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This was a project a year in the making. I'm glad it's done, because as pleased as I am about how it looks, it pegged the "sick-o-this-project" meter several months ago. I'm not a very good photographer, so photos don't do certain parts justice.
We needed something for LOML's china, but we had a very defined space in which to put it. The basic shape has its origins in U-bild plan #667, with so many cosmetic and structural changes such that it's nothing like the original. I changed the proportions to make them more appealing to the eye (a little taller at 72") and a few inches wider from the front at 36", and a few inches deeper),
Some construction details:
Wood: Quartersawn red oak is the main material. Some is bookmatched as can be seen in the following views from the sides. The bookmatch didn't quite have the desired effect, but it's still visible. I like the more subtle ray fleck of QSRO versus QSWO; sometimes the ray fleck can be overly obnoxious.
I used flatsawn red oak for interior pieces (e.g., hutch shelves). The shelves are joined to the hutch sides by using sliding dovetails. The hutch is joined to the buffet top with sliding dovetails, no glue. The top of the buffet then attaches to the buffet, so that I had a two-piece unit.
The back panel and panels in the doors of the buffet were also bookmatched 1/4" stock. I used frame and panel construction, with the Woodline Ogee raised panel router bit set. I also used that bit set to make the glass doors for the hutch, and routed the backside of the groove that the panel sits in so that I could install glass (1/8" tempered). The glass is held in by retaining strips; the top retainers were bandsawn to closely fit the curve of the top stile.
The crown molding is two pieces. There is a cap molding of oak with half-round top and bottom. The main piece was made from QSRO, using Holbren's outstanding 5-piece molding set. That bit set worked great, and in retrospect, I wish I would have wringed the wallet a little tighter so that a few more dollars would have squeezed out toward the 10-bit set. I ripped down some of the molding to make a transition between the buffet and the base, and the remainder was for the trap moulding that lines the inside of the union of the buffet top and hutch as shown here:
I used a method I've seen on NYW for the shelf support construction inside the buffet. Initially, I was going to use shelf pins, but I wanted split shelves left and right, so I came up with the following system:
The shelves are flatsawn red oak, pinned with some padauk plugs. They are ship-lapped left to right, and have a chamfer on the edge between boards. I don't know why I chose padauk. . contrast is nice, I guess. The shelves simply set on cross supports that fit into angled slots. One thing I wanted was the option to have one shelf on one side to accomodate tall things, or at least be able to place odd-height items on both sides, but not lose space. So, I made two half-shelves that can be rotated and fit so that we have three full shelves.
The drawer sides are made from aspen, and the bottom is baltic birch ply. The joinery for the drawer is simply a drawer lock bit. I was going to use dovetails, but decided against it. I did feel that I needed something fancy, so I used some extra padauk plugs for decoration. They did bleed a little during finishing; that's not MY blood tinging the drawer sides.
The finish is my own made-up recipe of Homestead Finishing (Jeff Jewitt) Transtint dye. I started with a 1:32 dilution of Dark Vintage Maple and 1:32 dilution of Honey Amber. From there, I tried several mixtures of various dilutions and proportions, until I settled on a 3:1 mixture of 1.5:40 Dark Vintage Maple and 0.5:16 Honey Amber. There's nothing magic about that ratio. . . it just seemed to work. I wanted to blend out some slight variation in color, even though most of the wood came from the same tree. After the dye, I applied three coats of boiled linseed oil to the top of the buffet, and each of the bookmatched panels. The other parts (except the buffet shelves, supports, and drawer interior) got just one coat of BLO. After the BLO dried, I applied three coats of 1-lb cut shellac. . why, I don't know. . and then two coats of General Finishes wipe-on polyurethane (gloss), buffed it a bit, and then finished off with one light coat of General Finishes satin polyurethane gel. The drawer interior and buffet shelves received about five coats of 1-lb cut shellac. That should keep stuff inside from smelling like polyurethane for the next several months.
It was a fun and sometimes frustrating project, but frustrating in a good way, if there is such a thing. Thanks for hanging in with me as I share the outcome. I'd be happy to answer any questions about other details.
