Project: Buffet/Hutch - Completed

[Jim Becker]

In our home, we have a large, great-room with a story and a half lofted ceiling with barn beams and a walk-in fireplace in the middle of the long wall. One end of the room is a sitting area and the other is our "formal" dining area. A project that's been on "my list" for a very long time has been a tall, buffet/hutch that will take some space to the right of the fireplace on the dining end. Inspired by a tall antique buffet/hutch/breakfront that's in the local restaurant that I eat lunch at nearly daily, this project will fill that need.

This thread is to document the lower, buffet portion, of the project which is nearly done, but not quite. I'll edit things once the final steps are completed. {EDIT} This project is now complete and I've added more photos of the top hutch assembly as well as the completed unit

I'm using a really mixed combination of construction techniques for this piece. The material is solid poplar (off our property) for the most part with minimal plywood. The sides and floor are glued up flat slabs and the top rails are dovetailed into the top of the sides with half-blind joinery. Other joinery includes rebates and grooves for glue-strength. Face frames are applied and the corners are beaded. The top for this portion is made of solid cherry...a couple of wide boards I've had for a long time that were "looking for a project" make up most of that piece. The drawer boxes are cherry. Doors and drawer fronts are beaded, too. And with that description...it's time for the "journey"...

Clearly, the starting point...


With a little more refinement...flatten first...


And a bit of thicknessing...


And too much of this... ...several trips to the sawdust pile, for sure...


Straight-line rip (which is also "edge jointing" with my setup...)


In some cases, the best edge is NOT along the original edge line from the sawyer for a variety of reasons...


Marking for width on the left end to match the fence setting on the right end while using my parallel ripping jig...


And the parallel rip...yes, this might seem like more work than just running a board along a rip fence, but remember, I'm edge jointing at the same time and I want to be able to hold that board down absolutely flat on the slider wagon through the cut. This results in a perfectly perpendicular edge on the board from the face.


Assembling the "candidate boards" for the carcass sides at the bench...


....and gluing them up...


And we have sides...

[Jim Becker]

The carcass/case bottom is assembled in a similar fashion


Sometimes the traditional way is best to even things out...


The case bottom has a number of things that need to be addressed. Here, a cutout is measured and marked


And again, the "traditional way" is the easiest and fastest way to make these cutouts on such a large panel




Nice!


The case bottom at the back received a rebate to provide support for the tongue and groove back panel that is planned. This was cut with my Festool OF1400 and an edge guide


Laying out the various grooves and rebates necessary for carcass assembly on the inside of the two side panels


Yes, "stop" is important on these particular grooves for appearance


Additional cutouts done by hand


Another instance where "stop" is important...don't be afraid to mark your workpiece clearly!


The two top rails, as mentioned, leverage half-blind dovetails to hold the sides together. The provides some structural benefits and good glue area.

[Jim Becker]

Of course, the side panels require matching half-bind dovetails...these get cut second so that they match their corresponding rails. (Be sure to carefully MARK everything... )


The corners of the dovetails were cut with a hand-saw, the excess removed with the router and then everything was cleaned up with chisels. Here's the router step completed for illustration.


"Ooops" happens...glue fixes it.


Grooving was done with the router and rail to keep them straight. Because I needed to make two passes to get the correct width with the bit I was using, careful measurement was required before each pass. But by using the rail, the groove in the front of the case bottom and the one in the back were perfectly lined up.


Resultant groove after cleaning up the end square with a chisel


A "dust frame" was required to support the face frame under the drawers as well as to stiffen the case. Simple assembly using pocket screws. (I told you I was using a variety of techniques... )


Once all the grooves and rebates were cut, it was time to start assembly. Panels from solid stock are not necessarily cooperative with being perfectly flat, so to aid in assembly, I clamped the case bottom down while making a few adjustments and preparing to start building things up.


The dust frame also required some cutouts to accomodate the stopped grooves


Oh, and the sides needed some similar treatment for the "legs"...something I almost forgot to do before assembly...


The nature of this case and having only two hands made it clear that assembling it vertical would be easier for me to do. So I lowered the bench as far as it would go to allow for ceiling clearance. (Noden Adjust-a-Bench) One side was clamped down to the bench and then the base and dust frame were assembled to that end.


Another view of the same. I took care to try and insure squareness as much as possible. While the back panel and face frame would ultimately help pull things in, the less variance initially, the better.


Once the same process was completed the next day for the other end, we have the basic case after adding the top rails to their dovetailed homes

[Jim Becker]

Another view from the back



Dividers added...they add strength and support both the face frame in the front as well as the future back panel


One thing I need to mention...while the general dimensions were determined on paper first, the sizing of many of these smaller components are determined directly from the casework. They do not get cut to length (and sometimes width) until an actual measurement can be taken. (and checked twice ) There will always be some variances while building a project and taking measurements off directly makes for a better end-result.

