Matched suite of furniture

hissatsu

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May 7, 2008
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In an effort not to turn this board into a my personal image board, I'll be posting all the photos of a suite of matched furniture I built over the span of nine months last year in this thread.

I used a TS55 EQ, RO 125EQ, OF 1010 EQ, Trion jigsaw, Router table, Makita impact driver, Milwaukee drill, assorted hand tools, and who knows what else. I based all this furniture off plans from Wood Magazine for a Futon Sofa and Modular Cabinets, but I quickly went off the reservation. The sofa is closest to the original plan, the bookshelves less so. Everything else is anywhere from a major modification to totally unrelated to the original plans.

Materials used include 1-1/2" maple, 3/4" maple and walnut, 1/2" maple (drawer boxes), 3/4" and 1/4" maple veneer plywood, 1/2" Baltic birch (drawer box for tool cabinet) and 3/8" Baltic birch (drawer bottoms).

Finish for all the furniture is Minwax wipe on poly followed by the Beall Buff System.

One element I kept from the original plans is use of knockdown hardware. I used two types of Blum knockdown fittings, mostly of a cam and screw type. I took a photo of this in the bookshelf photos. Most of the furniture paces can be taken apart in less then ten minutes, with the exception of the end table. Not planning on taking that apart. ;)

I still have to build and entertainment unit in the same vein, but I think that will wait quite a few more months. More time and money than I'd like to spend at the moment. I think it's worth noting that I would not have been able to build all this without the Festools. My workshop is my living room. Without the abilities and dust collection of these tools, there's no way I would be able to do it. Not without making the apartment uninhabitable at least.

Pedro
 
The first project, a tall corner bookshelf. Measures over 7' tall, 33" wide, 12" deep. The knockdown hardware is shown in the third photo, it is tightened/loosened with a pozi-drive screwdriver. The came fits on 5mm screws that are drilled into in the plywood shelves. The shelf pin holes were drilled using a Rockler jig.

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Pedro
 
Next, the futon sofa. It holds a full size futon mattress and measure about 7' long. The channels where dowels fit to allow the frame to move from sofa to bed were cut with the jigsaw after drilling holes to start and end the channels. I used a Kreg pocket hole jig to attached all the cross supports to the frame.

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Pedro
 
Next project, a dresser. It measures 52" tall, 30" wide, and 18" deep. I used Blum Tandem full extension soft close drawer slides. The drawer boxes I put together using a Kreg pocket hole jig, 3 screws on each side, front and back. The holes are only visible on the back of the drawer boxes since the fronts are covered by the false fronts.

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Pedro
 
Hey Pedro,
Let me be the first to say nice work! I especially love the fact that you do all your work in your apartment! Do you buy all your materials online or do you have a supplier in Queens you could recommend?
Ken
 
Next, a double bookshelf. 67" tall, 65" wide, 16" deep. It consists of two identical units held together by 4 panel connector screws which go through holes otherwise used by shelf pins. The top and bottom were then screwed on, so it's pretty solidly held together. For the sliding doors I used hardware purchased from Woodworker's Hardware. Nice hardware in that it allows you to easily remove and install the doors and adjust for height. It does require a 7mm router bit for installing the track, which is a somewhat uncommon size in the US. I used a CMT bit, though Festool makes one in that size as well. The doors were constructed using a tongue and groove router bit set. The 1/8" reveal between the center panel and rails/stiles is intentional and the tongue was stained a dark walnut color for more contrast.

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Pedro
 
Ken said:
Hey Pedro,
Let me be the first to say nice work! I especially love the fact that you do all your work in your apartment! Do you buy all your materials online or do you have a supplier in Queens you could recommend?
Ken

Thanks Ken. None. I ordered all the lumber from Baird Brothers in Ohio. I have been very satisified with their service.

However...  they used Yellow Freight for shipping. They also do Fedex Freight. I would now choose that instead, though it is a little more expensive.

Yellow Freight... the horror. It all comes back to me now!

I now have difficulty restraining myself from slashing the tires/putting sugar in that gas tank/stealing and driving straight into the river any Yellow Freight truck I see. I start having convulsions and curse. I foam at the mouth. The humans flee! Where was I?

