(upbeat music) - Life is all about choices.

And look at this beautiful early American miniature chest of drawers, beautiful.

Set it on a tabletop or you could go with blended woods with a more contemporary style.

The choice is yours.

Stay around and I'll show you how to make one of your very own today.

- [Announcer] The American Woodshop with Scott Phillips is brought to you by: - [Announcer] Woodcraft since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft helping you make wood work.

(soft music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Pro tools For tool pros.

(dramatic drum beats) RIKON tools.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft magazine projects, plans, and web links designed to help you make wood work.

- [Announcer] PS Wood home of Timber Wolf, Swedish Silicon steel bandsaw blades, and super sharp scroll saw blades.

- [Announcer] A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- Look at this beautiful miniature American chest of drawers.

It's on pine painted naturally bought this at Beachy's Antique Gallery.

I'm guessing this is probably second half of the 19th century.

And what I like about it.

Hey, where did you put your keys or your cell phone?

Well, this is the perfect place to put it, but we're going to do a twist.

We're going to make it out of unpainted woods.

We're going to let the beautiful color of the wood do the speaking.

And today we're going to cover all the basic tools that you need to learn as you're going to do woodworking.

Now, it all starts with lumber.

And so the most important thing to keep in mind, the moisture content on the boards that you use when you build furniture has to be between 6% to 8%.

The first way to get it is buying kiln dried wood.

And let's do a quick little side trip to Dave Moser to see how he drys it with a very special, electric kiln.

Now, everybody knows you have to have kiln dried wood to make it stable.

And we're with Dave Moser, again, of Urban Timber Mill.

Now-- - Welcome back.

- Thank you.

It's good to be back.

And you have built a kiln now.

- I did.

- And why did you do it?

And why did you select the system?

- Well, I actually selected the system.

I sized it for the amount of wood that I thought I was going to have to dry.

- Okay how much is that in this space?

- This space if I pack it completely full, I can get about 2,500 board feet.

- Okay average price of wood- three bucks a foot, 2,500, there you go $7,500 worth of wood out the door.

Now you have some two inch thick, it's called eight quarter.

And this is Hackberry.

I can tell cause I'm a trained Forester.

Okay, and how long does it take to cycle this?

That's what it's called.

- Well, Hackberry, this is the first time I've dried Hackberry and this is actually drying pretty fast.

- Okay.

- I air dried it.

It got down to about 20% moisture before I put it in the kiln.

I've run it for about two weeks.

It's down to about 12%.

So I expect it'll probably take four weeks in the kiln total.

- Okay now-- - This is actually the second time through for those.

- The key is you have to sticker it about every 20 inches.

You have a seven-eighths sticker there, just some recycled.

- It's out of the old two by fours.

So I cut them, they're four feet long, three-quarters of an inch thick and inch and a half wide.

- And that's key you never stagger stickers.

They're always one on top of the other.

If you stagger it, it gets wavy boards.

But then, if you look back here, describe the heart of the kiln system here.

- Yes, that is actually the Nyle system that is a industrial dehumidifier and a heater.

- [Scott] And it's electric.

- [Dave] And it's electric.

- [Scott] Okay.

- So it's got a circulating fan and basically heats the air and blows it upward.

And then I have two circulating fans here and they take the air this way.

I put the plastic over the top one when I finished loading this.

I'll put the plastic over the top.

And then the air comes over the plastic down in front of the doors.

It goes through the pile of wood, back to the dehumidifier, takes the water out and then circulates around.

- So the payoff is you're shooting for 8%, right?

- 8% Is usually what I'm shooting for.

- Okay well Dave, this is an amazing operation you have here.

I love buying wood from you.

Now, let's settle up on a deal.

(laughter) - Okay, sounds good.

- Back to the woodshop.

Now, that's one great way to kiln dry your wood down to a 6% to 8% moisture content.

And that means when you glue it up, it will be stable.

So whatever you do, get your moisture right.

Now, from there, when you mill boards for any project, whatever it is, it goes like this.

The first thing you want to do is take it over to a bench top planer and see what you have.

You want the boards to be a little extra long, and then you plane that down and you do a nice selection of thicknesses.

So you can blend it into a nice contemporary form.

