Reader's Gallery

Chest sans Sides

comments (4) November 10th, 2008 in Reader's Gallery

Andy Pitts Andy Pitts, member
thumbs up 16 users recommend
Chest sans Sides, front view
Chest sans Sides, rear view
Chest sans Sides, front view - CLICK TO ENLARGE

Chest sans Sides, front view
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Cherry, Red Oak, Maple, Sycamore, Pecan, Red Cedar

    The design of this unusual piece came to me in a flash one day, but the execution took several months. The piece has no sides! The drawer sides do double duty as the chest sides, highlighting the dovetail joinery when the drawers are open. There are few 90 degree angles in this piece, and the drawers are not simple boxes, yet they slide nicely in their trapezoidal openings.

    If you would like to see a pictorial essay of how I made this piece, please go to my website and click on "Works in Progress".


Design or Plan used: My own design - Chest sans Sides
posted in: Reader's Gallery, modern, dovetails, cherry, frame and panel, chest of drawers, red oak, bent lamination
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Comments (4)

Andy Pitts Andy Pitts writes: Artis,

The curved legs were a challenge with the dowel holes. I guess I could have made an angled guide block for each dust divider, but if I remember correctly, what I actually did was this. With the legs and dust panels laid up in the correct orientations for using the dowel centers, I marked a pencil line parallel to the dust divider along the front of the front curved leg and back of the back curved leg. Then, I could place the leg in my bench vice and eyeball the drill bit parallel to the line. Not too exact, but it worked. The dowels are a little forgiving!

Thanks for the comment on the writeup. I'm glad you find it useful. And thanks for the nice comment on the piece!


Posted: 6:11 pm on November 12th

a123 a123 writes: Very nice blog regarding the construction. You put a lot of work into it. Great piece. You put a lot of work into it too. I haven't gotten through the blog yet, but I will. Question, you set up the curved legs in order to mark them for dowels using a dowel center. You now have the location, but not the angle. I messed this up a time or two and found that if the angle of a dowel isn't exactly correct you've got a problem. Given the curve of the leg and the fact that every dowel is angled differently how did you accurately drill the holes?
Posted: 5:21 pm on November 12th

Andy Pitts Andy Pitts writes: dstenson, thanks for the complement! I see you are from Victoria. We were there last year for the Furniture Society conference. We loved it! What a great place to live!
Posted: 7:21 pm on November 11th

dstenson dstenson writes: Beautiful and original. I toured your site and you have some stunning pieces in there.
Posted: 12:30 pm on November 11th

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