I think it's time to start on something challenging again. Ages ago now, I had a lot of fun stretching my skills making a chair that turned into steps, but I've only made little quick things since. Also, I have an accumulation of wood that needs to be used.
So the idea is to make a chest of drawers. This will replace a grotty little plywood bedside cupboard which has been 'good enough' for years, so it's a small scale job to fit in the space available. However, I want it to have proper trad construction - all proper wood, proper joints and all by hand, so it's quite labour-intensive. I've made some tables and I've made dovetailed boxes but I've never done full-on drawers with thin sides, solid bottoms and all the nice details.
This is the design:
- and I'm imagining internal runners and nicely dovetailed drawers. There might be five drawers or maybe six - I want them to be quite shallow - though that does mean quite a lot of joints to make.
Before I draw a more detailed design with all the sizes thought about, I need to make sure that I do have enough suitable wood. After much rummaging and restacking, I think I do.
This is most of it, roughly allocated to be from left to right, internal runners etc; main cabinet sides; drawer fronts, sides, and backs. I can't be sure that the wood is right until I've done a proper drawing but there is no point in drawing something bigger than the timber I have available.
I've another idea for the top, so let's check that first.
I bought these little bits of Yew about four years ago at the Westonbirt Treefest show. They will be the only wood that hasn't been recycled.
They are fairly thick but not quite straight enough to glue together as a solid top, so it's time to get ripping. I've still not made any proper sawing trestles, but my workshop floor is so wavy and bumpy they might not work very well, so meanwhile an old Workmate will do.
Here I am just getting rid of the contrasting sapwood and the bark, to leave as much straight sided wood as I can.
The first one works best as two pieces meeting at the kink in the middle, but this one can just cut straight through:
This looks enough for the top, but I need to be sure I can get a nice enough surface on what is really quite difficult wood.
Let's do some more planing: I need to get one side looking decent, to prove that I can, and to get an idea of what the finished thickness can be, though what you see here is not the finished surface, despite the appearance of a smoothing plane.
That's getting there. I've not used yew before. It gives a lovely smooth surface but is very hard.
That's the first instalment - a few seconds for you to read, but a long morning's workout for me!
So the idea is to make a chest of drawers. This will replace a grotty little plywood bedside cupboard which has been 'good enough' for years, so it's a small scale job to fit in the space available. However, I want it to have proper trad construction - all proper wood, proper joints and all by hand, so it's quite labour-intensive. I've made some tables and I've made dovetailed boxes but I've never done full-on drawers with thin sides, solid bottoms and all the nice details.
This is the design:
- and I'm imagining internal runners and nicely dovetailed drawers. There might be five drawers or maybe six - I want them to be quite shallow - though that does mean quite a lot of joints to make.
Before I draw a more detailed design with all the sizes thought about, I need to make sure that I do have enough suitable wood. After much rummaging and restacking, I think I do.
This is most of it, roughly allocated to be from left to right, internal runners etc; main cabinet sides; drawer fronts, sides, and backs. I can't be sure that the wood is right until I've done a proper drawing but there is no point in drawing something bigger than the timber I have available.
I've another idea for the top, so let's check that first.
I bought these little bits of Yew about four years ago at the Westonbirt Treefest show. They will be the only wood that hasn't been recycled.
They are fairly thick but not quite straight enough to glue together as a solid top, so it's time to get ripping. I've still not made any proper sawing trestles, but my workshop floor is so wavy and bumpy they might not work very well, so meanwhile an old Workmate will do.
Here I am just getting rid of the contrasting sapwood and the bark, to leave as much straight sided wood as I can.
The first one works best as two pieces meeting at the kink in the middle, but this one can just cut straight through:
This looks enough for the top, but I need to be sure I can get a nice enough surface on what is really quite difficult wood.
Let's do some more planing: I need to get one side looking decent, to prove that I can, and to get an idea of what the finished thickness can be, though what you see here is not the finished surface, despite the appearance of a smoothing plane.
That's getting there. I've not used yew before. It gives a lovely smooth surface but is very hard.
That's the first instalment - a few seconds for you to read, but a long morning's workout for me!
