Results 1 to 14 of 14

Thread: living room chest of drawers

  1. #1

    living room chest of drawers

    I am wanting to make a chest of drawers or cabinet for the living room. And have been finalising my design.
    Here are a couple of pictures of what I am thinking about.
    living chest 9 leg inset (800x441).jpglivingroom chest on legs 2 (800x441).jpg

    The first one is what I would really like but am wondering if I may need to have extra support under for strength.

    The legs are basically attached to a box. they are ofset from the box and attach via small brackets(outrunners?)

    What do you think? Doable?

    The chest is about 700mm overall and 820 high.

    Legs about 30mm square with an external curve from bottom to top.
    Thinking of ash for the box and walnut for the legs. Your thoughts

    I live in Japan but imported wood from the US is cheaper than local hardwood.


    Another thing...I have a neandre workshop and have to do everything with hand tools only so what kind of joinery would be good?
    Last edited by Robert Trotter; 01-31-2012 at 8:06 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    10,304
    That's a pretty design.

    Yes, the legs will be fine. Even the first design, without the stretchers, is okay. It isn't a very big piece. Just on the visuals, I kinda like the second one, with the stretchers, better. But that's entirely a visual reaction; there's no structural need for the stretchers.

    There's joinery all over that piece. Do you need suggestions for every joint, or just for the legs? For the legs, you could do mortise and tenon. There would be mortises in the legs and the carcass. The "outrunners" would have their grain running horizontal, and would have tenons on the ends. You'd assemble the case first, and add the legs on afterward, either with or without the stretchers. The case itself could be dovetailed at the corners, or box-jointed, if you like the looks of exposed joinery.
    Last edited by Jamie Buxton; 01-31-2012 at 10:12 AM.

  3. #3
    Living room interiors are left incomplete without proper living room furniture and there are few essential ones that a living room must have. Professional interior decorators and home designers suggest that a few of them like sofas, coffee tables, etc. and it is quite a known fact. The one that is not so common in Indian living room interiors is the chest of drawers, which is also among the essential.

    Regards
    Dabney

  4. #4
    I prefer the first design, too. It could work very nicely as long as you don't overload the drawers. As to the joinery, I think this piece calls for something non-obtrusive. Miters with hidden splines seem appropriate to me. Or blind dovetails.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    5,582
    That's a very cool design. I also like your design number 1. I like the light and dark contrast - maybe maple instead of ash? Reason I'm saying that is the ah has a very pronounced grain pattern and it might take away from the elegant design. Those brackets will need to be well designed to take the stress and not detract from the overall appearance.

  6. #6
    Thanks everyone for your input.
    Jamie, thanks for your confirmations - that's pretty much what I was thinking of doing but thought I"d get other ideas as I am no expert.
    What would you think would be a minimum length of tennon into the legs? (to determine leg thickness and outrunner location)

    Dave, the hidden splines would be out since handtools only. I was thinking about secret hidden dovetails but was wondering if i could get the 45 degree mitre done cleanly over the entire length. I've done it with boxes but 400 to 450 mm is a long distance to freehand mitres in a straight line. Will think more on it...

    Pat, thanks for your ideas of using maple. You could be right in that the ash's grain pattern would be very pronounced. In Japan it seems I can get hard maple or PPC maple. Hard maple would probably look better (?) but I haven't used it and am wondering about workability with handtools. But then, I have been working with very hard tropicals recently so I think it would be easier than those.

    Rob

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    10,304
    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Trotter View Post
    ...Jamie, thanks for your confirmations - that's pretty much what I was thinking of doing but thought I"d get other ideas as I am no expert.
    What would you think would be a minimum length of tennon into the legs? (to determine leg thickness and outrunner location)

    ... I was thinking about secret hidden dovetails but was wondering if i could get the 45 degree mitre done cleanly over the entire length...

    Your drawing looks like the outriggers are 2-3" tall. If you make the mortise into the legs 1/2" deep, and if the tenon fits well into it, that will be fine. The mortise into the box side can be a through mortise, which will be easier to cut.

    As I look again at your drawing, it seems that the grain of the wood on the box side is horizontal. I hope that's just a drawing artifact. The grain should be running vertically.

