Advice on fixing a mistake

[Jerry Strojny]

Well, today I did it. I cut the plywood side panels out of the tall dresser I am building for my daughter.



Long story short, I hated how the finish looked on the plywood when compared to the solid wood. Cherry. I should have checked this before I even cut the plywood because the other side "matches" much better. Lesson learned. Always try the finish FIRST.

Anyway, now that the panels are gone, I need to figure out a good way of getting new ones in.


If I route out the "inside" portion of the rails and legs, I can only do it on 3 sides...not on the front legs, the drawer dividers are mortised into the them. How do I work around that? Do I need to? Am I describing it in a way that makes sense?

Any ideas out there? I really could use another set of eyes on this problem. Here are some close-ups of the grooves (at the corners) Don't know if it will help, but it can't hurt.

Bottom front



Top at back


Thanks,
Jerry

[Keith Christopher]

I'd give routing the inside removing one side of the dado and using pocket screws in the plywood to secure it in place. Once assembled it will hide the pocket screws and you're good to go. might need some hand tooling where you can't get a router in but I think by looking at it you should be able to get 80% of it with a straight bit.

[John Thompson]

The simple way IMO would be to rabbet the inside but.. as you stated, you have yourself between a rock and a hard place with those drawer dividers tenoned into the front. In this case I would remove the side strectchers and re-group from there. You would have to mortise again and make new stretchers but... it gives you the option of using the groove that already exist.

Good luck as it is going to require a bit of patience and careful thought.

[Jamie Buxton]

How 'bout this...

You don't make any changes to the existing frame. You add what looks like a rail in the middle of the existing opening, but it goes in last. You make upper and lower panels from 1/4" plywood. You install them by bending them and snapping them into the dadoes on the stiles, then you slide them up and down to get them into the dadoes on the existing rails. It may help to make these panels a little narrower than usual. The new middle rail goes in after the panels, covering the gap between them. One end of the rail can fit into the dado in one stile. The other end of the rail can fasten to the stile with two pocket screws. Or you can use pocket screws at both ends.

[keith ouellette]

jerry;

first off let me say that your are a way better man than I am because I would never attempt trying to fix this problem. I would have probably said oh well to the finish. (My finishing skills are horrible so I'm used to disappointment)

Now my idea:

If you take a router with a flat bottom bit and make a jig so that the router sits on the jig and the jig sits on the legs of the dresser you can rout away all the wood on the bottom rail down level with the dado. it should rout it pretty flat. The jig would need some stops to keep the bit from hitting the legs of the dress and keeping the cut square.

slide the new panel in

Then resaw a piece of cherry to fit on top of the "thinned" rail and lamiate it on.

I can see it all in my head but I'm not sure If I explained it fully. If you like the idea and want any clarification feel free to ask.

WARNING: I've never done anything like that before.

[Jerry Strojny]

I like it Kieth. I was stumbling on how to route the bottom rail...Rails of course. I will take a closer look at this possibility tonight.

Believe me Kieth, it wasn't easy to start cutting. I had just finished fitting all the drawers...


But in the end, I think it will be worth it. To me it would have really ruined the piece. This is one of MY best projects to date, I didn't want it looking ugly because of stupid plywood. Maybe next time I'll go all solid wood. (If I win the lottery.)

I hate the finishing stage too. I know it may seem weird, but this dresser will be finished in amber shelac. We have a 70 years old house and the amber shelac matches most all trim in her bedroom so very nicely. I'm pretty sure that is what they probably used 70 years ago. After this is fixed I need to find some cherry knobs.

This is still in the brainstorming phase, so if there are any other ideas I'd be more than glad to hear.

Thanks all, Jerry

[Jerry Strojny]

How 'bout this...

You don't make any changes to the existing frame. You add what looks like a rail in the middle of the existing opening, but it goes in last. You make upper and lower panels from 1/4" plywood. You install them by bending them and snapping them into the dadoes on the stiles, then you slide them up and down to get them into the dadoes on the existing rails. It may help to make these panels a little narrower than usual. The new middle rail goes in after the panels, covering the gap between them. One end of the rail can fit into the dado in one stile. The other end of the rail can fasten to the stile with two pocket screws. Or you can use pocket screws at both ends.

I thought about something like this too. I would just need to figure out a way for the drawer slides to attach to the panels. They were screwed into the 3/4" ply before. I could always thicken up the 1/4" with a layer of 1/2". This is also doable.

Keep 'em coming...

[John Thompson]

I thought about something like this too. I would just need to figure out a way for the drawer slides to attach to the panels. They were screwed into the 3/4" ply before. I could always thicken up the 1/4" with a layer of 1/2". This is also doable.

Keep 'em coming...

I must be a bit confused on this one Jerry. You removed ply as you didn't like the look of it finished but... you consider using ply in the panels from how I interupt it... Have I missed something here by not reading or mis-interpretation of what you are asking?.....

Regards...

[Jerry Strojny]

Sorry for the confusion John. I didn't like the side of the plywood that was facing out. The other side was much better, but had some funky inclusions that made me not want to use it. In the end, I should have gotten a different piece of cherry ply.

Maybe I should really look at how much it would cost to make those solid...It may not be as bad as I am assuming.

[John Thompson]

I read you Lima-Charlie (loud and clear) now Jerry...

Again.... good luck!

[Don Jarvie]

Try this. Rout out the back dado so it becomes a rabbit on the inside of the top, bottom and back. Leave the front as is since the stretchers are mortised in.

Cut you side panels to size and drop them in and slide them in the front dado. If you can't slide them in you may need to take a bit off the backside of the panel that goes in the front.

The idea is the panel will drop into the top and bottom and when you push it into the front the back will drop in.

Just rip a few pieces to replace the cut out dado to hold the panel in.

Based on the pictures this should work. You may have to do a little hand chielsing by the back middle strecher.

[Jerry Strojny]

In this case I would remove the side strectchers and re-group from there. You would have to mortise again and make new stretchers but... it gives you the option of using the groove that already exist.

I am looking at a variation of this option as my favorite so far. I am thinking of just removing the top rail. Then route the last 3/8" of an inch groove all the way through to the top of the leg. Reroute the deeper mortise for the rail. And then slide in the panel and top rail. As I type this I see a problem. Being that the rail is longer than the width of the panel, will I be able to "separate" the legs far enough without ruining the glue joint at the bottom rail to slide it in the mortise?

Should I just cut the top AND bottom rails and just do it with a little less worry. A little more destructive but maybe the safest method.

Good luck as it is going to require a bit of patience and careful thought.

Yes, and I am ready to do it right this time.

I also ran the numbers for solid cherry panels. About $30 per panel. I should have done it out of solid to begin with. Not worth all this crazy worring about it in the beginning, and now fixing it. The new panels will be solid cherry.

[Jamie Buxton]

... The new panels will be solid cherry...

And the drawer slides will mount to the panels, like they did before? Because the panels are solid wood, they'll be floating, right? So are your drawer slides going to be floating too? Or will you now need some other way to mount the slides?

[Robert Meyer]

Did you consider veneering some nice figured cherry onto the side panels?

[Jerry Strojny]

And the drawer slides will mount to the panels, like they did before? Because the panels are solid wood, they'll be floating, right? So are your drawer slides going to be floating too? Or will you now need some other way to mount the slides?

Yes the panels will be floating. But so were the plywood panels originally. The drawer slides are just screwed onto the panel. All I plan on doing is elogating the screw hole at the back of the slide.

And as far as veneering...thought about it briefly, but decided it was work I am not comfortable with at my present skill level. The panels are cut up into pieces now anyway. So I'll save veneering for another project.