G&G Inspired Dresser

glenn bradley

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In America terms like chest of drawers, dresser and lowboy get pretty loose. Although I present this as a 'Dresser', when I was growing up it was called a 'Lowboy'. Be that as it may . . . I have done these in cherry and mahogany; mine will be in walnut. It seems I've started a habit of making larger items for myself over the holidays. This works out as I can start and stop as events require. I imagine this will drag out well into next year as my projects always get lowest priority :dunno:.

This is the general appearance, designed to match my bedroom line. I made the tall chest of drawers for myself back in 2011-12.

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I use maple for the web frames. A stop block helps me make consistent length parts. The little short guy on the right in the right hand pic is a piece of cut-off scrap milled to the same dimensions that I will use as a dummy to setup for things like dados and half laps.

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I use a stop block to get the dados for the verticals in a consistent spot as well.

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The tenoning jig makes quick work of the half lap joints that I prefer for web frames. In the left hand pic you see the dummy block being used as a backer. I use web frames differently in that I attach them to the front of the carcass and float the rear of the frame versus the more traditional method of floating the tenon at the side-to-front junction. I'll touch on that more later when I get to the assembly . . . maybe Valentine's Day :rolleyes:.

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It always seems like there ought to be something to do with all the "cheeks" but, I digress. Using the web frame method I prefer, I have found things go much smoother if the frames are dead square. Therefor this looks a bit overkill but, to me, worth the little extra time.

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There are floating panels in the ends and I have been hideing this piece of figured walnut just for this piece. I didn't know it would take me a couple of years before I got the chance to use it.

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cont'd . . .
 
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One of the most enjoyable parts of building anything is material selection. I pile some up over here . . .

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I pile some up over there . . .

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I run "daylight" shop lights which have a lot of blue in them. This can make walnut look very different than it will look in your home as you can see in the pics above. When selecting material I bring out a couple of "standard" incandescent lamps.

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I need to resaw some stock for the side panel parts. My machines that can get in each other's way are on mobile bases. For this cut though, I kind of threaded the needle past the disc sander which for some reason I thought was funny so, here's some pics of that :D.

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I will template route the curves that result in the tsuba shape opening for the floating panels in the very-wide 'stiles' of the end panels. I draw the curve I'm after, bandsaw it close to the line and then fair things with a variety of hand tools. I cut a small notch and fill it with red pencil to show me the middle of the form.

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Once I think I have the shape faired out I trace it onto some paper to make sure I have a nice smooth look.

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cont'd . . .
 
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My dado jig comes into play to cut the "stiles" to accept the web frames. There's that dummy block helping me setup again in the right hand pic.

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I then hog out the majority of the waste in the area that will accept the floating panels. This is done at the router table with stops on some fence extensions I picked up on sale somewhere back in the annals of time.

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I trace the tsuba curves onto the parts, bandsaw them close to the line and then template route to near-final shape. My template routing jig is just a milled-true piece of white oak with various positions drilled to accept the clamps. The auto-adjust Besseys are the bees-knees for router template jigs :thumb:.

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And the parts end up looking sort of like this on the inside. The shot of the outside is just the rough parts laying in approximate position. These parts are joined with floating tenons. The Sketch Up drawing in the first post shows these (not very well) on the right side.

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I hope to have both end panels fully assembled before I knock off for some holiday activities. I'll get little spurts in on this through New Years and then hope to finish it up before next years projects get going. Thanks for tagging along.
 
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Oh, boy! Another Glenn project! When I feel better, I am gonna finagle a shop invite for a close-up personal look-see.

Now that is motivation to do my exercises and watch my diet.
 
This will be a great follow along:) perfect timing for me as I am starting my first dresser build thanksgiving weekend, so I will be following with great interest:thumb:
 
This is already a great thread, I will follow along for sure. The upper drawer divider looks tricky to build.

Bill

Thanks guys. The cloud-lift divider is a little involved but, you just break it down into steps. Here's a couple of shots from a tall chest with a similar structure.

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Ohhh I can smell the aroma in your shop from here. Thanks for posting another great project Glenn.
Hope to catch up to u once I have settled again. Shops on the move right now.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Well, I managed to squeak in a bit of time tonight before dinner. Any of you who have seen my other builds know I use a Mortise Pal for floating tenons quite a bit. They're quick, repeatable and line things up nicely. I am the first to chop out a couple mortises by hand but, when I'm looking at 16 as a start, I break out the jig.

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I went with 4 smaller tenons due to the profiles that will get cut out of these areas later in the build. These are just dry fit and as expected, I gotta run with only the lowers done :).

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Well Glenn, for a while I thought that you'd given up on G&G pieces but I'm happy to see that I was mistaken; these posts of yours are always added to my "favourites" folder.:thumb:

Thanks for taking us along with it.
 
I warned you guys I would be spoon-feeding you on this due to a lot of activity around this time of year. Disclaimer aside, you can see why the mortise jig comes in handy after 32 little mortises.

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Now I can dry fit these end panels, mark out the rest of the joinery, make the front and rear "frame" pieces (you'll get the idea when you see them) and glue these baby's up.

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I really wanted to get the trim pieces on as they are part of the structural strength of these side panel assemblies. Its interesting how many profiles are involved in these.

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They look like so when in position.

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I leave certain areas proud so that they can be worked back down to the mating parts. This makes things a little more seamless in appearance. This provides a clamping challenge so I take a strip of scrap from a previous operation and wrap it in packing tape. Now I can clamp without a problem. I use a couple pieces of the ever-present painter's tape to hold the strip in place. when I am gluing up I want as few variables as possible so I stick this thing in place.

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It looks like I have gone clamp-crazy here but, the trim has to be held snug in both directions. At the same time it is pretty delicate with the milling that removes all that material along the long grain. There are a lot of clamps but, the pressure is pretty light. I just use so many to distribute the lightweight force.

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I am surprised how often I reach for the "always-finding-another-use-for-them" torsion beams.

Edited to add a helpful tip. Many of us have determined the best way to deal with squeeze out that works for us. For those of you who have not yet decided . . .

I let the glue-up set for 30 minutes or so. I then remove any clamps that will be in my way and pare off the squeeze out with a chisel.

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I then put back the clamps and leave things overnight.
 
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