From there I'll joint one true straight edge to those two wide parallel edges that were planed.

And I use a helical head jointer to joint that S3S, surface three sides.

So, once it's jointed, then I can take it to a table saw with a good combination blade.

I like to use a 40 tooth blade because it's great for rip cuts and it's also excellent for cross cuts.

And that way I can prep all the work pieces that I need to the right dimensions before we head over to the dovetail jig.

Now that you know how to mill the boards properly, I'm ready to show you how to cut the dovetail joints that are key to this project.

Last week we did hand cut dovetails this week we're using routers, okay.

And a jig that makes it easy.

And if you look at this, this is called a half blind dovetail joint.

Because on this side, you can't see the dovetail, on that side you can.

Okay, half blind.

Half inch means half inch wide dovetail cutter.

And this was on half inch thick material all the way around.

This is hard maple.

This is Bloodwood from South America, beautiful wood, harvested responsibly.

So, let's get to it.

And I'm going to show you all the things you need to understand, to make the cuts.

And the best way to do that is go ahead and make the cuts.

And you see, as I rest this router on this extension, auxiliary support, it also lets me hook in dust collection to that, which is great with routers.

But you won't be able to see the cut.

So what I'm going to do is take this completely off, and this is safe.

This is an upgraded support out here that gives you dust collection.

And by the way, you can also buy smaller versions of this for other dovetail jigs that you can accessorize, but now, check all your locks, make sure everything's locked down.

We're going to make the cut.

Then you're going to see why this is so easy.

But without dust collection, I'm going to have a mask on.

Because routers do create a lot of dust.

So here's a guide bushing.

There's the half inch dovetail cutter.

I'm being very careful to use that guide bushing right there that's slightly oval in a way that gives me the best tight fit.

So I'm going to cut this side first, then do a climb cut, rotation of the cutter is going this way.

And then I'm going to push that guide bushing back to the stop bar and make the dovetails on this piece.

And the pins on the top board.

Let's make those cuts.

(machine revving) And I never lift that up until it comes to a complete stop.

And another thing is, I like the D handle because now it's unplugged couldn't fire up if you accidentally hit it.

So that's a great tool.

Now, I'll pull this piece out.

There are the dovetails.

Okay, I'll pull this piece out.

There are the pins, half pins on the corners.

Then you see how this is going to fit right in there.

I'm going to tap this home.

Here we go.

(hammer thudding) And if you look at that, that's a good tight joint right there.

Now, I want to show you something on the drawer so I can get this mask off now that the dust has settled.

You can see why that accessory dust collector is a nice thing to have.

It does produce a lot of saw dust.

So if you look on the bottom edge of this dovetail drawer assembly, there's a groove cut in there, okay.

On the very bottom edge.

And that groove is there so that we can put a plywood bottom in this.

Plywood is great because it's dimensionally stable.

So let me tap this apart with the dead blow mallet, like so.

You can see that groove.

Now the easiest way to cut that groove is to take it over to the table saw, and make the grooves for the drawer work pieces.

Now that we have the dovetails cut.

And one other thing before we do that, I want to show you that...

Here is the case assembly.

This is all half inch thick, hard maple, and I'm bringing this all together.

And I use the dovetail jig to make those joints as well, same setup that you just saw.

And that gets a groove in the very back of the case that the drawers will slide into and that's done at the table saw as well.

So let's go make those cuts.

I'm using a 40 tooth combination blade, and there's a riving knife behind the tooth and the blade to cut this groove in the right place in all four drawer pieces on one drawer.

And I'll have to take this apart and I've got it marked so that I know exactly where to cut.

You wouldn't want to cut down here on one and up on the other edge on the other.

And let's just make a cut so you can see what's going on here.

Never do this non-through cut without a good push block.

And this has a heel on it right here.

And I push this work piece up against the fence, the right edge down.

Now watch what I do.

(machine revving) I make one pass all the way through and out and around safely.

Turn that off.

And now that's an eighth of an inch cut on the bottom edge, Right in the middle, uh, left the center of that dovetail on the back side.

Now I just move the fence over an eighth of an inch like that and (machine revving) make another pass.

And I love that leg activated cut.

And you see that little tab right there that'll break right out.

