Chest of drawers

[woodguy7]

This project is for a regular customer of mine.  It came about because of a lack of space in his bedroom & a need for storage.  There is a large space in the coumb area & i suggested utilising this space with a built in chest of drawers.  Lots of storage & not taking up any floor space.

OK, here goes

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Rough stock of ash & oak for drawers
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Waste after dressing all hardwood
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Template of the unit side to give the size of all the drawers.  Small at top, getting deeper as you go down.
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dressed ash for drawer sides in there respective positions on the template.
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The Leigh Jig.  All the drawers except the top one was done with the jig to keep the cost down.
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Some of the drawer parts after routering.  Used the OF1400 with the dovetail cutter & the OF1010 with the straight cutter.  Saves so much time to have 2  routers working at the same time.

 

[woodguy7]

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The face frame of the fronts is 50mm x 28mm white oak.  Mitred on the Kapex,  mitres shot on the shooting board & a 10mm x 50mm domino in each mitre.  There is a rebate in the back to set in 4mm toughened glass, satinised on both faces.  The oak face frames are attached to the ash drawer sides with 2 x 10mm x 50mm dominoes per side.

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This shows the rebate for the glass

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Drawer parts laid out showing the Dominoes.

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One of the large drawers glued up

 

[woodguy7]

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Cutting the dovetails for the small top drawer.

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Finished top drawer with side groove for wood runner.

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Top drawer showing the finger pull in the bottom edge.

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The new home for the drawers.  The unit is made from M.D.F & re- cessed into the coumb space.  The home owner tried to paint it black but he made a bit of a hips of it.

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All drawers fitted but with no glass.

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Glass now fitted.

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Small top drawer open.

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All drawers open.  The inside bottoms have been lined with self adhesive felt.  All wood coated with Teak oil.

Thanks for looking.  Comments & suggestions good or bad welcome  [smile]

Woodguy.

 

[peter halle]

I love this project!

Love the satin (translucent) glass and the modern aspect.

Great pics and description.

Peter

 

[Ken Nagrod]

I love the work you did.  By the way, how many systainers fit in there?  [smile]

Can you explain the word "coumb"?  Is that like an attic?

 

[Guy Ashley]

Woodguy

Stunning work, and I thought that far North you were still hewing green oak with an adze and drawknife!! ;D ;D

Love the glass drawers, great concept.

Cool bench cookies, Pot Noodle cartons are'nt they!! [eek]

Good to see hand cut pins, cant do that with a power tool. [wink]  

 

[woodguy7]

Yea, don't know if i spelt "coumb" correct or not but you are right.  Attic space to the side.

Never thought about making it "Systainer" friendly  ;D

 

[USPcompact]

Great use of space and VERY nice construction.  I did something similar for A/V components, but mine lacked the panache of the hand-cut dovetails.  ;D

 

[jmbfestool]

I dont know how I missed this thread really!

I like it! I like the frosted glass gives it a modern look!
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nice job

JMB

 

[Jesse Cloud]

This was a bit of a stealth thread - how did I miss it?

Beautiful piece.  The glass works brilliantly!

Love the dovetails in the top drawer.  You must have a very tiny chisel or do you trim it with dental floss? [big grin]

Great job!

 

[PaulMarcel]

I saw this when you posted the first post, but missed all the others!  Very nice work.  Love the use of the glass and great use for a dead space in the wall.

The finished drawer threw me off since I saw the Leigh jig in previous pictures... I wondered where you got the bits with such a thin neck!  Nice Ian Kerby style handcut dovetails.  Do you use a fretsaw to remove some before chopping out?

 

[woodguy7]

Thanks for the comments guys.

The glass company would only satinise one side of the toughend glass so we just took it home clear & got a local glass artist to "blast" both faces for a duller effect.

Paul, i use a very small fret saw to remove the waste between the tails & i set the drill press with a forstner bit to remove the bulk of the waste for the sockets, then chisel the rest.  The smallest chisel i have is a 4mm Lie Nielson but i need to get one of the Fish Tail chisels.

The Leigh jig was only used for the larger drawers to keep the cost down.  I will be starting some bedside cabinets for the same room to match this job & they will all be hand cut on wood, no metal drawer runners.  Might even try some "hounds tooth" dovetails  [big grin]
Never heard of Ian Kerby ?  I will google him to try to find out more.

Thanks, Woodguy.

 

[tiralie]

This project is for a regular customer of mine.  It came about because of a lack of space in his bedroom & a need for storage. 

Woodguy:
Great looking drawers and really nice design - the finger pulls in the bottom rail, and the descending height of the drawers make it look really clean.

Couple questions, after setup, how long does it take to dovetail one drawer? I am thinking of getting a Liegh jig. How did you attach the glass panels to the drawer fronts? 
Tim

 

[woodguy7]

Tim, once it is all set up & the wood for the drawer is all sized ready, i would say less than a minute to do 1 set of tails.  Probably all 4 corners jointed in 5 mins.  But i am using 2 routers so no swapping over of cutters.

The glass is set into a rebate in the back of the face frame.  I ran a thin bead of clear silicone around the rebate & set the glass in.  I held it in place with 2 spring clamps, kinda like big clothes pegs.  Pictures 7 & 8 show the rebate but not very clearly.

Woodguy.

 

[tiralie]

The glass is set into a rebate in the back of the face frame.  I ran a thin bead of clear silicone around the rebate & set the glass in.  I held it in place with 2 spring clamps, kinda like big clothes pegs. 

Woodguy
Hey Woodguy.
Thanks.
I saw the rebate but was wondering if you used a glazing wedge or spline to hold the glass in place. Have you ever used a glazing spline to hold glass in place for divided lite doors and windows?
Tim

 

[woodguy7]

I'm not familiar with glazing spline's ?

 

[PaulMarcel]

I think the cool thing about the Leigh jig is that once you have it setup, you could quickly do a stack of drawers.  Run through all the tail boards then run through all the pin boards.  The setup can be tedious the first time with a particular cutter pair (or if you are new to it).  The manual is exceptional for walking you through it, but it still takes some trial and error.  Once setup is done, you record the settings in the manual for those cutters and have that as an excellent starting point for the next time.

Oh, and the really cool thing about the jig is that you can run just as quickly through your stack of fronts and backs with the tail bit as you can with the sides!  I learned to keep the stacks well separated... first stack you do are tails so keep the fronts n backs in a stack far enough away you have to walk to get them  [blink]

 

[woodguy7]

Hee Hee, good advise Paul.  I know where you are coming from 

 

[tiralie]

Oh, and the really cool thing about the jig is that you can run just as quickly through your stack of fronts and backs with the tail bit as you can with the sides! 
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Thanks Paul. Great tips and mini review.
Tim

 

[tiralie]

I'm not familiar with glazing spline's ?

I am not sure what they might call them in the UK, and they go under different names - Wedge seal, Glazing splines, or  panel molding are a gasket (clear, or colored) that holds (with friction) the glass tightly in the rabbet. The advantage is they can be removed if the glass in the lite needs to be replaced. 

Here is a picture of what it looks like in a glass door.

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