06-22-2014, 10:29 AM
A guy asked me to create a copy of a cherry bedside cabinet, part of a whole suite of furniture he bought about 20 years ago. He only bought one bedside cabinet at the time but has moved to a larger house with a larger bedroom with room for two. The company that made the furniture, like many, has closed so he asked me to make a copy. Here they are:
The original was reasonably well made but with no thought to grain or color matching. I just couldn't bring myself to do the same, although it would have been a more faithful reproduction. I used a single piece of wood for the drawer fronts, where they used two. The same thing with the maple drawer sides.
One of the nice things about copying a piece of production furniture is you can learn things about how they streamlined the process. For example, there is a little rabbet on the front edge of the sides, where it meets the front stile. I'm sure they did that so they didn't have to be so careful afterwards to trim/sand the stile exactly flush with the side.
Similarly, there are triangular glue blocks inside the case that hold the stiles to the sides. Not only do they reinforce that joint, but they assure the joint is 90 degrees during glue up.
The previous photo shows a curious detail. I call them the dovetails to nowhere. The bracket feet have dovetails cut in them, but the tails are really just filler pieces. The dovetails were 7/8" x about 12 deg. and I don't have that size bit, so I cut them on the table saw and cleaned them up by hand. With only six to make it wasn't very hard.
The inside construction looks conventional with web frames dadoed into the sides, but it's really not.
The front and back rails are not mortised or dovetailed into the stile or side. The front ones have an L shaped cutout that fits around the back of the stile and it is held to the stile with a screw. The back rail is not mechanically held to the sides at all. As I pondered what held the case together I realized it was the bracket feet at the back, which was screwed to the sides as well as the back rail. At the top, it literally was the top, which was held to the sides by a cleat screwed to both and to the back rail with a couple more screws. I used a couple of loose tenons instead. Of course, the back helps hold it all together, too; they used staples, I used screws.
The drawers ride on center mounted dovetail guides with a mating piece fitted under the drawer bottom, and little plastic guides at the ends of the rails, just like the original.
I was able to find the exact lock/key used on the original, but I could not find the drawer knobs so I turned them, maple, just like the originals. They were kind of fun to make and I learned that they could be cut with nothing more than a 1/2" gauge and a skew. I think it took 20 minutes to turn the first one, which I threw away, and about 5 minutes or less for the last one. I'm sure someone who knows how to turn could make them in less than a minute. I made a template from one of the originals to check against my work as I turned them.
The cherry came from a tree a couple miles from my house and I got a couple of logs from it that I sawed into lumber nearly 10 years ago. It twisted and cupped pretty badly during drying so it was impossible to use it for a project needing long or wide pieces. This was the perfect project where I could use some of it. The drawer fronts were about the only pieces that I could squeak that width at 3/4".
As I discussed the finish with the owner we first decided that I would just finish it with clear coat as had been done on the original, and let it catch up as it aged. In the end, I decided to help it along by shooting it with a couple of light coats of Sealcoat shellac with some Transtint dye, before top coating it with 4 coats of EnduroVar semi gloss. I hope he approves. The knobs were dyed with a different mix of Transtint and finished with Arm-R-Seal. The inside of the drawers were wiped with Sealcoat shellac and sanded smooth afterwards.
John
The original was reasonably well made but with no thought to grain or color matching. I just couldn't bring myself to do the same, although it would have been a more faithful reproduction. I used a single piece of wood for the drawer fronts, where they used two. The same thing with the maple drawer sides.
One of the nice things about copying a piece of production furniture is you can learn things about how they streamlined the process. For example, there is a little rabbet on the front edge of the sides, where it meets the front stile. I'm sure they did that so they didn't have to be so careful afterwards to trim/sand the stile exactly flush with the side.
Similarly, there are triangular glue blocks inside the case that hold the stiles to the sides. Not only do they reinforce that joint, but they assure the joint is 90 degrees during glue up.
The previous photo shows a curious detail. I call them the dovetails to nowhere. The bracket feet have dovetails cut in them, but the tails are really just filler pieces. The dovetails were 7/8" x about 12 deg. and I don't have that size bit, so I cut them on the table saw and cleaned them up by hand. With only six to make it wasn't very hard.
The inside construction looks conventional with web frames dadoed into the sides, but it's really not.
The front and back rails are not mortised or dovetailed into the stile or side. The front ones have an L shaped cutout that fits around the back of the stile and it is held to the stile with a screw. The back rail is not mechanically held to the sides at all. As I pondered what held the case together I realized it was the bracket feet at the back, which was screwed to the sides as well as the back rail. At the top, it literally was the top, which was held to the sides by a cleat screwed to both and to the back rail with a couple more screws. I used a couple of loose tenons instead. Of course, the back helps hold it all together, too; they used staples, I used screws.
The drawers ride on center mounted dovetail guides with a mating piece fitted under the drawer bottom, and little plastic guides at the ends of the rails, just like the original.
I was able to find the exact lock/key used on the original, but I could not find the drawer knobs so I turned them, maple, just like the originals. They were kind of fun to make and I learned that they could be cut with nothing more than a 1/2" gauge and a skew. I think it took 20 minutes to turn the first one, which I threw away, and about 5 minutes or less for the last one. I'm sure someone who knows how to turn could make them in less than a minute. I made a template from one of the originals to check against my work as I turned them.
The cherry came from a tree a couple miles from my house and I got a couple of logs from it that I sawed into lumber nearly 10 years ago. It twisted and cupped pretty badly during drying so it was impossible to use it for a project needing long or wide pieces. This was the perfect project where I could use some of it. The drawer fronts were about the only pieces that I could squeak that width at 3/4".
As I discussed the finish with the owner we first decided that I would just finish it with clear coat as had been done on the original, and let it catch up as it aged. In the end, I decided to help it along by shooting it with a couple of light coats of Sealcoat shellac with some Transtint dye, before top coating it with 4 coats of EnduroVar semi gloss. I hope he approves. The knobs were dyed with a different mix of Transtint and finished with Arm-R-Seal. The inside of the drawers were wiped with Sealcoat shellac and sanded smooth afterwards.
John
