Table Of Content

Chests W Cabinets and Editors of Fine Woodworking W Chests and Cabinets Editors of Fine Woodworking T Text © 2014 by The Taunton Press, Inc. Photographs © 2014 by The Taunton Press, Inc. Illustrations © 2014 by The Taunton Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Pp The TAunTon Press, Inc. 63 south Main street, Po Box 5506 newtown, cT 06470-5506 e-mail: [email protected] edITor: christina Glennon coPy edITor: candace B. Levy Indexer: Jay Kreider cover & InTerIor desIGn: carol singer | notice design LAyouT: cathy cassidy Fine Woodworking® is a trademark of The Taunton Press, Inc., registered in the u.s. Patent and Trademark office The following names/manufacturers appearing in Fine Woodworking Chests and Cabinets are trademarks: Accuride®, ApplePly®, deft®, Festool®, domino®, Forstner®, Freud®, Lee valley Tools®, Melamine®, Minwax®, Tried &True™, Waterlox®, Zinnser® Bulls eye®, Zinnser® Bulls eye® sealcoat™. LIBrAry oF conGress cATALoGInG-In-PuBLIcATIon dATA Fine woodworking chests and cabinets / editors of Fine woodworking. pages cm Includes index. IsBn 978-1-62710-712-9 IsBn 978-1-63186-019-5 (e-book) 1. chests. 2. cabinetwork. I. Fine woodworking. II. Title: chests and cabinets. TT197.F527 2014 684.1’6--dc23 2014017190 PrInTed In The unITed sTATes oF AMerIcA 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is complied from articles that originally appeared in Fine Woodworking magazine. unless otherwise noted, costs listed were current at the time the articles first appeared. ABouT your sAFeTy: Working wood is inherently dangerous. using hand or power tools improperly or ignoring safety practices can lead to permanent injury or even death. don’t try to perform operations you learn about here (or elsewhere) unless you’re certain they are safe for you. If something about an operation doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Look for another way. We want you to enjoy the craft, so please keep safety foremost in your mind whenever you’re in the shop. Acknowledgments special thanks to the authors, editors, art directors, copy editors, and other staff members of Fine Woodworking who contributed to the development of the chapters in this book. contents Introduction 3 Part oNe Chests and Cupboards • shaker Blanket chest 4 • hickory and Ash Blanket chest 14 • shaker chest of drawers 24 • classic storage cupboard 34 • Frame-and-Panel doors Made easier 42 • chimney cupboard 48 • Pennsylvania spice Box 58 Part tWo Sideboards and Consoles • Th e high Art of the Lowboy 70 • Arts and craft s on display 80 • Th e versatile huntboard 90 • sleek Tv console 100 • A Low console for home Theater 110 Part three Wall Cabinets • Wall cabinet in cherry 118 • A Better Way to Build Wall cabinets 126 • A vanity cabinet 134 Part Four Bookcases • Quick, sturdy Bookcase 143 • cherry and Fir Bookcase 151 • A classic Bookcase 159 Metric equivalents 167 contributors 168 credits 169 Index 170 2 Introduction one of the best things about Fine Best of all, you can get right to building. Woodworking magazine is the no need to worry or fret over design, or array of furniture projects we making prototypes to get a feel for scale offer. From simple mitered boxes to tables to and appearance. our expert builders and chests, we’ve done them all. designers have done it all for you, providing The hard part as a reader is waiting for tasteful takes on all types of chests and that perfect project to appear in one of our cabinets, from period-perfect pieces to one- six regular issues. That’s because we can fit of-a-kind, modern designs. only two or three projects in an issue, and you’ll get classic shaker designs for a we have to offer a variety of pieces. so over blanket chest, a chest of drawers, and two the course of a year we may do only one chest types of cupboards for your dishware. you of drawers, or one blanket chest. But with can build an Arts and crafts display cabinet Chests and Cabinets, you get a collection of or bookcase, or take on the challenge of a some of the best storage projects Fine Wood- vintage lowboy or Pennsylvania spicebox. working has published. you’ll even get great designs for wall cabinets our editors scoured the pages of the mag- and bookcases. And each project is loaded azine, looking for a perfect mix of projects with tips and tricks for getting the most out to meet all skill levels, and putting them all of both machine and hand tools, techniques in one place. With this complete collection, you’ll use down the road as you build more you’ll get detailed instructions and plans, and more furniture. paired with rich, informative photographs, I hope you have fun in the shop with these to guide you through each project. projects. now it’s time to get to work. —Tom McKenna editor, Fine Woodworking 3 Shaker Blanket Charles Durfee Chest The earliest storage chests were Match the dimensions to your hand-picked boards simple boxes made of six boards. As they evolved, a base, or plinth, Although the Shakers probably would have was added to lift them off the floor and give used painted pine, modern woodworkers them aesthetic appeal. Although molding the may prefer the natural look of fine wood. I edges created a more finished look, anyone used some excellent single-log Pennsylvania who used such a chest soon found that they cherry with lots of curl, nicely matched in had to fish around for small items that ended grain and color. up on the bottom. To solve this problem, You may need to adjust the overall dimen- furniture makers added first one drawer, sions if you want to use specific boards in and then two or even three drawers. Finally, particular places. In this case, I made the the lid was eliminated, leaving a full chest of overall height a bit less than planned so that drawers as we know it today. I could use an exceptionally fine single-width During the evolution from blanket box board for the front. You can lay out the to chest of drawers, the grain in the sides actual dimensions on a story stick, using one changed from horizontal to vertical. Many of face each for height, width, and depth. The the single-drawer versions exhibit an inter- story stick will give you all of the informa- mediate stage in this evolution, with vertical tion necessary to begin construction, so you grain in the sides nailed to horizontal grain won’t need any drawings. in the front, which probably is the only way After double-checking to ensure plan- they could be joined. In this piece, the older ning and layout make sense, mill and glue style with all horizontal grain is retained, the boards for the front, sides, back, top, which enables the front, back, and sides to and drawer front. Leave the inner bottom be joined with dovetails. As long as the sides oversize; it should be sized to just fit into its don’t get too tall, this is a superior form of grooves. In addition, you can make up the construction: Seasonal wood movement bottom frame-and-panel. Remove any dry results in the parts moving together, instead excess glue and flatten the boards using of against each other. planes or sanders and a straightedge. To save time, I take the parts to a local mill shop and run them through a thickness sander. With the case front, back, and sides cut to size, run the grooves for the inner bottom (on the front, the groove technically is a rabbet). (continued on p. 8) 4 SHAKER BLANKET CHEST 5