Serpentine chest of drawers

[Mark Rainey]

Mark, I’m very excited to follow your build and really appreciate the challenges of the serpentine drawer fronts - Makes the joinery for vertical elements of the case a bit of a handful. I recently completed a much smaller serpentine front box and you may have just inspired me to try a larger version! In that spirit, I hope you don’t mind if you questions:

Any tips for how to lay out the serpentine curve of drawer/case fronts?

I did a Bombe chest with laminated popular glue up similar to yours for curved sides. As I recall cross grain planning of the poplar was much tougher than I anticipated. Any thoughts on the virtues of using pine versus popular for these types of curves?

I admire the consistent reveal you get with the cock beading on your drawer fronts - something I struggle with. Do you sort of rough it in and then try and plane to consistent reveal height after assembly, or Focus more on achieving consistent width of rabbit prior to assembly?

Thanks again for sharing. Really looking forward to seeing the rest of your build!

All the best, Mike

Glad you are interested in a serpentine chest Mike! I really enjoy your projects and your focus on hand tool use. Your generous sharing of your techniques is appreciated by us Neanderthals!

As far as tips on laying out the serpentine curve, I think a free hand sketch is very helpful. I do not consider myself artistic, but pushed myself to just start drawing a curve. I did find drawing a half a drawer less intimidating, then just doubling it for the other half of the drawer. I also started knowing my whole drawer length was about 39 inches, so my curve was half of that, or 19.5 inches. I also thought about the depth of the curve, that is, the middle of the drawer sticks out the most, and then, going from the middle towards the end of the drawer, the concavity at its deepest, is about 3.25 inches. The first one I did was more, perhaps 3.75 inches, and it looked dramatic, but maybe a bit too much. Look at these pics. And it is always good to start with a model, so I would be very glad to send you a copy of my basic curve in the mail. Just PM me on that.

serpentine curve 1.jpgserpentie curve 2.jpgserpentine 3.jpg

As far as laminating poplar and pine, I did have a mix of both, mostly poplar. After bandsawing ( I know I should have used a bow saw ) the serpentine curves, the cleanup was accomplished mostly by spokeshaves. That was laborious, but not involve cross grain work. The better you stay to the line, the less work.

As far as the cockbead, it turns out to be relatively easy and fun to do. I do not rabbet the top or bottom however, just cover the whole top and bottom of drawer. ( Error - I suppose it is a rabbet, but it goes the whole thickness of the drawer front ) And I cover the whole sides ( that is I cover the dovetails ) - easier, and I do not like the look of laminated half blind dovetails. By tracing the front of the drawer, I am able to saw out the serpentine cock bead, then use a spokeshave and scratch stock to get the rounded profile.
I have an extensive pictorial instruction on how to do this process and would be glad to share it with you ( just PM me on that also ).

Thanks for your interest in the project Mike. I have tried to use mostly hand tools on this project, and I know you would enjoy it. I am very glad to share any constructions details - this is my second one and I can share my mistakes so perhaps you can avoid some.

[Mel Fulks]

Mike, I think NE white pine, Pinus strobus, would be best. But might not be available on your end of the map. It works
easily and is about as stable as anything. Sugar pine is good too, but tends to have more pitch,but since it will all be
veneered anyway ,that might not matter.

[Phil Mueller]

Mark, if you have a bandsaw, by all means use it! Your comment reminded me of a curved front table I did a few years back with laminated pine and a bow saw (still don’t have a bandsaw). Since I was new at using it, it left a pretty wild surface to smooth with spokeshaves. Persistence was the order of the day.

I’ll admit I needed a few breaks...but in the end it worked out. But, trust me, stick with your bandsaw! Just saying.

423647ED-49B5-43FE-BBFB-6566371B931E.jpg EBD291BB-7FF2-46D2-A499-0FB82F07D497.jpg 556885AD-3F93-4215-A825-68B22DEC3383.jpg95D37457-51F8-4508-865B-0612CDF4F1F0.jpg

[Mark Rainey]

Mark, if you have a bandsaw, by all means use it! Your comment reminded me of a curved front table I did a few years back with laminated pine and a bow saw (still don’t have a bandsaw). Since I was new at using it, it left a pretty wild surface to smooth with spokeshaves. Persistence was the order of the day.

I’ll admit I needed a few breaks...but in the end it worked out. But, trust me, stick with your bandsaw! Just saying.

423647ED-49B5-43FE-BBFB-6566371B931E.jpg EBD291BB-7FF2-46D2-A499-0FB82F07D497.jpg 556885AD-3F93-4215-A825-68B22DEC3383.jpg95D37457-51F8-4508-865B-0612CDF4F1F0.jpg

Phil, impressive bow saw work! In Neanderthal land, we drool over cuts like that. But thanks for the advice!

