Project Information
This is a special project for me - it was commissioned by my Aunt, who is a huge supporter of my work. She basically said build 2 things, whatever you want so she can pass them down to her 2 sons and their families.
Since I'm not much of a planner, I just started building the little drawers (from the tall version) and not really knowing what I was going to do with them. Then came the rounded corners and the case design.
Once the tall one was nearly complete, the idea of the wide version came about. Sure would have saved a ton of time had I thought of it earlier!
Dimensions: Tall - 5-1/4"w x 16-1/2"h x 4-1/2"d, Wide - 9-1/4"w x 8-3/4"h x 4-1/2"d.
Nearly all the wood (except for the Lacewood) came out of the cutoff bin. All the drawer fronts are hardwood flooring scraps. I'm certain that using a dozen or so different types of wood on these projects is a bit controversial, but that's the way it worked out here…..it just evolved that way.
Wood List:
Cabinet tops and bottoms - Curly Hard Maple
Cabinets Sides - Lacewood (tall), Curly Red Oak (wide)
Drawer Fronts - Hard Maple, Tigerwood, Eucalyptus, Rosewood, Jatoba, Cherry
Drawer Sides and Backs - Curly Soft Maple (from lumber I milled and dried 2 years ago)
Drawer Slides - Yellowheart
Drawer Pulls - Zebrawood
Drawer Bottoms and Case Backs - Figured Claro Walnut
Rear Divider (wide) - Brazilian Chestnut
The variable spaced box joints were all done on the new Incra table, and the accuracy achieved is really improved using a dead flat table. Because the joints were all tight, I was able to round over the corners with no tear-out.
The finish is all new to me - Shellac with Trans-Tint Dark Vintage Maple dye for the case tops - sand it down good and the Maple really pops - this is really an amazingly good technique and my crappy pictures really don't do justice. Everything then received a coat of blond Shellac as a seal coat, followed by 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal (Oil and Urethane). Finished it off with the Beall Wood Buff to really make it shine.
I posted the Beall Wood Buff info here along with a sanding board I built, and this was a good project to utilize both. The sanding board really speeds up the process of finishing the little drawers and prevents the edges from getting rounded over.
As usual the mistakes were made along the way - the tall version has round corners for the case back and the wide version is square - oops. Another reason one setup is better than two! The tall one also has a little bigger drawer gap in the center - oops again. Also had some tear-out cutting the notches for the drawer pulls on the first setup - but made some improvements the second time around.
Here's a couple more photos:
Thanks for looking and appreciate your comments.
Jeff
===============
UPDATE - 04-03-2011 - Thanks to Eric (EPJartisan) for the great suggestions for improving the back of the fat cabinet (Fernando's words). I was wrong in my note below - the back is 3/16" thick and there is a 3/32" gap between the back of the drawers and the back, so enough room to improve the back design.
I build an "H" cross section piece out of Brazilian Chestnut for the center divider and cut shallow notch in the top and bottom peices set it in.
Then cut the back in two and put a shallow rabbet on each half to set into the "H". There is a 1|16" of play on each. Will glue the outside edges and let the middle float.
Photos below:
Since I'm not much of a planner, I just started building the little drawers (from the tall version) and not really knowing what I was going to do with them. Then came the rounded corners and the case design.
Once the tall one was nearly complete, the idea of the wide version came about. Sure would have saved a ton of time had I thought of it earlier!
Dimensions: Tall - 5-1/4"w x 16-1/2"h x 4-1/2"d, Wide - 9-1/4"w x 8-3/4"h x 4-1/2"d.
Nearly all the wood (except for the Lacewood) came out of the cutoff bin. All the drawer fronts are hardwood flooring scraps. I'm certain that using a dozen or so different types of wood on these projects is a bit controversial, but that's the way it worked out here…..it just evolved that way.
Wood List:
Cabinet tops and bottoms - Curly Hard Maple
Cabinets Sides - Lacewood (tall), Curly Red Oak (wide)
Drawer Fronts - Hard Maple, Tigerwood, Eucalyptus, Rosewood, Jatoba, Cherry
Drawer Sides and Backs - Curly Soft Maple (from lumber I milled and dried 2 years ago)
Drawer Slides - Yellowheart
Drawer Pulls - Zebrawood
Drawer Bottoms and Case Backs - Figured Claro Walnut
Rear Divider (wide) - Brazilian Chestnut
The variable spaced box joints were all done on the new Incra table, and the accuracy achieved is really improved using a dead flat table. Because the joints were all tight, I was able to round over the corners with no tear-out.
The finish is all new to me - Shellac with Trans-Tint Dark Vintage Maple dye for the case tops - sand it down good and the Maple really pops - this is really an amazingly good technique and my crappy pictures really don't do justice. Everything then received a coat of blond Shellac as a seal coat, followed by 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal (Oil and Urethane). Finished it off with the Beall Wood Buff to really make it shine.
I posted the Beall Wood Buff info here along with a sanding board I built, and this was a good project to utilize both. The sanding board really speeds up the process of finishing the little drawers and prevents the edges from getting rounded over.
As usual the mistakes were made along the way - the tall version has round corners for the case back and the wide version is square - oops. Another reason one setup is better than two! The tall one also has a little bigger drawer gap in the center - oops again. Also had some tear-out cutting the notches for the drawer pulls on the first setup - but made some improvements the second time around.
Here's a couple more photos:
Thanks for looking and appreciate your comments.
Jeff
===============
UPDATE - 04-03-2011 - Thanks to Eric (EPJartisan) for the great suggestions for improving the back of the fat cabinet (Fernando's words). I was wrong in my note below - the back is 3/16" thick and there is a 3/32" gap between the back of the drawers and the back, so enough room to improve the back design.
I build an "H" cross section piece out of Brazilian Chestnut for the center divider and cut shallow notch in the top and bottom peices set it in.
Then cut the back in two and put a shallow rabbet on each half to set into the "H". There is a 1|16" of play on each. Will glue the outside edges and let the middle float.
Photos below: