Printer stand with drawers - 'apprentice piece'

[oddsocks]

Apologies to all apprentices out there! I originally intended to make a printer stand with drawers out of MDF, but then it occurred to me that this would be a good project to practice the skills needed for a full sized chest of drawers without using too much wood (in fact most of this was recycled).....

No WIP photos - I started this in May but then my daughter's wedding took precedence so it only finally got completed last week. I deliberately tried to use a number of different techniques -

• biscuit jointing of top and sides
  traditional (ish) top drawer frame runners with central divide (the sides are router grooved in)
  pocket screws for the back rail
  dovetails on the drawer fronts
  book matched top drawers
  drawer bottoms held in front groove and then sandwiched between lower bearers and upper curved retainers (I fitted the base in position then glued the bearer followed by retainer)
  handles turned from maple - 2 discs, each yielded 2 handles complete with tenons that fitted a routed slot
  top drawers sit slightly recessed to give a shadow line -a brass plate at the rear adjusted with gentle hammer blows set the depths

Most of the wood is ash with the handles in maple. The finish is chestnut spray sanding sealer followed by chestnut spray satin acrylic and a coat of wax.

Hopefully the photos make it clear....... One day I'll upgrade the painted MDF desk to ash as well!
(PS the printer in an epson RX685 fitted with an external 'continuous' ink system bought some time ago on ebay)

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[Woodmagnet]

Very nice bit of recycling Dave. 8)

 

[Raggy]

Very nice.


And that reminds me I got a CIS in my drawer that needs fitting

 

[woodbloke]

Dave - nice piece of work with plenty of different techniques. Here's one or two thoughts on it. The grain on the side pieces is a 90deg to the top which isn't normally done, the grain orientation ought to follow all the way round. I would have included a lower rail at the front as well. This would have enabled you to put a small drawer stop on the rail so that it would catch on the rear of the drawer front just underneath the bottom. Good piece of work though and a great way to recycle timber - Rob

 

[oddsocks]

.... The grain on the side pieces is a 90deg to the top which isn't normally done, the grain orientation ought to follow all the way round. I would have included a lower rail at the front as well. This would have enabled you to put a small drawer stop on the rail so that it would catch on the rear of the drawer front just underneath the bottom. Good piece of work though and a great way to recycle timber - Rob

Thanks Rob - I realised the same about the sides a few days after I glued it up - at the time I was going to paint it so was maximising the wood I had and not considering the grain. Now that I have the grain on show the end grain of the sides is visible which does look 'odd' - but lesson learned!

The lower drawer is stopped by the position of the side runners - when I glued them in place I had the drawer front in position and butted the side runners against it.

 

[shim20]

looks good, did you got to suffolk collage???

 

[oddsocks]

looks good, did you got to suffolk collage???

No -- I used the title in the generic sense as I built it as a tester for myself

At age 50 (well in 2 weeks) and in a full time job I've never had the chance to do it as anything other than a hobby, being self taught in the 80s-90s through thd necessity of a young family and no spare money to pay any professionals