This was a special project that was a gift for my Mom for her 70th birthday. I started the project on January 30th (See the chronological history of the project below). Her birthday was March 19th, which didn't leave me much time for completing the project.
I got about 10 hours sleep in the last three days, but the project is done, and just in time for Mom’s birthday celebration at my Sister’s house today.
I finished assembling the carcase today.
I used a biscuit jointer to create the joints between the drawer bottoms and the sides and back panel. The walnut banding on the sides and the back panel was also joined with biscuits.
To assemble the sides, back, and drawer dividers I used 50 biscuits! That’s 100 biscuit slots that needed to be cut exactly!
I assembled it in three stages. First the left side, back panel and top and bottom dividers making sure that this assembly was perfectly square and true. I let that dry overnight and then added all the drawer dividers next and dry fitted the right side to help support the drawer dividers. Lastly I glued the right side of the […]
I’ve been too busy trying to get this done in time for Mom’s birthday so I haven’t had a chance to do many updates to the web page. Things are progressing, but we are about to enter crunch time.
Most of the walnut has been cut to size and I’ve assembled and routered the decorative base. I’ve been experimenting with creating dovetail joints to use on the drawers. They are time consuming and tricky to get right but I think it will add a nice touch. I should begin the assembly of the carcase by the weekend …. Stay tuned.
I officially started building the actual chest today. I’ve got about one month to complete it.
This weekend I worked on creating the drawer dividers. There are eight dividers in the chest made of 1/2″ plywood with edge banding for the front edge. The plan called for a 3/4″ edging, but I decided on using a 2″ edging instead so that I could use the same edge parts for the drawer dividers and the back and front piece edging.
The plan also called for using finishing nails and glue to attach the edging. I decided to use a tongue and groove joint instead (I don’t own a biscuit jointer yet) so that I didn’t need to use nails to attach the […]
