The Next Chapter...

…hopefully Week 10 will bring the Nightstand to a close, as I need to get going on my special projects for the Cabinet on a Stand!

Monday was a busy day – got my cabinet all ready for glue up, with pre-clamping. And the glue-up was perfect, thanks to Nick as having a second pair of hands is so helpful with all the clamps.

Then I wet sanding on nightstand painted surfaces, to correct for some issues. Then will be back to Waterlox. I also touched up the drawer front with some sanding and another thin coat of shellac. should be ready for final waxing next week.

Also, today was a lot of time in the machine room, as there was a lot of milling to do. For example, rough milled the parts for the stand, like the legs, back panel parts, mid-base, etc. And being in the machine room is fun when you have a lot of stuff to do like that, really starting to get back into the groove from years ago – tons of fun!

Not sure I have shown the progress on the Shaker Nightstand in a while, but it is coming along. The top, and now drawer front, are waxed and done. And finalizing Waterlox coats on the stand.

Tuesday I unclamped the box and got out my drawing to finalize the leg design. Since I had some extra wood I played with the thickness a bit and chose the slight increase in the size (thickness) of the leg, which will make it look even better. So I have altered the design, but final now. Later in the week I will mill up the templates.

I also milled the door stiles and rails plus mid frame milling, sizing and then glue ears on to make boats before gluing up the frame tomorrow. Plus another coat of waterlox and did my drawer knob (cut hold in drawer front, which gave me the jitters)..

Many of the small milled parts like stiles and rails resting to adjust from a fresh rough mill.

Shelves and mid-frame in glue up clamps.

On Wednesday it was about prepping the shelves for a glue up, and then doing a glue up of the shelves (one in the case, another between the legs about a third the way up). Plus also another round with the nightstand…shellac and Waterlox!

Rails and stiles fit with tenon joinery compelte.

And with the door stiles and rails, worked on milling the rabbet plus milling for mortise and tenon joinery. And finally stiles and rails plus mortise and tenon joinery. And finally, the walnut panel parts are down in thickness to close to final thickness. They are holding up, staying flat, which is a relief. The milling on the front is losing just a smidge of the book match effect (almost unnoticeable but I see it). So will likely be the rest on the back, as I think that is so important to the design.

Working thru various options, and the one of the right is the final choice.

Transfer the final design to the template stock. BTW, the the flexible metal curve on the drafting table was a miracle, made it much easier to work out different shapes and to hold it over time and different drawing iterations.

Thursday was about taking my final leg design and transferring to ⅛ plywood to create a template for when I do the final shaping. I don’t get there until I have done the mortise and tenon joinery with the aprons, as everything needs to remain square to align the joints, then I will do the leg curves – will band saw to rough shape, and use rasps and the like to get the final shape, and the template will help to ensure I have four legs that are the same. 🧐

Leg design on template, ready for milling…and important to realize how much stock you need. For example, I need 2.5″ even though the max thickness at the top is 1.75″ and tapers to just 7/8″ at the foot.

And the template finalized and milled to a “fair curve” which is such fun, and I just love the shape…I know, it is the little things! 🙂

And as the week came to a close…we had a little free time!

Friday was Veterans Day! So we got the day off (allowed me to catch up on these blog posts). We wished Nick well and thanked for his service, as he is a Navy veteran.

Dateline: NBSS Three-Month Furniture Intensive, Nov 7-11 (Week 9)