Even though the 2 shipments two months apart were shipped freight collect, meaning I could not have them in my possession if I did not pay for them, they still insisted that I had not paid for them. Even with faxed copies of signed delivery receipts in their possession and phone calls from the local depot manager, they still continued to harrass me for six months and even sent it to a collection agency. I especially appreciated the account rep that insisted that I was lying and did not pay. Perhaps I knocked out the driver and ran off with 700 pounds of lumber. It sounds plausible. Have I mentioned I don't like Yellow Freight? I think I'm going to crawl into a corner and cry now.

Pedro
 
Now the tool cabinet. Either this or the sofa took the most time. It is about 7' tall, 33" wide, 18" deep. The drawer box took quite a bit of time on its own. I used tongue and groove construction for the box and the drawers themselves. For the cabinet door hinges I used Blum self-closing hinges with soft close addon.

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Pedro
 
Nearing the end now. Computer desk with drawers and a slide out keyboard tray with drop front. It measures a little over 5' wide, 30" tall, a little less than 2' deep. There is slightly more space below the bottom of the keyboard tray because of clearance needed for the slides. After some research, I did find some solutions that would have allowed me to keep the spacing even, but they were all rather involved and complicated construction more than I would have liked. The photo of the table top looks like it has a seam in the middle because I had to join two photos; I didn't have a wide enough angle lens to get the whole thing in one shot.

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Pedro
 
very nice. This really helped me out too. I am trying to figure out the Blu soft close drawer slides, but haven't found too many people at the hardware store to help me. What I am wanting to know is there any adjustment with those slides. Right now I am 18" deep, but I want to make the drawers flush with the face frame, so I need a little less than 18", but am unsure of a final measurement as it is not done yet. Any help?
 
Last piece, an end table. It measures 26" long x 20" wide, 22" tall. I cut Hepplewhite legs with the TS55, using the excess left over from the first angled cut as a shim to keep the leg flat for the second angled cut. It turned out pretty well. As with the other end table I posted the other day, I used the Beadlock loose tenon system for joinery and S-clip fasteners to attach the top.

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Pedro
 
robtonya said:
very nice. This really helped me out too. I am trying to figure out the Blu soft close drawer slides, but haven't found too many people at the hardware store to help me. What I am wanting to know is there any adjustment with those slides. Right now I am 18" deep, but I want to make the drawers flush with the face frame, so I need a little less than 18", but am unsure of a final measurement as it is not done yet. Any help?

For inset drawer fronts, Blum does make locking devices with 4mm of adjustment for to get it just right. The locking devices picture on the bottom of the drawer in my photos of the dresser are those. The part # is T51.1700.PV R & TV51.1700.PV L (Right and Left). Blum has PDFs online which which detail all the necessary setback distances for their drawer slides. Go here. For the slides I used, the setback is 21mm (using 3/4" drawer front and 1/2" subfront). Look at the charts for inset drawer fronts in the Tandem brochure at that link, page 29. I don't recall exactly how much, but if you're not using brackets at the back of the drawer slide, you don't need much clearance at all. I think I have less than 3/4" between the back of the drawer slide and the back of the dresser.

Pedro
 
Pedro,
Really nice work! Thanks for sharing. I dont think that anyone would have minded a seperate thread for each piece though.

I cant believe you did this in you living room. do you live in an apartment? with neighbors attached? If you can do work this good in you living room just think of what you could accomplish in a work space.

The lumber you purchased by mail was already surfaced I presume? I would have to cross my fingers when doing that due to humidity differences at the source and destination. Is there not a local hardwood supplier? That way you could purchase just enough for one piece at a time and not have to live in a lumber yard until the projects were done. ;D :D.

I really like the Tool cabinet. I think that is my favorite in this group. I am partial to anything that has to due with tools :D. I would love to see pics of that cabinet all loaded up with your tools.

Eiji
 
hissatsu said:
robtonya said:
very nice. This really helped me out too. I am trying to figure out the Blu soft close drawer slides, but haven't found too many people at the hardware store to help me. What I am wanting to know is there any adjustment with those slides. Right now I am 18" deep, but I want to make the drawers flush with the face frame, so I need a little less than 18", but am unsure of a final measurement as it is not done yet. Any help?

