billw
The Tattooed One
As I'm now approaching the end of one project I thought it best that I prematurely start another one, as so to add to my 100% success rate in making furniture that never gets a finish applied to it.
Now wanting to do anything that I'd 1) find too easy, 2) manage to make in less than 2 years, and 3) not make at least 2 or 3 monumentally stupid mistakes that require a 'clever' redesign to cover up, I have decided that I'll take inspiration from Andrew Lawton and make the skeleton chest of drawers that he demonstrated as a project in F&C Issue 141 (June 2008).
I would post a picture but I am not sure of the copyright issues of using my mobile phone to snap a pic of a page of a magazine!
Andrew mainly used sycamore and walnut in his piece, and I have decided to follow my own "style guide" by using at least one less-used wood in my interpretation (well, blatant copy). Therefore I have decided to make the frame from a mix of rippled and plain sycamore, the drawers from bog oak, the drawer bottoms and dust panels from cedar of lebanon, and there will be some detailing in copper, and potentially a hint of purpleheart.
If you've not seen the magazine I'll try and add some of my own pics as I go along so you'll get an idea of what I'm attempting.
I bought all the stock I needed from English Hardwoods, Geddington. I'd bought plenty of stuff from there before, so was pretty comfortable with supplier. Sadly this time I felt a litle bit let down.
Some of the sycamore is a fantastic creamy white with little in the way of defect, but some of it was a terrible mix of light browns, reds, and greys. Luckily from the stock I had I managed to salvage enouh good stock for everything I needed except the uprights, which I have subsequently bought from John Boddy's in Boroughbridge, in the shape of one large piece which will make marking up of the 4 uprights a lot easier.
The bog oak is excellent, although the intention was to get both drawer sides out of one piece, and after planing and thicknessing one of the pieces it was virtually impossible to get sufficient thickness remaining to split it in half - I'll therefore need some more stock for one side of each drawer, but not a major issue as the drawers will be the last thing I do anyhow.
So my progess so far - I drew up my cutting list, and have got every piece for the drawer frames ready and cut exactly to size. The next step for those will be a production line of getting them put through the spindle moulder and then the morticer / tenoner depending on which they need.
Next I need to mark up the uprights, then cut the 4 of them out of the piece of timber I have, cut the mortices, and then I'll do the tenons that fit into those.
The uprights will then require a fair bit of detailing work done to them and a taper put on as they're 35mm at the bottom and 22mm at the top. Once this is one I'll commence the process of gluing the frames into them.
The whole carcass appears, on the face of it, reasonably simple as it is very much based on repetitive process, so as long as I get one right, I'll be fine. Of course, it's getting the first one right that I worry about.
The drawers, because they're visible from all sides, will be a challenge! They're going to be dovetailed on all corners, all by hand.
Anyhow I realise this is enough words and not enough pictures - I'll rectify this over the next couple of evenings and get some snaps of what I've done so far. I might even try and use sketch up to design what I'm building!
Now wanting to do anything that I'd 1) find too easy, 2) manage to make in less than 2 years, and 3) not make at least 2 or 3 monumentally stupid mistakes that require a 'clever' redesign to cover up, I have decided that I'll take inspiration from Andrew Lawton and make the skeleton chest of drawers that he demonstrated as a project in F&C Issue 141 (June 2008).
I would post a picture but I am not sure of the copyright issues of using my mobile phone to snap a pic of a page of a magazine!
Andrew mainly used sycamore and walnut in his piece, and I have decided to follow my own "style guide" by using at least one less-used wood in my interpretation (well, blatant copy). Therefore I have decided to make the frame from a mix of rippled and plain sycamore, the drawers from bog oak, the drawer bottoms and dust panels from cedar of lebanon, and there will be some detailing in copper, and potentially a hint of purpleheart.
If you've not seen the magazine I'll try and add some of my own pics as I go along so you'll get an idea of what I'm attempting.
I bought all the stock I needed from English Hardwoods, Geddington. I'd bought plenty of stuff from there before, so was pretty comfortable with supplier. Sadly this time I felt a litle bit let down.
Some of the sycamore is a fantastic creamy white with little in the way of defect, but some of it was a terrible mix of light browns, reds, and greys. Luckily from the stock I had I managed to salvage enouh good stock for everything I needed except the uprights, which I have subsequently bought from John Boddy's in Boroughbridge, in the shape of one large piece which will make marking up of the 4 uprights a lot easier.
The bog oak is excellent, although the intention was to get both drawer sides out of one piece, and after planing and thicknessing one of the pieces it was virtually impossible to get sufficient thickness remaining to split it in half - I'll therefore need some more stock for one side of each drawer, but not a major issue as the drawers will be the last thing I do anyhow.
So my progess so far - I drew up my cutting list, and have got every piece for the drawer frames ready and cut exactly to size. The next step for those will be a production line of getting them put through the spindle moulder and then the morticer / tenoner depending on which they need.
Next I need to mark up the uprights, then cut the 4 of them out of the piece of timber I have, cut the mortices, and then I'll do the tenons that fit into those.
The uprights will then require a fair bit of detailing work done to them and a taper put on as they're 35mm at the bottom and 22mm at the top. Once this is one I'll commence the process of gluing the frames into them.
The whole carcass appears, on the face of it, reasonably simple as it is very much based on repetitive process, so as long as I get one right, I'll be fine. Of course, it's getting the first one right that I worry about.
The drawers, because they're visible from all sides, will be a challenge! They're going to be dovetailed on all corners, all by hand.
Anyhow I realise this is enough words and not enough pictures - I'll rectify this over the next couple of evenings and get some snaps of what I've done so far. I might even try and use sketch up to design what I'm building!
