American Black Walnut Drawer Unit

[Lord Nibbo]

Well got back to it this morning.

Thicknessed and jointed all the boards for the top, heres a pic of them sorted to look their best.

But this board gave me something to think about, do I leave the knot in of rip the board down and remove it?

Well I decided to cut it out, It would be my luck to fall out when the unit is moved into the house.

Here's the final selection of seven pieces ganged together and marked for biscuits.

Glue up in three sections first

Final glue up of drawer unit top. Devonwoody emailed me that the colours on the pics looked a little pink, I now realize that using the flash is changing the colour, so I've taken these without the flash turned on.

 

[devonwoody]

You are a brave man, I have had a black walnut board on the floor under the bed for 3 years, want it well seasoned. (the wife moans a bit tho. )

Are you not concerned about cupping etc?

 

[Lord Nibbo]

You are a brave man, I have had a black walnut board on the floor under the bed for 3 years, want it well seasoned. (the wife moans a bit tho. )

Are you not concerned about cupping etc?

I suggested to swmbo that the wood should be kept in the living roon but she wasn't have any of it, and never in a thousand years would she allow it in the bedroom :lol:

Re cupping: Thats why I took so long sorting which board should go where, but unlike when Norm does it on NYW I had no real obvious grain direction to do the curve up curve down trick, I just hope using so many boards I'll get away with it. :roll:

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Well all the parts were roughly sanded and put through the saw to cut the mitres then all the faces except the short ends of the top were run over the planer I had to plane the ends of the top by hand as it was just impossible to hold them on the planer.

In an earlier post I mentioned about making the top slightly over size because I wanted to put a micro chamfer on every edge but I didn't want to cut into the mitre, this pic explains more.

In this pic although hard to see the top has had the treatment explained above as have the sides of the end panel.

Now with the top laid on these four clamps each clamp is not done up tight but just snug they are to stop the end panels from spreading which will become obvious in the following pic.

Now the real job of clamping is done with the vertical clamps not the horizontal clamps as already said they are there only to stop the panels from spreading

And here both ends are fitted, the only problem doing it this way it's almost impossible to clean off any glue so that will have to be removed once all the clamps are off. I've not used any biscuits in the mitres as I feel they impede getting a perfect fit.

 

[devonwoody]

Its nice to have the confidence in glues these days.
I reckon this is going to be another clean and pleasant looking piece of furniture.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Its nice to have the confidence in glues these days.
I reckon this is going to be another clean and pleasant looking piece of furniture.

Well it does say on the bottle "Stronger than the wood your gluing" :lol:

It wont be left just like that though, I'm going to glue in a fillet the length of the joints to help strengthening it

 

[devonwoody]

I'm going to glue in a fillet the length of the joints to help strengthening it
_________________


I dont.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I'm going to glue in a fillet the length of the joints to help strengthening it
_________________


I dont.

Ah! but I do. :lol: :wink:

 

[Paul Chapman]

That's looking very nice, LN.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[ByronBlack]

LN - could you not have used a spline along the mitre? Would a fillet not alter the look of the piece - sorry if i'm being dim here, just trying to visualise it.

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

I was thinking some sort of spline, or maybe a mitre lock joint could have been used?
Looks great though, nice setup you have there

 

[mailee]

Looking very nice Your Lordship. Nice looking workshop too. I could do with a couple of those dogs to keep my workshop clean too. :lol:

 

[Lord Nibbo]

LN - could you not have used a spline along the mitre? Would a fillet not alter the look of the piece - sorry if i'm being dim here, just trying to visualise it.

You wont see it Byron, the front face will be 2" wide around both ends and along the top. The back will look much the same but will have panels in it rather than draw fronts.

The illusion is to make it look like solid wood 2" thick but it's not so there is plenty of room inside to add strength such as fillets.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

or maybe a mitre lock joint could have been used?
Looks great though, nice setup you have there

I did give some thought to a mitre lock type joint, but I ain't got no cutters, swmbo would go off on one if I order any more tools :lol: :wink:

The main problem though with so many long mitres on such big panels I feel doing it my way I can get a higher degree of accuracy.

 

[ByronBlack]

The illusion is to make it look like solid wood 2" thick but it's not so there is plenty of room inside to add strength such as fillets.

Ah, I understand now, I didn't realise you were putting a face frame on it, but then that makes complete sense because I was wondering to myself how you were going to achieve the 'chunky-ness'

Also, you mention you didn't want to use biscuits because you could get a better fit without them - I was considering using size 0 biscuits on my small mitred table top - what issues are there in terms of fitting, I was under the impression that biscuits would be a good idea for mitred joints - should I reconsider and use splines or keys instead?

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I was considering using size 0 biscuits on my small mitred table top - what issues are there in terms of fitting, I was under the impression that biscuits would be a good idea for mitred joints - should I reconsider and use splines or keys instead?

They are a good idea for a mitred joint in such as a mirror frame or picture frame even a face frame if it was flush to what it was being fixed too, but my face frame is mitred on two planes at least, three planes if you look at the end panels. Splines or keys can be very decorative and would enhance your table even more arts & craft style, yes definitely the way to go.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Added a fillet to add strength to the end panel.

Then I added a temporary base so I could work with the unit the right way up.

View of the end panel with the glue cleaned off.

Fitting the top face rail on.

Fitting the right hand face stile.

All the clamps removed and glue cleaned off. The left and right uprights still have to be cut to length

Just the lower face rail and three stiles dividing the four drawers to do on the front face.

 

[ByronBlack]

Thats coming along nicely, it seems to be quite a glue-up intensive project, my nerves would be shredded by now!

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Thats coming along nicely, it seems to be quite a glue-up intensive project, my nerves would be shredded by now!

Yes, unlike :norm: not a brad to be seen..... Ah I forgot I did brad the fillets on :lol: at least using pva type glue instead of polyurethane my hands won't be black for a month. :lol:

 

[Philly]

Very Nice, L-N! =D>
I'm enjoying this,
Philly