Garrett Hack is one of my most admired woodworkers.  Seeing Garrett’s hunt board article in Fine WoodWorking (FWW #187), this looked like the project I was looking for except with a few modifications to suit my skill level and taste.I followed Garrett’s dimensions exactly, as I think his proportions are graceful and well suited for this design. My project is made with bird’s eye maple for most of the case and, to add some contrast, cherry for the door panels and drawer fronts.

There is a lot of joinery in this piece, and seasonal wood-movement must be carefully considered for most of that joinery. He deals cleverly with this on the sides and back by doing a 3-part construction, with the center panel a sold piece running horizontally with the aprons, but only connected loosely with non-glued splines to hold it all together. I preferred the more traditional look of panels running vertical to the aprons, with appropriate spacing and gluing to deal with the wood movement. I also chose to make the front rail with a concave arc, as opposed to his convex arc, and to connect the rail to the bottom board with biscuits.

Details of building this piece can be found on my website: 
http://draperjim.com/

Launch Gallery