Posts: 706
Threads: 0
Joined: Dec 2011
05-31-2017, 01:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-31-2017, 01:19 PM by mr_skittle.)
As I said, its been awhile since I did a project this size and I forgot how much work goes into making drawers. It'd be a breeze if all my lumber was nice 3/4 S4S but I always start with rough lumber. In this case I had some 6/4 maple that I resawed in half on the bandsaw and planed down to 5/8 for the drawer boxes. For the drawer fronts I had enough leftovers from the face frame to make rails and stiles. I have some 8/4 ash that I resawed and planed down to 1/4. The planer and bandsaw got a good workout for this part of the project.
[attachment=2505]
So here's the funny thing. At the point this pic was taken I was thinking I had almost all my drawer parts cut. For some reason (absentmindedness and rusty) I actually only had half of what I needed for drawer boxes. oops... No big deal though. It just meant that I needed to have another resaw/thincknessing session. I went with a simple stub tennon for joinery on the drawer fronts and a 3/8in thick flat panel. It worked well to resaw some 1/2 pieces off the 8/4 ash and bookmatch them for the panel. To fit the panels into the groves I decided against the 'easy' method of using a dado blade and instead went with a 'new to me' rabbet plane. I thought since these were drawer fronts and the back of the panel will be mostly hidden, why not try out a new tool. I did enjoy using it and it worked as it should have. Two points I realized thought is that the nicker needs to be sharpened and while it's not exclusively a single direction plane, redoing the fence and depth gague isn't really easy. It just means that sometimes you end up planing against the grain. The other problem I was was workholding such a thin pieces in a way that didn't impede the plane.
[attachment=2508]
Finally got all 3 drawer fronts made and had to check out what it looked like. I'm happy with how it's looking. The last step before finishing is to break out the old dovetail jig and assemble some drawer boxes.
[attachment=2507]
Posts: 10,118
Threads: 0
Joined: Sep 2006
Location: South Alabama
That's looking really good. But since it will go in the mud room, I'm expecting that a couple coats of mud will provide quite a different look.
Steve S.
------------------------------------------------------
Tradition cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour.
- T. S. Eliot
Tutorials and Build-Alongs at
The Literary Workshop
Posts: 17,365
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: Milwaukee area
That is very nice looking. The ash has a nice brown tone to it. The ash I have is considerably whiter.
Posts: 706
Threads: 0
Joined: Dec 2011
05-31-2017, 05:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-14-2017, 09:59 PM by mr_skittle.)
The ash for the bench seat, face frame, and rails and stiles is all black ash. It's common around here and is just a bit more bold (for lack of a better term) than green ash. The panels are green ash and they are softer and creamy looking compared to the black.
I'm hoping that a few layers of lacquer will help keep that layer of mud at bay, but in fact there really isn't much mud in there anyways. More snow than anything.
Posts: 307
Threads: 0
Joined: Sep 2016
Nice project, that looks great.....don't get a lot of Ash down here.
Andy
-- mos maiorum
Posts: 12,686
Threads: 0
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: Lewiston, NY
Very nice; it's going to be a great help in keeping the clutter at bay. And I agree with Phil about the color of the ash; I really like it. We have green ash where I live, but the only trees I've milled have been white ash, and it's really white compared to the green and black ash you used. I don't know if we even have black ash around here.
I assume the EAB is wreaking havoc on the ash in your area, too. 20% of the trees in NYS are ash, and they are all in serious jeopardy. Around me they are all dying. I'm going to be taking down a few on my property tomorrow, and will have to cut down at least a dozen good sized ones and lots of little ones in the next year or two. The tree canopy in NY is going to change big time - and ash lumber is going to be cheap in the short term.
John
Posts: 294
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2011
Location: Rochester, MN
You don't look too rusty to me. Everything looks great. Just one comment though. On the three drawer fronts I would flip the left hand one 180* if you still can. It is only personal opinion but I think the grain arches look better when they are higher in the center and lower on the outside (like an upside down "U"). I would do it in this case especially because you have the middle one and the right one this way. Maybe you have already made some joinery or something that forces you to keep it as shown, in which case I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. But if your options are sill open I would at least consider it. Just set them there like you have them and rearrange and flip them all until it is the way you like it.
Posts: 706
Threads: 0
Joined: Dec 2011
06-01-2017, 08:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-01-2017, 08:44 AM by mr_skittle.)
John, I would suspect that you have black ash in New York State. Here in MN they are typical of wet/swampy areas but can be found in upland habitat as well. They tend to form pure stands when in wet areas. North of MSP/St. Paul we don't see much ash other than black but once you get out of the boreal forest to the south and west green ash become more common. I grew up on the MN/ND border and there are mostly green ash there. It's the only species my old many will burn in his woodstove. I always hated splitting it becuase its "stringyness" makes it such a pain. You end up having to pull every log apart after you split it.
The Emerald Ash Borer made its first appearance in my area last year in Superior WI. The city did a mass removal of boulevard and park trees as a result. No bugs found in Duluth yet but I'm sure they are here. Black ash are a pretty important tree here in N Minnesota so the implications of a full on invasion are widespread. I actually worked for the Dept of Ag for a summer doing surveys for EAB. We went out and girdeled a small ash tree to stress it out and attract pests. Then went back in fall to cut the tree down and peel all the bark to look for signs of infestation.
I got all the black ash locally from a widow cleaning out her husbands shop. The green ash I recently got from an auction of a lumber dealer going out of business. Its really nice stuff. 8/4 thick and a couple of 10+ inches wide boards with nice grain and a little more mellow and creamy white than black ash.
Finally, rest assured that the grain pattern on all the drawer fronts will be the same. The catherdrals will all be pointing up. All 3 drawers not matching would drive me crazy.
Posts: 706
Threads: 0
Joined: Dec 2011
Up next is the drawers. A couple of things about these drawers is that I resawed and milled all the stock from 6/4 material and they are 12 in deep. These two facts made it take a long time to put together 3 measly drawers. The first half of the material was 6in wide so I just had to resaw and glue up the panel. The second half was made from 4.5in wide stock and meant I needed to glue up 3 pieces per panel. I could have made life easier if I would have used some of the wider birch I have but the big stff is all 'Red Birch' and I thought drawers boxes just won't be a wise use of such nice stock. So needless to say my band saw and planer got a good workout on this part of the project. Its been quite a while since I used my dovetail jig so it took me at least 45 minutes to get it dialed in before I could get to work. Here's a great tip for everyone to remember - Make test cuts to dial in your setup. I guarantee you'll never regret it. There's no need to comment on the obvious problem in this picture. I didn't trim my test boards to a width that made for clean dovetails on the ends but I did make the necessary steps to do so on the finished drawer parts.
[attachment=2736]
As you can see I still have plenty of material left on my test boards so while it took me a while to get things dialed in, I didn't have to do too many tests before I could get on with it.
[attachment=2737]
These big drawers almost max out the capicity of the jig!
[attachment=2738]
It's all too often the case that a user manual or instructions are very ineffective. The manual that comes with the PC jig is an exception. It has nice clear instructions and pictures along with some good tips to make things go smoother. I'm a fan.
Next up is spraying finish. I both dread it and look forward to it. I'm excited because it'll be the first real chance to use my HVLP setup that I got a over a year ago. I was an incredible Craigslist find. I'll give some details in the next post.
