3 Drawer, Bow Front Chest Build – (Probably Too Many Pics)

[Mike Allen1010]

As part of my continuing effort to use up lumber scraps in the shop prior to the “post empty nest” move to a smaller place, I’m building this 12” tall x 12” wide x 9” deep little, 3 drawer chest – might be good as a jewelry cabinet or something.

It’s basic frame and panel construction. Here are the 4 vertical posts that will frame the carcass. I went full “belt and suspenders” here – both the triangle Mark and abbreviations to identify their location in the layout. When I’m looking at ¼ of a triangle on the top of the post, I regularly have a hard time picturing where it belongs in space (oh yeah, for sure I have fouled this up multiple times in the past), hence my need to add the letter abbreviations. (Sorry, this pic didn't make it to the post).

I use an old Stanley scraper (with LV blades) to create vertical beads on the post. This is one of my favorite tools as it’s virtually impossible to achieve a bad result.
3 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


Here is drilling out the waste in through mortises in the top and bottom of the carcass to accommodate the through, wedged tennons of the vertical posts. I really want to have clean margins on the holes with no chip out/spelching that often occurs on the backside of drilling large holes. The brace and auger bit are great for this job because you can feel when the lead screw breaks through the Far Side and then reverse the work piece to drill the remainder of the whole from the other side, creating a clean margin on both sides.

4 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Here’s a couple pictures of the through, wedged M &T’s:


6 (2) by Mike Allen, on Flickr



8.5 by Mike Allen, on Flickr



I made raised panels for the frame and panel construction of the sides of the carcass. I didn’t take any pictures (my bad). IMHO making clean raised panels is a fundamental skill – one that has taken me a long time to learn how to execute effectively. A fenced rabbit plane with super sharp blade and cross grain knicker precisely aligned to the edge of the blade make things a lot easier. I also rely heavily on card scrapers, sanding blocks etc. to try and get the depth of the reveal and the corner miters where I want them. FWIW, my best suggestion regarding frame and panel construction is go the extra mile to get the dimensions of the panel (e.g. height, width and importantly thickness at the edges) spot on. The alternative is dry fitting the panel and finding you have to plane off so much of the edge of the panel to fit in the frame that the raised field is no longer centered/uniform.

7 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

I made the curved drawer fronts out of glued up blocks of Poplar because I have no idea how to do curved, strip laminations – seems like lots of clamps, forms etc. Solid wood is more my wheelhouse – easier to hog off the waste with coarse Jack plane and fair the final curve with spoke shave’s/card scraper. For me easier to shape the curve of the drawer fronts cross a block it can then be ripped into final width of drawer fronts than to try and shape 3 individual curved drawer fronts consistently.

9 (2) by Mike Allen, on Flickr


9 (3) by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Using carving gouges to create rough rabbit on the drawer front for the drawer bottoms.

9 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


Decorative Drawer fronts are challenge for me because I’m not very good at using veneer – commercially available veneers are so thin I frequently plane/sand through them in the final steps of the project, ruining the finished product after lots of time/effort has been invested. I’m going for a central field of Burl veneer surrounded by vertical grained walnut border separated by 2 lines, one dark (Ebony) and one light (Holly). I’ve never tried this before (yeah you can see the train wreck coming can’t you?) In retrospect, I would’ve been better served to put the entire drawer front together, using commercially available veneers of the same thickness, held together by veneer tape on the show surface, and only then gluing the completed veneer surface to the curved drawer front.

11 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

12 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Here are pics of material/tools for veneering and clamping veneers between blocks for “jointing” with the sanding block.

13 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

15 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Here are the Elm Burl veneer’s glued up. I made them slightly oversized so I could square final dimensions to provide a uniform space for the surrounding walnut veneer.





16 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

16 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

Here’s using a simple jig to slice uniform thickness Holly for the banding. I didn’t have any ebony veneer, so made the stringing out of solid stock – probably were things started to go wrong. Pics of the glue up.

17 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


18 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


19 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

With both lines of Holly/ebony banding glued in, cleaning up the surrounding field for the bordering walnut.

22 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


23 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

24 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


25 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

27 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Surrounding walnut veneer was slightly oversized which I cut to dimensions with veneer saw. I kinda just swag the miters. You can probably see there’s a couple of defects with both the surrounding walnut and the banding that required waaaay too much time and effort to fix.

29 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

30 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

[James Pallas]

Excellent
Jim

[Mike Allen1010]

31 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

32 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

34 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Next was sawing dovetails for the drawers – through dovetails in the back and half blind in drawer fronts.

36 (2) by Mike Allen, on Flickr


36 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

rl=https://flic.kr/p/25JPKdA][/url]37 (2) by Mike Allen, on Flickr


40 by Mike Allen, on Flickr




I re-saw some aromatics Cedar that will be glued over quarter-inch plywood for the drawer bottoms. Because the Cedar so thin I use blue tape to hold the glue joint together.

42 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Next step is using the profile the drawer fronts to saw 1/8” thick paduk for cock beading that will be glued to the drawer fronts. Scraper blade use freehand is helpful for creating the curved profile.

46 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

49 (2) by Mike Allen, on Flickr

50 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

51 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

=https://flic.kr/p/26QbzFr][/url]52 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


53 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

Here’s a picture after the initial coat of oil/varnish. A closer inspection would reveal more than a few defects but I’m willing to live with the results and drive on. Finally stop blocks for the drawers at the back of the carcass, to try and establish a consistent reveal at the front.

54 by Mike Allen, on Flickr
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55 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


Remaining steps are drawer pulls, drawer bottoms (hopefully opportunity to get the horizontal reveal between drawer’s consistent), shellac and turning feet. I’ll post more pics when finished.

Thanks for looking, Mike

[Todd Trebuna]

What an amazing piece of craftsmanship. Beautiful piece.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Really fun thread to follow. Thanks for sharing. Love the idea of shaping all three drawer fronts out of one solid glue up. Did you rip the drawers with a handsaw? If memory serves, you have one or two of those in your shop, true?

[Mike Allen1010]

Really fun thread to follow. Thanks for sharing. Love the idea of shaping all three drawer fronts out of one solid glue up. Did you rip the drawers with a handsaw? If memory serves, you have one or two of those in your shop, true?

Joe, you know me too well – I plead guilty as charged, waaay too many hand saws. I ripped the drawer fronts with a sweet Atkins # 53, 8 PPI ripsaw – because who doesn't want to have the ideal saw for every job?


Maybe that's just me – " Hello, my name is Mike and I have a bad handsaw problem".


Cheers, Mike

[ken hatch]

Mike,

As always great work and a good build tick tock. I wish I could remember to bring the camera along with the build, but it almost never happens.

ken

[Patrick McCarthy]

Michael, as always, a great read and a beautiful result. I always REALLY ENJOY your posts. Thank you for sharing. Patrick

[michael langman]

You certainly have an eye for detail and beauty Mike. I always love to watch your builds. Thanks for posting them.

[Christopher Charles]

Mike, many thanks for the post. That's the most elegant use of scraps I've seen I especially like the balance provided by the walnut banding on each drawer.

And very best of luck on the move. Hope the new place is smaller but with a bigger/better shop

Best,
Chris

[Mike Kreinhop]

Mike, this is a great project and you can never have too many photos.

[Frederick Skelly]

Beautiful work Mike!