# Lowboy Build



## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

*Getting started...*

The time has finally come. I have been waiting almost 2 years for this. I have finally gotten everything off my plate and can now start my *Chippendale Lowboy*!

I have been saving magazines and books that have related builds in them. 









The problem I have with them all is they are for Queen Anne lowboys. I want a Chippendale lowboy. Even though they are similar, I have found a few differences in them..

First and most obvious is the legs and feet. Cabriole vs. ball + claw.

I have also noticed that the ratio from leg to upper drawer portion tends to be different. Chippendale appears to me to have a 1:1 ratio while QA is more like 3:2? (I have never seen an antique up close, so I am likely wrong on several points..)

Chippendale also has carvings on the knees.

Centre drawer carvings? QA for the most part is the fan… Chip on the other hand.. there seems to be no limits. Personally, my wife suggested a lion's face. Which I liked, so that is the plan so far.

And last… Chip just seems to be more aggressive with the curves and less… well I guess 'elegant' seems to be the only word I can think of.

Of course, step one is to make a scale drawing..









Step 2 is making a full scale cardboard drawing.. but because all the examples I have found in my books and such are all QA, I don't have any paper examples at my disposal. And even though I have a few scale drawings of cabriole legs…. they are not the same size, ratio or shape of Chip legs, so I had to guess and draw a few patterns until I made one that I liked. I don't have the lower apron figured out yet. 

















The biggest challenge in this build for me is going to be the carvings. Lions face and ball and claw. Thankfully at least I have a ball and claw casting that I bought from Mary May to help me out. The Lion… well my wife is a very talented drawer and is going to draw it for me… all I have to do is carve it…... (insert nervous laughter here)

I bought a bunch of 12/4 for the legs long ago and finally get to cut into it… but I have run into my first problem… I don't have a large enough rip saw to rip the 7" wide board in half… so I used a friends table saw to cut almost all the way through..









A few min with my rip saw…









Now to joint the legs… but wait… the jointer plane I want is $400… I want the Veritas custom plane.. but that's not going to happen right now, so I talked a friend of mine into selling me one of this 3 Stanley/bailey #7's for cheap.









After taking it all apart to check its condition….









I dated it to 46 or 47, post war, corrugated sole and a broken tote. So it may take me a little while before I can get the after market PMV-11 blade and make a new tote and matching knob, so the legs are getting put aside for now. I will pick the rest of the material from my pile tomorrow and start making the top and sides, and picking the rest of the pieces, and get back to the legs when I have the plane set up and ready to go.

Thanks for checking in…..

Jeremy


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## tirebob (Aug 2, 2010)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Getting started...*
> 
> The time has finally come. I have been waiting almost 2 years for this. I have finally gotten everything off my plate and can now start my *Chippendale Lowboy*!
> 
> ...


You were able to get Dave to part with a tool??? Can't wait for the build!


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Getting started...*
> 
> The time has finally come. I have been waiting almost 2 years for this. I have finally gotten everything off my plate and can now start my *Chippendale Lowboy*!
> 
> ...


Very nice project. Good luck.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Getting started...*
> 
> The time has finally come. I have been waiting almost 2 years for this. I have finally gotten everything off my plate and can now start my *Chippendale Lowboy*!
> 
> ...


I built a Lowboy some time ago using Charles Neils mastering woodworking show's information.It was a fun and challenging project. I hope you enjoy your build just as much.


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## tinnman65 (Jan 19, 2009)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Getting started...*
> 
> The time has finally come. I have been waiting almost 2 years for this. I have finally gotten everything off my plate and can now start my *Chippendale Lowboy*!
> 
> ...


Looks like your off to a great start this should be an interesting blog.


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## DocK16 (Mar 18, 2007)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Getting started...*
> 
> The time has finally come. I have been waiting almost 2 years for this. I have finally gotten everything off my plate and can now start my *Chippendale Lowboy*!
> 
> ...


