Chest of Drawers - WIP

[woodbloke]

A few pics of the chest of drawers for my daughter recently home from Uni with a degree in archaeology - today a 'mud monkey' at the bottom of a hole somewhere in Gravesend.
The pics show the half-time construction of this piece, made from laminated pine from B&Q and some 18mm pine boarding for the drawers. The carcass went together without too much fuss, and the back (hardboard) was rebated and pinned the next day. However, as soon as I unpacked the pine boards from their shrink wrapped plastic packing, you'll never guess in a month of World Cup Finals what happened in my nice warm workshop.....bendy bananas spring immediately to mind :roll: :roll: .After about a week, once they have more or less finished bending and twisting the whole lot went through the P/T to about 15mm, and even then its not dead flat but the closest I can comfortably do for biscuits.
First couple of pics show the unit with the first two drawers in place, muntins have been added as the drawer bottoms will be hardboard.

The drawers will be hung on some oak runners on centrally placed grooves in the drawer sides. Some more oak will go into each groove so that a bearing surface of oak on oak will hopefully make the whole thing last a little longer. Final thing to do will be to build a small plinth which will be buttoned on.
I wasn't sure what to make of this stuff from B&Q and now that I've used it once I'm not sure that I would use it again unless I really had to. Still, at the end of the day, and all things considered and taking everything into account, my daughter does get a large chest of drawers in pine for a fraction of the shop price - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Rob,

I have always found that those pine boards from B&Q warp. You would think they would be good, being made from narrower pieces glued together, but in my experience they always warp. I have often wondered whether the problem is that they wrap them in plastic - possibly in the transport and storing process before you buy them, condensation forms inside the plastic and the boards absorb moisture?

If I wanted wide pine boards in the future I think I would make up my own.

Paul

PS The chest of drawers is looking good :wink:

 

[mailee]

It is looking nice Rob. I agree with Paul on this B&Q wood thing and assume the shrink wrapping acts like a greenhouse for the wood. I will never buy any of it again after unwrapping a pack of propellers once! I always make up my own boards of 4" stock and find it much more stable. Only wood I buy from B&Q now is the sheet materials as they are good value.

 

[Alf]

Looks like it's going to be a jolly useful piece of furniture, Rob.

Those laminated boards, I dunno what they make them from. I bought some about 8 or 9 years ago to make a simple shelf thing - which ended up skulling about the workshop until earlier this year when I broke it up and decided to reuse the pieces. Naturally, as you say, it was somewhat curvy, so I planed it down square again, weighted it down just out of habit, assuming after some years it would have done its worse, and left it 'til the next day. Came back and the stuff had actually managed to bend some more! Do they use branch wood or something? ](*,) Never again.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Paul Chapman]

It's interesting that so many of us seem to have had problems with these glued-up boards when, in theory, boards made up from glued together narrower pieces should be less prone to warping. I wonder if the problem stems from the gluing process? I don't know much about it from a technical point of view, but I believe that in the commercial production of wood products - MDF, chipboard, plywood and presumably these laminated boards - radio frequencies are used which in some way act on the molecules in the adhesive and drastically speed up the glue curing process.

I wonder if in this process heat is generated and localised stresses are introduced into the wood strips along the glue lines which later cause problems as the wood re-absorbs moisture in these localised areas?

Just thinking out loud really :?

Paul

 

[Alf]

Hmmm... could be the glue is acting as a barrier to even moisture distribution perhaps? Although I've never been wholely convinced of that as an argument, possibly because it's so regularly aired by a certain maker of solid wooden planes in attacks on glued-up planes it smacks of protesting too much... :roll: :wink: But that aside, might be something in it?

Cheers, Alf

 

[dedee]

Rob,
One of my earliest pieces was made from that pine board and like you I said never again. The blanket box is still in use though even though I can get my hand in the gap between the lid and front.

Your chest looks far better built than my box so I expect it will be OK.

Andy

 

[Alf]

Just to continue to take this happily off topic (sorry, Rob), I came across this; maybe we need to think outside the box a bit more...?

Cheers, Alf

 

[Paul Chapman]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[woodbloke]

Alfs cartoon:

Just to continue to take this happily off topic (sorry, Rob), I came across this; maybe we need to think outside

Now that's what I call putting a spin on things :lol: :lol: Rob