Building a Curved Front Corner Cabinet

[jteneyck]

I've been working on a curved front corner cabinet with a curved drawer front.  The piece is in the same style as an existing sofa table/cabinet.  It's hard to say what wood the existing piece is made with, but the grain looks like walnut so that's what we decided to use.  Of course I created a SketchUp model, but when I got to the point of actually building it I made a full size plan view to work from.



I built the mold for the curved rails and drawer front directly from the drawing.



The 3/4" laminations were made from 9 or 10 layers of shop sawn veneer and glued with PRG in the vacuum bag.



By covering the vacuum bag with two heating blankets I could get the temp. up to over 40° C and the cure time down to less than 3 hours. 

The rest of the lower base assembly looks like this:



I used shop sawn veneer over Baltic birch plywood to create all of the flat panels required:



I made templates to cut the radius front edges of the top and bottom, and shelf.  Gluing up the main carcass was an interesting dance to put the parts together in the right order so all the loose tenons would fit into their mortises.  I actually did it upside down to assure the top rail would be square to the sides.  This photo is prior to glue up so I could fit the fixed shelf to the sides.  



After I glued up the main carcass I made a tracing of the inside radius of the top rail, in case it was not exactly the same diameter as on the drawing or slightly out of round.  The drawer front has to follow the top rail to look right. 



And here's the basic cabinet almost done.



The shelf is adjustable in height using standard shelf supports. 

The drawer was more of a challenge to build than one would imagine by looking at it.  I actually laid out the sides and joinery directly on the fixed shelf and and built it off that.  It took some subtle trimming of the dovetails to get the sides to fit properly and pull up square where they meet at the back.  I glued the bottom in as I assembled the drawer.  The drawer rides on a single center undermount KV slide. 



So that's the cabinet.  Now comes the finishing, and getting a good color match has been quite a challenge.  I must have made at least 30 specimens over the past 3 days.  But I think I have it now - I think.  Stay tuned.

John

[MikeBob]

Nice work!!!!

[atgcpaul]

John, always fun to watch your builds.  Is there any support under the curve?  Is there any tendency for it to tip forward when the drawer is pulled out or if someone leans on the front edge of the cabinet?  Or maybe it's getting attached to something else?

[Steve N]

John, always fun to watch your builds.  Is there any support under the curve?  Is there any tendency for it to tip forward when the drawer is pulled out or if someone leans on the front edge of the cabinet?  Or maybe it's getting attached to something else?

First off nice work John.



The drawer looks to be 1/4 or less of the total weigh, so it will depend on what is put into the drawer. The fact it is wedge shaped really doesn't matter. A fully extended, and packed standard drawer also has great tip potential if the drawer weight is greater than the base. As with any possible tipper a wire attached from the back of the piece to a wall anchor is your standard fix. Being a corner cab, it just makes hiding the wire all the easier. John being an engineering type guy may have other ideas. I am not to old to learn

[AgGEM]

Very pretty.
Very well done.
Ag

[jteneyck]

Didn't take long for someone to ask about tipping.  Yes, it will tip forward if you lean on the front.  Because of that I added a center leg, not all the way up against the lower curved rail, but forward of a line between the front of the two legs.  That leg is just screwed to the floor base from above, so I can move it forward if I have to after I finish the cabinet and test it with the drawer pulled out and 20 lbs of stuff in it.  And, as was mentioned, I can always provide a wall anchor point at the back, but I don't think that will be necessary. 

John