    On the hidden joinery... I've just been doing something like this on a bigger piece. It might could work on something the size of your piece. My bench is 1.75"-thick material by 21" wide, with miter joints joining the top to the sides. That is, the miter joint is just like yours, but in thicker material. I cut the miters on a friend's sliding table saw. Then I used a router to cut pockets into the face of each miter. The pockets in my case are slots about 3/8" wide, running with the grain of the wood. I used a template to assure that the pockets in one side of the joint align with the pockets in the other side. Then I made loose tenons that fit in the slots. The result is a fully hidden joint that is structurally a box joint, made with loose tenons. It is very sturdy. Of course, I made my joints with power tools, but maybe you can do something similar with just hand tools. The fundamental concept is to separate the cutting of the long bevel from the cutting of the parts that hold the miter joint together.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    10,304
    Making completely hidden joints at the case corners, in hardwood, with just hand tools -- that's challenging. Perhaps a simpler joint would be good. The pics below show a joint that might be called a half-hidden box joint. One view shows the assembled joint, and the other shows the two parts pulled apart. The would be no joinery visible on the cabinet top, where it would be most noticeable. The exposed joinery would be on the side. This joint consists of only straight cuts, and they're all out in the open, so it is relatively easy to cut.

    The joint is held together only by glue. In fact, it really is held together only by glue on the sides of the fingers, where there are facegrain-to-facegrain glue surfaces. There will be glue elsewhere, but it is on endgrain, where it doesn't hold as well.

    You can use the same joint on the lower corners of the case, but flipped so that it is visible only from underneath.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    mid-coast Maine and deep space
    Posts
    2,656
    I cast a vote for # 2. I like the stretchers- they are "reassuring" (though not really necessary) and I think they help unify the legs as part of a base and not just random elements. Running the grain front to back on the sides and across the top would be awesome, especially if the sides boards are continuous with the drawer fronts and to the opposite side!! A tricky detail that might require a frame and panel to work (that would not look right) though I think this concept can be worked out. Hey if you choose not to do it maybe I will - and we can laugh at my woodworking hubris .

  10. #10
    the side grain direction should be running vertically so all expansion would be front to back.. it is just that I can't seem work out how to rotate the material direction in sketchup. Some models I can do it and others like this one, the menu option just does come up so ignore grai direction.

    I will have to think about the joint at the corners. Maybe make a trial joint and see how things go.
    Last edited by Robert Trotter; 02-02-2012 at 3:39 AM.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    mid-coast Maine and deep space
    Posts
    2,656
    Here is a recent thread about grain direction in SU http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...et-Ideas/page2

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Trotter View Post
    the side grain direction should be running vertically so all expansion would be front to back.. it is just that I can't seem work out how to rotate the material direction in sketchup. Some models I can do it and others like this one, the menu option just does come up so ignore grai direction.
    Sam pointed you at a discussion he and I had on this topic. In a nutshell, if you apply the material to faces and you right click on a single face, you'll get the Texture entry in the Context menu and you'll be able to rotate and otherwise modify the material. If, on the other hand, you apply the material to a group or component, you won't have that option. It is almost always best to apply the material to the faces instead of to the group or component. It does require that you open the Group or component for editing however.

  13. #13
    Thanks for the tip on SU. Worked a wonder. Now I understand!

  14. #14
    This is a big bump... but I am finally going to start on this piece. I have the wood and it is ready to use. I have some 5/4 hard maple for the box and black walnut for the leg/frame.

    This is still a hand tool only project and I want to start dimensioning the wood. Dimensioning all the wood by hand will take some time.
    1. What I would like to know is what thickness would be good for the box sides, top and bottom.
    2. How should I cut the wood to thickness?

    For #2 above I could just scrub the boards to thickness -which is what I would do if the box was about 25mm thick. But this may be too thick for good aesthetics.
    If the sides were to be thinner should I just scrub away? It just seems to be a waste of wood. I have this feeling that I could cut a veer off and then hand finish to thickness. This would be a major effort as I would be using a panel saw or a Japanese equivalent but doable. My concern with this approach is that I may try to cut it down and then it would warp or something because I am not as accurate as a machine, and I wouldn't be able to get the thickness I want. Each board is about 300mm wide (rough)

    Your experience and advice would be appreciated.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •