Q&A - What would I do differently?

Round 3 of Brady Kirkwood's Q&A for the Jewelry Armoire / Lingerie Chest build he's going to undertake.  He graciously agreed to let me publish his questions alongside my answers in case anyone else finds use in them.

Question #3

What would you do differently, either in the making or the design? 

What would you do to make the assembly easier?

My Response: 

I wrote up a "What Went Wrong" summary at the end of the project.  I'll pull some from there.

• I never replaced those phillips-head screws for the back panels like I said I was going to.  I got too tired and didn't want to wait for an order of screws.  Note to Chris Schwarz: don't look back there.
• The aniline dye bled into the maple drawer sides.  I attempted to tape these off to keep them pristine, but it didn't work out.  Next time I'll prefinish the drawer fronts and then assemble.  Then when I'm fitting the drawers, I'll just plane their end grain off.  If I go in carefully with a paintbrush I might be able to just darken them a bit without it bleeding into the maple.  The only other method I can think of is to make my dry-fit as close to the drawer opening as possible so I don't have to remove any material.  Not sure how I feel about this approach.
• I continue to have trouble with drawbore pins blowing out the grain on the far side.  Quartersawn White Oak is brittle in parts, so that certainly doesn't make it any easier, but I need more practice.  I've solved this on the Flip-Top Table build.  Basically I use less of an offset for Quartersawn White Oak (1/64" to 1/32" maximum), and I spend a lot of time making the tips of my drawbore pegs perfectly hemispherical.  I used to sharpen them to a pencil point, but the point was catching the grain on the far side instead of sliding past, forcing a blow out.  I tried flattening the sharp point, but it wasn't enough.  I looked very closely at the pegs in Doucette & Wolfe's Trestle Table Build video and noticed his tips were much rounder than mine, so I went that route and it worked perfectly.  Also, I use my rattail rasp to file the entry hole on the breadboard tenon so that it has a bit of a chamfer.  This helps guide the peg into the tenon hole.  And finally, hide glue lubricates the peg as it goes in where Titebond II does not.  My best advice is practice on scrap until you get it right consistently.  If it fails, it fails catastrophically.  :P
• I kinda wish I made narrower pins in the dovetails.  These look like they could have been made by a machine router bit.  I was super nervous going into that phase of the project so I gave myself extra room to screw up, but I think I've got the hang of it now and can start leveling up my dovetails.
• The top isn't perfectly flat because my workbench wasn't perfectly flat.  It's close though.  If I were to build another bench I don't think I'd bother with the split-top.  One solid surface seems like I'd enjoy it better.  Add it to the list!
• I took a bit too much wood off a few of the drawer sides when fitting them, removing the possibility of a piston-fit.  I had to glue some thin shims to the drawer guides in the lower drawer bays and then plane them back down until the larger drawers stopped jamming.  I admit I was impatient at this point and wanted the drawers in and done, but this is the worst kind of mistake after all this work.  It's so important to slow down here and take super light passes and keep retesting the fit over and over again.  Once you go too far it's too late.
• My drawer closing stops were positioned too close to my drawer guides, thus preventing my large shoulder plane from fitting in there to tune the drawer guides like I intended.  I could have bought a smaller shoulder plane, but I chose not to.  If I had it to do over, I would have used a rabbeted guide as Mario Rodrigues does (See Popular Woodworking - February 2009 - Issue #174 - 7 Strategies for Better Drawers).  
• I should have planned the assembly better in the design phase.  I think the main carcass glue-up exceeded 70 parts.  I did a ton of dry-fit practice runs beforehand, but still... stressful isn't the word.  Also, despite them fitting perfectly during the dry-fit, the sliding dovetail webframe fronts didn't seat flush with the legs.  They're probably 1/128" - 1/64" proud of the surface.  I beat on them with a mallet really hard, but no luck.  And since they were pre-finished, I couldn't plane it flush after assembly.  Maybe I won't pre-finish this type of assembly next time for this very reason.
• I still hate machine routers.  I had to use it for the 52" long lock miters in the legs.  If I can figure out a way to do this by hand, I'll probably do it.  It'll be safer, quieter, slower, and with less potential for grain explosions.

New addition to the list, after living with the dresser for a couple years and looking at it every day....

The front drawer blades are displaying flat sawn grain.  I find this incredibly distracting.  I really wish I trimmed a piece off, rotated it and glued it back on so that these blades would display quarter sawn grain to the viewer. 

To Simplify the Assembly Phase

With integral side panels, I can't really think of a way to simplify the assembly.  Reason being: you can't put those side panels into their slots without putting all of the web frames and all of the legs together in a single glue-up.  More than 70 parts in a single glue up.  Woo!

My advice is to dry-fit as many times as it takes until you memorize the order.  Tune the fit of every joint that shows the first sign of binding.  The time to tune isn't when the glue is on.  :)  

Although... 

