Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

While I'm taking a break I thought I'd share this project with you guys. I have a few going, but this one is front and center because it's a Christmas present for my beautiful wife, Lisa. She already has a lingerie dresser but it's old and cheap and nasty and the drawers fit poorly. It looks nice, but it's a little small for all her stuff.

This one is going to be bigger, I'm thinking around 21" X 11" X 48" high. It's 3/4" rough cut kiln dried cherry that I planed and finished for this project and I'll stain it to match the bedroom furniture. It'll be easy to match it to the bed because I was told it's time for me to make that when I'm done with this.

Since I've started this project I've read, crammed, practiced, and learned a metric ton of new stuff. I bought a number of specialty furniture tools that I've been putting off, but I needed them to get this done the way I wanted it done. I've made it super heavy in Old English tradition, all wooden hardware, it'll last forever. It'll certainly be an heirloom piece that'll stay in the family for as long as I can imagine.

I can't think of much more to say, so I'll get to the pics and if you guys have any questions on the how's and what's, I'd be happy to answer. The obvious is for new guys is "Do you build humidors?" The answer is yes, I've built lots and lots. The reason I've pushed my workshop ahead to where it'd at is so that I can make some very exceptional humidors unlike anything that anyone has seen out there. As my skills progress I pick projects that take advantage of those skills so I can employ them in my goal at a later date.

So anyways, off to the pics...

Here's the drawings/schematics of the dresser. I designed it from scratch. With the software I use I can pull up the dimensions I need whenever I need them. The left center pic is with the drawers in, the right center is with drawers out so I can see the face frame parts...

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6E6166DE9F.jpg

This is the 3D model of the drawer fronts. It was more or less to get a look at what they'd look like and to make sure Weeze liked the design and look. The design is inpired by the dresser she had, sort of. I started with mimicry and then went off on a complete tangent, but in the same vein.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6E5A54D58C.jpg

The top is a drawer front I ran in poplar to see how it turned out. From there I made adjustments to the model height and placement, among other things. It was a good move. Had I not done it I'd have made a bunch of drawer fronts that were no good. The bottom front is the real deal. There are five more just like it.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6EF906303A.jpg

A couple pics of the drawer fronts being made...

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6E5044BDF0.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6E40F05182.jpg

More coming...

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

This is a shot of some of the face parts being cut on the Shopbot. I made most all the parts on the cnc, they turn out perfect. It takes a bit more time and there's a lot more head work and time spent in software on the computer, but it's really no different than cutting the parts on the table saw when you get right down to it.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6E34596D31.jpg

This is a pic of what I think is most of the parts sitting on my rolling bench. I believe I have two more base parts to cut to finish the carcass, then I'll begin the drawers when my tools get here. I'll need to cut a lot of pieces for inside the carcass, mainly drawer glader and support hardware. I'll need to make some support corners for the base, too.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6E4B0B8904.jpg

This is the last pic. This big piece will be the back of the dresser. I used biscuit joinery to put it together. The face parts will be mortise and tenon, while the drawers will be box joints (square dovetail). I may use some crazy geometric joints on the drawers if I have time to mess with the files I have for creating them. I may save that until later, it'd something I want to do with humidors.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6E553AD927.jpg

I'll try to remember to update this thread as I put the dresser together. It'll take me a few weeks at least, I'm hoping I can have it done before Christmas. :)

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looks good!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looks awesome Scott! Very beautiful!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

A couple more pics to show the wood. It's Cherry, borderline Gummy Cherry. The dark streaks are what make it "Gummy". I threw some water on the wood to show the figuring and whorls and all the stuff going on in the grain, but it doesn't show up real well.
These pics are of the same spot, just a different exposure to show different stuff.
Point is, the wood is absolutely gorgeous. I was thrilled when i found it as I was digging through piles at the sawmill. :)

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...7DF843A67A.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...7DE5B91A95.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Just awesome work, Scott.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looks intense from that grain. Very awesome find indeed! I hope everything turns out perfect, I'll be watching for updates! :-)

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

I am extremely dissapointed in the lack of lingerie in this thread!

:noon

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Awesome work brother.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Awesome looking project, Scott.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

this! Rad CNC thingy though.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

My new mortising machine came yesterday. I put it together and made a couple square holes. Today my tenoning jig arrived. I'm going to go put that animal together and see if I can make it work. That's gonna be a bit more challenging, I do believe.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

That's quite a set-up you have there! It's coming along nicely.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looking Great man I cant wait to see it when you are finnished

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Wow! In the words of my youngest son..."you got mad skilz!" Excellent!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Very cool Scott!!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

These are the very first mortises and tenons I ever made. I just ran a couple practice sets to give me a feeling for which way I should "cheat". With wood, you can't rely so much on measurements as you do on feel, or guesstimation, or experience, or some odd combination of all those things. I don't really know what you'd call it.
You get a feel for how your machines and jigs act, then use their "way" to your advantage, knowing they may push, pull, roll, or shove the wood. For instance, the mortising machine pushes the wood away from the fence, so I need to use a clamp. But that clamp can't be real tight or it warps the workpiece.
Anyways, the first two tries turned out perfect on the first shot. A little tighter than I wanted, but perfect.
I got overly concerned about maintaining this tightness and made all the next tenons too big and the mortises too small. I had to spend some time chiseling the mortises and ran the tenons through the table saw again.
These little tiny joints are much harder to make than bigger joints, so as I do more and more I'll get better and better.

The first pic is of the first mortise and tenon joints I ever made, my practice ones.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...F2F0A8DEC8.jpg

This is the assembled front of the dresser, the area that will receive the drawers. Each crossmember has a tenon on each end (male joint) and the long side pieces have a series of mortises (female joints) to accept the tenons.
The math was furiously difficult initially, so I changed up and worked from center, relying on my schematics to make things a lot easier.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...F2E5FE3EE9.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Awesome Scott, from that angle thou the front looks super tall

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Yeah, it does. I didn't even notice that. :)
I was carrying the frame around and thought it'd make a nice ladder, but only for about a second if my fat ass stepped on it. :D

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Don't make Scott wear his teddy while working on this. Nobody wants to see that. :r

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

I saw those drawer fronts and the first thought that came through my head was... man those would look GREAT in a wineador!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Wow, some custom drawer front would be killer in a nice Winador!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

I decided to clamp up the carcass to make sure everything was copacetic before I started with the biscuit jointer. Shockingly, everything is square and it all stacks up nice. It's not perfect, but I'm starting to come to grips with "I'm not building a nuclear powerhouse here" and I can let minor imperfections go. Nobody else would ever notice, and it sometimes takes me five minutes to see something that I know is there. I'm THAT bad. :D
So, here's a pic...

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...59DFD4951C.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Very nice!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

That's is awesome work I love those drawer fronts.. they look amazing!!!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

wow.... wow

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

I glued the whole carcass up and clamped it to death. The fitment was awesome, I only had one little problem with the back curling out on one bottom. I clamped the trouble right out of it.
Now I came to the computer to make my last two base pieces. I'll get the mitres cut on them and get the biscuit joints ground in them and they'll be ready to install as soon as I take the clamps off this thing.
I'll continue sanding those damn drawer fronts, they've taken an incredible amount of time already and aren't but maybe half done.
I need to get the base on this carcass so I can set the whole thing aside and get my shop back. I'll need the whole area and every tool in the world to make the drawers. Soon I'm gonna have to figure out how I'm gonna make them. :)

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...FD2399E05B.jpg

Here's the goofy box jig for making finger joints.
I watched the video 3 times already and it's still a bit confusing. That'll iron out when I make up a test box.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...00E2DE83A7.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Scott, I think you are gonna need to make me drawer fronts someday for a big wineador! The concept is in my head now. This current project is looking really sharp!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

That'd be awesome, Shane!!! :)

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

A few update pics...