I built a Queen Ann low boy several years ago but after purchasing Mary Mays CDs on carving ball and claw, acanthus leaf and concave Newport shell I plan on going back and revisiting this piece with some add'l flare. I will be watching your progress


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

*board selection and layout*

I was fortunate enough today to have a few uninterrupted hours in the shop. I laid out all my boards and meticulously picked which ones I wanted. I had a few that were still really rough, so I (to my eternal shame) pulled out my thickness planer and cleaned off just enough to see what they would look like. I was able to make some decisions from there..










I do not have any boards wide enough to have a 2 board top, so 3 it will have to be. I used one of the boards I got for Christmas for the top.










After marking out the cuts… I cut them…









They will still need to be ripped to width and jointed, but… that's the top.

Then I laid out and cut the sides… all from one board so they will match…









Then I laid out and cut the drawer fronts..









It might be tough to see, but the bottom drawer fronts are laid out. I intentionally placed some sap wood at the bottom of the middle drawer. I think it will be awesome that the lower part of the lions mane will be white sap wood. Just a little detail I think will be cool.









Then.. just because I wanted to see…. I planed a small off cut from each of the three boards (top, sides, drawers) and put some BLO on them..









There is quite a colour difference in the three… so I put on one light coat of amber shellac to see if that would even the colour at all…









Pretty close… so I wondered what 2 coats would look like…









That's much better. Stupid light glare…

Now… I would have kept going, but my jack plane needs to be sharpened and I got lazy and don't want to do it today… maybe tomorrow…


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## tinnman65 (Jan 19, 2009)

JeremyPringle said:


> *board selection and layout*
> 
> I was fortunate enough today to have a few uninterrupted hours in the shop. I laid out all my boards and meticulously picked which ones I wanted. I had a few that were still really rough, so I (to my eternal shame) pulled out my thickness planer and cleaned off just enough to see what they would look like. I was able to make some decisions from there..
> 
> ...


There is no shame in using your power planer for an emergency. Just don't make a habit of it or we'll tell Roy Underhill on you


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

JeremyPringle said:


> *board selection and layout*
> 
> I was fortunate enough today to have a few uninterrupted hours in the shop. I laid out all my boards and meticulously picked which ones I wanted. I had a few that were still really rough, so I (to my eternal shame) pulled out my thickness planer and cleaned off just enough to see what they would look like. I was able to make some decisions from there..
> 
> ...


Please don't tell Roy. I don't think he would ever forgive me….


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

*The things that must get done*

As the title of this entry states *'The things that must get done'*. This is in reference to all the things that I knew I would need to do in order to complete certain tasks in the build. For example.. in the past I have always been able to get by using my LA jack as a jointer plane, or if need be I would borrow one from a friend saving me the money of having to buy a plane for one small operation. This build of course is a different story. There is going to be lots of jointing.. so I need my own jointer plane. In a way, I am using this build to motivate myself to get some things done and tools made/bought that I have just been too lazy to actually do, until now. Normally I would not include a blog like this in a build series, but in this case they are one and the same.

I bought this #7 in great shape from a friend. Of course the knob is ugly, the tote is broken and the blade sucks. But it is a #7c and the body and frog are in great shape. I don't really like fettling old planes, but this one was such a good deal I could not pass it up.










*Step one was to make a new handle. I had some crotch walnut kicking around… so I did the lay out.. if you were wondering, the angle is 27°.*










*Drilled the holes at the 27° to make things really easy on myself*








*
Cut square*









*Test the handle to make sure it fits..*









*Rough it out.. shape it to my hand, sand smooth (I had to buy sandpaper for this) and then apply one coat of oil*









*Then to make a new knob..*









Drill the holes, turn it on the lathe, apply oil.. (I forgot to take a picture of it complete)

Now the most important part… the blade. I of course.. *HATE* old blade. So I bought a new aftermarket blade.









Now it just so happens that all of this was happening at the same time as some other related stuff. I bought another new plane (RH skew rabbet) and some new sharpening stones. So I used the new stones to sharpen this blade… awesome.

*This stone has the coolest box for a stone I have ever seen!*









Once everything was installed I set up one of the legs to take some test cuts and start making them square..









Woo hoo!!!