The corner of the case will get beading so before committing to the face frame material, I ran a sample to be sure it was going to look exactly how I wanted it to be


And since it was exactly how I wanted it to be... ...I ran the two face frame sides accordingly


This is where the measuring I mentioned earlier comes into play for sure...making the face frame so it's EXACTLY sized to the front of the case. With the beaded corners, it cannot be left proud and then refined with a block plane. It has to be "right" the first time. So by laying things out on the case itself, I can measure for exactly lengths for every face frame component. The blue tape here is holding things together while I check carefully prior to doing the pocket screws to assemble that face frame permanently.




Similarly, while it was taped together, I marked for the exact position for the joints


Including on the case...


One final look and it's ready to go


And even more ready to go...

[Jim Becker]

Looks pretty nice at this point...glue and brads to fasten the face frame in place




The next operation was to create the panels that would hold the drawer slides. I'm using "traditional" wooden slide that mate with a groove in the sides of the drawers. I did use 1/2" plywood here because it was handy. (and yes, I was careful about wood movement)


Drawer slide stock...3/8" thick by 3/4" width, rounded corners


While doing all this, I added a toe-kick panel and laminated some feet with angled ends to mirror the case sides


At this point, the case is pretty much complete with just a few smaller operations that were going to be needed at some point before finishing up


Detail of the beaded corner


Off the bench for the remaining work...which means the back panel, drawers, drawer fronts and doors


As I mentioned in the introduction, the drawer fronts and doors would get the same beaded detail as the case corners. Here, I'm ripping off some beading from a scrap board to be used for the ends of the drawer fronts


While it's easy to run the beads along the length of a board, you can't do the ends the same way and get that nice mitered corner. Here, I'm working out the setup for removing some material from the ends of the drawer fronts...enough to give clearance for the jig saw.


Step one is to remove the straight portion


Step two is to cut the miter using a hand saw


Leaving this...


So you can end up with this


If this was not going to be a painted project, I would have had to slow down even more and be extra careful with this joinery for sure!

And it's a nice look

[Jim Becker]

Second drawer front is now done


This is what the corners of the doors will need to look like. My original intention was to do lap miter joints, but I was not (extremely not) happy with the result I got due to fit issues, so I abandoned those doors to start over using a different method as detailed later in this thread


As mentioned, the drawers would be constructed from cherry (which will be left natural colored). Here the stock has been milled and to manage "investment" two narrower pieces were glued up for the drawer backs since they would not be visible.




Cutting the groove for the drawer bottom


The grooves for the drawer slides were cut next, also using the router table, but due to a major brain fart, the bit started to work itself loose, deepening the grooves. Fortunately, I caught it before the bit became a projectile flying through the room. Rather than start over, I fixed the issue by milling some stock to fill in the places that got too deep and then used a rabbit plane to bring things together.


Visible now, but it will eventually disappear for the most part. It just wasn't worth starting over and fixing mistakes is a good learning process.


The drawer boxes were assembled using pocket screws for a clean look with the bottom panel only being held with some staples.


Nice!


Since the back of the case was open, it was super easy to install drawer stops so that they only could go to the "perfect" depth


Some adjustment was necessary to get smooth operation


At this point, I chose to deal with getting the drawer fronts drilled and screwed prior to finishing so any adjustments could be done now. Once this was done, they were removed to prepare for finishing

[Jim Becker]

At this point, the drawers are all dealt with and my next step was to build the back panel


The case back panel is made from 3/4" thick shop-made tongue and v-groove boards. We start by flattening the stock and then milling to thickness. It's my practice to reduce the length of the material I'm working to just a little over what the final length will be. Hence, the short boards.




Again, straight-line rip the edge and then rip to width, this time using the fence since these are only 3 1/2" wide boards






Yup...I believe I have enough there to do the job. (And I measured to be sure...go figure!)


I'm using a "re-stackable" bit from Lee Valley for this operation to create the tongue and v-groove boards. The first operation includes the groove.


Without removing the bit from the router and without changing the height, the grooving cutter is removed and a spacer is inserted


The tongue side is then run on the other side of the board ...



...and you end up with this result using the fence setting I chose. I will mention that these are very tight and when I went to assemble the panel after painting it, I had to do a bit of work with a hand plane to carefully relieve the joint so things would go together completely and snugly without using a sledge hammer.


Make a setup board for next time...

[Jim Becker]

Test fit



The panel goes together nicely and will have a classic look. Yea, it's on the inside, but you do sometimes open the doors to look at things in there!



