Cedar chest repair WIP

[AlexS]

I don't often do repairs, but was talked into doing this one. It's made completely from Australian cedar apart from drawer guides added at some later date. Construction is entirely glue and nail, and I suspect that the original builder wasn't an expert cabinetmaker - more likely a local carpenter who also made coffins and furniture. I'm guessing that it's from about 1850, because they pretty well stopped making full cedar cabinets about then, but I'm happy to be corrected.
The problems with the cabinet are mainly caused by the drawer sides and runners wearing each other away. The top side drawers were running on the dustboard, and have worn grooves in it. The drawer stops on the front rails have been glued and nailed on, and the nails in particular have worn grooves in the drawer bottoms. (Photos 3 & 4)
Also, as photo 2 shows, shrinkage of the side has left gaps between the side panels and the columns. I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix that.
I'm not going to 'restore' this chest. Rather, I'm going to repair it, hopefully in the same way as if it was taken to a cabinetmaker of the time it was made.
The construction is a little unusual. The top side drawers run on the front rail and the dust board. The dust board is supported by nailing to the underside of the back rail and thin side side rails visible in photo 5. All the other drawers are on runners and do not have dustboards.
The first step was to remove the drawer stops and the back (photo 5). The back rail, which was sapwood and had been riddled with borer at some time (photo 9) was removed, followed by the drawer runners.

[Waldo]

Pass the popcorn please?

[AlexS]

First step today was to glue one of the back panels that had split, then make a replacement for the back rail that the borers had eaten.

The top drawers were not well supported. The big ones had rails at the sides, nailed to the front rail and the chest sides. The top small one in the middle had runners mortised to the front rail and resting on a light batten nailed to the back panel. The lower one ran on the dust board and had worn grooves in it. All the rails had come loose and had grooves worn in them, so I've decided to mortice new runners into the front rails and support them with the back rail. The top one will be supported by a prop, and the lower one will be glued & nailed (I think) to the underside of the back rail.

Picture 2 shows the frame for the top runners (without the prop). I haven't glued it up yet, and I won't cut the ends off the back until I'm ready to do so.
Picture 3 shows the mortices being cut for the bottom runners.
So that I don't have the problem of the drawer bottoms and runners wearing again, at least not in a hurry, I'm facing them with some 3mm Sydney bluegum strips that I have left over from a previous job. These will be sanded, hard shellacked and waxed. Picture 4 shows the faces being glued onto one of the runners.
I'm using liquid hide glue on this job, partly because I wanted to use sympathetic materials, and partly so that if the facings ever need to be replaced, it will be relatively easy to do so. I have a fair bit of old Australian cedar from a client whose grandfather was a cabinetmaker and collected it wherever he could.

[AlexS]

Because of the way it was made, the only way I could see to re-do it so that it wouldn't fall apart again was to virtually built an internal frame to support the drawers. (Pic 1). The previous runners were glued to the side panels, and the differential movement of the wood had caused the glue to break. To avoid this, I'll install stiles at the back, glued to the side panel, and house the runners in it. The front of the runners will be loose mortised into the existing stiles (see detail, pic 2).
After it's all dry assembled, I put the drawers in to make sure they fit (pic 3).
At the bottom, there is a dustboard that prevents runners being fitted (pic 4). I'll remove it so that I can attach the runners directly to the base frame.
Another problem is with one of the feet. It's come off, and has a large piece broken off. I propose to flatten the break, and attach a block, and then hand shape it, as I don't think I can centre it properly on a lathe.

[AlexS]

Repairing the foot.
First I planed a flat surface on the broken section and glued a cedar block to it. Because the bottom of the foot was worn I couldn't put an accurate centre on it, so I drilled out a pine block and transferred the centre to the other side. The round tenon that goes into the carcass was held in the lathe chuck and the cedar block turned town to the correct diameter. However, I don't trust my turning skills enough to turn the complete shape, so I carved it instead.
I also glued in the internal frame and drawer runners. It's now time to start on the drawers.

