I found this amazing Bubinga at Soboba (in Santa Barbara) and knew I’d find a special project for it. There was enough for most major parts. The amount of figured wood limited my ability to completely match horizontally and vertically, but I am pleased with the outcome.

Sideboard begins as a dovetailed case. Double thickness sides let me make the half-blind dovetails the easy way. That approach also means the sides and legs are flush on the inside, with a slight reveal on the outside. Vertical dividers have through tenons let into mortises top and bottom. Case is joined to the Legs with various stub tenons and dovetails on the outsides of top and bottom pieces. Legs have a very slight taper. This case is so bloody heavy that I was afraid to remove much material from the Padauk legs.

Doors are hung using Soss “invisible” hinges thanks to Marc’s video of the Gadget Station while I was designing this piece. Which created a problem…identified after all else was assembled of course. Without a face frame, the legs interfered with the doors. So last minute taper and rounding of the outside stiles was necessary. Opps. Drawers are hand-cut dovetails with solid bottoms. Inside material is Philippine Mahogany. I had planned to use ebonized something for the pulls but eventually decided to use Padauk which darkens quite quickly and visually ties to the legs rather than creating a separate contrast. Back is composed of ship-lapped slats in grooves at bottom and held at the top with a simple molding strip.

Click here to view photos including quite a few of the progress and process in slide show format.

I finally completed the sideboard project. The woods used are curly/tiger maple and cherry with pine for the back. This is entirely solid wood construction. The fun part of this project was that I only used dovetails for joinery and as a result, this is a big (and heavy) puzzle, with a unique order to follow for assembly. Finish is sprayed clear shellac followed by sprayed poly with 320 grit in between coats.

It was a my really first big project and I’m overall satisfied. I should have paid more attention in the selection of the parts from the wood, but I made the mistake of selecting the parts on rough wood. The real figures and defects in the wood appeared after planing.