Chapin High Chest of Drawers - Waist Molding Hollows & Rounds - Step 7

It is time to make the waist molding to finish off the lower chest.  I have a number of pictures of the waist molding profile from Yale and others from Will Neptune's study at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum. There are a few differences from each example.
I selected the one from Yale since that I the one that I photographed and measured. From the photograph I made a cardboard template of the profile.  It measures 1 3/16 wide by 1 inch tall.

I decided to make it with hollows & rounds. Doug Moulder came over and visited since he has more experience with hollows & rounds than I do, he was very helpful in getting ready and cutting the first one.

First we traced the profile on the edge of the board.  The board is wide enough for two pieces of molding.  Then with a dado blade in the table saw we cut steps in the molding to remove some of the material and create grooves for the hollows & rounds to follow.

Then we used a round plane to create the hollow or cove on the molding.

Then we used hollow planes to round over the corners and the shoulder to create the round portion of the molding.

Then we cleaned up the shapes with scrapers.

Lastly we used sand paper on the planes for shape with the blades removed to clean up the bumps on the molding.

With all of those steps we had one good piece of molding.

I decided to see if I could make a dedicated molding profile on an old plane that I had.  This did not save any time but I was curious if I could do it.
The old plane was given to me and it was quite a bit wider than I needed.  I cut it down on both sides and removed the pattern from the bottom of the plane.   Then I used hollows and rounds to make the profile on the bottom of the plane.
Then I cut down the blade and reshaped the profile to match the pattern on the bottom.  Then sharped the blade.
All of this took me about 2 1/2 hours, so this was not a time saver since I only need 3 more pieces of molding.

Now I was ready to test out the new molding plane

It worked pretty good. As long as the grain direction was good.  The last piece had the grain running the opposite way and it was terrible.

I still had to use the hollow plane on the edges to round over the front of the molding.

Now I had four pieces of molding that I could miter to the case. I only needed two pieces but I am sure I will make a mistake and need the extra pieces.

I had to decide how I wanted to position the molding on the case. From the pictures that I have of the four different chests each of the waist molding is positioned different.

As you can see below I have positioned the molding just about flush with the side.

I cut the miters and positioned the molding around the top of the case.  I clamped it in place and checked for square.  I now had the molding where I wanted it but I need to remove it to glue and nail it in place.
I temporarily tacked strips of wood behind the molding so the molding could be repositioned quickly as I was removing each piece to glue and nail.

I used hide glue and my 18th century pneumatic pin nailer to attach the molding.

Then I added more clamps to hold it in place until the glue dried.

This completes the construction of the lower case.  The drawers and quarter columns will be added later.
I can now accurately measure the inside of the waist molding to make sure the upper case fits snugly in the opening. I do not plan on attaching the waist molding to the upper case.

The next step is to begin work on the upper case.

Here is today's video: