A beautiful Sideboard submitted by Pierre-Alexandre Aka “Loupitou”. Let’s see what he has to say:
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.
12 Responses to “Maple and Cherry Sideboard – Viewer Project”
That is a beautiful project. I have never worked with Tiger Maple, but I’m really looking for a project to fitting for it though.
Gorgeous top on your sideboard, I like the look of the maple and the center dovetail. Well done!
What a great piece! The Tiger Maple and center dovetail really makes this piece stand out.
Excellent work, very nice. Très impressionnant pour un premier gros projet comme tu dit.
I love the color contrast.
Wonderful looking sideboard Loupitou. I like the taper on the inside of the legs (or at least they looked tapered), and I always like contrasting wood. Nice! Since I’m a beginning woodworker the skill level to make one might as well be on the moon for me.
Wow! This is a great design. This one should be in someone’s home for at least the next hundred years. Great job!
Beautiful. Did you just wake up one day with the “all dovetail” construction idea, or did you receive that inspiration from somewhere?
And, can you let us know where all of the dovetails are?
This is very nice. I am working on a very similar project now with the same woods and dovetails like your. I think you did a marvelous job!
What a very nice piece. I hope that my first big project comes out as well. Congratulations.
Thanks a lot for the kind words.
For those of you who wish to undertake a similar project, you can send me an email at pagirard_at_gmail.com (replace _at_ by @) and I’ll send you the sketchup model (the model has actually 3 doors but the carcass is the same!).
Dean : yes the legs are tapered slightly at the bottom
Kenny : 100 years is a bit too much to hope for, I build it last year and since I wanted to prove to myself I could do insert doors, I did not give much clearance between the top/bottom of the doors and the carcass, now the doors are rubbing :(
Doug : I wanted to learn to hand cut dovetails so I challenge myself to do all possible joinery our of dovetails.
The dovetails connects all the horizontal/vertical strechers to the sides. The idea was since the bottom was solid wood, I needed to make a panel constructions, so all the weight is basically held by the thin horizontal strechers (the bottom rests on these strechers). So my idea was to connect the bottom strechers to the top one since the top ones will be screwed (with a block system) to the mapple top. As a result, one can say that most of the weight is help by the top.
So far it does not seems to sag too much :)
Very nicely done. The use of tiger maple really makes it “pop”!
I like your idea of challenging yourself and completing a project that requires you to do just that. Good job.