We needed something for LOML's china, but we had a very defined space in which to put it. The basic shape has its origins in U-bild plan #667, with so many cosmetic and structural changes such that it's nothing like the original. I changed the proportions to make them more appealing to the eye (a little taller at 72") and a few inches wider from the front at 36", and a few inches deeper),
Some construction details:
Wood: Quartersawn red oak is the main material. Some is bookmatched as can be seen in the following views from the sides. The bookmatch didn't quite have the desired effect, but it's still visible. I like the more subtle ray fleck of QSRO versus QSWO; sometimes the ray fleck can be overly obnoxious.
I used flatsawn red oak for interior pieces (e.g., hutch shelves). The shelves are joined to the hutch sides by using sliding dovetails. The hutch is joined to the buffet top with sliding dovetails, no glue. The top of the buffet then attaches to the buffet, so that I had a two-piece unit.
The back panel and panels in the doors of the buffet were also bookmatched 1/4" stock. I used frame and panel construction, with the Woodline Ogee raised panel router bit set. I also used that bit set to make the glass doors for the hutch, and routed the backside of the groove that the panel sits in so that I could install glass (1/8" tempered). The glass is held in by retaining strips; the top retainers were bandsawn to closely fit the curve of the top stile.
The crown molding is two pieces. There is a cap molding of oak with half-round top and bottom. The main piece was made from QSRO, using Holbren's outstanding 5-piece molding set. That bit set worked great, and in retrospect, I wish I would have wringed the wallet a little tighter so that a few more dollars would have squeezed out toward the 10-bit set. I ripped down some of the molding to make a transition between the buffet and the base, and the remainder was for the trap moulding that lines the inside of the union of the buffet top and hutch as shown here:
I used a method I've seen on NYW for the shelf support construction inside the buffet. Initially, I was going to use shelf pins, but I wanted split shelves left and right, so I came up with the following system:
The shelves are flatsawn red oak, pinned with some padauk plugs. They are ship-lapped left to right, and have a chamfer on the edge between boards. I don't know why I chose padauk. . contrast is nice, I guess. The shelves simply set on cross supports that fit into angled slots. One thing I wanted was the option to have one shelf on one side to accomodate tall things, or at least be able to place odd-height items on both sides, but not lose space. So, I made two half-shelves that can be rotated and fit so that we have three full shelves.
The drawer sides are made from aspen, and the bottom is baltic birch ply. The joinery for the drawer is simply a drawer lock bit. I was going to use dovetails, but decided against it. I did feel that I needed something fancy, so I used some extra padauk plugs for decoration. They did bleed a little during finishing; that's not MY blood tinging the drawer sides.
The finish is my own made-up recipe of Homestead Finishing (Jeff Jewitt) Transtint dye. I started with a 1:32 dilution of Dark Vintage Maple and 1:32 dilution of Honey Amber. From there, I tried several mixtures of various dilutions and proportions, until I settled on a 3:1 mixture of 1.5:40 Dark Vintage Maple and 0.5:16 Honey Amber. There's nothing magic about that ratio. . . it just seemed to work. I wanted to blend out some slight variation in color, even though most of the wood came from the same tree. After the dye, I applied three coats of boiled linseed oil to the top of the buffet, and each of the bookmatched panels. The other parts (except the buffet shelves, supports, and drawer interior) got just one coat of BLO. After the BLO dried, I applied three coats of 1-lb cut shellac. . why, I don't know. . and then two coats of General Finishes wipe-on polyurethane (gloss), buffed it a bit, and then finished off with one light coat of General Finishes satin polyurethane gel. The drawer interior and buffet shelves received about five coats of 1-lb cut shellac. That should keep stuff inside from smelling like polyurethane for the next several months.
It was a fun and sometimes frustrating project, but frustrating in a good way, if there is such a thing. Thanks for hanging in with me as I share the outcome. I'd be happy to answer any questions about other details.
Turaj (in Toronto) 
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