If you choose to not do the side panels, you can do an initial assembly of legs + top frame + skirts.  That will lock in the core length / width / depth dimensions of the entire piece.  Then you can take your time and put in one web frame at a time.  A much more methodical and relaxing process


Hmm...  perhaps there's another way to get those side panels in after the fact.  Maybe treat them like glass panels.  Put them in place after the initial glue-up and then tack or glue on a little strip of wood to hold them there and to hide the edges of each panel.  Like so... hm..... wait... no.  Never mind.  

If you're going to put the side panels in after the fact, you might as well just put one tall panel the size of the door bay.  Or even better, you could do thin, narrow, shiplapped planks in there running vertically.  That would certainly simplify the main carcass assembly, allowing you to break it out into stages.  It also maintains a consistent overall aesthetic.  Not too shabby!



Stage 1: Legs + Skirts + Top Frame + Back (and Side) Mounting Strips (something to screw or nail the shiplapped planks into)

Stage 2: Glue and tap in one web frame at a time.  They are pretty much self-clamping, especially with the plywood panels holding them to their exact width, pressing them into the leg notches.

Stage 3: Screw or nail on the shiplapped planks onto the back and inside the door bays

Stage 4: Glue on the rabbeted Drawer Guides, attach the Top

Stage 5: Make and mount the Doors & Hinges, tune the fit

Stage 6: Make & fit the Drawers

Stage 7: Attach the Drawer Stops, Door Catches, Knobs 

There's probably more, but this is off the top of my head...

By removing the side panels and their captive grooves, you will be able to reduce the width of the web frame sides, as some of that material is now unnecessary.  This will allow you to have 3/8" thick shiplapping for the door bays and end up with the same internal volume I did.  But if it were me, I'd make 1/4" thick shiplapping, as every bit counts in that cramped space.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to maximize the storage space in there without sacrificing wood strength or creating weak wood joints.  The easiest option is to have wider legs, pushing the doors out farther, but I wanted to keep it looking as slender as possible.  It's a tight space and a difficult puzzle to solve.

Q&A - Side Panels between Drawer Web Frames

Round 2 of Brady Kirkwood's Q&A for the Jewelry Armoire / Lingerie Chest build he's going to undertake.  He graciously agreed to let me publish his questions alongside my answers in case anyone else finds use in them.

Question #2 

If making the project again, would you put the panels in all the web frames between drawers or just keep them open? (you might be able to tell, I am trying to cut down the sheer number of piece parts in this project)

My Response:

I would.

Firstly, because I don’t want dangling necklaces or earrings to fall into the drawer bays.  

Secondly, I was super enamored with one of Tom Fidgen’s builds in his book Made By Hand.  

I took a lot of inspiration from that project.  He had a SketchUp model at one point, and I was able to dissect it piece by piece to see how he put it together and walk through the joinery decisions he made.  It was fascinating and is probably one of the most efficient ways I've found for learning complicated carcass joinery methods.

The beauty of the thin panels suspended in those web frames with no glue was just such a clean look and really added some class for when you open the side door.  At one point I considered using poplar and covering the entire interior of the door bay with velvet, but my wife liked the bright look of the maple.  So we used waterborne polycrylic for the maple parts to keep it looking white and not yellow like it would with an oil-based polyurethane.  It's a nice, bright surprise when you open the side doors and contrasts nicely with the darker tones of the oak.

Tom's was a very complicated build and I was as hungry for the challenge of suspending those panels as I was interested in their thin, delicate beauty.

In general, I don't think making, prepping, and fitting those side panels was that big of a deal.  Cut them to rough size out of 3/4" thick stock, resaw each piece in half, flatten one surface, run them through the thickness planer, shoot them to their final dimensions.  Done.  

The real effort and focus was in the drawer web frames and getting them mounted correctly in the legs.  Once that was done, it's just some plow planing (which is super fun anyway) to make a groove for the panels.  I used a router table with a fence to run the groove down the long legs.   

I do remember having a feeling of real satisfaction when the panels first went in, though. 

M'mmm... so smooth... it's almost like I knew what I was doing all along, ...or something.

UPDATE: Brady has informed me that he was actually asking about the horizontal panels within each web frame.  So I'll answer the question again.

Question #3 (again)

If making the project again, would you put the panels in all the web frames between drawers or just keep them open? (you might be able to tell, I am trying to cut down the sheer number of piece parts in this project)

My Response:

I would put them in again.  Clothes piled too high in a lower drawer may interfere with the function of the drawer above it.  A piece of jewelry may fall out of place and without these dust panels in place, you may have to remove every single drawer in order to find it.  

They are just 1/4" Baltic Birch plywood and were the easiest thing to make in the entire project :P  

Why did I choose to use plywood when I've been so fussy on every other detail?  

Because I wanted them to fit perfectly within those web frames, forcing them to an exact and square dimension.  During the glue-up they were applying lateral pressure to keep the web sides pressed into the notches in the legs.  I wanted to glue the web back rails in place, and didn't want to allow for expansion here.  