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

JeremyPringle said:


> *The things that must get done*
> 
> As the title of this entry states *'The things that must get done'*. This is in reference to all the things that I knew I would need to do in order to complete certain tasks in the build. For example.. in the past I have always been able to get by using my LA jack as a jointer plane, or if need be I would borrow one from a friend saving me the money of having to buy a plane for one small operation. This build of course is a different story. There is going to be lots of jointing.. so I need my own jointer plane. In a way, I am using this build to motivate myself to get some things done and tools made/bought that I have just been too lazy to actually do, until now. Normally I would not include a blog like this in a build series, but in this case they are one and the same.
> 
> ...


Nice! I have an old #8 I need to refurbish. Thanks for the tutorial.


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## tinnman65 (Jan 19, 2009)

JeremyPringle said:


> *The things that must get done*
> 
> As the title of this entry states *'The things that must get done'*. This is in reference to all the things that I knew I would need to do in order to complete certain tasks in the build. For example.. in the past I have always been able to get by using my LA jack as a jointer plane, or if need be I would borrow one from a friend saving me the money of having to buy a plane for one small operation. This build of course is a different story. There is going to be lots of jointing.. so I need my own jointer plane. In a way, I am using this build to motivate myself to get some things done and tools made/bought that I have just been too lazy to actually do, until now. Normally I would not include a blog like this in a build series, but in this case they are one and the same.
> 
> ...


Now you can check that off the list! I totally agree with you about the blade, the new blade is money well spent.


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

*planing the legs to size.*

Since getting the #7 tuned up and finally sharpening the blade for my jack plane I have spent quite a bit of time planning the legs. My max size is 2 15/16. I have to flatten one side, then square up an edge; then square up and dimension the other edge. From there I scribed the final thickness and started planning.

The #7 is pretty heavy, so I have been using the jack for most of the grunt work. I know this is a pretty boring operation and generally not one worth having an entry. But… I have a new smart phone and have been playing with the camera and video features. (I still prefer to take still photos with my Canon Rebel) I thought I would find something to post a video about and….

I was teaching a plane/chisel sharpening class the other night at my local LV store. One of the students finished sharpening a new plane blade and put it in the plane and started taking shavings. Even though he did a great job with the sharpening, I felt he was still trying too hard to push the plane. (it was set properly for a sub-thou shaving) I jumped in with my 5 cents (there are no pennies left here in Canada and the nickel is the lowest amount of money you can give someone) and told the class about…. *Mutton tallow!!! * (Some people use paraffin wax)

I decided to take a video of the before and after effects of using a lubricant on the sole of a plane…





View on YouTube

Hopefully you can see and hear the difference. If not I apologize. The difference is significant on the users end. If you have never used a lube on the sole of a plane I strongly suggest you try for yourself.

Now.. to ruffle some feathers… or wool in this case. The major reason why I use tallow and not wax..
I generally only use my smoothing plane for the final pass or two on a surface. I have it set to take ridiculously thin shavings, and when paraffin wax is first applied to the sole of the plane, I find the wax to be thicker than the shaving.. thus it takes a few swipes before the wax is spread enough to take a proper shaving. The tallow on the other hand applies much thinner and does not effect the shaving.

I also rub my planes down with tallow as I feel that prolonged use of the tallow protects the metal against rust. Of course I have no scientific evidence of this.. so this is up for debate.

Last in this post… if you do not follow *Tom Fidgen*, I highly recommend that you do. You can find his free content site at The Unplugged Woodshop, follow him on twitter, and if you like what you see, subscribe to his subscription site at An Unplugged Life.

Thanks for checking in!!


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

*gluing up the side panels*

Since getting the planes tuned up and working properly, I have been alternating between flattening the side panels and dimensioning the legs. Today I finally glued up the side panels.

I used winding sticks and a straight edge to flatten the backside of the boards (inside surface) and then squared the matting edges..

With the one board sitting on top of the other, I checked to make sure the seams looked perfect..









Yup…

Next step..

*Um.. Yeah… If you could just heat up the hide glue.. that'd be great…*










All done.









I was also able to secure the piece for the back of the case. I was willing to do a panel glue up of the secondary wood.. but this piece of maple just fell into my lap.. so I guess I will use it.









Yup.. 15" wide.

Of course I am never content with just one project at a time.. and right now parallel to the lowboy, I am currently playing with some intense alcohol dyes in preparation for a potential guitar build.









