Well...big changes coming up for me. Along with getting married in 17 days, I just bought a small house. Since I'm poor and can't afford to run out to Ethan Allen to furnish my house (or Target for that matter), I decided to make a dresser for my fiance this last weekend.

I took a couple pics of the project, and since I know a couple of you are into woodworking, I thought I'd post them. The dresser is made out of birch. Everything is made by hand including all of the moulding and beading. The drawer faces sit flush with the frame. My advice...don't do this unless you are prepared to do a lot of adjusting. Total cost including hardware except the drawer pulls is about $250. There are a couple pics of my Dad's shop in there too...it is not exactly heaven where the Lord does his work, but it's sufficient to do some cool stuff.

There is always dumpster diving (I have found some things that way) and garage sales. I am not rich either.

That's a beautiful dresser you made her, she's a lucky girl and good luck to you both!

Thanks Laura!

I've gone dumpster diving for electronics, but not for furniture...I'll have to try that...I'm pretty sure that I could make repairs to damaged pieces...

You learn to be creative when financially challenged And I have been that way for many years. Go to affluent neighborhoods on garbage night, they don't usually bother with such petty things as garage sales.

Very nice, I know someone always appreciates it when you spend time and effort into a gift rather than money.

Did you have a moulding cutter in the tablesaw?

Actually...it was kinda cool they way we did that. We set up a jig on the table saw and then ran the strips sideways across the regular blade, taking off a 1/8" or so each time till we had a nice curve on it. The curve on it is the same as the curve on the blade. All the other stuff we did on the routing table (not pictured).

Very nice dresser!

I made a pretty simple coffee table for my girlfriend for Christmas, she loves it!

Very nice. A cool design.

I just added another picture earlier in the building process. You can see my gut as I'm trying to avoid the camera, and my Dad putting together a drawer.

Wow. That's impressive. I consider it a big accomplishment when I'm able to successfully follow the instructions to assemble an Ikea dresser.

-Dylan

I must give credit where it's due...my Dad was a custom homebuilder/architect/cabinetmaker before he got his doctrate in educational administration and eventually started the software company where I now work.

While I've picked up how to assemble and finish furniture and cabinetry, I still have a lot of trouble at the design stage. I'm not too good at being able to visualize how the pieces fit together and cut them all out to the exact size before assembly. That's where Dad comes in especially handy...he can do it all in his head. He thought for about 2 minutes before he started spitting out that I needed 20 bd. ft. of birch, one sheet of 3/4 in. ply, one sheet of 1/4 in. ply, etc.... and he was spot on. Amazing. (to my simple brain anyway). So I've gotta give credit to Dad for helping design and fabricate.

Nice dust collection system!

And nice work on the dresser! What comes out of the shop is more important than what's in the shop.

Cheers!

What comes out of the shop is more important than what's in the shop.

How true! I know a guy who has the best tools on the planet, a very nice shop, good dust collection, the works. He spends most of his time making sure his tablesaw table is flat and all his tools have a good coat of paste wax on them. What does he turn out of his shop? Pens. And not a lot of them, either.

Waste of a good Unisaw, I tell you.

I need a workshop like that... I'm forever losing my pens.

Nice dust collection system!

I must be missing something - I thought the dust collection system was in photo 5.

Nice dresser!

It was!