Bombe Chest - Drawers are Difficult - Fifth Installment

Up to this point I thought I had tackled the difficult parts of the project.  But the drawer fronts and sides where a real challenge.

The only drawer that was a rectangle was the first drawer.  That's where I started. It still had the serpentine curve but that was not that difficult.  I traced the pattern from the drawer blade on to the bottom of the drawer and cut out the rough pattern on the bandsaw and then used a spokeshave to do the shaping.

Above is the second drawer,  this begins the more difficult drawers.  First the 3 inch thick block is cut to a parallelogram.  The lower part of the drawer front sticks out further than the upper.

Then the sides are curved to match the sides of the bombe chest and fit into the drawer opening.  As you can see with the second drawer above.

Then I was able to trace a line on the drawer front top and bottom to match the upper and lower drawer blade curve.  The curve on the front is in two directions.  Serpentine from side to side and bowed from top to bottom.   I tilted the table on my bandsaw to match the angle on the front and sawed out the bulk of the material.

Then I used the Stanley Scrub plane, Compass plane and spokeshave to shape the drawer front.

Once I had the pattern on the front I used a compass to follow the curve and mark the back with a pencil line.  Then I used the bandsaw to cut the pattern on the back of the drawer to 7/8 inch thick.
I did not clean up the back of the drawers as much as the fronts.

Above I am marking out the third drawer to repeat the process of bandsaw and shape.

Above the third drawer front roughed out with the band saw.

 Finished shaping the 3rd one,  Getting ready of saw out the last drawer.  Notice how the 4th drawer blank is now a different trapezoid shape.

The four drawer front are fitted and shaped that this point.  There is still more clean up to do.

Now for the drawer sides and dovetails.  I made the sides thicker then necessary about 1 inch thick and dovetailed  them together.  Then I shaped the sides of the drawers to fit the bombe chest sides.

Of course some drawer sides are concave and some are convex.
Cutting the dovetails was difficult but I practiced on some scrap until I got it right before I cut them on those drawer fronts.  I was not going to ruin the drawer fronts.  Way too much work to make them over again.

All done with the drawer fronts, sides and the dovetails.

Now I am in the home stretch.  I need to carve the ball and claw feet and then do the finishing.
So the next installment we will have completed the bombe chest.

Hope you enjoy it.

David