Sawdust on the Floor

We needed a small dresser for one of our bedrooms and made the rounds of the local furniture stores to no avail. We even tried the unfinished wood stores and there the selection was even worse. So being a woodworker, I decided to make it myself.

Hey, how hard could it be to make a dresser? Since the dresser was going be painted, the carcass is made entirely of ¾” birch plywood. There are rabbets in both the top and bottom to accept the sides. There are also three horizontal rabbets in each side to hold the dust panels.

I have seen plans where a whole piece of plywood is used for the dust panels, I prefer to make dust panels out of ¾” stock, 2 “ wide.  I join the corners with pocket screws, and simply rabbet in a ¼” slot for a piece of ¼” plywood.

I used to cut rabbets on the table saw, using a Dado Blade, but I found that It was just too easy to make an error. If the lay out was off even an 1/8” on opposing sides, the project would be out of square. I now cut the rabbits using a Plunge Router with a 21/32″ rabbeting bit designed to match the actual size of ¾” plywood.

Using an All-In-One Clamp as a straight edge guide for the router, I cut the rabbets in several passes. Making several passes is easier on the bit, makes a smoother cut and is less likely to wander from the guide.

A word to the wise, check that the All-In-One Clamp is square to the board. I add an additional clamp to both ends of the All-in-One to keep it square.

Now came the fun part, adding the detail to take this from the plywood box, to something I would want in my home. Since I had used plywood for top, bottom and sides, I had to cover the exposed ends. I played around with several ideas until I came up with the edge detail, shown here.

I took pieces of stock and milled them to the 21/32“ thickness of the pywood, then I cut those pieces to a width of ¾”. Running both the top and bottom edge of the pieces across the shaper with a 1/2″ round over bit , gave me the nice rounded front edge.

Remember I said I tend to make things more difficult for myself? Here is a classic example. I liked the rounded over edges, but was not happy with the ends. I tried to cope them together, but that did not work  and then I decided to cut them off at an angle. Problem was the largest angle I can safely cut on the miter saw is just over 45 degrees. I figured I needed something around 70 degrees, to look right.

My solution; I clamped a piece of scrap plywood to the table of my miter saw. However, before I attached it, I cut the end to 45 degrees. Holding my stock tight against the plywood and the saw set to cut at 25 degrees, I got my 70-degree cut.

I used the same size cut stock for banding around the bottom of the dresser. The corners were mitered and attached to the carcass with pin nails. I used Spring Clamps to hold the miter tight until the glue had set.

Along the top, I again used the same size stock but left it flat. After attaching it, I used the router this time with an Ogee bit, to give the top a decorative edge. To make sure the Ogee is even across the entire piece, make sure to sand the trim piece flat with the top before you route the decorative edge

Next came the feet.  After trying different ideas, we settled for these. They’re shop made. The process is easy but slow and involves a bit of set up.

The cove on the feet was the hard part. Since I don’t have a shaper bit that big, I had to use an older method I learned from my father-in-law. His method is to use the table saw.

The concept is that instead of moving the wood thru the blade straight, you move it across the blade at an angle. The angle and the height of the blade determine the size of the cove. Since this is somewhat hard on the blade, you will have to make many passes, raising the blade just a very small amount on each pass.

I have seen people using this method only using one guide strip, but I like to use two.  I feel it is just safer. I used the old trial and error method to set up the cove, however I have recently found an easy to follow method to cut the cove. See Techniques- Cutting Cove Molding on a Table Saw .  One thing I found out the hard way;  make extra lengths. And if you are making more then one board length, be sure to move each piece across the blade before you move the blade up.

It takes a little tinkering to get the right angle, but stick with it. If you hear the motor start to slow down or the cut is hard, you are taking too big of a cut, lower the blade. The smaller the pass, the smoother the finished cut and the less sanding you will have to do. One very important thing on cutting the curve,
USE YOUR PUSH STICKS!!

Finish up the cove with a set of Goose Neck Cabinet Scrapers.. The scrapers will remove any saw blade marks left in the cove.  Follow up with either a dowel rod wrapped with sand paper, or contoured sanding form, depending on the size of the cove.

After I had enough stock cut and sanded, I added the decorative cuts on the face using the band saw. The corners were mitered and glued. The 90-degree feet are on the front corners only. Glue blocks were added to the back of the feet to add stability to them. The feet were then attached to the bottom of the dresser using screws thru the glue blocks.

I had used my pneumatic nail gun to attach the trim pieces; these holes need to be filled. I have found that “quick patch” intended for sheetrock, works great for small holes on any painted surface.  Apply it with your finger; a very light sanding is all that is required.

Now in the final stretch, the only thing left was to paint it. So the piece was sanded, primed and a good quality Latex paint was applied. The finish was the right color, the finish smooth enough, but it was too bright. I don’t know were the idea came from, but the simple solution was to wash the entire dresser with “Murphy’s Oil Soap”, and a very mild abrasive pad. This took the edge off the finish, softened it.

So, was it worth it?   I think so.

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