This is a small chest in walnut with serpentine front roughly 17” wide x 12” deep x 10” tall and three drawers. Motivation is of course, to have something to do during the quarantine, but also to try out a new technique – serpentine drawer fronts with veneered surfaces. I don’t really have room/need for full-size furniture, so I’m doing this on a smaller scale that hopefully I can find a place for somewhere in the house.
Benefits of smaller scale build are need far less lumber. However, challenges are tolerances are super tight. E.g. if the fit of the drawer front is off by 1/8” in 40” wide chest, likely no one’s going to notice, but in this smaller scale, those kind of deviations are super obvious.
Normally in casework I build the carcass first, and then built the drawers later to fit. In this case, because I’ve never done serpentine drawer fronts before and I’m not exactly sure about the final dimensions I’m going to end up with after the shaping, veneering etc., I’ll start with drawers and build the carcass around them to fit – hopefully.
Here are some pics of the design phase – something I’m not very good at. Biggest design challenge was getting the curves of the serpentine drawer front right. Absent a good example to copy, I went with whole number ratio – dividing the drawer front into 7 equal parts and allocating 2 parts to the small radius curves on either side and 3 parts to the larger radius curve in the middle. I have no rationale for this ratio and I’m sure it sounds confusing - it’s confusing to me. I’m guessing there’s got to be a mathematical way to calculate this correctly. I have no idea what that might be. For me I just have to visualize the shape and actual size. This is where it helps to have big paper.
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After trial and error with compasses and protractor’s, ultimately end up with a template.
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Next step glued up/dimensioned 12/4 basswood for the drawer fronts to be shaped into the appropriate curve based on the template and then ripped apart.
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Hollow molding planes helped get some of the curve right and rest was done with spoke shave, scrapers.
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Next up was cutting/gluing walnut burl veneer that forms the background for drawer fronts. I struggle working with commercial veneer. Experts online make it seem super easy, but my experience is it’s really important to appropriately rehydrate veneers to make them workable. I use glycerin based liquid Pro Glue Veneer softener that make a huge difference in preventing flaking/chipping and final dimensioning.
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Shop made veneer hammer with “low molecular weight plastic” blade is essential for squeezing out excess glue/air bubbles. Secured with blue tape.
Use marking gauge to outline orders for stringing against burl background. For me, marking gauge is a great start, but I always follow up with X-Acto knife for definitive lines.
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I glue my veneer with Tite Bond 2, liberally applied to both sides of veneer and substrate. I’m in no position to recommend that is either good or bad – just works for me. As a consequence, more challenging than I would’ve hoped to remove the peripheral field of veneer for stringing.
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I’m no expert when it comes of veneer. My experience with drawer fronts is all about the miter joints. Also critically important is having “banding” veneer of uniform width and thickness. For me its money well spent to buy this commercially, rather than trying to make yourself – YMMV.
I use a 45° square against a sacrificial cutting block to cut banding to 45° angle. If the fit is little fat on the outside, that’s okay because a quick trim with sanding block will square all the edges.
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