25 Comments

  1. Congratulations and thank you for another excellent project!

    I remember the toolbox drawers were finished inside and out with shellac. Can you explain why something like a dresser isn’t finished inside and out with shellac?
    I understand that varnish and other finishes can smell, but I was under the impression that shellac does not.
    Thanks

    1. Hello Frank, great question, thanks for that. Finish is applied to projects, particularly things such as table tops, both in order to protect the wood/keep it clean and also to constrain the wood so that it doesn’t move to much in relation to the fluctuating air moisture it is exposed to. With the drawers, we want them to be free to move without constraint, as well as them not being as exposed to the external fluctuations in humidity.

      Also, the finish can cause issued with the adjoining surfaces sticking in this larger project, which can cause a draw to stick shut.

      Hope that helps.

  2. Thank You Paul and The Team I have enjoyed watching the project looks great ,although i do not have the room to make large items ,i have learnt a lot from watching most of your videos many thanks looking forward to your NEXT, take care.

  3. Thank you Paul and Team! Great project and excellent videos. I love watching them but can’t help feeling a little sad when a project comes to an end. I look forward to whatever comes next.

  4. I hope one day to build something as intricate as this chest of drawers and enjoy a final result somewhat akin to as fine as yours. Beautiful craftsmanship and design. Thank you for sharing this with us, I am sure we have all learned a great deal from your example. Can’t wait for your next project.

  5. I was interested to know why you do not gang cut dovetails to increase the square top lines depth rather than use a sacrificial board as in other video’s. You check the symmetry by flipping the boards so I would think you could cut that way. Just a thought. Thanks for the projects and knowledge that you pass along. joe

  6. If you didn’t want to purchase the drawer pulls, how would you make them with and without a lathe? In my case I don’t own lathe. Buying them is easier but not nearly as fun for me as making them.

    Thanks Paul on another fantastic series. I am in the process of making two nightstands out of cherry for my daughter’s bedroom out of cherry. The plans I purchased were for machine tools. Much of what you taught in this series is being incorporated into these night stands. I was at the Hancock Shaker village in MA last weekend. Since it was slow season, I got a lot of time to really look over their work in detail. Those dovetails on the front face you showed in this series were there. For some reason that got me excited.

    1. I too was looking forward to the making of the draw pulls, as we have been encouraged to use hand tools. Was there no video made for them or are they a diy product?

  7. Hi Paul,
    Thanks for all of the hard work you any your team did to produce the chest of drawers.
    One comment and this may be off topic, but I’m not to enthused about the new Woodworking master classes symbol. It’s to similar to Steve Ramsey’s Woodworking for Mere Mortals symbol witch is WWMM. I hate to see the old Woodworking Masterclasses circle retired.

  8. I’m with Paul on his comments about the loss of the Masterclass circle.
    But do appreciate the work of Paul and his team. These are simply the best videos I have come across and I find Paul to be an excellent teacher,

  9. Who needs box-sets when you’ve got 15 episodes of Paul to watch! Loved this project and definitely want to try it (probably on a smaller scale) one day. Thank you everyone involved for a wonderfully inspirational series.

  10. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your efforts in designing and teaching us how to build these projects! I have learned so much from watching you for the past couple years and I’m just so glad I stumbled across you on YouTube! I’m a retired (disabled) journey level machinist/tool maker and although I’ve made my living for many years working with metals, my real passion has always been wood and now I have my own shop that I’m setting up and I’m hoping to be able to use the techniques I’m learning from you to start making some stuff to sell to suppliment my disability income, because frankly, it just does NOT pay the bills!! So again, just a Huge THANK YOU, Paul for all your efforts!!! I’ve already made a few of my own tools, like router plane, marking guages and awls and every project just makes me proud to now call myself a woodworker!

    Steve

    1. @TYLERJ Two things come to mind, although there may be more. First, it makes finishing easier because you can finish the bottom and sides separately, then reassemble. Second, a drawer bottom can be a substantial sized panel, which means it can expand and contract a fair bit. You would need to leave enough depth in the grooves to handle this movement and you’d want to have a margin of error so that the bottom could never shrink enough to leave a gap. This could be hard to achieve if you want thin-walled drawers, which are common in furniture. For example, the last drawer I built had 3/8″ sides and back and the groove was only 3/16″ deep. The solution to this problem is to make sure that the grain runs side to side in the bottom. That way, there’s no expansion or contraction side to side and you don’t need to leave any significant wiggle room in the grooves in the drawer sides. Next, have the bottom housed in a groove in the front, but extend the bottom under the back of the drawer all the way flush (or even a bit beyond) the back of the drawer. Cut slots in the bottom for any screw you use to anchor the bottom to the back of the drawer so that the bottom can slide under the screw as it expands and contracts. Take care with the slot, though, because you don’t want the slot to show when looking in the drawer.

    2. “Is there a reason for making the drawer bottom removable? Why not run the groove on the drawer back and enclose the drawer bottom?”

      There is and it’s mainly because it simplifies construction and also so that the bottom can be easily replaced if you ever need to replace it. I have completely enclosed drawer bottoms before and even made dovetails on the rear corners of shallow drawers instead of a housing dado to maximize drawer volume, but from a practical standpoint, there is no technical reason that would require the bottom to be totally enclosed. It’s never seen unless the drawer is removed. When the drawer is installed, you can’t really tell if the rear of the bottom panel is in recess or not so it doesn’t matter.

      Most of the time, we make drawer bottoms out of plywood which doesn’t expand or contract any differently than the long grain wood that the drawer sides and ends are made of so grooves can be fairly shallow and the plywood can fit pretty tightly. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they need to allow for seasonal expansion and contraction of a plywood drawer bottom but it’s not like a solid wood panel. A plywood bottom can be fully seated in the grooves and screwed in place at the rear without any fear of expansion/contraction issues.

    3. I think the primary reason is to allow the drawer to slide into the opening once the stops have been installed on the divider. In the project I’m working on, I am using solid wood bottoms and I’m not crazy about the method of screwing the bottom to the underside of the back of the drawer. Looking for alternatives…

  11. the man is great, i wish i was not 70 years old and just starting this wonderful journey of wood working just maybe i can make some dovetail boxes for my chisels with a compartment for each one with an inlay for the edge so they wont move around and dull them selves, i love to listen to paul talk about lifes experiences i found my 45 year old baby girl dead on the floor in her bedroom january 21=2021 and a big peace has been torn from me that will never be replaced, i like to listen to pauls soothing british accent it takes my mind away from bad memories, THANK YOU MR SELLERS.

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