First Dresser

[Andrew More]

Dresser I made for my 6 year old son Finley. This is all from "construction" grade lumber, carefully picked from the pile, and some high quality plywood for the sides and drawers.
I'm a bit torn on this, because the amount of effort required to build this dresser was pretty high, so building out of pine doesn't seem like much of a savings. I had never tackled something so challenging before, so I wanted a wood I could be fine with discarding if I made a mistake or miscut, but that did not happen, so no savings there. I definitely could have made this out of hardwood, and honestly it would have been easier that way, since hardwoods do not dent as easily as pine, which requires a lot more gentle handling.
Finish is Enduro Var I & II (they stopped making Enduro Var I for some reason midway through the construction).
Drawers are a simple rabbitted construction, with glue and pins. Fronts are attached with two sets of bolts and two sets of screws. I figure if I don't like the drawers, or they get broken, I can easily redo them, and retain the fronts.
Style is Craftsman, which sometimes has an eastern element to it. Plans from Words n Wood.
Pulls I picked up from a big box store on Finley's instruction to get something brass.

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[Rick Potter]

Great job, it looks very nice. Pine isn't a problem in a kids room either, you expect it to get dinged, and with pine, dings are memories, not disasters.

[Paul F Franklin]

Lovely! Pine can be a challenge because of the grain and color variations but you did a nice job pulling it together into a cohesive piece. Well done.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Nicely done, Sir!

[Lee Schierer]

Very very nice. It looks great. I like the design. I wouldn't be concerned that it is made of pine, it should still last a long time with a little care.

[Andrew More]

Thank you everyone for the kind words. This is my first "serious" indoor furniture project. (I made a few cedar chairs and a table which also turned out nice)

Very very nice. It looks great. I like the design. I wouldn't be concerned that it is made of pine, it should still last a long time with a little care.

I agree, I was more attempting to explain my struggle with tradeoffs. I've got a nice twin bed my father made a few decades ago and it's lasted through a half dozen moves in pretty much the same state.

That having been said, having not built a dresser before, or a number of drawers I had no idea how much time it would consume. As such I was almost considering this a "throw away" project to teach myself some basics. However this ended up taking up several months of a few hours on the weekends to get to the completed state. Knowing what I know now about the time involved, and that I didn't make any major mistakes resulting in waste, I think I might have gone with the maple I also have on hand instead. It's moved in my mind from a practice project to a more serious affair.

I also had the idea that I could resaw 2x12s down to 3/4 material, but that doesn't quite work, since the clean up and saw kerf usually results in them being closer to 1/2". This is with a nice Laguna 18" bandsaw AND their 1 1/4" resaw blade.

Oh and my son, whom I love dearly, is a bit, _rambunctious_ in the way of boys his age. I'm expecting some.... character to get added.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Thats great! I love the shape and the Pine.

[Ben Ellenberger]

I like it. If you can find pine like that at your hardware store, you don’t need to apologize about building things out of it. If I could get that where I live, I’d use it for all sorts of things.

[Larry Frank]

Nice design and job !!

[Andrew More]

I like it. If you can find pine like that at your hardware store, you don’t need to apologize about building things out of it. If I could get that where I live, I’d use it for all sorts of things.

A couple of tips:
First, I buy 2x12 material, since the boards seem to have fewer knots. I also buy longer boards, sometimes 2x12x16 and cut them in two. You end up paying a bit more, but you get better stuff.
Second, you need to really go through the pile, often times I'll find 1-2 good boards in a pile. Start collecting them, and you'll be okay.
Third, you really do need to collect them because they often have a higher moisture count than kiln dried, so I usually have them sit in my shop for a couple of months before use.

[Adam Herman]

I also think it's a great piece. It will develop a character only pine can take on and cement many memories for your son.