The drawer bottoms are rebated into the drawer sides, and some are damaged underneath. However, they are all sound, so I'll re-use them. The bottoms of the drawer sides are all badly worn, so I'm going to remove an amount from them and replace it. On the bottom will be a strip of harder Sydney bluegum. It's easier to fit the bluegum strips to each edge of the replacement piece, the divide the piece down the middle to make a piece for each side. They can then be planed to the correct dimension before gluing.

[Waldo]

G'day Alex,

Great job, considering the problems of fixing something done by someone else and trying to work around those issues.

[munruben]

Great WIP thanks for sharing.

[ajw]

I'm enjoying this too. Thanks for taking the time to photograph and document the process for us.

ajw

[jaytee]

Gee the skills displayed are just awesome. I have a similar chest to do, was daunting before but now.......... after viewing the work done, it is looking
thanks for the pictures, as they do say 1000 words and I can refer back to them.
jt

[AlexS]

I also glued in the internal frame and drawer runners. It's now time to start on the drawers.

I should have mentioned that the runners were only glued into the frame at the back. The tenons at the front were left unglued to allow for movement of the side panels.

[IanW]

Coming along nicely, Alex. These repair jobs can take more time than building a reproduction from scratch! I like your approach, keeping it as original as possible, despite the temptation to improve the original joinery in many respects. These things were whacked together as fast as possible, and it's only because cedar is a soft, forgiving wood that many have stood up over time. I guess you can take comfort from the fact it has lasted around 100 years as it was made, so with a bit of care, it should go another 100 or so.

You could argue that it's far from a unique piece - there must be thousands of these old CODs around the country judging by the number of similar examples I've seen, so you can take a bit of liberty with internal details for the sake of better structural integrity, without ruining a museum piece. At least that's the view I took with an old cedar "chiffonier" I repaired for a friend. It arrived at my shed as a flat-pack - every single (mostly cross-grain) glue join had failed. Since the entire piece was made from large (thin) cedar boards & assembled with glue-blocks, I was at a loss as to how to 'fix' it - I didn't want to set it up for self-destruction again. In the end I decided to build an internal pine frame & glue the original 'skin' to that. So I made a frame with all the grain running in the right directions, and stuck the sides, back & face-frame onto that. It turned out nice & square & solid & from the outside, you wouldn't know it had had such extensive internal surgery.

Are you going to tart up the finish, or leave it (it looks in remarkably good condition for its age...)?

Cheers,

[AlexS]

Thanks Ian, I spoke to a bloke who does a lot of restoring and making reproductions, and his advice was much the same.
I'm not going to tart the finish up, other than clean it up with polish reviver. It's taken a few scars over its life, including a corner broken off a drawer front and nailed back on. I'll repair that as best I can, but I think it'll look OK without stripping & re-finishing.
One more drawer to go.

[AlexS]

The drawers were pretty sound, apart from the wear on the sides, so I didn't have to disassemble them. I cut the bottoms off the sides on the table saw (pics 1 & 2) and finished it off by hand, and cleaned up with a chisel. The replacement drawer bottoms were glued on (pic 3), and after they had dried, they were planed. The extended bench stop makes this easier (pic 4).

The bottom drawer front has a corner broken off (pic 5), probably by being closed too hard against the drawer stop. An attempt had been made to repair this by driving in a swag of nails, but fortunately it hadn't been glued with contact adhesive (a common remedy!). I thought about removing a large piece of the front and replacing it, but I think it would look pretty ordinary, so I glued the piece back on and reinforced it with dowels (pic 6).

The last drawer is glued up now, and I've replaced the drawer stops, so all that has to be done is fit the bottom drawer, replace the back boards and clean it up.

[AlexS]

Today I fitted the last drawer and re-attached the back boards. I cleaned off all the accumulated junk that had built up over the years, and applied a light wipe over with oil. Put a smear of wax on the runners and put it all together.

It looks pretty much as it did when it came to me, except that it's cleaner and the legs aren't wobbly. The difference is when you open the drawers. They glide open & shut, and don't jam. I hope that it will give at least another 150 years of service. I'm looking forward to seeing it then.

[robbo266317]

That has come up a treat.