Here's an example of the box joints for the drawers. I bought a new jig that does an excellent job and speeds things up dramatically.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...5A8BCBF4C3.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...5A8FF9A820.jpg

I stained the carcass, two coats. Today I put the first coat of poly on it and started staining drawer fronts. I also have 5 of the drawers put together and I'll get the last one done before the football game.
Here's a couple shots of the color, it turned out awesome. Weeze and I are both really pleased. The second pic is a pretty good representation of the real color, it's a nice, deep, dark cherry.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...5A85CB8B09.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...5A7F1F80F1.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

I love the grain in that wood. It's looking really good Scott.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

I'm always amazed with people who can build such beautiful things. My stupid hands are only good for stuffing food in my face and punching a keyboard.

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looking stellar, Scott! Don't get all hopped up on fumes. :)

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looks awesome Scott! Very well done!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Wow, looks great!!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Caught a few minutes of Weird Science the other day, and had a thought. Scott, when you're through with this project, can you build me a Lingerie Un-Dresser? :tu

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Scott that is coming out awesome brother!!!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Ooooo, Kelly LeBrock. She was smokin hot with all them big lips and big 80's hair. Thanks for that, Thomas!!! :D

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Por nada, brother. And that dresser looks real nice. :tu

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Awesome work :tu

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

The drawer hardware came today, I'm taking a break then I'll start putting it in.
Just a few pics...
The first is the fronts after the first coat of stain. 15 minutes on each one. I'll match them to the dresser and put a second coat on as necessary, adjusting how long I leave the stain on.

The second pic is the drawer glides. I managed to find face and rear frame brackets that work with the glides, it'll take a whole day of work off the project and only cost about 25 bucks. If not for the brackets I'd have to build out the sides on the inside to receive the glides. I'd have to plane each piece of 24 pieces for a custom fit. That sucks. This is WAY better. :D

The last pic is the drawers all glued up, bottoms in, sanded and ready to put in. They came out far better than I imagined and were so easy to square up that it was a pleasure.

I'm gonna put the second layer of poly on the carcass this evening, I already sanded it out. It'll be 100% finished at that point. Everything else is made, and the project is just about done.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6EB5279C0F.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6DF524C87A.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6DF9885C49.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Yesterday I stuck the drawer fronts on temporarily to mark them for gluing.
Today I glued up the drawers and put the knobs on.
All I have left to do is a little touchup sanding to take grubby fingerprints off the drawers, stain the backsides of the drawers to clean that up, re-install the drawers, fine tune them and add some more screws in the glides.
I'd like to finish it all now but I really need to leave the drawer front glue to dry. I'm gonna go read and wait till tomorrow, I think.
Anyways, a couple more pics...

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...5C2A74FA32.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...26368E00EE.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...262FF3961D.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Scott this is phenomenal! Brotha, a true work of art if I dare say so!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

I can wrap this up now, pics aren't going to show anything more of what I'm gonna do.

This whole thing was a lot of fun. It was actually just practice. It was a perfect project to design from scratch from software to tooling to jigs. I learned a TON and I'm honestly just as shocked as anyone that it turned out so great.

Woodworking is something I've always loved, and it's been my dream to have a badass shop where I can create anything I want. I need a lot more years of practice before I'll be happy with my skills, and I have volumes more to learn. That's what makes it fun. :)
I need to build a king-size four post bed next. I have no clue how I'm going to make it, but I have a lot of parts and pieces and strategies in my head already. That stuff usually comes to me when I'm driving. It's when I figure out most everything mechanical I'm doing.

Before I step into the bed thing, I need to make a little presentation piece in a hurry. It's a top secret thing for now. I might bang out a humidor, but I'm not very inspired to that end just yet. I'd like to do a few other things before I mess with that.

I hope you guys enjoyed this thing!!!
shilala out.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...6090E9AF72.jpg

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

simply beautiful Scott!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Gorgeous piece!!!!

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looks great

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

WOW... REALLY Nice work Scott... :tu

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Looks great brother :tu She is going to love it!

Are you an oak man, Scott?
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...odX/MrWolf.png

Re: Project Of The Day : Lingerie Dresser
 

Seems like an oak man to me... :r

I look forward to seeing that Bed Scott... :tu