Rejoice! Changing tables are done!

[Tom Jones III]

I've just finished building 3 chests of drawers/changing tables. Two of the tables went to the crisis pregnancy center. The third was given to a young couple, expecting their first child, who work in the missions department of my church. This is by far the biggest and most complex project yet. I've got a lot to learn but I've come a long way during this project. Most of all I had a great time stretching my skills and working for other people at the same time.

When I started this project I had just finished reading the book Practicing the Presence of God and I attempted to put those ideas into practice during this project. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is very short, very readable, immensely practical and directly applicable to wood workers.

Each table cost between $170 and $200 complete with pulls and a cloth covered pad that goes in the tray on top. The tray detaches so that when the halfling is no longer in diapers it converts to a standard chest of drawers.

The wood is southern red oak with #1 common used for secondary wood. The back and sides are oak plywood. On two of them I used okoume plywood for the back, it is much cheaper and when stained is an excellent match for oak. Drawer sides are pine for table #3, I used baltic birch ply for the first two, but I just could not get the DT to work well in plywood. Drawer bottoms are oak ply.

Finish is golden oak stain followed by 2 coats of wipe on poly. Insides of the case and drawers is shellac.

The drawers are built in the NK style and that turned out really well. The first chest had drawers in a simple box style and it took a long time to get the drawers to fit well and slide nicely. When I made the NK style drawers I could not believe how much faster and easier it was.

I used this project as an excuse to buy the Leigh D4 dovetail jig for the 21 drawers I had to build. It took a while to figure out how to get it to work, but when I did it worked great. I also used this project as the excuse to but CutList Pro, and it saved me a lot of time and money, in fact, it paid for itself on this project alone.

[Tom Jones III]

I've never bought so much wood at once. It was a little daunting, but it turned out fine. The progress pics show most of the construction details.

[Art Mulder]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the "NK style" for drawers?

[John Lubeski]

Very nice design! What kind of gap do you have around those drawers? They look great.

Also, where did you get that plane?

John

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great design John. I am sure they will be appreciated.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Tom, the table turned out very nice. If your children are anything like mine, you'll be using it quite often! :p

[Ken Garlock]

Tom, you do fine work:cool: Any new parents would be thrilled to have a table like that. It is also good to see someone putting their beliefs into practice.:)

Merry Christmas Tom and family.:)

[Tom Jones III]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the "NK style" for drawers?
I've only heard about them from the Taunton book Chests of Drawers. I've attached a pitcure that should explain most of it. The picture is the bottom of the drawer looking from the back towards the front.

The ply bottom projects 1/4" inch in front of the runners. I used the router in a table to cut a slot in the drawer front so that when the slot rested on the protruding plywood the bottom of the drawer front would be flush with the bottom of the runners.

When you glue the ply bottom to the runners, you make the sled glide smoothly in the carcase. When you DT the sides and back and front, you then glue that down to the sled and all you have to do is make sure the sides and back are just a little inside the sled. No more fussing with all the full size parts to make the drawer slide smoothly.

[Tom Jones III]

Very nice design! What kind of gap do you have around those drawers? They look great.

Also, where did you get that plane?

John

Thanks, I agonized about the drawer gap. I finally settled on making the drawer fronts the exact size of the opening. After the drawer was glued up, I took a hand plane and worked it until it fit nicely.

I made the hand plane, it was the first one I ever made. I used the typical lamination method that is described in many books and web pages. It is entirely out of scrap wood and a $30 hock iron. For a first plane it works pretty well. I made the mouth a little too big though. Also, it probably doesn't need to be so long. I made the length halfway between a Stanley #7 and #8.

[Art Mulder]

I've only heard about them from the Taunton book Chests of Drawers.

... er, nope, still don't get it. But I know our library has that book, so I'll check it out and read up on it. thanks!

[Vaughn McMillan]

Real nice work, Tom, and done for good reasons, too. Well done.

- Vaughn

[Corey Hallagan]

Tom, beautiful piece! It will be treasured for years to come I am sure.

Corey

[Jerry Olexa]

Tom, very nice work. Like the Bracket feet. How'd you do those?? Band saw etc

[Jerry Olexa]

Tom, almost forgot. I've read that book by Brother Lawrence. Very short, practical and great advice.

[Roger Myers]

Beautiful work and gifts given from the heart!!

[Tom Jones III]

Tom, very nice work. Like the Bracket feet. How'd you do those?? Band saw etc
I used these plans www.woodsmith.com/main/pdf/145-bracket-feet.pdf

Basically, I took 5' of 6/4 oak, surfaced it then ripped it to 4" wide. Cut a cove down the entire length using the TS. Tilted the TS to help trim away the outside radius then used hand planes and sand paper to smooth it all out. Cut the 45's and then used the BS to cut the curves. One thing I did different than the plans, instead of using a spline I used 2 biscuits side by side and separated by 1/8".

I've never done bracket feet before but really it was one of the easiest parts of the whole project.