Jim’s Cherry Dresser
This week’s project comes from Jim Schatz. Here’s his story:
Here are few pictures of the cherry dresser I finally completed for my son. He is only 22 mo but I still have to build him bunk beds and a night stand to match. The design is simple and fairly traditional but all my own. I used local PA cherry from a small sawmill nearby that happened to be featured in Fine Woodworking recently. I think the PA cherry tends to have a little more red in it, which I like. I finished it with linseed oil, then several coats of wiping oil poly, and finally a light coat of wax.
I have to agree with Jim on that cherry color. It looks like cherry that’s already been aged for a while. It will be interesting to observe the walnut strips and how they mingle with the cherry top as the years go by. Nice job Jim!



















Very Nice!
Hey Jim,
beautiful piece of work, indeed!
Are the panels in the sides solid or is it veneer/plywood?
And did you hand cut the dovetails or are they routed? if they are routed what jig did you use?
I like the drawers and the top a lot. Really nice.
and did you turn your own knobs for the drawers as well??
Anyway… keep on doing what you are doing!
Thanks.
The panels in the sides are solid 1/2″ cherry that float. The dovetails are machine cut with the Leigh D4R. I originally purchase the new Leigh 18″ superjig and very long story short, this jig is garbage. I sent it back and got the D4R which I am very happy with. The knobs are purchased, although I do have plans in the future to turn my own walnut knobs for the dresser.
Fantastic work Jim. Your family is lucky to have such a talented woodcrafter around!
Nice job. It definitely looks like something that will be with your son for the rest of his life!
excellent work. This is a really nice piece…..
Jim,
Nice work! It looks like you joined several panels together to make the top but more importantly, I like the detail just below the top panel. It “appears” that you stacked 2 panels below that. How did you do that? I’m interested in making my own bedroom furniture but the cost of 1″ boards for the top is causing “sticker shock.”
Thanks,
Bob
hey nice man….
any mechanical drawer slides???
blum, hettich?
or did you make your own slide setup….
im always interested in how others “do” drawers….
its like sharpening…everyone does it their own way….
tom
Bob,
I glued up 4 boards to make the top. I picked nice looking boards and didn’t worry about blending them since they would be seperated by the walnut inlay.
Under the top I made some 1/2″ molding. I routed a cove into the bottom of the molding and cut a shallow saw kerf thru the middle. The molding wraps around the frame and panel sides under the top. I made the top rails wider since part of them is covered by the molding.
Tom,
The drawers slide on the wood dust panels. The sides of the dust panels that the drawers slide on are maple. I sanded them to 220, then put on a couple of coats of varnish and finally waxed them. I also waxed the underside of the drawer. They slide very nicely. Each dust panel acts as a drawer kicker for the drawer below it. The used a narrow piece of MDF screwed to the back of each dust panel as a drawer stop. Each strip is screwed thru 2 slotted holes so that I can adust where the drawers stop.
Jim,
That was a great idea to wrap the molding around the frame. It gives the appearance that the top has a lot of depth to it. Thanks for the reply!
Bob