Here are some WIP photos of a dresser I've been slaving over for the past few (6) months. This is the most hand tool work I've ever put in to a project. Almost all of the joints are hand cut (DT, M/T, rabbets, dados). All the glued up panels, drawer sides and drawer bottoms were flattened by hand (jack, jointer, smoother planes). Still lots to go though, but here's a brief run-down of the process so far...
The carcase is a large dovetailed box (half-blinds) -show faces are walnut and the non-show are poplar. This is a view from the top.
Here's an action photo my daughter took of me chopping half-blind DTs.
The stopped dados for the internal frame were chiseled out and finished w/ a router plane. Paul Sellers has a nice video on this. I averaged about 20min a dado and typically got them within about 1/64" of the 3/4" desired width.
I used haunched M/T for the internal frame.
The drawers are curly maple fronts (from Chris' lumber run) and poplar sides.
I built a cheap version of the moxon vise (not shown) to cut the DT in the drawer parts. Here's one of the better DTs I cut.
I had some cupping problems w/ the poplar I resawed for the drawer sides so they finished thin ~3/8". Rather than groove the thin sides to house the poplar bottoms, I made drawer slips and glued these to the drawer sides.
The larger drawers also have a middle divider.
I still have to make the top panel (walnut), the base, and the back (ship-lapped poplar), but w/ the final drawer fitted and bottom slid into place, the end is finally in sight. Thanks for looking!
Sam
The carcase is a large dovetailed box (half-blinds) -show faces are walnut and the non-show are poplar. This is a view from the top.
The stopped dados for the internal frame were chiseled out and finished w/ a router plane. Paul Sellers has a nice video on this. I averaged about 20min a dado and typically got them within about 1/64" of the 3/4" desired width.
I used haunched M/T for the internal frame.
The drawers are curly maple fronts (from Chris' lumber run) and poplar sides.
I built a cheap version of the moxon vise (not shown) to cut the DT in the drawer parts. Here's one of the better DTs I cut.
I had some cupping problems w/ the poplar I resawed for the drawer sides so they finished thin ~3/8". Rather than groove the thin sides to house the poplar bottoms, I made drawer slips and glued these to the drawer sides.
The larger drawers also have a middle divider.
I still have to make the top panel (walnut), the base, and the back (ship-lapped poplar), but w/ the final drawer fitted and bottom slid into place, the end is finally in sight. Thanks for looking!
Sam