[Mike Allen1010]

Phil and Mark I very much appreciate your comments and have a conceptual construction question:

When I've made serpentine drawer fronts in the past, my approach has been to glue up stock that would cover the the entire width/height of all necessary drawers and shape the serpentine front. After the shaping of the serpentine curve is done, I would rip them into appropriate weights for drawer fronts. My thought was given the vagaries of try to shape the curve in thick stock to a layout line, shaping the curved wall stop was glued together would being that even if the shaping of my curve wasn't "consistent" with the layout line, at least it would match the adjacent drawer surface.

I recognize the downside of my approach is it doesn't allow for using the bandsaw to rough out the curves that would be possible if each drawer front was built separately. I would really appreciate your thoughts about achieving consistency from drawer front to drawer front when building each drawer front individually and using the bandsaw to rough out the curves. Were you able to saw/shape close enough to the layout lines so that adjacent drawer fronts all matched? If so, definitely better than my approach.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments. Really appreciate your feedback.

All the best, Mike

[Phil Mueller]

Mike, I’m going to have to defer to Mark on this. The bowed front/back table I made did not have drawers in the bowed front. The curved parts I sawed became the front and back apron. I put drawers in the side. This was a project inspired by a table Derek made. I look forward to Mark’s input also.

[Mark Rainey]

Phil and Mark I very much appreciate your comments and have a conceptual construction question:

When I've made serpentine drawer fronts in the past, my approach has been to glue up stock that would cover the the entire width/height of all necessary drawers and shape the serpentine front. After the shaping of the serpentine curve is done, I would rip them into appropriate weights for drawer fronts. My thought was given the vagaries of try to shape the curve in thick stock to a layout line, shaping the curved wall stop was glued together would being that even if the shaping of my curve wasn't "consistent" with the layout line, at least it would match the adjacent drawer surface.

I recognize the downside of my approach is it doesn't allow for using the bandsaw to rough out the curves that would be possible if each drawer front was built separately. I would really appreciate your thoughts about achieving consistency from drawer front to drawer front when building each drawer front individually and using the bandsaw to rough out the curves. Were you able to saw/shape close enough to the layout lines so that adjacent drawer fronts all matched? If so, definitely better than my approach.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments. Really appreciate your feedback.

All the best, Mike

Mike, I think I understand your method, and why you were concerned about cross grain planing. The method I am using for this chest is Jeff Headley's from Fine Woodworking which you referenced at the beginning of your miniature serpentine chest project. Using the bandsaw, I was able to get reasonably close to the line, but not perfect. I had to clean a lot up with spokeshaves. I was not sure of the right blade to use, and ended up using a 3/4 inch 2 TPI Lenox flex back blade on my Rikon 10-326. I think next time I will try a 1/2 inch 3TPI blade. One thing to consider is that with the cockbeading, the drawer shapes do not have to be an exact match, the cockbeading hides irregularities. Even Jeff Headley, who teaches classes states that he never gets everything perfect. On my first chest I used bent laminations, and the last drawer not as curved and I was worried. Upon completion, the eye could not pick it up.

[Will Blick]

just amazing...
inspirational...
thx for sharing...
talent, patience, design skills,
hope it ends up on FWW magazine

[Mark Rainey]

just amazing...
inspirational...
thx for sharing...
talent, patience, design skills,
hope it ends up on FWW magazine

Thanks Will! It's hammer time with hammer veneering with hot hide glue. Last time I left too much hide glue on the surface and it was a big pain to remove. Now I am now scraping it off with a plastic card and then wiping it off with a moist warm towel right after veneering, and liking the results.

hammer 1.jpghammer 2.jpghammer 3.jpghammer 5.jpghammer 4.jpg

[Mark Rainey]

Time to work on curved molding on bottom of chest of drawers. Unplugged and molding planes do not work on curves.

molding 2.jpgmolding rough carve.jpgmolding smoother.jpgmolding smoothest.jpg

[Phil Mueller]

Coming along well, Mark. Nothing like a good sharp carving tool to zen the hours away, huh? I hope at least you were able to justify a few new carving tool sizes to work through that piece! Almost always makes it worth it. Gonna look great in the end.

[Mark Rainey]

Coming along well, Mark. Nothing like a good sharp carving tool to zen the hours away, huh? I hope at least you were able to justify a few new carving tool sizes to work through that piece! Almost always makes it worth it. Gonna look great in the end.

Yes Phil, it is calming to carve away for hours, shaving after shaving. Thanks for the encouragement!

[Jim Matthews]

"After bandsawing ( I know I should have used a bow saw) the serpentine curves..."

Only if you don't actually want to finish.

[Mark Rainey]

"After bandsawing ( I know I should have used a bow saw) the serpentine curves..."

Only if you don't actually want to finish.

very true Jim...I suppose that's when a Neanderthal has gone too far...we all have been there and it is a sad scene. How is that 18 inch Jet bandsaw working out?

[Mark Rainey]

I needed a marking gauge that follows curves, and all i could find was Woodjoy which stopped making them, and some do it yourself ideas. I saw this "Newkiton" marking gauge and it works for me. Surprised that with all the quality marking/cutting gauges available, none follow curved surfaces.

newkiton 1.jpgnewkiton 2.jpgnewkiton 3.jpg