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Mike Hill
07-15-2006, 1:40 PM
This is my first attempt at building a nice piece of Furniture. All I can says is that there were many mistakes made and additional Cherry wood purchased to correct most of them. The rewarding part is that I really learned an immense amount and realize how much more I have to learn

Wood is Cherry, mortise and tenon construction, blind dovetails, BLO and High Gloss Waterlox (4 or 5 coats) for the finish. Next time I will spend a much longer time picking wood, matching grain, sanding and spray the finish.

Mike

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Ken Fitzgerald
07-15-2006, 1:45 PM
Mike.......very nice for your first piece of furniture or your 10th! Correct me if I'm wrong.......you planned ahead and payed enough attention to detail to cut both of the drawer fronts from the same board? Very nice....I like it!
glenn bradley
07-15-2006, 1:48 PM
Very nice. I love that simple elegant style.
Don Baer
07-15-2006, 2:04 PM
excelent work for a first or 100th project.
Dave Ray
07-15-2006, 2:05 PM
Nice Mike, real nice. You just created a family heirloom,(spelling??) one you can be very proud of. :) :)
Bob Childress
07-15-2006, 2:34 PM
MIke,

That's a graceful piece and one to be proud of. :) I love the look the legs give it, sort of soaring.
Mike Hill
07-15-2006, 2:42 PM
MIke,

That's a graceful piece and one to be proud of. :) I love the look the legs give it, sort of soaring.

Bob: One of the problems was the legs. I laminated 2 pieces of 4/4 lumber. Don't have many clamps yet so I thought I would glue them and brad nail them. Figured all I would have to do is fill a few brad holes with cherry filler. Well.....big mistake, since I still needed to put the wood through the planer and taper the legs on the jointer :eek: I drilled out the brads (pieces did NOT come out) and I am now in the process of cleaning up the nicks on the blades of my new planer and jointer! Then I had to fill some very large holes with Cherry filler. Naturally it did not match worth a darn. So if you look closely you can see where I filled the holes. I am embarrassed to admit this, but most of the rest of it came out well. I struggled for hours and tore up a lot of less expensive wood figuring out how to use the PC jig for dovetails. Yes, I did just buy a bunch of clamps and will keep an eye out for deals on more.
Mike
Mike Hill
07-15-2006, 2:44 PM
Mike.......very nice for your first piece of furniture or your 10th! Correct me if I'm wrong.......you planned ahead and payed enough attention to detail to cut both of the drawer fronts from the same board? Very nice....I like it!

Yes Ken I had some remote idea that I needed to match the grain or contrast it somehow. I think the top and drawers came out fine. The wood on the drawers for some reason is a bit darker than the rest of the piece. I am assuming that picking the wood and getting nice grain patterns is one of the "arts" I will have to improve on.
Mike
Al Willits
07-15-2006, 3:02 PM
Mistakes?
Look pretty nice to me, as a nebie at this also, I'm impressed, nice job.

My first project was flower boxes for the wife, when they were done she had them in front of the house and the neighbor was over saying how nice they looked, I responded that there were pleanty of mistakes and they weren't that good.

We were standing about 8-10' away and the wife looks at me and says..ok, where are they?
I responded that you couldn't see them from here.
She just said, can't see them huh, maybe just enjoy them for how they turned out and learn from them mistakes?

She might have a point there....:)

Have fun learning how to make fewer mistakes, I am. :D

Al
Mike Hill
07-15-2006, 5:55 PM
Mistakes?
Look pretty nice to me, as a nebie at this also, I'm impressed, nice job.

My first project was flower boxes for the wife, when they were done she had them in front of the house and the neighbor was over saying how nice they looked, I responded that there were pleanty of mistakes and they weren't that good.

We were standing about 8-10' away and the wife looks at me and says..ok, where are they?
I responded that you couldn't see them from here.
She just said, can't see them huh, maybe just enjoy them for how they turned out and learn from them mistakes?

She might have a point there....:)

Have fun learning how to make fewer mistakes, I am. :D

Al

Thanks. Exactly what my wife said :)
Corey Hallagan
07-15-2006, 8:21 PM
Mike it is awesome! The finish just looks great as well. You did it right!

corey
Scott D Johnson
07-15-2006, 8:43 PM
Most of the mistakes we make are only visible to the "trained eye". I just finished a similar project (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=39709)and I see all the mistakes, but my wife sees none of them.

I heard Scott Phillips (the American Workshop) once say (I imagine he got if from someone else) the difference between a Master Woodworker and a beginner is how well they hide their mistakes.
Bruce Page
07-15-2006, 8:51 PM
Nice job Mike. I find matching wood grain one of the hardest things to do!
Frankie Hunt
07-15-2006, 9:15 PM
Nice job, I like it!
Carl Eyman
07-16-2006, 9:42 AM
I didn't see any mistakes!
Terry Beadle
07-16-2006, 10:07 AM
I like the over all balance of the piece and it has the quality shining thru. Good Work!
Ron Blaise
07-16-2006, 10:18 AM
Mike:
Everyone's first project is a trial and error afair. I can't tell you the mistakes I made on my first. That was your initiation into the joys of
fixing your mistakes and learning so much in the process. That's a nice table by the way, keep at and learn as we all did, the hard way! :D