Dimensional Requirements: Cherry Chest
Evening, folks –
Mark here, a newbie. I’m planning on building a cherry seven drawer chest of drawers, basically Shaker but with a scrolled bracket base and more than simply half round molding. I’m planning to dovetail the carcasse and I’m wondering what thickness cherry I ought to plan on using for the carcasse. I’ve seen shop drawings for everything from 3/4″ to 1 1/8″. I want to stay as light as possible, but I don’t want it too light, obviously. I’m planning 3/4 inch drawer fronts if that makes a difference.
I haven’t seem any plans specifically for this piece, and I’m finding my own way on this project for the first time. (I’ve built simpler pieces from plans in the past) Any interesting reading, plans, or recommendations for a first time builder from scratch would be welcome.
Thanks.
Mark
Replies
3/4" thick ought to be fine. 1 1/8 would be way too thick and heavy, IMO.
Fitz,
I'm fairly sure 'Norm' has plans out there on the New Yankee Workshop web sight for the seven draw chest. He did build one on his show in a half an hour..so they must be easy to do...lol..good luck
Agree with the 3/4. If you're cutting dovetails in the sides for cross members, you could (not really neccesary, but could) bump up to 1" if you really want strength, but it's probably not a critical thing. This of course depends a lot on how it's designed. I built a cherry 7 drawer for my wife and it's all supported on 4 2" legs. The side panels float, the back panels float, and all the cross members are M&T into the legs. The upright drawer dividers are sliding dovetail. It's in your neck of the woods design wise, shaker / mission / Thos Moser influence.
Sorry BG, that was to fitz. And actually Norm did it in 18 minutes. Gotta account for the State Farm commercials. :-)
I'm doing (since July) a breakfront/sideboard/hutch, with a 30" high drawer base (on top of 6" of bracket and ball legs), 4 ft. wide, of cherry. I decided on about 15/16" for the carcase thickness. My top, bottom, and sides are all solid wood, dovetailed, with sliding dovetails for the dividers, front and back. Here is a preliminary pix of the carcase. Still under construction, as you can see. The thickness seems about right to me, for this piece. The basic techniques are from Bird's Pennsylvania Secretary article in FWW some months ago. This is my first piece built in a period style. Taste has no friends, of course.
In the pix, the edges of the drawers have maple cockbeading, which I hope will quiet down a bit with the finish. Drawers are veneer over 3/4" cherry, bookmatched flame cherry fronts, red maple backs, maple drawer sides and bottoms. Lipped drawers would have been a ton easier, I have learned. Cutting the rabbit for the cockbeads was nerve racking with much worry about chips in the veneer. Did it in two passes. Think this is the only time I have used two passes of a router for a cut only 1/4" by 5/16".
How about posting a Pix of your 7 drawer chest as it is coming along.
7/8ths... would be perfect.
Hey Guys -
Thanks for the responses. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness. I've poked around a bit, thought about it, and decided to go with 7/8 for the carcasse, as Chasstanford suggests. The curly maple original that my father owns is 3/4, more Chippendale than Shaker because of the figured wood and bracket base. Having both over-built and under-built pieces in the past, I think I'll try to err on the side of longevity here but hopefully not go overboard. I'll post a .jpg when it has taken shape enough to see something. I've stumbled into some great cherry of varying widths, much of it two-sided even and I am feeling a little daunted at this point at having such great material to work with. I start milling tomorrow. This is intensely cool.
Mark Fitz
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