In retrospect, it wouldn't have been a difficult thing to design for a solid wood panel with an expansion gap, but I see nothing wrong with using plywood when it makes sense.  No one sees this part of the dresser, it's a large surface area to cover, and solid wood panels would have been a pointless expense for no functional, structural or aesthetic gain.

Q&A - Drawer Slips vs. Grooves

I'm gonna call this Round 1 of Brady Kirkwood's Q&A for the Jewelry Armoire/Lingerie Chest build he's going to undertake.  He graciously agreed to let me publish his questions alongside my answers in case anyone else finds use in them.

From Brady: 

I am very much looking forward to getting started, it might be in a few weeks that we kick this project off.  I do have a few design/build questions for you:

1. Why drawer slips instead of integral dados cut for the drawer bottom?
2. If making the project again, would you put the panels in all the web frames between drawers or just keep them open? (you might be able to tell, I am trying to cut down the sheer number of piece parts in this project)
3. What would you do differently, either in the making or the design? What would you do to make the assembly easier?

Thanks again for all the support! 

My Responses:

Question #1 - Why did I use drawer slips instead of just plowing a groove on the inside of the drawer sides?

Much of my reasoning and justification for choosing drawer slips can be found in this conversation, compiled by Derek Cohen.

Point #1 - Grooves in thin drawer sides weaken the drawer sides too much

My drawer sides are only 3/8" thick.  Cutting a 1/4" or 3/16" deep groove into 3/8" thick stock would leave so little wood that it would weaken the drawer side too much, and it would weaken it right where the weight of the contents of the drawer are bearing down. Antiques with grooved, thin drawers have had their sides fracture off over time.

Point #2 - Drawer slips are the "finer" approach (my opinion)

Historically, grooves in the sides of drawers are very common in both European and American furniture from the 1700's thru modern day, whereas drawer slips are much more common in British furniture making.  I thought I had read somewhere that the groove method originated in a factory production setting as a way to speed up drawer box joinery, that it was mainly used for shop drawers, kitchen drawers, or more practical pieces where the finest approach wasn't necessary; the implication being that they were trying to keep costs down.  As I re-read about the topic now, it seems to mainly be a difference between the British approach, and everybody else's.  In any case, I liked it.

[From the same conversation linked above, emphasis is mine] 

Richard Jones: Drawer slips were in common usage in high quality British furniture in the 1700s... or at least that is what I've found in the restorations I've done over the years. Country furniture and lower quality stuff all the way through to modern work often uses a groove in a thick drawer side... which is the same as in most American furniture, even the antique American furniture that's highly rated by those that are supposed to be in the know.  
Contemporary British furniture makers almost exclusively use drawer slips in high quality work. They are common [...] drawer parts around here. Drawers without drawer slips, except in the smallest drawers, are generally considered of inferior quality suitable for workaday furniture, kitchens, workshop drawers, that kind of thing. As long as the side is thick enough it will handle a groove. The problem with thick drawer sides is reckoned to be their inherent ugliness. I have always found it a bit odd that truly attractive American cabinet furniture, whether new or old, usually had within it some drawers with thick drawer sides, 1/2" or more sometimes-- they almost always look heavy and out of proportion to my eyes, but I guess that's just me.

My goal with this project was to research and identify the "best" and most "fine" approaches possible and to push myself to reach for the standard of the master woodworkers of the past, if only to prove to myself that I can build to that level of precision and quality.  From my research, I found that the "finest" drawers were made with slips, so that's what I built.  

Interesting side note regarding another difference between modern and historical joinery methods: Evidence from antiques suggests that modern woodworkers' obsession with perfect dovetails is not something woodworkers of the 1700's and 1800's concerned themselves with overmuch -- that their dovetails were slapdash and quickly done, even on high end furniture, and that precision wasn't that important to them.  Reason being: a gappy or variably angled dovetail still holds perfectly well, and has proven to do so for hundreds of years.  That being said, I consider precision-fit dovetails to be a beautiful thing, and as I'm creating an object of function and beauty, I chose to be fussy with my dovetails.  :-)

So long story short: If you make your drawer sides 1/2" thick, you can do grooves if you want to, and they will serve perfectly well for the life of the piece.  I was aiming for delicate and feminine in my proportions and I thought 1/2" thick drawer sides would have looked and felt too thick and bulky, so I opted for thinner drawer sides, which led me to drawer slips as my best option for mounting the drawer bottoms.  

Point #3 - Drawer slips improve the wearing life of the drawer

Drawer slips increase the wearing surface that the drawer runs on.  Instead of riding on a 3/8" thick drawer side, the drawer box rides on a 3/8" + 3/4" wide surface.  Over many years, thin drawer sides will wear down, and thin drawer sides made of hard wood may create tracks in the front drawer blade if the drawer blade is made of softer wood.

Increasing the durability of your drawer sides by choosing a harder wood like maple, and increasing the wearing surface, will prolong the working life of the drawer and minimize any wear on the front drawer blade.  I consider this detail as important as maintaining the strength in thin drawer sides.

// End of Question 1.  phew!  This post is already too long, so I'll break the questions out into 3 separate posts.  Stay tuned!