Hi Folks,
My current project is a Chippendale style four drawer chest with quarter columns and ogee bracket feet. I am currently in the design stages and need some help on the thickness of the stock to use for various parts. What I need to know is how thick the finished board should be that I use for the top, how thick should the case sides be when finished, how thick should the drawer blades and drawer dividers be, and how thick should the stock be that I make the ogee bracket feet from? In case it is important, the construction techniques that I am using is from Will Neptune’s article on pg. 36 of Fine Woodworking issue #163. Thanks in advance for the help.
Replies
You should be able to scale those dimensions from drawings in the magazine. You only need one or two measurements to be given, and then you can work out the proportions from those. An engineers triangular rule can be useful to give fine divisions to give some precision to the scale. The ogee bracket feet will need at least 8/4 stock (and I've seen some from 12/4). I've also seen some with 5/4 or so of primary wood, laminated to 6/4 secondary wood.
jp,
Try to get 7/8" out of
jp,
Try to get 7/8" out of the stock for case parts. If your 4/4 stuff is reasonably flat, you ought to be able to. Any less than that, and it'll look skimpy. The top I suppose could be thinner, if you apply a mold to the top rather than work the mold onto it, it won't show.
I've seen a lot of old work with thicker mat'l in the case and drawer blades, if the stuff isn't 7/8", then 1" is the next most common. You'll need 5/4 rough stock to get 1" finished of course.
And the graduation of the drawers' depths might have an impact on the thickness of the blades, if you want the thickness of the blades to equal the decrease in depth at every drawer. Another thing is if the blades have a cockbead worked on them, instead of applied to the drawers edges, a beaded blade ought to be an inch thick, or it looks skimpy.
I've never needed more than 8/4 stuff for the most robust ogee feet, unless for a blockfront, or a serpentine front chest where the shaping of the front extends to the feet. But that depends on the original you are basing yours on. Some of the old makers were quirky about things like that. For example,John Shearer, in the lower Shenandoah Valley, working around 1800, used incredibly thick stock for his work, and 12/4 wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for him. Some of his feet look like bridge abutments.
http://www.chipstone.org/specialprojects/cwsf/cwsf-27a.html
A scaled drawing will help you work out many of the questions you have; it is worth the time to make one, it's easier to make a line on a piece of paper thicker, than a board!
Ray
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