Chest of Drawers restoration (or unintentional complete rebuild)

[pampelmuse]

I have just finished "restoring" this Kauri chest of drawers. It is my partners and she has had it since she was a child, bought for her by her parents as an antique. (It aint no antique but I'll get to that.) I noticed that not only were the drawer fronts sagging back into the frame but they were leaving trails of sawdust on the inside of the cabinet. I took one look inside and found out why, the narrow drawer sides were completely worn away and/or split off at the base, the now lowered drawers were dragging across the nails holding the drawer stops in place and various bodgy repairs had nails rubbing on moving surfaces. All in all it was a complete disaster area. I started this repair ... well let's see.... about 2 years ago now and I got as far as starting to replace the bottom of the drawers sides with hardwood runners (pic 1 and 2) and then realised I needed better facilities to complete the job. Thus it was the primary incentive for me wanting to build my woodworking bench (documented in these forums). It has sat, until the bench became at least 75% functional, in the garage ever since taking up valuable space. It is one of those jobs that I started and as I got into it quickly came to the conclusion that it was probably not worth my time or effort, but as I had already invested time in it I would see it through to the finish. The piece has seemingly led a very checquered existence and had so many problems that it was really beter suited to firewood. I ended up taking the whole thing to pieces but I didn't take any photos over the course of the rebuild except just before putting the completed thing back together.
The main structural issues (amongst a litany) after the drawers repairs were:
(a) The whole thing was built I suspect by a rank amateur and basically nailed and glued together with barely a straight edge or 90 deg angle in the whole piece. Definitely not a fine furntiture antique. Many of the components were bowed including one of the drawer fronts which, in the centre sits slightly proud of the newly rebuilt cabinet. The old drawers runners were thin (10mm) pieces of roughsawn kauri nailed to the undersides of batons that were nailed and glued to the cabinets sides. These were totally unsupported at the front or back and were relying on nails to hold them horizontal. These were so worn that someone had attempted to repair them by taking them off and flipping them over to provide a new running surface!
(b) The inability to expand/contract across the cabinet sides due to the glued/nailed runners was compounded by the fact that the skirt was also nailed in position and this had caused the sides (also 10mm boards) to split almost their entire length. (one side had two parallel splits!). The cabinet had been subsequently painted and the paint was inside the cracks making a simple reglue impossible.
(c) The whole thing had had a "restoration" job done on it at some stage which had involved striping off several layers of paint, replacing the handles with ones that don't cover the impression marks left by the old ones, doing some crappy repairs on some drawers parts with nails and leaving the whole thing covered in coarse orbital sander scratches.

The solution, inspired by other posts in this part of the forum, was to completely rebuild the internal frame and use as many of the original timbers as possible for exposed surfaces. After planing out most of the bowing, removing the splits in the sides, straightening the drawer fronts and re-sizing the drawer sides, the finished piece ended up about 20mm shorter and about 15mm narrower across the width. The internals were rebuilt with reclaimed window/door framing timbers and the the sides were allowed room to move by gluing them to the rear M&T'd frame and loose morticing the drawer runners into said frame. The horizontal kauri members were dowelled into the front uprights replacing the old nails. (Pic 3 and 4)

The result is a something that looks far more attractive and sturdier than it did (pic 6 and 7) but I would hardly call it a beautiful piece of furniture as there are filled nail holes on exposed surfaces, the timber is stained in places from nail corrosion (eg in Pic 5), has numerous marks and dings here and their and still has small traces of paint in some depressions in the top (partly due to something being nailed onto the top surface at some stage). I also had to fill in a gap at the front of the cabinet but the fill-in doesn't match the shade of the old front timber very well. Similarly I had to glue a strip along the bottom of one lowest drawer front to get it level.
It is finished in danish oil and polished with Ubeaut trad wax.

[pmcgee]

I think that is a great job - above and beyond the call of woodwork

I also like highly "lived-in" timber so I reckon it prob would look outstanding to see "in the flesh". I like the drawer fronts and I like that kind of dovetailing.

I could imagine that your partner might be completely thrilled to have an old friend rejuvenated and improved? In which case there would be no better present, I think.

Cheers,

Paul McGee

[burraboy]

Ah yes! Been there and done that! Nice job,.

[old pete]

Hi Pampelmuse,

You have done a great job on that piece. The phrase " you've got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them" applies. I've long since lost count of the number of tall chest made right here in Hobart by a manufacturer that I won't name that I've fixed over the last 30 years or so. Your observations are absolutely parallel to my own experiences. Generally they are quite nicely made up front but that's where it stops. The drawer runners and slides are of the poorest quality and usually of timber species quite unsuitable for this application.Often I suspect recycled ships dunnage.

Fitting new drawer slides to 9mm thick cabinet sides is something of an act of faith and replacing the lower section of the drawer runners with a hard wood is a PITA. I throw authenticity to the four winds, there's no way you would want to be associated with emulating that sort of work with a repaired version of the same.

In saying that I have seen versions of those tall chests that have been beautifully made throughout with quality timber complete with beautifully fitted dust leaves between the drawers. I made a pair of those cabinets in solid Myrtle about 25 years ago. I still have them and I rate that job as one of the most enjoyable I've ever done. The designs and proportions are an absolute delight.

Well done anyway & thanks for sharing. Old Pete

[pampelmuse]

I could imagine that your partner might be completely thrilled to have an old friend rejuvenated and improved? In which case there would be no better present, I think.

Yes Paul, My partner is very happy with the COD, as is her mum who has admired the photos of the finished piece, as she bought it 25 years ago. Certainly it was an woodworking odyssey which I won't be repeating in a hurry.

[burraboy]

Certainly it was an woodworking odyssey which I won't be repeating in a hurry.

Famous last words?

[pampelmuse]

Well... one should never say never again. In fact I have another restoration job waiting in the wings in a friends garage but I am not going to do the complete rebuild again if the original is, on inspection, too poorly made to bother. I haven't yet inspected it closely but I would rather cut my losses and sell it on to someone else willing to spend the time on it. "You can't polish a ####" I believe the expression goes.

[burraboy]

Well... "You can't polish a ####" I believe the expression goes.

You obviously didn't see the Mythbusters episode where they did polish a ####!