You've got a perfect groove.

You can make three passes and not worry about that, but that's how you make the cuts in the bottom edge for the plywood, for the drawers and also the case.

Now, let's go glue them up.

I call this payday because this is the payment for all the work in milling all the pieces, making sure that everything lines up the right way.

And it's looking really good, but I don't want to draw that home just yet.

Yeah, everything lines up the right way because I'm doing the harder part first.

And let me show you the easy way to glue a path blind dovetails.

These pin sockets don't have glue in it yet.

So what I do is I put just one drop of glue in the pin sockets that half of the half blind dovetail joint.

Okay just like that.

And now, what I do with that drop of glue in each pocket, here are the dovetails on this piece right there.

So the good face is out, the groove is in, you got to match up the grooves.

So here I'm going to draw that together and (hammer thudding) just like that.

And then, these areas all have one drop of glue in it.

There's that groove, line up the groove, like that and tap that home.

(hammer thudding) And now what we have is just a perfect joint.

And you go, okay, there's plywood.

There's a good face that's oak and a bad face that's Luan.

You want to put the Luan in.

You go, wait a minute I can see that.

No, you'll never see that because that will have the drawers in.

This is dimensionally stable.

That's why you use plywood and its sized to square up everything so that when you put a square in there and that other board on there everything's squared left and right, just like that, perfect.

And now you go, but Scott, shouldn't you put glue on both parts, the dovetail and the pin socket?

No, the dovetail joint.

This is the best way to do the glue up.

So we line it all up and gently (hammer thudding) walk it home, getting the grooves to line up.

That's rewarding to take a dead blow mallet to these dovetail joints (hammer thudding) and draw them all tight like that, and like needs a little work right there.

And that is the only spot that has a little bit of squeeze out.

So it's square we'll check it again because if it isn't perfect, the drawers won't glide well, that looks really good right there.

And so I'll get a clamp on that.

Not that I would need it, but I just want to make sure that everything is supported the right way.

Perfect right there.

One more clamp here.

And this is the best way I know to make the case for the miniature chest of drawers.

Now, we'll repeat the same process for the drawer assemblies.

Just one drop of glue per pin socket, balanced half pins left and right, and get this all done.

One drop, more than that you'll get squeeze out, and then I'll show you the rest of the pieces that we need.

One, two, three, it all stacks up perfectly.

So, let that glue cure out now.

And if you do get a little bit of squeeze out... Oops, timber.

Let it dry; don't get out a wet rag.

It'll force the glue into the pores of the end grain and it'll be blotchy when you finish it.

Let it dry for about half an hour, 45 minutes tops, and just use a chisel.

Chisel that off comes right off.

Easiest way to not contaminate the wood joint.

Now, here's how the rest of it stacks up.

I need four feet that go underneath this assembly right here.

And you go, wait a minute, how do you make that assembly?

Great question.

That's a mitered corner right there, but that is just a glued up butt joint where you use a silicon pad like this.

Once those miter cuts are made at 45 degrees, draw it tight, hold it for two minutes, hand pressure, walk away.

And that cures out.

And this is the divider half-inch ash in this case, but let's go to the miter saw I'll show you some tricks on how to make these cuts, and then we can put it all together, (machine cutting) And I'll let that come to a stop, and let's see where that breaks did not break it at the glue it, wood to wood and that's what happens with a good glue up.

The glue joint is stronger than the wood itself.

One more cut here.

(machine cutting) And now look at that orange agate top.

That's gorgeous.

So that will be on top of the case.

I turn this off for a second.

And now, to cut the other angled miter cuts, at 45 degree cuts.

You can see how I cut the little feet out of the Bloodwood.

This is orange agate, rich in color.

But to cut the miters, it's really simple, just unlock the miter saw set it to 45 degrees, make the cut and match it up and do those butt glue ups, like I was talking about.

Let it cure for two hours and that'd be solid you'll never break it.

So I'll get those cuts made, just showing you the tip, which is, when you're working with exotic woods, always have good dust collection going on, whatever you do.

And I'm going to lock this since this is a smaller piece, I don't need it to fly.

(sawing) So the four corner pads, accept the glued up miter assembly of the orange agate.

Then this is all screwed together from the bottom.

