Neander Chippendale Lowboy Build – Part 6 Carcass Joinery

[Mike Allen1010]

This is a continuing series of posts about the mostly neander build of a Chippendale Lowboy from Franklin Gottschall’s book “Building Masterpiece Furniture”. Personally I enjoy hand tool build pictures. Nothing really exciting here and I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m posting for those simple neanders like me to enjoy mindless woodworking pics.

I like Gottschall’sbook because I enjoy the various furniture style/pieces represented. I recommend it for fairly experienced woodworkers as each project description is no more than a couple pages of text plus measured drawings. The author pretty much assumes you know what you’re doing when it comes the construction details (certainly a mistake in my case).

I wanted to build Garrett Hack’s sideboard, I love his shaker style pieces with the beautiful detail/design elements he adds. I ended up with this piece because the LOML wanted “something with more curves and carving”. I’m an inexperienced carver. I’ve done no more than a half a dozen shells and this is my first large-scale carving attempt.

This bottom apron on the front of the case is the first of three major carved elements. Based on advice from my fellow neanders here and in the carving forum, I used a #2 sweep gouge and a card scraper to flatten the background and remove the more prominent gouge marks (which I kinda liked). On this bell shaped central element I’ve completed the right side, while the left side still needs to be done.
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When I asked for some advice about whether I should sand background smooth, one of our fellow neanders here recommended I not sand and graciously sent me some stocks of a plant he uses to smooth carved elements. Apparently the reeds absorbs silica from the ground which gives an abrasive quality. I’m not sure I’m using them correctly, but it seemed to work fairly well (thank you Mel!).
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I enjoyed joinery lot more than, which is pretty laborious for me (I’m really slow!). Here are the side of the carcass joined via M&T’s dry fit together. I ran out of steam taking pictures of this, but I think there are some on an earlier post.
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The rails for the carcass fit/with the face of the legs and are joined with three shoulder M&T’s. I have a hard time getting my mortises uniform size so I like to use my cheap calipers to transfer the width of the Tennons. I saw these a little bit fat so I can plan the surface to a nice, flush fit.

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The shoulder is the show surface of the joint so need this to be nice and square. I use a paring chisel to establish a shoulder next to the layout line for the saw.
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[Mike Allen1010]

The top rail is joined the legs with the dovetail. This is one of my favorite joints – I think faster and easier than an M&T. Here you can see some eyeballs layout Marks to make sure the dovetail doesn’t interfere with the rabbit that will be created on the outside corner of the front legs for a split column.
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A tiny rabbit along the shoulder of the dovetail makes it easy to align the pieces for marking out the dovetail cavity on the end grain of the legs. Because this isn't a "show" joint, I can get the shoulder of the dovetail right off the saw, with no need to pair with the chisel. This is where sharp, well set crosscut saw pays dividends.
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With the top and bottom rails for the front of the carcass dry fit together I can check to see if everything is square, before fitting the middle rail.
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The plans call for the middle rail to fit into a rabbit. I used a sliding square to get a rough idea of the dimensions to layout the tenon. I really struggle with trying to visualize three-dimensional shapes so I have to fit the tenon right off the mortises. The key dimension is the distance between the inside, show shoulders; these need to be identical to the other two rails to fit tightly and keep everything square. I saw these a little fat and then pair to a final fit.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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With the front rails done, time for the back. Interestingly, the original plan calls for aplywood back and no bottom rail. Ultimately this piece will probably end up behind couch where the back may be visible and I prefer to use a solid, secondary wood rather than plywood. I’ll probably need to plow a groove in the corresponding pieces to house – Cross that bridge when I come to it.
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Again the outside shoulder is the show surface. I like to trim these with the rail flat on the bench top so I can easily see that the shoulder is straight and slightly undercut for a nice tight fit. I saw the rail to be fat on both the bottom and face frame surface and then plane the rail for a tight fit.
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I probably have procrastinated as long as I can now will have to get started with carving the ball and claw feet, which I've never done before. The original has some carved foliage on the knee of the legs which I’m also not looking forward to - maybe I can get away with not doing that?

BTW, why does it take so long to upload pictures? Is there some technology trick I'm missing here? Does it matter if you've uploaded ton's of pictures to the creek before – maybe it would speed things up if I delete some of the pictures in the "manage attachments" window I uploaded long ago?

Thanks for looking, Mike

[Bill Moser]

Nice work on the carving, Mike! The plant bundle you're using for smoothing reminds me of a video I recently watched here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV53BM2n4S4
It's a Korean craftsman using what appears to be a somewhat similar tool to bring out the grain of ebonized wood (at least, that's what I *think* he's doing)

[mike holden]

"BTW, why does it take so long to upload pictures? Is there some technology trick I'm missing here? Does it matter if you've uploaded ton's of pictures to the creek before – maybe it would speed things up if I delete some of the pictures in the "manage attachments" window I uploaded long ago?"
One thing that may be causing problems is that you are re-using image names. You have already used some of the single digit numbers in a previous post, so when new images with that name try to upload, it is like trying to save a new file with the same name as an older one. I don't think that the system software will overwrite so it needs to somehow keep the two files separate. All that overhead may cause a slowdown.

[Mike Allen1010]

Thanks Mike for the pic posting Intel. I'll delete old pics and see if that helps.

B&C feet in process. Larger size than previous floral stuff makes them a little less tedious and more fun. Might finish them tomorrow, unless the surf holds then all bets are off. Today was head high, sunny, offshore , 69 water temp - super fun.

Mike

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Loving every minute of this build. It makes me want to get out my Carving set and give it the attention it deserves.

[Evan Patton]

Cool stuff!

[Jude Kenny]

Mike.

how did you glue the mortise and tenons for this side of your lowboy to avoid splitting the side?

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I went through the old posts and found you cut 3 mortises in the legs. So, I assume 3 tenons to match.

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So, did you glue each tenon. Or just the middle or what?

I want to know as I'd like to make a cabinet based on the lowboy style, but less ornate, and I'm trying to figure out how everything gets glued up without the panel being prone to splitting.

If anyone else has an opinion, I'd like to hear it too.

I've seen videos of people making cabinetry and they often skip the glue-up like it is not important. So, hopefully Mike or someone else can provide some insight.

Thanks all.

[Mike Allen1010]

Jude, I glued the middle M&T and the first, inside inch of the top and bottom. The top and bottom mortises are over long to allow room for expansion.

I'm no expert, that's just the way I did it. Others here surely know better.

Best, Mike

[Jude Kenny]

OK. Thanks a lot.