Gustav Stickley 732 Sideboard

[Chad Bender]

I've finally completed my interpretation of the Gustav Stickley #732 sideboard. This was the most complicated project I've ever undertaken, and the total time from purchasing the cherry to taking this pictures was ~18 months. I think it turned out reasonably well.

Details as follows:

• Primary wood is PA cherry, nearly all curly. Secondary wood is hard maple. Most came from Irion, just an hour north of me; some from Brauchts Dry Kiln.
• Dimensions of the top are 54" x 20". It sits 38.75" off the floor.
• Interior construction is based around a series of webframes, mortised into the legs.
• The back is shiplapped, and was finished independently from everything else and only installed after the interior of the case had cured. The back top rail installed via a sliding dovetail from the top.
• Drawers are handcut dovetails, half blind on the fronts, through on the back. Drawer bottoms are solid maple.
• Drawer runners all maple, 3 point construction, modeled after the modern Stickley design with two hardwood runners riding in dados on the drawer sides, and a bottom dovetail runner for alignment.
• Hardware pulls are hand-hammered copper from Gerry Rucks.
• Inlays were purchased from Mitchell Andrus @ missionfurnishings.com, veneered to Baltic Birch ply using the skateboard vacuum kit. This is the only ply in the project, but its use here seemed prudent to avoid later problems with the veneer cracking.
• Finding locks that are more than toys was a problem. I finally settled for mortise locks imported from Niche Locks in the UK.
• Finish was Waterlox Original Sealer/Finisher, original formulation (i.e. VOC Incomplient).

Lots of firsts here for me: first time doing handcut dovetails; first time using real webframes; first time working with veneer; first time using thread escutcheons. All in all, it was an excellent learning experience (and my wife is happy, which is all that really matters...).

I received some great input from Creek members early on in the design stage of this; thanks to everyone who chimed in then.

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[Bruce Page]

Beautifully done!

[Raymond Fries]

Very Nice piece. I love it in cherry.

Enjoy it always.

[glenn bradley]

Very nicely done Chad. Good color too. That piece should darken nicely over time. Very nice work on the rear as well.

[joe valsi]

This ex teacher gives you a grade of "A++" you would have received one more "+", but the dovetails detract from the overall beauty of the build. I think you had too many dovetails in each drawer, one less would have been better (IMHO) and they resemble machine made too much for the outstanding beauty and craftsmanship of the rest of the build.
But a grade of "A++" is nothing to shake a stick at !

[ron holmbeg]

side hung & center mounted...very nice cabinet. The dovetails look fine to me, they're half blind so I don't see what the other guy is saying. I know hoiw much work goes into a piece like this and it must have taken you a while!

[Chad Bender]

In my (tongue in cheek) "defense", the dovetails look better in the photo than they do in person. There are several small gaps & irregularities that the picture hides. I've not done hand cut dovetails before, and had some difficulty getting the ends of the tails to meet up with the bottom of the pins with no gap. Depsite what I thought was careful layout with my marking knife & wheel gauge I ended up with gaps there on some of the drawers. The through tails on the back were much more straightfoward.

[Don Kingston]

Dude, You nailed it! That is awesome. I can't believe the 1st of any of it. Beautiful

[BobW Robinson]

Beautiful work Chad. I really like it. Well done.

[Ben Martin]

Great work, I really like it! Any chance you can post a close-up of the inlay on the doors? Hard to see what all is going on there...

Do you have any progress pictures to post? Particularly of the main structure? I am about to start on a dresser and am debating how to connect the side panel to the legs, and than to the front and back of the piece.

Ben

[gary Zimmel]

She's a beauty Chad...

[Mike Henderson]

NICE work! The inlay is especially nice. You did an excellent job on the whole thing. Nice dovetails, also.

Mike

[Chad Bender]

Great work, I really like it! Any chance you can post a close-up of the inlay on the doors? Hard to see what all is going on there...

Do you have any progress pictures to post? Particularly of the main structure? I am about to start on a dresser and am debating how to connect the side panel to the legs, and than to the front and back of the piece.

Ben

Ben -

I purchased the inlays from Mitchell Andrus (http://www.missionfurnishings.com/ca...ure-parts.aspx). He's got some blowup pictures there. His inlays are fairly expensive, but I doubt I could have made them (not being an expert in such things) for much less. And the quality of the pieces was very high.

I'll try to dig up some pictures of the interior carcass. I believe I've got them somewhere.

As for attaching the side panels to the legs, that's easy. First I made the frame and panel sides, oversized enough to accomodate tenons. Then I ran dados down the length of the leg & cut the corresponding tenons on the panels. I glued up each side as a subassembly, and worked from there. The webframes were then set in dados in the side (frames, not the panel) & mortises in the legs.

[Ed Griner]

Great work Chad,who did you get the cherry from?

[Gordon Eyre]

Beautiful work Chad. You have much to be proud of in this piece.