Modern Country Dresser

Overview:

This was my first piece of hardwood furniture. It is a 9-drawer dresser about 6 feet wide. My landlord called it an "albatross," LOL. 

Materials:  

Frame: Random pieces of hardwood in my shop- some oak, some alder, some unknown varieties

Fronts and Top: Alder

Sides and Drawers: 1/4 in and 1/2 in plywood

Time: 

6 months (weekend warrior style)

Major Challenges and Lessons Learned

1. Drawer Slides- these were so difficult to get into the correct positioning and aligned with the opposite slide. They still need to be adjusted, although they are functional.  

Lessons Learned: A) Don't buy used drawer slides. If you do buy used, make sure that they have mated them, not just jumbled all left drawer slides into one bunch. B) Buy a mounting jig, perhaps this will make the process go smoother. 

2. Twisting board movement when using Craig Jig- The boards moved slightly when attaching the frame together. It was a major challenge to both position and screw in the screws at the same time without the board twisting out of place. Also, we bought square head screws that were metric length and odd diameter sizes, this made the driving extra difficult.

Lessons Learned: A) Buy Craig brand screws when possible. B) Have extra bits on hand, specifically long bits. C) Find a way of clamping the boards so that they don't move, or position the piece on a table so you are screwing from the top, not horizontally or from the bottom upward.

3. Drawer Fronts- This is a challenge that I did not expect. It was easy to make them and then stain and finish them, but the attaching and squaring was extremely difficult. Getting them to look straight to the piece as well as have even spacing created a problem. This was due to the piece not being exactly square to its frame as well as the piece not being exactly the same width in places. This was also connected to the 4th major challenge below. 

Lessons Learned:  A) Create a template or second face-plate to align the fronts with each other  (This might not work in aligning it to the frame/top of the piece itself, idk. B) Make sure the drawer width openings and styles are the same width apart before attaching the fronts or using these measurements.

4. Drawer Sizing- This was the largest and most obnoxious problem in the entire project. We accidentally didn't cut the drawer bottoms square and didn't find this out until the drawers were assembled and ready to go into the slides. We also mismeasured the size of the drawers, making them slightly too wide and then upon redoing them, slightly too narrow. We mitigated by adding wedges to increase the width enough for the drawer slides. This worked for a while, but two years later the drawers are not working well.

Lessons Learned: A) Measure, Measure, Measure again. Precision is key. B) Be as accurate with your math as you are with your measuring. Make sure to follow the directions on the drawer slides about clearance width.  C) Try different drawer construction designs.

Upon Reflection

This was a project that was very large in the scope of skills/tools as well as complexity. I learned so so much from doing this and really honed some of my skills. I found that I am very good at joining boards and love the finish work for the various sanding and staining tasks. I need to work on measuring more accurately and use clamps more when assembling. It was a physically large task for my small-sized shop and limited toolset. Now that I have collected more tools and will be moving into a bigger shop (Feb 2021) this type of project should be a little more feasible. I will start readjustment on this piece in the next couple of months after moving and settling in a bit. Overall, it turned out very well considering it is my very first piece of hardwood substantial furniture.