small cherry dresser for finish room

3 drawers,full extension slide, bought a whole bunch of a brand called Tru-trac. will be all solid maple(maybe some other assorted white hardwoods) machine dovetailed drawers.
I purposely made it a bit on the beefy side, as I like the look.
Solid cherry flat panels, 3/8th thick.
Top will be solid 1 inch cherry, back will be 1/4 inch ply, whatever I have around, drawer bottoms will be either 1/4 inch birch ply with a support down center, or 1/2 ply with no support. I have to check the shed, I believe I have a large piece of ply, just not sure what thickness.
All mortise and tenons.
I need to sand everything, rabbet out for the back, and turn around the front stretchers, as I put the bad sides foward(didnt use backer board when I cut the tenons, got a bit of tearout on 2)
This is where Im at.
Im way ahead of my build schedule, nice for me.

Ive accepted a space, 940 sq feet, 20 minutes from my home, for a new shop.
The current tenant isnt leaving until end of march or april, and the landlord wont throw him out, its a friendly rental, so Ill have to wait until he vacates.
400 amp service, Ill be able to get a larger jointer and planer.

This might be my last project in my garage, or next to last.
 

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well allen that wont sag:) those rails are HEAVY,, looks to be 5/4 maybe 6/4.. sounds like that new shop space is gonna be great.. is it in a safe area so you wont have to worry about crooks?
 
to be honest, I dont think there is anywhere on this planet that can actually be called safe.
Good neighborhood, the owner has had his partime business there for 15 years, and hes only been robbed by previous cotenants.(woodworker/contractor, go figure)
Theres no alarm, but it borders an active 24 hour a day truck lot. (utility company)
 
after playing around and wasting time with the small little side table,(after putting on some oil, the screw hole errors just didnt look right for me) even trimmed up blanks to make 2 new legs, I gave one more try to cover up the holes from the pocket screws, came up with this, pegged tenon look, walnut plugs, put some oil on it to see how it looks, not actually finished, but I cant use oil (smell) for the next few days as Im having alot of people over.
I think Im not going to take it apart and put on new front legs. The walnut dots dont bother me as much as the patched up holes.
 

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I decided to use all the shorts and strips of maple and birch I had left over from the closet doors to make solid wood drawers for the dresser.
Afterall, they are inside and wont be seen, so why worry about uniformity, besides, with some poly, it will go unnoticed.
Still working out the dovetail jig problems, seems the more I try to fine adjust it, the more I get off, so I have a few with tiny gaps, but again, not worth addressing, or maybe a drop of colored epoxy before I apply finish. The drawer glueups and dovetails took me longer to make 3 drawers then the entire dresser.
Seems I measured the thickness/tenon/mortise off on the top stretcher and there is a 1/16 th gap.
I cut a fill strip to glue on to cover it.
First time Ive ever used full extension slides. Nice, I like them.
I purchased a brand called trutrac, at 6 bucks a pair for 100lb slides, 18 inches, I felt it was a good buy.
Rabeted out and used chisel to square out for back.
Now comes my nightmare, I have to make inset drawer fronts. If I dont like the fit in the end, Ill just switch to overlay drawer fronts.(easy way out, Im no glen, rennie,larry or gary)
Overall, Im completely satisfied with this piece. Way ahead of my build schedule as this was supposed to take me into spring.
Sorry about the couple blurry pics, shaky hands today, had to stop working.
btw, you can see in the drawer boxes how many different woods I used, even some nicely figured maple on one.

I strongly recommend to any beginner or intermediate woodworker, to build a solid wood something, with solid wood drawers, because its a nice experience as far as mixing hand and power tools.
 

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allen on the dove tails, is the side materiel the same thickness as the frnts? looks like you needed to set your router a touch shallower.. the best way to get them to look good is take some scrap the same thickness as what you are using and make some and try it then go and make the changes needed to get them right and then write that down.. a little adjustment goes along way on a jig allen..
 
I cut the same width of pine, since I wanted to set the pattern and center the fingers on the jig.
The pine was 3/4 dimensional, and I have a feeling that tiny difference might have made the difference.
I should have ran the pine through the planer to make sure it was exact thickness to my maple pieces.

my wife made my life easier tonight, she thinks the drawer fronts should match the desk and nightstand and not be inset(flush as she calls it)
That will save me half a days work with hand planes. (Ill only have to rout an edge on them now)

I took advantage of the storm with strong winds outside tonight, I was able to go out for an hour or so and do some cutting to size up the fronts. No noise issues.
 
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the dresser is just about finished.
2 coats waterlox original, brushed on then wiped down.
1 coat of waterlox gloss, brushed then wiped.
Ill let it sit a few days then very lightly sand down any nubbies off the finish, then probably put another coat of gloss on the top only, or maybe just a few coats of wipe on poly, since my wife wants the top to match the desk top and have a high gloss finish. Ill wet sand it with 600 grit in the end, then buff the top to a nice sheen.

It was a cold morning here in the north east, -3 windchill this morning, only 12 degrees.(I forgot to turn on shop heat this morning when I went for my walk, the shop wont warm up for hours)
Id work a bit more today on shop reorg, but my nurse is showing up shortly, one more day of infusion and Im done for the month. I dont dare tell her or my wife I was out in the garage this morning putting the back and top on the unit as Im supposed to take it easy in between days of infusion.(, like what? what else could go wrong with me)
some pics where Im at, and where Ill be later today.(my wife calls my IV pole Olive Oil, my girlfreind)

Im going to devote every day the rest of this week and early next week to shop cleanup, finally getting all my hardware sorted out and into the correct cabinet bins. Put away and sort out all the junk and mish mosh stuff, then make another work bench.
When I finish that, I need to make at least 3 sets of adirondack chairs and get that out of the way. My wife keeps promising them out and Im just reluctant to work with pressure treated pine anymore, since its a real dust maker indoors for me.

*one note-the drawer that slipped on me in the dovetail jig, I had to cut off the a top portion of a pin on one end of the back, but the other end was fine, since it slipped, the pins were off.
I wasnt sure whether I should just recut another drawer, or just take some wood and cut fillers, but my wife and daughter(daughter will take this entire room furniture when she moves into her own home, thats the plan, a kids room)both think since its the bottom drawer and just about will not be seen, unless ofcourse you like to open dressers and look at the bottom of the back of the bottom drawer.
And thats that.

my wife would kill me if she knew I showed a picture and the bed wasnt made in the background. sorry about the mess.
 

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That came out very nice Allen. The cherry panels are beautiful :thumb: Like you, after switching to building with pretty much nothing but cherry and maple I find woodworking so much more rewarding.

I built a quick and easy pine toy chest for a step-grandson just before Christmas and it felt nowhere near as sturdy or was as much fun to build and finish as hardwoods.

The only thing that I would do different on your dresser would be to put some type of decorative edge on the top or a length of molding under the lip. Just because it would match the furniture in my house.

I heading out to the store today to find some Waterlox. You work comes out so nice I want to give it a try.
 
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