| Project by SouthpawCA | posted 06-20-2011 11:49 PM | 7398 views | 12 times favorited | 13 comments |  |
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I promised my wife I’d make her something in which to keep her art supplies. I came up with this. The woods are Lyptus, Curly Maple, and Black Walnut. It is finished completely in shellac. I sorta used Wood Whisperer’s method for popping the grain on the drawer fronts, however, instead of using a tint as he suggested in the video, I used garnet shellac as the first coat – sanded almost completely off – then re-coated with a number of coats of super blonde shellac. He mentions this method near the end of his video. I absolutely love the way the grain follows you when walking by.
The top is a piece of curly maple ply surrounded by black walnut and finally lyptus. It is finished with 27 very thin coats of super blonde shellac in a semi french polish method. However, I used Stevinmarin’s method for getting a super hand rubbed finish http://youtu.be/P6Ny-s7vSzE . I’ve used this method for a number of projects with excellent results.
While working this project I went from having just 1 Veritas bevel up jack plane to now having all of the plane irons, a Veritas BU Jointer, Apron, & Scraper plane, a Japanese Compass plane (to do the arches at the bottom), a hand made 5/8” dado plane, a Japanese 1/8” & 1/4” Radius plane, & a Japanese 30-45-60 Chamfer plane. Once you start using planes you’ll wonder how do ever did stuff without them.
I’m not so thrilled with the isoloc joinery. This was done using the Woodline’s Route-R-Joint. Well there is another tool that’s going to sit and gather dust. I’m going to quit trying out stuff and just break down and get a Leigh Jig. With everything I purchased to do dovetails and these isoloc joints I probably could have purchased 2 Leigh Jigs by now. And they have isoloc templates too if I really ever want to do that again.
Well, that’s about it. Enjoy and I hope it inspires you like many of the projects on Lumberjocks have inspired me.
-- Don
13 comments so far
JRL
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104 posts in 2507 days
#1 posted 06-21-2011 01:04 AM
Magnificent. Don’t know how you could improve on this.
The pulls are unique—at least I haven’t seen that design before.
The joinery looks great. C’mon, admit it, you aced this project.
Congratulations.
-- Jay in Changsha
Joe Lyddon
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#2 posted 06-21-2011 01:05 AM
COOL cabinet…
You did a great job on it…
Looks like you used a MLCS router jointing system for the drawers…(?) (instead of traditional dovetails)
-- Have Fun! Joe Lyddon - Alta Loma, CA USA - Home: http://www.WoodworkStuff.net ... My Small Gallery: http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?ppuser=1389&cat=500"
dpow
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503 posts in 2812 days
#3 posted 06-21-2011 04:12 AM
The Artist’s Taboret is in itself a work of art. From the design to the finish, what a masterpiece! Thanks for sharing.
-- Doug
tomd
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#4 posted 06-21-2011 04:27 AM
Great looking cabinet, truely fit for an artist.
-- Tom D
GaryK
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#5 posted 06-21-2011 08:35 AM
Making something for the wife? Been there done that! :-)
Very nice looking!
-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX
BarbS
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2434 posts in 4053 days
#6 posted 06-21-2011 03:36 PM
I’ll bet your wife is pleased! Very beautiful cabinet, and a stunning finishing job. Great work.
-- http://barbsid.blogspot.com/
DaddyZ
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2475 posts in 3008 days
#7 posted 06-21-2011 06:22 PM
Very nice!!!!
-- Pat - Worker of Wood, Collector of Tools, Father of one
fernandoindia
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1081 posts in 2912 days
#8 posted 06-21-2011 08:23 PM
Nice and elegant Don. At this time, my wife is also including this in my to do list. Which is becoming never ending so far.
What are the bottoms made of? Are any reinforcements there? I am designing drawers to keep etchings and that sort of papers. Which are indeed heavy.
Do you include sliders for running the drawers?
Thank you and congrats
-- Back home. Fernando
SouthpawCA
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270 posts in 3201 days
#9 posted 06-21-2011 10:03 PM
The bottoms are made of 1/4” (or close to it) hardboard. They definitely are reinforced. The smaller drawers have a single reinforcement down the center, the larger drawers have 2 reinforcements. I didn’t use any type of drawer glides. The accent piece that you see between each of the drawers actually continues back into the cabinet along the sides. Then I used something I found on the Lee Valley website called slippery tape. It works just OK. It’s fine for the smaller drawers, but the largest drawer is harder to pull/push. If I were to do it again (I thought about it) I’d use drawer glides which could get a bit pricey because the drawers are 2’ deep. An even better idea would be to make sliding dovetail glides which could double as drawer bottom supports. Of course I still don’t have a Leigh Jig, but the next time I make one of these I’m for sure going to get one.
-- Don
fernandoindia
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1081 posts in 2912 days
#10 posted 06-22-2011 01:02 AM
Thank you Don for the insights. Drawers look rock solid.
Cool piece
-- Back home. Fernando
James Frederick
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#11 posted 06-22-2011 06:08 PM
Wonderful work Don, you wife should be most pleased.
-- Change begins somewhere may as well be with me.
thebigvise
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#12 posted 11-09-2011 07:23 PM
This is a beautiful piece. The drawer fronts are electric and the grain match is a subtle but unmistakable marker of high end woodworking. Overall, I really love the design and the execution.
-- Paul, Clinton, NC
Toptim
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1 post in 2005 days
#13 posted 10-27-2012 03:58 PM
This is really beautiful. I am an artist. Would you make one of these for me and sell it to me?
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