Half-size chest

[Charlie Buchanan]

After building a couple of full sized pieces in cherry I had a stack of short boards sitting around. Too nice quality to waste. I’ve been wanting to build a chest from a Lynch measured drawing but no place for it. So I decided to go for a half-size version that could be purposed for a jewelry or some other use.
The cherry boards were fat 4/4 that surfaced clean and flat at 7/8. I resawed them to get 1/2 inch case pieces plus 1/4 inch to 5/32 pieces for drawer faces and bottoms.

Resawed case pieces cut to length and stacked after thicknessing. I also stickered the cutoffs after planing them to 1/4 inch.

Here are the drawer webs assembled before assembling the case. I glue up and square the webs before starting to assemble the case. Otherwise too many parts to juggle in a glueup.

To give an idea of size these are the drawer divider stiles for the top two drawers. All the drawer pieces are mortised into the case sides or as here into the drawer blades.

Here is the case sides and drawer webs dry assembled to check fit. The drawer runners are glued to the front drawer rails but dry tenoned into the back rails to accommodate seasonal movement.

Case assembled dry. The bottom dovetails will be covered by top molding on the bracket feet.

This is the applied molding for the top of the case. I shaped it on the edge of a board and then rip it off.

Template for the bracket feet shape an story sticks (left) used to mark out the drawer positions on the case.

Here's where it stands now. Drawers are dry assembled. They will have applied lipped faces made from the thin cutoffs of the case sides. The feet are not attached yet. The case is sitting on blocks so I can adjust the fit of the feet and mark out place for the glue blocks that will attach them to the case

 

[woodlaker2]

Good use of resources. Craftsmanship looks expert. Congratulations!

 

[JimD]

Very nice!!

 

[Canuck]

Beautiful work right there!!

Wayne

 

[Hmerkle]

NICE job!

 

[Bill Clemmons]

VERY nice, Charlie. Were you able to find the 1/2 size hardware we talked about at the last lunch? I look forward to seeing the finished piece.

 

[mlzettl]

Charlie, that is beautiful work. The photography is top notch as well. Thanks for posting this.

 

[danmart77]

Not sure what you mean by "lipped" for the drawer fronts. Looks like you have arrived at a decision point? In the case below I used some cherry veneer over the drawer faces and then put the cockbead on to dress it up.

Small handles for the size table.

A couple like this in walnut. I have one left to sell in the mean time. You might take a look at Phil S stuff. He built some small cabinets with nice veneer work.

 

[Charlie Buchanan]

VERY nice, Charlie. Were you able to find the 1/2 size hardware we talked about at the last lunch? I look forward to seeing the finished piece.

I found 1 5/8 (as opposed to 3”) rosette bail pulls from Ball and Ball. Kinda steep but then the wood cost nothing.

 

[Charlie Buchanan]

Not sure what you mean by "lipped" for the drawer fronts.

The drawer faces will overlap the pockets top and sides acting as a stop. I planned to use the thin planks I resawed off the case pieces. At scale the lips would be 1/8 inch thick but I’m leaving them at 5/32 because that seems a little sturdier without looking too thick. The original had a scratched bead around the drawer fronts. I haven’t decided on that yet.

 

[Roy G]

I made the full-size version of that chest out of mahogany a few years ago. i made my drawer fronts overlap with half-blind dovetails. Mahogany is nice work for dovetailing.

Never thought of smaller scale versions of furniture.

Roy G

 

[Charlie Buchanan]

Progress on the half-size chest. Drawers are faced and the case is ready to finish.

The drawer faces are cutoffs from resawing the case parts planed down to 5/32 and glued onto the drawer boxes. Routed a thumbnail profile.

Here’s the piece ready to finish. I applied a diluted coat of SealCoat dewaxed shellac and sanded that back with 400 grit. I drilled for the bail pulls before fitting the drawer bottoms. The small top drawers will have small button pulls since I thought the bail pulls hang too low to look right on 1 inch deep drawers.

 

[mbromley]

Great looking piece! Thanks for sharing all of the progress pictures.

 

[Graywolf]

Beautiful Charlie!

 

[mdbuntyn]

Looks great Charlie

 

[cmboggs]

Any luck with sourcing the hardware?

 

[Charlie Buchanan]

Finished up this small chest today. Mounted the hardware and waxed the drawers.
Really enjoyed building this half-size piece. The wood was 100% from cutoffs. The only expense was the hardware. The finish is amber shellac with a couple of drops of transtint dye added to add a little red to the color. Several coats of shellac padded on and then rubbed out with 0000 steel wool and waxed.

For scale that’s a 12 inch ruler in front.

Hardware sourced from Ball and Ball. 1 5/8 in post centers.

Detail of the top panel construction.

Back is shiplapped poplar sitting n a groove around the sides and top. It slid in from the bottom.

 

[Jak3]

Thank you for sharing this. I want to make one similar in the future. This thread has given me lots of insight as to its design but I do have a few questions:

How did you get the profile on the feet so sharp? Did you cut them out on a scroll saw or by hand and how did you clean them up so well?

Also how does the case sit on the feet? Do the feet have a ledge for it to sit on?

Thank you

Jacob

 

[Charlie]

Very, very nice.

 

[Jeremy Scuteri]

Beautiful!