Chippendale Chest of Drawers - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Allen in OH who writes:
Since you recently featured a project from some younger students, I thought I’d send some pictures of a project just finished by an “old fogey” student. I’m working towards a degree in craftsmanship at the University of Cincinnati. Even at 37 years old (a far cry from the high school guys) I’m not the oldest in the program by far. There’s a retired doctor who, at the age of 86, has been taking up turning and does some amazing work.
These are some pictures of the project I just completed this Spring. It’s a Chippendale style chest of drawers. The design was actually Glen Huey’s who once taught in the UC program and was the instructor for the class my instructor was taking at the time.
It’s cherry, secondary wood is poplar. The carcass is joined with hand cut dovetails, used a jig for the half-blinds on the drawers. All parts that needed mechanical fasteners (backs of the drawer runners and the ship-lapped back boards) were joined with reproduction cut nails, which are a booger to drive.
Finish is three coats of a homemade oil/varnish blend (I admit it, it was David Marks who sold me on the look of that finish) top-coated with three coats of gloss sprayed-on poly acrylic.
Awesome Bunk Bed - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Ken in CA. Let’s check out what he has to say:
“I recently completed this Bunk Bed for my Grandchildren. I apologize for the photographs. The shots were done in the boys’ bedroom and I couldn’t get back far enough to get complete photographs. The bed is made with solid maple for the stiles and solid cherry for the rails. The rails have birds eye maple veneer insets. The bolt hole covers are fastened to the bed with Velcro to facilitate removal. Ultimately it will separate into 2 twin beds. It is finished with a combination of Watco Cherry Oil and GF Arm-R-Seal Urethane Topcoats. I am a retired Architect. The bed was constructed at the Sawdust Shop a rent-a- shop in Sunnyvale California over a period of a year.
The Fujiwhara Chest - Project of the Week
This week’s project is from my good buddy Tom Iovino of Tom’s Workbench. Let’s hear his description:
It’s called a Fujiwhara Chest. (BTW - the Fujiwhara effect is when two hurricanes start to rotate around each other if they get too close… The swirls in the door veneers reminded me of that). Basically a Krenov-inspired chest on a stand. The legs are made of Sapele my hardwood supplier had in the burn pile, and the aprons and chest parts are made of hard maple. The legs are tapered through their bottom ten inches to give some motion to the bottom of the case. I wanted to get more of a circular flow into the piece, so I decided I should cut the stretchers in arches. That gave me a chance to really tune up the bandsaw to get matching curves. All of the parts are joined with mortise and tenon joints, cut with a plunge router and a dado blade on the table saw.
The chest was made of hard maple. The corners are joined with variably spaced dovetails made with a Keller jig. Yes, you can do it!
The tower in the middle is made of some free walnut that was - again - in the burn pile at my hardwood supplier’s shop. I made stopped dadoes in the piece for the shelves to sit, and the uprights sit in stopped dadoes cut in the top and bottom.
The back is made of three ship-lapped boards set into rabbets on the sides, top and bottom.
The doors are veneered in sapele pomelle, and the doors are made of maple as well. No, I didn’t use knife hinges (kinda thought about that AFTER I put the case together). I matched the curve of the top of the doors to the curve on the apron to echo the shape.
The finish regimen was to sand the piece to 220 grit and scrape the large flats. I sealed the entire piece with 1# cut of Seal Coat, followed by a buffing with #0000 steel wool. Brushed and vacuumed the thing off, then hit it with three coats of Watco natural, sanding between each with 400 grit paper….
Then I rubbed the piece down with a weasel ’till it glowed…
Shoe Cabinet - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from John. Let’s see what he has to say:
I can’t believe it - the shoe cabinet is done! :) It’s been a long process. With me being such a newbie, and having just a bit of free time to devote each week, it’s taken me something like 6 months to complete! This was a real learning project. Many firsts for me: loose mortise and tenons, edge joining wider boards, flush drawers with half-blind and through dovetails, routed inlays, sliding doors, staining poplar, etc. I based the design on David Marks’ tool cabinet (Woodworks #503), but much larger and with drawers on top. I used poplar throughout, and walnut for the inlays and handles. Finished with a 2lb cut of shellac followed by General Finishes American oak gel stain and 3 coats of Arm-r-Seal.
One of the big lessons from this project is covering up mistakes, of which there were MANY! :) The biggest oops came when I was routing the mortises in the top — the router bit somehow slipped loose and punched right through the top. Not a happy woodworking moment!! After wrangling with ideas about patching the holes, making a new top, etc, I took your excellent suggestion of filling the hole with epoxy, and then routing a complete perimeter inlay over the top of it. Hey, I meant to do that! :) It turned out great!
I also really struggled with the doors. Not having a band saw, and unable to find any good 1/4″ plywood locally, my “beautifully figured” sliding doors are actually just 1/4″ MDF panels. I used the same gel stain and sorta dragged the rag across to produce a fakey wood grain :) For the dovetails, I started with an old rockler jig - and just like you, I ended up wanting to drive a truck over it. I ended up investing in the Leigh Super 18 - nice! After spending so long fine-tuning the half-blind fronts, I was stunned how easy the through dovetails were in comparison! :) Took a crazy amount of time, but I just love those dovetails.
Thanks again for all your help Marc. You’ve patiently answered every one of my emails and given me numerous suggestions which you can see reflected right in the completed project. And I can’t count how many times I’ve come back to your videos for advice, design ideas, the dovetails, edge-joining with biscuits, mortise and tenons, pairing, wiping finishes, etc, etc - even how best to measure and mark when putting the door handles on. Looking forward to the next project.
Murphy Bed - Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from Bob. Let’s check it out and read his comments:
Here are a couple of photos of a Murphy Bed and pair of bookcases that I made for the spare bedroom/office in my home. I got the project plans from Workbench magazine and modified it to fit my space. The Murphy Bed mechanism came from Rockler. I made the sides of the bed and bookcases from Birch plywood. White Birch hardwood was used for the face frames. I used Minwax tung oil and wipe on poly to finish the project. The center section was painted to match the walls. I don’t have a mattress yet so that’s why I’m using my air compressor as a counter weight.
This is the fifth woodworking project that I’ve undertaken and by far it’s the largest. It’s not perfect but it’s functional. I’ve learned a lot from building it and I hope to avoid my mistakes on future projects. Thanks for the web site and keep up the good work.
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