From the back



The inside of the buffet (and subsequent hutch) is also painted and for that, this nice shade of red was chosen. Matte finish on the inside for preference



The T&G boards were pre-painted before assembling them to the case



Once the back panel was installed, I used some spray-bomb primer on the back-back to be sure to get paint into the straight grooves...that would have been a thankless task with a brush



Which brings me to the doors. Remember the doors? Originally planned to use mitered half-laps, I just didn't get the result I wanted and it was pretty much impossible to fine tune the fit without buggering up the beading. So I punted and chose to use the same method I build out my tack trunks... 1/2" plywood with a 1/4" thick "veneer" overlay to create the panel effect and in this case, with applied, mitered beading. We start out by cutting the plywood panels to size after doing a bunch of math to account for the width of the beading that will be applied plus the intended spacing from the face frame when hinged. (I hate math, by the way...)



Since the overlay is solid stock and will potentially experience some movement over time, just to be sure no "white wood" would appear, as unlikely as that might be, I marked the line and sprayed a little black paint along the area that potentially could have an issue someday. Yea, it looks ugly, but that will all disappear. Soon.



The overlay material is sized directly from the panel. In this case, I'm using some scrap walnut left over from one of the tack trunk projects. It really doesn't matter what species I use for this since it will all be painted.



And that is that...



Of course, to use applied beading, you have to make some beading to apply...milled at the router table and then ripped off at the saw




Again, measuring off the workpiece, I can get an approximate length for the "next" piece, cut at the miter saw and then gradually take off a little at a time (sometimes just a hair) to get to the perfect length



The beading is applied with glue and 23 gage pins



And this is more or less the end result. Again, if I were doing something that wasn't going to be painted to look like an antique, I'd have to take a LOT more care with this operation to avoid having to use fillers, etc.

[Jim Becker]

Another small thing is accommodating the need to have a drawer stop that prevents the drawers from being pulled all the way out during normal operation, but still allows them to be removed when necessary. This takes care of that...


So at this point, we have everything built and it's time to start moving towards the finishing steps. Using the same spray-bomb primer I used on the case back, I catch the corner beads, drawers and doors. The reason I did this for the later two is to seal things up a little so I could deal with grain raise and smoothness. A little 320 or 400 after this dried gave me a perfectly smooth surface for the subsequent finishing steps.


Ah, but then there's that cherry top. These are the boards that are going to fill that role...and I bought these in about 2001.


This 13 1/2" wide beauty is the showpiece that will be at the front. Once again, it's straight-line one edge and then parallel rip the other edge





And we're ready to glue...


Yup...a few clamps were necessary for this one...


And some cleanup


This one place on the back board (which will actually end up narrower after final cutting) just was a pain in the butt, but I got it there


And yea, that's going to be really nice...the wide boards supporting the "antique" feel for sure...

[Jim Becker]

The front edge got a little love from the low-angle block plane which leaves a much nicer surface than sanding for sure


I had Professor Dr. SWMBO help me lift the case up onto this low utility table so it would be comfortable to deal with the door hinges as well as the subsequent painting steps


After marking the case for the hinges, I marked the doors from there using a shim to hold it up


I'm using these "no mortise" hinges from Lee Valley, not because they are "no mortise", but rather because they are the color and style I wanted for the piece.


One hung...


Two hung...


And before moving on to paint, I routed some rebates for some "figure eight" connectors to help hold the cherry top down on the case. There will be a few other fasteners used from underneath, but this was the best way to secure things near the edge


Case with the primer coat brushed/rolled on


First coat of black. (Benjamin Moore Advance in satin sheen)


And with two coats of the black applied. While I was originally going to spray the finish, I decided that since this is emulating an antique, brushing made more sense. This paint lays down really smoothly, but if there are a few brushing indications, that's not an issue...most things like this may have been repainted multiple times over the years and they don't usually have "pristine" sprayed finishes. (This is still wet, so don't worry about the uneven sheen in the photo)

[Jebediah Eckert]

Wow, great project. Thanks for posting, soooooo much to see!

[Jim Becker]

Wow, great project. Thanks for posting, soooooo much to see!

My pleasure. Of course, my head is spinning right now from spending a couple hours doing that! LOL

[Mike Wilkins]

Fine woodworking indeed. I too utilize various joinery types in making case goods; both for convenience and speed. Traditional joinery (M & T, DT's) are nice for strength, but I am not above using a biscuit or pocket also. Thanks for the build photos.

[glenn bradley]

My pleasure. Of course, my head is spinning right now from spending a couple hours doing that! LOL

Well worth the effort and thanks for taking the time and trouble to do so. I am really enjoying the build. I like the combination of construction and joinery methods you're using. I do a lot of this myself when I build pieces for my home. When I build for others the more traditional methods are part of the perceived value of the piece whether it makes any difference or not so, that's what I do.

Will there be any Asian influenced pieces in the room where the piece will live? The color choices would fit in well in a room like that so I wanted to have some fun in trying to guess about the target location.

[Jim Becker]

Will there be any Asian influenced pieces in the room where the piece will live? The color choices would fit in well in a room like that so I wanted to have some fun in trying to guess about the target location.

There are some wood sculptures from China in the room...which is an interesting contrast to the barn-beams. LOL