So that oversized holes will let the wood expand and contract.

And then, we take the bottom drawer, slide it in, and it should be nice and tight.

And it's a little too tight.

I'd rather it be too tight than too loose.

You can take it off you can't put it back on.

So I have to sand that some which is what's next.

And then I take two pieces of laminated material, set it in there, and each one of those is a 64th.

So that's one 32nd of an inch gap for the divider assembly that gets screwed in left and right, press that down.

And that gives the drawer enough room to move.

And then if everything is right, this will just barely fit in.

Oh, that's perfect.

So just a spot of sanding on everything.

And then we have a pro finisher, who's going to bring this to life.

So whatever you do wear an N95 dust mask, and we're going to sand this to perfection, ambient air cleaners on, and let's tune this up.

(sanding) Now sanded to perfection.

All the parts are going together with counter sunk and counterbored holes.

So those screws that hold the lid on all the way flush.

So the drawers can go.

And then, right back here, you can see that I just drive that square drive screw in to hold the glides in place.

And then, until it's home, just like that, I can slide this drawer in.

And again, I'd rather have them a bit tight, a little bit of wax, but I wouldn't wax it until Suzy finishes it.

And now what I'm doing is a spot of very strong cyanoacrylate adhesive.

And what I do is I locate it three sixteenths of an inch on each surface, grain running the long way on the front piece and with the side right here, grain running complimentary.

So I'll let that cure out.

I'll screw this to the bottom of that case and then it's on to finishing.

So Suzy, should we paint this?

- Oh, heck no.

(laughter) - All right let's see it.

- No way.

Okay I'm using Arm-R-Seal.

It's an oil and urethane base.

And it's just tough as a poly.

And I want to start with the top.

This orange agate up here is absolutely gorgeous.

And just look at that it comes alive.

- [Scott] She's kind of wild with a brush I'm standing clear.

- Hey!

- [Scott] Okay but she's much better finisher than I am.

- Run the brush to get it on fast and then you can use a rag to really get it to soak in there, but look at that.

Wow, man that's gorgeous.

You do this little edge real quick and let's get the drawers in there and I will do the drawers.

- All right let's see if she has this the right way.

I believe she does.

- And three good coats will take care of it and seal it and just be beautiful, oh, wow.

- [Scott] Okay this is where it explodes right here.

- Uh oh, wow.

- [Scott] Look at the grain.

- Is that Bloodwood?

- [Scott] It is.

- Wow that's like redder than like a mahogany.

- [Scott] Ribbon mahogany he never had it this good.

Look at the depth on that.

- I'm loving it.

I love you doing all the hard work and I get to come in and get the glory.

- Well it is the glory of this.

So she'll get this all brushed out.

And once it dries, we put the hardware on it.

And it's the contrast of color of the wood that makes this.

- All this with the maple here on the side, it just really, it just all pops.

You can't beat this for a great finish.

- So we took the early American out of this piece and made it contemporary.

And you'll see that as soon as we get the hardware on.

Ladies and gentlemen, the dogs have joined us on set and we're up to a major decision.

Should we keep Suzy on full-time as the master finisher?

- Oh I've been set up (laughs) - And I think it's a unanimous yes.

See she agreed.

Now whatever you do work in a well ventilated space.

And this is... And Suzy what do you like about this?

- I think it's a mix of woods.

It's just beautiful.

And I love the pulls you put on it.

It really makes it look really modern.

And I love it.

It's just gorgeous, but just the different colors wood really pop against the maple.

- And you've got the right touch.

She uses light multiple coats and that's key right there.

Well, that's it for this week.

Pippi agrees.

Next week it's on to big turnings, three feet tall.

You won't want to miss that.

Thanks for joining us.

Now get busy in your woodshop.

Okay that's a wrap.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft helping you make wood work.

(classical music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Pro tools For tool pros (dramatic drum beats) RIKON tools.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft magazine projects, plans, and web links designed to help you make wood work.

- [Announcer] PS wood home of Timber Wolf, Swedish Silicon steel, bandsaw blades, and super sharp scroll saw blades.

- [Announcer] A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information on tips behind The American Woodshop and watch free episodes 24/7, check us out online and like us on Facebook.

(upbeat music)