I braved the heat and humidity and spent most of the day in the shop. The plan for the day was to clean up the case that I assembled yesterday. So I sharpened my plane irons and went to work flushing all of the outer surfaces. The only tricky bit for this is trying to figure out how to hold the thing. Part of the work was done with the case on the bench and secured with a clamp that, in turn, was secured in the vice. The other holding method I employed was to prop the case up on my trestles and brace the case against the front of the bench. I worked methodically around the case until I was done.
With the cleanup of the case out-of-the-way I turned my attention to drawer fronts. Like I stated before, I’m building this project from #2 grade mystery pine. Other than the knots, this material is actually quite nice to work with. Generally the grain is very straight with tightly packed growth rings. When choosing the pieces for the outer case I was very careful and cut them in such a way as to keep the grain running continuously around the case. I wanted to continue paying close attention to the grain for the drawer fronts. I decided to treat the interior drawers as separate from the large bottom drawer. The large bottom drawer will be matched to the removable panel.
So I sorted through the remaining lumber until I found a mostly knot free section large enough from which to cut the interior drawer fronts. Then cut and fit the fronts, going as far as to remove sections of the blanks to account for the dividers. My thinking is this will keep the grain lines running smoothly without any disjointed looking transitions. It worked out pretty well.
The same was done for the large bottom drawer front and the removable panel. Heck, I was even able to blend them with the edge grain of the center divider. Additionally, the removable panel was thinned to 12mm to slide easily into its housing grooves.
The remaining drawer components will be fabricated from the same lumber and I’ll need to purchase an additional 4ft-6ft piece. The bottoms will be fabricated from 6mm birch plywood.
HILLBILLY DAIKU 
The grain matching looks great. It’s the first thing I noticed when I clicked on the post. I’ve noticed at the local Lowes that the “knotty pine” as they call it is generally pretty straight grained. The only problem I have with the material is that it is often dinged up, though it’s not all that difficult to get nice pieces out of it. I see that you got some nice pieces, to me that makes all the difference.
Bill
Thanks Bill.
The grain is very pronounced in this wood and I think it would have looked “off” if I hadn’t taken the time to match and orient the grain.
The stuff I’m using is from the Home Depot. Locally their offerings are much better than what Lowes carries. I’m sure it varies widely from area to area though. I have to admit, this mystery pine is actually pretty damn good stuff to work with. In fact I think I’m done buying the clear pine that either of the big box stores sell and simply use this stuff. It takes a little extra work and a little planning to get clean pieces to work with, but not too much extra effort really.
In my neck of the woods, the Depot has a really good selection of clear pine-even as good as some lumberyards, but not much on the knotty stuff. The Lowe’s on the other hand has a large amount of knotty pine and not much else.
Not sure if you already spoke about this…what type of construction will you be using for the drawers? I see that you will be going with the 6mm ply for the bottoms…also, what type of pulls will you use for the drawers. Thank you in advance.
My standard drawer construction is illustrated here.
I’ll be making knotted ring pulls like these. I have a latch mechanism on the way for the large drawer and will post about that soon.