This page will describe the construction of a serpentine chest of drawers.

Here is my e-mail address. Send me a note with any questions.

grin@furniturecarver.com

Approximately 40" high, 48" wide and 23" deep

Red oak is the wood.

Since nearly the entire face of this cabinet is comprised of the drawer fronts themselves I made them first. I glued up a slab of 2" thick red oak larger than the entire face of this piece. This is the best way to be assured of good grain matching. From this slab I cut the individual drawer fronts and kept the order so they would not get mixed up in the front of the cabinet.

I cut the dovetails in the two outside banks using a router and dovetailing jig. The center bank needed the dovetail joint cut by hand due to limitations in the jig. After the dovetails were cut I sawed the curve into the front. Once these were sawn I clamped all the fronts in each bank together vertically and smoothed the fronts. This was done so the fronts all matched and the curve was consistent from top to bottom.

The next order of business is the carcase. Firstly, I made the front rails. Since the rails are 1/8" proud of the drawer faces I need a very precise way to get that protrusion. I made up a router bit similar to a flush cutting bit with the exception that the guide bearing is 1/4" larger than the cutter. After rough cutting the rail on the band saw I used the drawer fronts themselves as a guide and routed the finished curve into the edge.

The edge was a two step process. I cut the groove with a special router base and a 1/4" two flute straight bit.

After routing the groove I used a beading tool and scratch stock to cut the two beads. All of this was done before assembling each panel.

This is the exploded view of a panel. Tongue and groove construction and 1/4" plywood as the dust panels. The bridle joints are already cut to attach the six panels to the legs.

This is a close-up of the bridle joint as it fits into the leg.

The carcase members are in place in this picture. This is not glued up yet. All of the carcase ornamentation will be done before this case gets glued together. The legs have stop flutes and and the feet need to be cut into the lower legs.

The top of this chest has the two uppermost rows of drawers one inch proud of the lower drawers. The upper portion of the legs will receive a floral volute pattern in relief. The upper two rows of drawers will get a simple grape vine incised carving.

All the parts are made and sanded. It's time to glue everything together.

It's a nice set of parts, don't you think? This shot was taken just as the assembly was started. Some pieces are missing from this shot but six of the eight legs are present as well as one of the dust panels.

This picture was too much for me to resist. These are the four front legs prior to assembly. They are carved and sanded. Note the vine carving on the upper portion and the flower and v-groove in the foot. The foot is a spade foot. Stopped flutes run between the upper floral carving and the lower flower.

Midway through assembly. Five dustpanels are in place in this picture. The four innermost legs were put on first, then the outer legs, already glued to the end panels were added to each end as a unit.

All glued together with the drawers in place... I have decided to omit the incised vine carving I spoke of above here. Red oak has very bold and dominating grain and I think that this grain coupled with the serpentine curve of the front is enough for the eye to deal with when looking at this piece.

Finishing is next. I'll put a medium dark stain a bit heavy on red and then brush on three coats of Heirloom varnish. The first two coats will be high gloss for the clarity that high gloss offers and the last will be eggshell, a much flatter sheen that eliminates the "plastic" look without compromising the durability of a varnish finish.

Finished!