I'm slapping together a night stand for my cousin out of crap I have lying around the shop, and I'm using the project as an excuse to try out some stuff.
Carcass is "hardwood" mystery meat 7-ply from Lowe's. Joinery is all dovetails; lower shelf and mid frame are sliding dovetails, upper frame is half-blinds. I did that to see if I could. Answer: Barely. The sliding dovetails were fine but the half-blinds wanted to blow the plywood apart.
Face frame is rift sawn traumatized pine. That's what I managed to salvage from a damaged section of 8:4, and judging by the growth rings that tree had been through at least one divorce. The curve on the bottom I laid out with a bowed spline. First time I've actually done that. It's attached to the carcass Norm style, with Tite-bond and #10 biscuits.
Tomorrow I'll build the drawer.
10 Comments
elbowgrease@lemm.ee · 5 pts · 1y
it looks great! thanks for sharing your experience with the half blind dovetails in plywood. do you think you would have gotten better results with better plywood? Baltic Birch?
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1y
That tree had a few awful years, a couple of the growth rings got really narrow, and around those narrow growth rings there were a lot of pitch pockets, and a third of the board had a crack running along it. I started with a rough sawn 2x8 and managed to get the face frame of a night stand out cutting around all the damage.
I counted at least 15 growth rings outside of that before I ran out of board, I wonder if it was the 2003 drought?
Oh I'm sure baltic birch would hold up to joinery a lot better than this stuff does. Especially the innermost plies seem to be very low in quality, I think it's made out of kudzu and politics. It held up do dadoing and tenoning reasonably well but I had to do the half-blinds as all climb cuts, if I tried any conventional cuts it would start blowing apart. Baltic birch is a lot better made, maybe appleply if you can find it.
aramis87@fedia.io · 4 pts · 1y
Oh very nice - your cousin should be very happy!
Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
That’s just a “one night stand” lol Are you going to make a second one? Looks awesome, great quality should last nearly forever!
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1y
Just the one, she doesn't have room for another. I did build a fairly robust CAD model of this one to plan it out though, so I may use this pattern, or a modification thereof, in the future.
Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Oh that’s nice!
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
Project update: The woodworking is complete.
Side hung, center guided drawer with shop made pull, 5 position adjustable middle shelf, solid pine top. Over the next couple days I'll apply a Minwax I Can't Believe It's Not Tung Oil finish.
CanadianCorhen@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 1y
looks really sharp! cant wait to see the finished product.
Love that your 'slapped together" is still full dovetailed
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1y
Yeah with the way those dovetails fit "pounded together" is a bit more accurate.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
Dry fit of the drawer:
This is actually my first proper rabbeted drawer front. Amazing how much of a pain in the ass that 3/8" gap is. I think I'm going to make the handle.