It has been awhile since I made an entry to the blog. I have been in Florida for a month and no woodworking. I am back now and getting into the swing of things again.
I have glued on the bracket feet that I made before I left for vacation.
I also added the drawer runners to the sides of the chest, these have a 1/4 inch tongue on the front that slips into a 1/4 inch grove in the back of the drawer blades. They are nailed into the dado grove with 2 nails toward the back.
Now it is time to work on the oxbow curved drawer fronts. Back in the beginning of the project I hand planed 8/4 mahogany so I could see the grain. Now is the time I pick out the matching grain patterns to make the drawer fronts. Each chest has the fronts from one boards.
I milled that 8/4 stock to just under 2 inches thick and cut them to each of the openings.
I left 1/16 of an inch at the top and 1/32 on each side of each drawer front.
Here are the first set, ready to be sawed with the oxbow curve. I take care to make sure that the grain is going the right way and matching.
Both sets are fitted now, ready for the band sawing.
I use my table saw jig to cut the flat part of the drawer fronts before the curve starts. This gives me an accurate reference point for dovetailing and making the drawers.
Now I am ready to cut out the curves. It is not a difficult saw cut to make there are no sharp turns to cut.
Now I have to clean up all of the band saw marks. I use a spokeshave. It takes a fine shaving and leaves the surface pretty smooth. I have reference lines on the top and bottom of the drawer front to help me keep that surface flat.
I use the spokeshave to bring the surface to the lines on both sides and smooth out the bumps.
For final clean up before sanding, I use a card scraper to remove some of the deep scratches and tearout.
Here are the two chests with the drawers cleaned up. The chest on the right was really difficult to clean up because there was a lot of tearout on the highly figured grain.
I put a little mineral spirits on the fronts to better show how they will look when finished.
That's it for the drawer fronts. Now I need to cut out the backs and make the drawers.
That will be in the next video and post.
Time to start installing the cockbead that I made in the last post. These strips fit into the rebates that I put into the sides back when I was putting the dados in for the drawer dividers and runners. They are 1/2 inch deep and 3/16 thick.
I start by putting a 45 degree miter on the edge of one piece. I use a flush cut saw and a block as a guide.
I only need 1/8 of an inch of the miter on the front edge since this is the amount that the bead sticks out from the front.
So the back part of the miter is waste, I cut it off flush with my small saw. First a stop cut at 1/8 inch.
Then saw off the back portion of the miter flush.
That's it. Just that small little 1/8 inch miter.
Then I cut it to length to fit in the drawer opening. This is the bottom drawer so there is only a miter on the top corner, the bottom is flush
You can see the little bead overlap the bead on the drawer divider.
That is where the miter needs to be on the drawer divider. I use a chisel here as a marking knife. You could use other marking devices but a knife I think is most accurate.
The pare or saw off the little corner carefully.
Now it should just slip into the slot.
Pretty good fit.
The next one has two miters, one at the top and one at the bottom. But the process is still the same, just have to measure carefully. If it isn't right throw it away and make another one.
After going all around the drawer openings, I used hide glue and lots of clamps to glue them in to the chest.
While that is drying it is time to start on the curved bracket feet.
I have a copy of Antiques Magazine from December 1987 which has an article about John Chipman and his furniture. The great thing is there is a picture of the under side of the chest of drawers. I can see how he constructed and attached the feet.
The cardboard template I used is from the pictures and drawings I made in the beginning. It is 6 inches high and 9 1/4 inches long.
This side piece is 1 inch thick, the front piece is 1 3/8 inches thick. I cut out the patterns on a bandsaw.
The curved portion is carved. This is a sample foot out of poplar which is too flat, the curve needs to be larger. So I will alter the carving process.
The side and back feet are flat and can be sawed on the band saw. I cut the pattern out first and re-attach the pieces on the end and then draw the curves on the edge. I mount the foot perpendicular to the saw table with a jig I made years ago which keeps it straight a allows me to move it around. There is a screw in the back holding it on.
All done. Take the tape off the top.
One done. For the rear feet, I'll go over that later. For the front side feet I have to put a 45 miter on the front and glue it to the larger front foot.
Here is one completed foot. I like the carving on the front leg. It is bold like the original.
In this picture you can see the side and front foot mitered and glued together. I pre-glue the miter and let the glue soak into the end grain of the miter, then wipe it off and let it dry. This pre-conditions the miter so the glue stays in the joint.
I used a band saw to hog out the lower area of the foot where there is nothing behind it. The upper part is flat and has to be carved to the correct shape.
The miter is on the back corners so the 3/8 of an inch is exposed in the front and has to be carved off to make a good miter.
I mark a line where I want the curved part to begin and make a stop cut .
I put the foot under the chest and trace the edge of the chest on the top of the foot. That is the line I need to carve to.
Now I need to remove large chunks of waste from the front.
Unfortunately, the grain runs back to front so carving is a little more difficult.
It doesn't take too long to get close to the edge. I switch to a rasp and files for the last 1/32 of an inch.
All cleaned up here.
Now to carve the curved part. It is curved front to back and side to side.
I go slow, checking the curve against the underside of the chest often.
This is what I want it to look like when finished.
Two done. Now for the back feet.
The back foot is just one inch thick as I viewed it from the picture in the magazine of the original. Mr. Chipman was stingy with the expensive mahogany.
It did not look strong enough to me. So I made a sub-foot out of poplar and dovetailed the corner.
The side is in the shape of the mahogany foot but slightly smaller.
I am going to glue the mahogany foot to the sub-foot to make a much stronger assembly.
Then this whole assembly will be glued to the bottom of the chest, along with glue blocks.
That is it for the curved bracket feet.
Next, I will glue them on and start work on the drawer fronts.