I *love*, this colour pattern, and am thinking of making a box with this finish.

Last.. I have been writing some content for Tom Fidgen's free site concerning the Spice Cabinet build that I did about 2 years ago.. its new stuff and not exactly what has been posted here. There will be new stuff posted every Friday morning on Tom's site. So please check it out.


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## Schwieb (Dec 3, 2008)

JeremyPringle said:


> *gluing up the side panels*
> 
> Since getting the planes tuned up and working properly, I have been alternating between flattening the side panels and dimensioning the legs. Today I finally glued up the side panels.
> 
> ...


Just fantastic Jeremy. I've been on the guitar build, want to do mode for some time. Perhaps you will move me forward.


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

*Leg work..*

Letting off from last entry, I had just finished gluing up the side panels. Now it was time to finally get the legs dimensioned. I planed all 4 sides of one of the legs, but decided it was way too much work to do it again 3 more times. So, I figured that there was enough stock left that I could use my rip saw to remove most of the material saving myself tons of time and energy.










Then I used the planes to get them to final dimension, and then decided which leg goes where and marked them.









I then decided that my cardboard leg cut out was not going to work out, so I used one of the cut offs to make a better template.









After using the template to mark all the legs, I set up my marking gauges (I even bought a new duel head marking gauge just for this occasion!!)

Then I chop, chop, chopperoued!









A slight side note here. I only have a cheap big brown handled mortising chisel. (That's because the ones that I am waiting to buy have not yet been released yet) Its just cherry, not like it something really hard. None-the-less…









Yup, a nice big fat chip-out at the edge. Sad thing, it happened about 30 seconds into chopping after spending a decent amount of time lapping and sharpening. So, back to the lapping stone to remove the chip and re-sharpen. It happened a few times. Not impressed with the tool.. but that's what I get for $16.

With all the mortises done, its time to switch back to the sides and cut the tenons.

I used a skew rabbet plane to make rabbets to my layout lines.









Once both rabbets were cut to my layout lines, I marked out the locations for the tenons and cut out the waste and fit them to the mortise.









I then started to prepare the pieces for the front apron and rails. First I flattened and jointed them, marked out the pieces, ripped them to width and then jointed all the surfaces with my #7.









Then use the shooting board to get them all to the final length.









Now just to mark out their location, cut the mortises in the legs, fit the tenons and assemble. Soon the base carcase will be done and I can start shaping the legs. I have decided to do all 4 legs a different way to play around with different methods. Or.. if one method sucks really bad, I will abandon it for one of the better ones.

Step one to shape the legs is to cut out the waste, and this is where I want to use a bow saw. And as mentioned in a previous entry, I don't have one yet, but I do have the Gramercy kit to make my own. So that is what I will be doing for the next bit and will be the next entry.

Happy Easter everyone!


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## tinnman65 (Jan 19, 2009)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Leg work..*
> 
> Letting off from last entry, I had just finished gluing up the side panels. Now it was time to finally get the legs dimensioned. I planed all 4 sides of one of the legs, but decided it was way too much work to do it again 3 more times. So, I figured that there was enough stock left that I could use my rip saw to remove most of the material saving myself tons of time and energy.
> 
> ...


Nice work Jeremy, It looks like things are moving along very well. Its to bad about that chisel, you would think even a cheap chisel would hold up a little better than that. Even though I'm not ready to sell all my power tools I am definitely interested in that bow saw. I've wanted one of those for some time now. I will be interested in how that kit works out for you. I'm looking forward to your next post.


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## tirebob (Aug 2, 2010)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Leg work..*
> 
> Letting off from last entry, I had just finished gluing up the side panels. Now it was time to finally get the legs dimensioned. I planed all 4 sides of one of the legs, but decided it was way too much work to do it again 3 more times. So, I figured that there was enough stock left that I could use my rip saw to remove most of the material saving myself tons of time and energy.
> 
> ...


