Tall Chest - Work in Progress

[Lars Thomas]

Not really sure what you'd call this, I've been calling it a map chest (although it's not)?? The cabinet is made of cherry (with oak guts) and measures about 15” Deep X 20” Wide X 46” Tall. I'm open to suggestions as to what to call it. Anybody? It was designed to meet the owners storage needs which consists of mostly 11” x 17” water colors and related supplies plus one file drawer. Anyway I've been working on a few projects in parallel (set of bar cabinets, this cabinet and one or two smaller project).

Tonight, I finished dovetailing the drawers (soft maple). I have some minor sanding left to do, then on to the finish consisting of a few General Finishes products.

So far, I am really happy with how this is turning out, I am going to hate to see it go.

The first picture is a 3/4 view of the cabinet. The second photo shows some of the construction details. The third picture details the three piece crown. I really like the little 3/16" filet at the bottom of the crown.

Seems like there is a lot of guys currently building shops (I am really enjoying those threads) These pictures are here to spur you on to completion!! I hope you 'builders' can get back to woodworking soon! Enjoy. Lars

[Frank Pellow]

Very nice cabinet Lars!

As one of the guys building a workshop, I can only hope that I will be able to produce such good quality items once I have that shop. I certainly never tackled anything as complicated in my old shop.

[Glenn Clabo]

Not really sure what you'd call this,
Lars...
I call it really nice work!

[Carl Eyman]

I don't know what to call it - other than beautiful. That is what makes this forum so good - fine craftsmen (genderless)

[Dick Parr]

Very nice Lars! Nice detail.

[Jerry Todd]

Lars,
OUTSTANDING!!!! :)

Jerry

[Todd Burch]

Looking good Lars. What flavor hardware are you going to use? Any colors getting added as part of the finishing process? The drawers look like they have nice close tolerances - I like the "no slide" approach on pieces like this. Nice job. Plywood back or solid wood-shiplap? Post another picture of the inside, with the drawers removed too please.

Todd

[Howard Rosenberg]

extraordinary! Beautiful work! Thanks for posting your photos. Howard

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work, Lars!

[Russell Svenningsen]

Beautiful Lars! Can't wait to see it with the finish applied!

[Jason Tuinstra]

Lars, great looking piece of furniture. You did a great job with the molding. I'm sure your client will be very happy with it. And thanks for the push to get some more furniture done. Have a good one...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Lars, Great Work! Jeezz......you surely have dovetailing down! Good job on the crown molding too! Can't wait to see the finish.

[Mark Valsi]

Lars,

That is beautiful

what jig did you use for the dovetails ?


I hope he is paying what it's worth. Looks to be worth a couple thousand dollars to me !

[Byron Trantham]

Lars.
Very nice workmanship. I too, like the no slide drawer construction. :)

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Lars
It is not only beautiful but the detail is so refined and exquisite.
Just wonderful
Daniel :cool:

[Robert Ducharme]

To be alliterative, how about drawing drawer?

[Warren White]

....is really beautiful, Lars. I look forward to seeing what finish you elect to use. The way you sized the drawers adds to the aesthetic appeal to me.

I also echo the interest in construction details.

You mentioned it is going to someone else; lucky person, who I am sure will appreciate the fine craftsmanship.

Fine job!

Warren

[Chris Pasko]

Very nic Lars!

[Scott Coffelt]

Nice work, looking forward to the finished pics.

[Jim Ketron]

Great Job!!

Jim

[Doug Littlejohn]

and a beautifull 'in the works' piece it is. Please show us the finished pictures as well.

[Lars Thomas]

A few of you had a few follow-up questions. . . But first off, thank you for taking the time to look (and comment) about my project.

Warren/Todd, The cabinet consists of basically two 'shutters' connected with 16 oak and cherry stretchers. The sides of the cabinet where cut first then the stiles where dovetailed to accept the stretchers. I took a few practice runs with MDF to get the spacing rights as well as making sure the dovetails would be nice and tight. That was the hard part. The rest is pretty basic stuff (drawers and molding). The drawers are fitted with paper shims (playing cards)

There are two ore stretchers at the top ( front and back) that are just glued and screwed in to the sides (screw heads covered by the crown). The top (solid stock) is glued and screwed to the front stretcher. It is screwed (no glue) to the back stretcher with over sized holes. See photo below for details.

I haven't decided what to do with the back yet (although it is rabbited to accept something. I'd like to do a solid back, but I'll probably just use 1/4" ply.

Todd, The finish will be natural. Picture of the guts is below, per your request. The hardware is black 'sorta dainty' metal pulls with a 3" spread forming a nice arc, two for each drawer - customers selection. I like black on cherry, they should look nice. Hardware was a bit of a challenge since the top drawer is so small, only 2" tall. So, anything dangling was out of the question.

Robert, 'Drawing Drawer', ya, I like that.

Mark, the drawers where cut on a Porter Cable 16" Omnijig. The stiles (and stretchers) were cut on my router (PC 7518) mounted in my Table Saw extension table. I used the TS fence (with stop block) to get all stile dovetails cut at exactly the same position. The fence position was recorded when I cut the sample MDF stiles.


I hope to have it finished in the next two weeks or so, if all goes well. Fingers crossed . .Again, thanks for looking and commenting. Enjoy. Lars

[Alan Turner]

Nice piece of work, Lars. I especially enjoy chests of drawers. As to the back, this piece warrants the effort of a solid, non-ply back. Shiplap strips, which could be random width, would work well. If you have a pin nailer, and keep them pretty narrow, it is not too much effort to install. If you are going to spray the finish, or even if you are not, I like to leave the back off, finish teh boards separately, and shoot on at the end, if I am going to finish the inside of the case, which I usually do, with shellac, sprayed. As to the pin nailer holes, if you apply the back before finishing, just put a dab of superglue over the hole, and sand with 320 till dry, about 30 seconds or so, and it will be gone, filled with glue and sanding dust.

[Tom Scott]

Besides outstanding, I'd call it a flat file. At least that's what we called the files used to store old vellum/mylar drawings pre-CAD.

[Hal Flynt]

How about a "7 drawer chest"?