Mission Sideboard
Prototype, as completed and
in use on 8/08/07.
Design
phase:
On the
drawing board, a scale CAD drawing of a proposed 4 legged
Mission Sideboard, which will be prototyped first.
The purpose of the
prototype is to obtain a sense of proportion, taking into account the
traditional design elements of a sideboard in this style - i.e., six
drawers, two doors, plate rail, corbels, curved aprons, etc, as well as to
experiment with a method of casework construction that is unusual in pieces of
this type. More about the latter below.
Once the
design is pretty much agreed upon, and the decision made as to the basic
casework construction, detailed shop drawings of the components will be
rendered and some sawdust can be made in earnest.
Casework
Instead of
the traditional 'frame and panel' construction, I am going to experiment with
a different style of casework on the prototype.
In the
Sep/Oct 1999
issue of "Fine Wood Working" magazine there was an article by Will
Neptune entitled "Sideboard
Strategies", whereby the author, a teacher at a respected woodworking school
in Boston, taught/proposed a four part, casework construction method that was
a bit unusual for traditional sideboard construction - basically a dovetailed
box, turned on its side, with legs attached (although without the legs this is
not an unusual method for *cabinet* casework).
Having sought out, seen, and paid particular attention to the construction
used in many old and antique sideboards these past few years, and having
consistently noted problems that seem to be commonly shared among even the
best made of the bunch (cracks/racking/sagging, etc.), there are many things
I like about the author's ideas: wood's dimensional instability is pretty
well nullified as an issue, fewer joints are needed, a dovetail case should be pretty much sag proof,
etc.
This
experimental project will attempt to put those ideas/methods into practice to see if we
can build a sideboard that, if not immune to the before mentioned problems,
will at least show fewer of the effects, over time, of the inherent
dimensional instability of wood (and hopefully we'll have to take our great
great grandchildren's word for it!).
Above: panel
glue-ups begin, and the case sides, top and bottom, joined by through
dovetails, show a dry fit of the casework in its most basic form.
The drawer partitions dry
fitted, with one of the laminated quarter sawn white oak/poplar side panels
clearly visible.
Completed casework, glued up and ready to accept the drawer "web frames", and
the legs.
In the photo on the left,
the method with which the legs will be joined with a long grain to long grain
glue-up, as well as with mortise and tenons where the legs meet the casework
top and bottom, can be seen.
On the right, is an example
of one of the principles of this particular casework construction method: if
a case part joins another at a corner, dovetail it; if one part meets along
another's length, use multiple through tenons.
Completed Prototype:
Below, the fully functional
prototype, with a single coat of "Mission Oak" stain. The hardware, as well as
the doors and drawer fronts are installed but the option remains for them to be removed for use on
a
final iteration, with new ones veneered for this prototype so that it can
be put to service.
20/20
Hindsight Department: While the experiment proved this method to be an
excellent way to make an extremely sturdy "case" that should resist sagging
and racking over time, a few caveats are worth noting. On future iterations of
this piece I will definitely use plywood for the basic casework instead of a
secondary wood like poplar. This change should result in both a decrease in
weight, as well as helping to mitigate any dimensional instability inherent in
using dissimilar woods in a "laminate" for the casework ends. It should be
noted that the latter was anticipated and taken into account during the
prototype's construction by selecting quarter sawn boards from each wood
species and matching them closely in movement characteristics from the
following table:
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/ch12.pdf
Page
1 (Bedside
Table; Kitchen Cabinets)
Page 2
(Trivet; Writing
Desk; Trad. End Table; Lamp)
Page 3 (A&C Coffee
Table; TV Cabinet; Walnut Coffee Table; A&C End Table)
Page 4 (Walnut Hall
Table; Granite Top Mission Table; Mission Hall Table)
Page 5 (708 Style Writing Table)
(Mission Trestle Table)
Page 6 (Arts and
Crafts Bench)
Page 7 (New
Construction 2005-Kitchen)
Page 8 (Tool
Drawers; Stacked Tansu)
Page 9 (Plan
Rack; Door Restoration; Spice Rack; A&C House# Frame)
Page 10 (Craftsman
Chair Reproduction)
Page 11 (A&C
Kitchen Dining Set)
Page 12 (Cherry/Walnut Hope Chest)
Page 13 (Mission
Sideboard)
Page 14 (Kitchen
Drawers; Calendar Frames)
Page 15 (Corner
Cabinet)
Page 16 (2008
Kitchen Project/Trash Pullout)
Page 17 (2009 Straw
Bale House
Kitchen Project/Kitchen Hutch)
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