For inset drawer fronts, Blum does make locking devices with 4mm of adjustment for to get it just right. The locking devices picture on the bottom of the drawer in my photos of the dresser are those. The part # is T51.1700.PV R & TV51.1700.PV L (Right and Left). Blum has PDFs online which which detail all the necessary setback distances for their drawer slides. Go here. For the slides I used, the setback is 21mm (using 3/4" drawer front and 1/2" subfront). Look at the charts for inset drawer fronts in the Tandem brochure at that link, page 29. I don't recall exactly how much, but if you're not using brackets at the back of the drawer slide, you don't need much clearance at all. I think I have less than 3/4" between the back of the drawer slide and the back of the dresser.

Pedro

If you are new to Blum slides and do not know the exact specs then choose the appropriate length and order them before you build the project. They include all the needed information and you can adjust the design if you need to.

Eiji :o
 
Eiji Fuller said:
Pedro,
Really nice work! Thanks for sharing. I dont think that anyone would have minded a seperate thread for each piece though.

I cant believe you did this in you living room. do you live in an apartment? with neighbors attached? If you can do work this good in you living room just think of what you could accomplish in a work space.

The lumber you purchased by mail was already surfaced I presume? I would have to cross my fingers when doing that due to humidity differences at the source and destination. Is there not a local hardwood supplier? That way you could purchase just enough for one piece at a time and not have to live in a lumber yard until the projects were done. ;D :D.

I really like the Tool cabinet. I think that is my favorite in this group. I am partial to anything that has to due with tools :D. I would love to see pics of that cabinet all loaded up with your tools.

Eiji

Thanks Eiji. Yes, in an apartment. Though the building is about 90 years old; walls were thicker then. The neighbors haven't said a word, and I don't think they will. Except for the 1% of the time I'm woodworking, I'm a lot quieter than they are, and they're pretty obnoxious all the time.

The lumber is all S4S. I did let it all settle quite a bit before working on any of it. There are some lumber suppliers within the city, but most are meant for construction, not quality lumber. The point is moot anyway. I don't have a car, I'd have to pay tax and for delivery, and NYC is not a place known for its low cost of living. I doubt I pay much more and I get the added advantage of being harrassed by deranged freight companies for months on end. I didn't buy the lumber for everything at once. I worked on the double bookshelf and the tool cabinet at the same time, so that was a good chunk of it, though it did take about a month. Their were other shipments, but those didn't have plywood so they just came by UPS.

I'll see about taking a photo of the current state of the tool cabinet later on.

Pedro
 
Okay, here are the tool cabinet photos Eiji asked for, current as of today. Milwaukee drill and lots of hand tools are in the Bessey bag, and there a quite a few more tools in the closet, large square, along with around several jigs and around 40 clamps (Bessey & Gross-Stabil). Anyone else have a Gross-Stabil MGS 100 miter clamp? It so much better than any other miter clamp I've ever used, but since Gross-Stabil got bought out by Bessey, I doubt it's easy to find anymore. Even when it was easy to find, I only stumbled onto it by accident. I used it to clamp all the miters in the bases and tops of this furniture. The photo at Amazon really doesn't show it off very well, as the customer review notes. I get the feeling I've now said too much and will be asked for a photo soon.   ::)

Anyhow, here are the photos. I had to stitch several together from two photos.

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Pedro
 
Excellent work Pedro.  Amazed that you built all of that in your apartment.  Looks like the tool cabinet is full. 

Either get rid of some clothes or build more space!

neil
 
hissatsu said:
Now the tool cabinet.

I try not to comment on other peoples work, whether good or bad, but I have to admit that your toolbox nicer than any piece of furniture in my house.  As for the other furniture, obviously it's just as nice, and I really like the floating panels and the square feet.

One of my rules of thumb for my own furniture is that if any guest comes into my home and says, "hey, did you make that?" (no matter how nicely spoken) then that piece isn't good enough.  Your furniture passes that test, no sweat.  Great job.

Regards,

John
 
Fantastic job, even if you had a full blown shop. Out of the livingroom, my hat's off to you. You get an A++++++ in my book. Same goes for the dust extraction.
 
Amazing. I love the finish. How did you go about using the Beall Buff system on the large surfaces?
 
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