a great project and you can never have too many photos.

[Frederick Skelly]

Beautiful work Mike!

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice work.....liked your idea of making the curved drawer fronts out of solid stock....How did you actually remove/shape the stock?

[Jim Koepke]

Great work and interesting piece.

jtk

[andy bessette]

Very nice work.

[Robert Maloney]

Beautiful job Mike. I always appreciate the amount of pictures and tutorial you provide in your posts. It's really helpful.

[Derek Cohen]

Mike, your work is insane! I follow along with such pleasure. It does not get much better.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Allen1010]

Very nice work.....liked your idea of making the curved drawer fronts out of solid stock....How did you actually remove/shape the stock?


Hi Jerry,


Thanks for your kind comments.


Shaping the face/concave portion of the drawer fronts was pretty straightforward; I used a scrub plane cross grain to remove most of the waste and then a spoke shave working down from the middle towards both sides to get the final curved surface. This is where shaping all 3 drawer fronts together at the same time and later ripping them into 3 separate drawer fronts helps to get a consistent curvature.


For the contacts/back of the drawer fronts I really didn't spend too much time or effort getting a uniform curve – it's really only kind of curved. I used big carving gouges cross grain to rough out some of the waste in the middle and then my biggest round molding plane to try and smooth, feather that into some semblance of a uniform curve.


I used Poplar for these drawer fronts and should have remember for my previous experience building a bompe you chest with curved carcass sides, Poplar is really pretty tough and stringy and doesn't shape very easily with hand tools (at least for me). Pine would've been a much better choice.


All the best Mike

[Mike Allen1010]

Thanks for the feedback – you're all too generous by half!


I do sincerely appreciate hearing from my fellow Neanders that my posts/pics are at least tolerable. I sometimes wonder if I'm boring people with too many build post pictures and descriptions, which is the last thing I want to do.


I started woodworking waaay before the Internet. The primary way I learned about woodworking was through books and magazines (thank you James Krenov). My biggest challenge in learning/building my woodworking skills, particularly early on, is I have a hard time understanding written descriptions of techniques/tools etc. For me, pictures are a lot easier to understand. Even with books/articles that include pictures pictures, I often "don't really get it" and have lots of questions I have no way to get answered.


For me at least, therein lies the beauty of SMC - I love the build threads! The pictures and descriptions my fellow Neanders share have been incredibly helpful in allowing me to build my skills. On top of that, when I'm confused (often) I can ask questions and the generous souls here on the Creek actually answer! I guess you have to be from the pre-Internet age to understand how fantastic that is!


I've learned so much from SMC. I'm genuinely grateful SMC gives me an opportunity to share my work and hopefully, occasionally make a tiny contribution to the community. No way those could ever remotely balance the benefits I've received and the friends I've made.


Best, Mike

[Jeff Ranck]

Wow! I have never used veneer and love the picks showing all the details. This is a really interesting piece.

Jeff.

[Mike Holbrook]

Great work Mike,
Your raised pannels make mine look bad. Interesting to find out you are downsizing due to an empty nest too. Selling the old place is scarry, until you start thinking about what it will take to maintain it.

[Mike Wilkins]

Looking good my man. Thanks for the tutorial on making the curved drawer fronts. For a small cabinet this method seems ideal.

[Mike Allen1010]

In the spirit of carrying a project through completion (and in the service of my OCD/vanity that requires I do so), here are some pictures of the completed chest in this thread.In the bottom left-hand corner of the top drawer you can see I've once again succeeded in going through the veneer. This is my perennial challenge with veneer, particularly the superthin commercially available veneers. I guess I'll keep trying until I get it right.


Cheers, Mike



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[John Kananis]

Always love seeing your work, Mike.

[Mel Fulks]

All of your work is good,but I think this is the most exuberant piece yet. Love the colors and 3-D textures.

[Derek Cohen]

Mike, as I said before .. insane!

There are so many different advanced techniques and tasks involved here, each one enough to be a challenge alone .. collectively, it takes my breathe away.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Christopher Charles]

Excellent work Mike! I especially like the drawer fronts and the overall balance in proportions of the piece.

And of course one way to avoid thin veneer is to Resaw your own... maybe a good excuse to upgrade that bandsaw. Just sayin’. 😁

[Frederick Skelly]

Your work is so inspiring Mike! This is just beautiful!
Fred

[William Fretwell]

An inspiring project Mike, enjoyed your process and skill enormously.

[Kees Heiden]

Nice! Really like it. And you might see errors but from here I only see great craftmanship!

[Phil Mueller]

Beautifully done, Mike. Great project. Don’t feel alone on the veneer sand through. BTDT. I’ve had some luck coloring in the spots with varioius furniture touch up markers and colored wood filler rubbing it around with my fingers to blend it in, but it’s still frustrating. This box lid had multiple places with sand through. They can be found, but for the average Joe, they are pretty well hidden.

387245

Love your approach for curved fronts...gonna have to give that a try.

[James Pallas]

Mike, sometimes you are too modest in your descriptions of your work. You do very nice work, no doubt about it. I very much enjoy your posts.
Jim

[Che BinhDan]

Great work. I have put all your works images together and it is my reference about chest with 3 Drawer and Bow Front.
Thanks a lot.