Looking good man! Can I ask what angle you are grinding you brown handled mortise chisel at? Even with crappy steel that looks like a lot of chip out and I am wondering if maybe the bevel is set too low… I have what I think are the same ones you do and while I haven't taken them to task yet I did bash one around for practice and never experienced what you did…


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Leg work..*
> 
> Letting off from last entry, I had just finished gluing up the side panels. Now it was time to finally get the legs dimensioned. I planed all 4 sides of one of the legs, but decided it was way too much work to do it again 3 more times. So, I figured that there was enough stock left that I could use my rip saw to remove most of the material saving myself tons of time and energy.
> 
> ...


Bob!!! Yes we have the same ones. I have no comment for your ridiculous 'grinding' comment. Robert Loblaw!


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

*Bowsaw done!*

With time being a commodity in low supply, it has taken me much longer to finish making my bowsaw than I had wanted. None the less, it is finally done.

I started with the kit. I bought the Gramercy bowsaw kit and printed off the plans in 1:1 scale.









Admittedly, I bought the kit quite a while ago and have never gotten around to making it. But I did mill the stock for it right after buying the kit, then I just let it sit there…









After marking everything out I cut the mortises…









Then my camera battery died. I did not want to stop working while the battery charged, so I missed taking pictures for the rest of the build.

I made one big smooth move during this build. When I initially milled the stock, I misread the dimensions and I made the side pieces too narrow by an 1/8. Because of this, I had two options, I could have made the streatched 1/4 longer to make up the difference, or I could glue on a strip of 1/8 on each piece of a secondary wood.









I picked the second option, and glue on a strip of 1/8 cherry. I used rasps, files and my blockplane to do most if the shaping, and a tiny amount of sanding to break the edges.

I used spalted maple to make the toggle and some jute string as the tensioner.









And finally, I had a small piece of cocobolo sitting around that was just big enough for me to be able to turn the two knobs.









And then all done..









Woo hoo!! Now I can use it to help me shape the legs… but alas…. it cuts great, yet has trouble going through 12/4 stock.









There are other ways to do this job, and I am almost done the first leg, but that's for the next entry.

But at least the bow saw is finally done, and I will try to use it as much as possible going forward.

Thanks for checking in.

.


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## tirebob (Aug 2, 2010)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Bowsaw done!*
> 
> With time being a commodity in low supply, it has taken me much longer to finish making my bowsaw than I had wanted. None the less, it is finally done.
> 
> ...


Very slick boss! Too bad you wasted all that curly maple on a tool… I know some other tool who used a big chunk of it on a Moxon vice face!!! Can you believe the nerve???


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## JeremyPringle (Aug 17, 2011)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Bowsaw done!*
> 
> With time being a commodity in low supply, it has taken me much longer to finish making my bowsaw than I had wanted. None the less, it is finally done.
> 
> ...


Hey.. I think I know that guy too… next time I see him I will take a picture of the vice and post it here…


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## molan (Apr 25, 2012)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Bowsaw done!*
> 
> With time being a commodity in low supply, it has taken me much longer to finish making my bowsaw than I had wanted. None the less, it is finally done.
> 
> ...


Must be a Calgary and area thing to waste curly maple that way


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## tinnman65 (Jan 19, 2009)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Bowsaw done!*
> 
> With time being a commodity in low supply, it has taken me much longer to finish making my bowsaw than I had wanted. None the less, it is finally done.
> 
> ...


I know nothing about using a bow saw but could you use a courser blade to help get through that 12/4 Stock? It is one nice looking saw.


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## JADobson (Aug 14, 2012)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Bowsaw done!*
> 
> With time being a commodity in low supply, it has taken me much longer to finish making my bowsaw than I had wanted. None the less, it is finally done.
> 
> ...


I just finished my bow saw a couple of months ago and I love it. Not sure how I did anything before I had it. Yours looks great.


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## DuggyDrew (Nov 20, 2014)

JeremyPringle said:


> *Bowsaw done!*
> 
> With time being a commodity in low supply, it has taken me much longer to finish making my bowsaw than I had wanted. None the less, it is finally done.
> 
> ...


Bow saw looks amazing. I don't see it as "wasting" curly maple. How I see it when we make a tool, we intend to use that tool for a very long time. I would like my tools to look nice so I can be even more proud of using a tool I made and a beautiful one at that.


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