So last summer I was chatting with my neighbor in his garage when I spotted an older Craftsman RAS under a stack of boxes, old magazines and paint cans. I mentioned to him he could get the recall parts for it and talked to him a little about the saw.
As I came to understand, at one time that saw had been his one large and cherished power tool with which he built a bookcase and put up some shelves. Now my neighbor isn't much of a woodworker so when he successfully built a bookcase, he was immensely proud of his accomplishment and as he stated, used it for many years.
Fast forward a few weeks and he's ringing my doorbell and asks if I would like his saw. He says the parts have arrived and he wants me to have the saw as he hasn't used it in a decade or more. I accept and shortly thereafter had it all cleaned up, aligned and working in my shop.
My neighbor's an older guy and is retired. He and his wife are two of the nicest people I've ever met. So in thanks for his gracious gift, I decided I'd build him a piece of furniture using his saw. It's kind of like having your wife bake a loaf of zucchini bread for your gardener friend after he gives you a sack of zucchini!
I decided on a smallish chest of drawers, a Philadelphia 5 drawer variety with ogee bracket feet and a couple fluted quarter-columns.
Its made from cherry with poplar and pine as secondary woods. I sawed and veneered a little curly cherry to the drawer fronts. The finish is dye, oil and garnet shellac. I antiqued it a little with a Lonnie Bird technique of using the sludgy goop from the bottom of a can of stain which then you paint carefully into the corners and edges with an artist's brush then wipe away the excess. (worked great!) All the dovetailing is hand made and all the parts are smoothed by hand plane. I left the tool marks on pretty much all the unseen surfaces should anyone ever look for them. I tried to build it as period correct as I could, given my limited access to information about such pieces.
My neighbor and his wife were stunned and moved nearly to tears. Watching their reaction was priceless and made the four months I'd been poking away at building it all worthwhile!
As always, comments/criticism/suggestions are always welcomed!
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. I am sure that piece will be cherished forever.
Originally Posted by Andrew Hughes
