Sunday, February 3, 2008

Tall Chest of Drawers

Selecting Lumber

I’m going to build another dresser like the first, save for a few minor changes.  Since there has been so much interest in this project, I decided to photograph and post more details of its construction.  The first thing, of course, is to select the maple lumber.  In Albuquerque there is only one source of supply, Albuquerque Hardwoods.  They treat their customers like there isn’t any competition too.  A few months back when we purchased wood at Albuquerque Hardwoods, two or three warehouse hands stood around us admonishing us that we weren’t to go any deeper in a stack than three layers to select lumber.  This happened twice.  This time the warehouse hands were strangely silent.  In these kinds of male dominated unfriendly environments, I always take my wife.  It keeps the testosterone in check.  The woman in the pink jacket is Cathy, my wife.  She also thinks better on her feet than I do.

Selecting wood here is not like picking it off a shelf or out of bin in a big box store like Home Depot or Loews.  In those stores the widths, thicknesses and lengths are standard and wood in the U.S. is either Ponderosa Pine or Southern Yellow Pine for construction and Boxwood and Red Oak for project uses.  For other wood species, there are places like Albuquerque Hardwoods.  The wood is planed to thickness two sides and has an even rip on one edge.  The widths are random.  The lengths in a bundle are about the same.  This time the planks were 14 ft (4.3m) long. The lengths can be 8 ft (2.4m), 10 ft (3m) or 12 ft (3.7m.)  It was tricky carrying two 14 ft (4.3m) planks in a pickup truck with a 6ft (1.8m) bed.  The uncertainty about the lengths makes it hard to prepare a layout of the required wood ahead of time.  I planned on 10 ft lengths, so we had to do some recalculating on the spot.

Laying Out the Parts

When I got back to my studio, I laid out the furniture pieces on the boards.  As luck would have it, I could not have planned it better - no waste.  The 6 quarter thick boards (3.8cm) were a different matter.  Last time the lumberyard had 5 ft (152cm) lengths from which I cut 57″ (145cm.)  This time the thick boards were 8 ft long, so I have enough left over for legs or the like on another project.

The maple lumber I bought was straight, but the grain runs almost entirely parallel to the wide surface, the least desirable configuration.  For furniture, I would have like a few pieces to be quarter sawn, the grain running perpendicular to the wide surface.  Somewhere, someone, somehow is

Posted by Chuck at 03:26:19 | Permalink | No Comments »

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Tall Chest of Drawers Update

Tall Chest of Drawers, 57″ x 26 5/8″ x 18 1/4″ (145cm x 68cm x 46cm), maple, poplar, red oak, plywood



Tall Chest of Drawers, detail

The drawers are assembled. I am presently fitting the drawers in their openings. The drawer slides on the drawer side are red oak and slide along a red oak piece attached to the case, which can be seen in the empty space above the drawer. The slides and tracks are screwed in place and can be adjusted or replaced when worn. The drawers will not slide on the web frame. The drawer front extends beyond the lower part of the drawer to cover the web frame. That allows the hand hole to be clear at the top of each drawer.



Posted by Chuck at 06:45:51 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Friday, October 19, 2007

Tall Chest of Drawers Update

Seven Drawer Chest, 57″ x 27″ x 18″ (145cm x 69cm x 46cm), maple, poplar

I finished the side panels this morning. Here they are in a dry (glueless) assembly. Everything is fitting together very well.

An artless week. No new drawings this week. Edna has a cold today. No working from the model tomorrow. Randy Cooper’s [http://www.randycooperart.com/] studio couldn’t find a model to schedule.


Posted by Chuck at 05:09:38 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Monday, September 17, 2007

Two Chests of Drawers

 

 

Full Scale Layout for a Tall Chest of Drawers, 56 1/4″ x 25 1/4″ (143cm x 64cm), pencil on brown paper,

I’m going to build two tall chests of drawers in maple for my wife, Cathy, and myself. The layout above is the one we agreed on after research and tweaking various dimensions and details. There will be a recess around the drawers and at the bottom of the bottom rail and inside the front legs. The drawer heights and the hand cutouts get progressively bigger going down the chest. The bottom drawer face is 8″ high. The drawers are 23″ across. The chest will be 18″ deep. There will be two panels on each side.

As for furniture, I have constructed a dinning room table with a leaf and several built-ins with cabinets, drawers and shelves, but this will be my first free standing case piece.


Posted by Chuck at 03:14:32 | Permalink | Comments (1) »