Due to various issues, I believe I only went kayaking three times last year. I didn't build one this winter, and my boats don't even need varnishing, so I decided to turn my attention to a fairly challenging furniture project.
Gluing up panels was another story. I was disappointed by the quality of the 4/4 Philippine Mahogany at General Woodcraft, so I looked elsewhere and found some at The Wood Rack in Branford, where they called it "Sapele". I got what I thought were some good boards, but they plagued me with warp & twist, despite trying every "heroic" remedy in You Tube videos. I found some better material at the lumberyard, sold as "Mahogany Deck Boards. It was 5-1/2" wide and 5/4" thick, requiring more milling, but at least it "behaves".
My surface planer was also getting tricky in its old age. I made a "sled" to help prevent snipe, but its still a little challenging.
After I managed to make two acceptable side panels, I made this jig for routing dovetail slots out of Melamine. It was difficult. For some reason, these things used to be easier.
While I still had some leftover Melamine, I made this fence arrangement for routing dovetails on the end of boards. The fence has a hole just slightly larger than the bit, and so does the sheet of Lexan it holds down. Trial And Error on scrap pieces for the depth and width of the cut, and a square piece of scrap follows the board to prevent rocking.
Putting the frame together. It seemed like almost every part had to have the dovetail custom-cut to fit. I resorted to epoxy on the loose fits 😉
After constructing the case, I moved it upstairs before it got too heavy.
Top on. I felt that It might have looked a little better if it had more overhang.
On second thought, I removed the moldings from the top (easier than I thought), and replaced them. I cut the pieces thinner, which showed more of the overhanging top, and made the clamping easier.
Drawer. I thought of various ways to construct these, but went with a sliding dovetail.
The back corners are simply butt jointed and screwed-and-glued. The usual dado for the bottom plywood. I recycled plywood from the old dresser.
Cockbeading on the drawer fronts. I cut the edge of a board with a "fancy" router bit that had a bead in it, then sawed away the bead, leaving a strip with a beaded end. The drawer was too big and heavy to be used on the router table, so I clamped a stop block to the base of the router.
I got slightly better at making miter joints fit, but of course I ran out of pieces and had to make more!
Drawer slide. I made these of red oak recycled from the old dresser. I'll make center rails to go between the frame of the same wood.
After I managed to make two acceptable side panels, I made this jig for routing dovetail slots out of Melamine. It was difficult. For some reason, these things used to be easier.
While I still had some leftover Melamine, I made this fence arrangement for routing dovetails on the end of boards. The fence has a hole just slightly larger than the bit, and so does the sheet of Lexan it holds down. Trial And Error on scrap pieces for the depth and width of the cut, and a square piece of scrap follows the board to prevent rocking.
Putting the frame together. It seemed like almost every part had to have the dovetail custom-cut to fit. I resorted to epoxy on the loose fits 😉
Construction Clamp-A-Thon
On second thought, I removed the moldings from the top (easier than I thought), and replaced them. I cut the pieces thinner, which showed more of the overhanging top, and made the clamping easier.
The back corners are simply butt jointed and screwed-and-glued. The usual dado for the bottom plywood. I recycled plywood from the old dresser.
I got slightly better at making miter joints fit, but of course I ran out of pieces and had to make more!
Drawer slide. I made these of red oak recycled from the old dresser. I'll make center rails to go between the frame of the same wood.
.....and it was. As a drawer stop, it was fairly easy to adjust, but much harder side-to-side. I resorted to cutting a slot in the front of the rail, and tweaking side-to-side until the drawer went all the way in without hitting the sides.
I'm trying Watco's Danish Oil for a finish. I chose the "Dark Walnut" color, which looks pretty dark on the mahogany, but it seems to hide the color differences between the pieces.
After 5 (maybe overkill?) coats of Danish Oil, it still seems a bit "tender", even after 2 days of drying. Looks pretty O.K. The cool thing is that I can go back to it and touch the finish up if I want to.
Working on the upper dresser. I found plenty of wood to recycle from the old dresser. This time I decided to cut the grooves all the way through, since most of the difficulties I had were from trying to stop the cut for the half-blind dovetails. I cut the slots all the way across to avoid alignment problems. I also made all the cuts on the router table, with the bit at the same setting. Somehow, this all went easier than expected.
Drawers. I made the upper drawers the same way as the others: dovetails in the front and butt joints in the rear. I got the idea to make wooden slides, but decided that dovetails would be too difficult.
I made there of recycled oak. The top piece will attach to the case, and also serve as a drawer stop.
Trying to align the placement of the female part. Shims center the rear of the drawer, and I drew the outline of the slide on the case. No center slide. Predictably, this required much finagleing, multiple drill holes, etc.
I did have to remake the rails for a better side-to-side fit, but it came out really good.
Almost ready for finishing.
