I'm trying to copy a piece we own that has serpentine drawers. Here's how I approached it. the existing piece has bandsawn drawer fronts, cut out of some kind of oak about 3" thick. I didn't want to do it that way, I wanted to do bent laminations using a vacuum bag press. I had planned on cutting my own veneer, but instead wound up buying 1/16" poplar veneer (not easy fining it that thick) for the core and cherry veneer for the front/back facings. the veneer was tightly coiled for shipment, so trying to flatten it a little was the first task. I cut it to right length and put it under some weight for a few days.

While that was sitting I made the form, solid MDF the sucker is very heavy and a PITA to handle getting it and the other stuff arranged in the vac bag.

So I went ahead and made a test pressing with dry wood and found a few headaches. For one thing I couldn't do all the plies (12 of them, plus 2 pieces of cherry) at one time...I would have to do each piece as 2 pressings with 1/2 the plies. Another problem that showed up was the shape itself. I found when drawing the vacuum, the center section (arrow) would go down slowly enough that the bag would be sucked in between the form and the plies, which meant I was getting the right profile. I tried several approaches to solving this and none worked. So I tried making some blocks that would hold the bag out of that  opening. I wound up hanging them over the plies and they dropped (sortof) into place as the bag was drawn down. This did solve my problem but made putting the pieces into the vac bag a even more difficult.

So now it was time for a test, I showed this pic here earlier. It came out pretty good, and you can see how my blocks dropped into the gap I had.

So after all this and 4 pressings, each taking over night I wound up with the drawer fronts. I used Unibond 800 and they recommended for bent laminations you clamp it overnight.

I used my microjig sled to cut off one edge on the bandsaw, and then ran it through the jointer. The plies came out nice and tight. But this is as far as I've got for the time being.

WOW, Fred!

I'm always amazed at the ability of the vacuums ability to compress so completely!

Nice Fred! Love it.

Fred, it sure does look nice. Good to see the tight glue lines between each ply. Give Certainly Wood Veneer a look for 1/16" poplar and cheery. You can filter for "Special thickness veneers". Danl

8 hours ago, Danl said:

Fred, it sure does look nice. Good to see the tight glue lines between each ply. Give Certainly Wood Veneer a look for 1/16" poplar and cheery. You can filter for "Special thickness veneers". Danl

That's actually where I wound up getting mine (the poplar). Great folks, and their prices aren't that bad......shipping on that much veneer was a real kick in the shorts, tho'

Great looking job . You must have a lot of patience to go thru all the tests and setup.

Spectacular work, patience and results Fred. Great write up as well. Thanks.

If what you are showing is any indication, then your project is going to be a show piece, very well done👏

Those look sweet Fred, nice work.

I've got the drawer fronts edged, and after one more clean up and smoothing of the edges they will be done. I was a little worried about doing the edges, fearing the straight across grain would look weird. It does look a little out of place with the grain not following the curve, but not so much as to be a distraction.

Fred, are you concerned about the veneered edge hold-up with normal drawer use? Danl

Yeah, a little. there's not much I can do about it though. This veneer is a little thicker than seen on some of today's plywood and I glued it on with the same Unibond glue. While I working on it it seemed to be pretty robust. There's little doubt that a bump or blow of some kind will nick it or knock out a chip over time. Ay ;least for now in our house it will see very little use.

Very true but I for one would not want to be the offending person, I can imagine the rant, You just ruined DAD'S, GRANDAD'S, UNCLE FRED'S, master pieceAll joking aside that is beautiful work Great Job.

Those turned out fantastic Fred. Excellent work.

Those are looking great Fred.

Those fronts look awesome Fred, very nice work!

I've bought stuff from Certainly Wood as well, going back 20+ years. I always like dealing with them.

Looking good Fred. I have never had the chance to work with the vacuum bag technique. I like the ability to keep the drawer fronts thinner. I have done the bandsaw method in the past but it’s a pain to keep them from warping after cutting to the pattern and they come out very chunky. It’s impressive how much force a vacuum bag can exert and the veneer is a much better look as far as the grain appearance compared to the bandsaw method. Nice !

Paul

Nice job Fred, those fronts look great. It’s always cool to see how people problem solve.

It took me forever to get these finished, but they're done for now (still some cleanup, etc.) There was a few mistakes, and a couple of things I'd do different is I did them again, but for now I doubt I'll ever do another serpentine drawer piece. The large drawer is sitting up so you can see the curve of the drawer. The 2 smaller drawers were the same front (not as tall), but I cut it in 1/2 for the 2 drawers. For the joinery I chose a rabbet and dowels to hold it together, I did put drawer lock joints on the back. I don't have Newman's talent for dovetails, and the fronts wouldn't fit into my jig. The bottom is cherry ply, and it's glued in...so I'm fairly certain the drawers won't fall apart. The side and back are 5/8" hard maple. I used brass dowels, something I wish I hadn't done. I saw David Marks do this and it looked classy on his much smaller piece. But I don't care for the look on these drawers, but it's done and I'm not re-doing it. Making the fronts as a bent lamination left me with some ends showing of the lamination (see pins pic) and I don't care for that, but it's another thing I can't change at this point. Making the drawers first is a first for me, I've always built the casework and then the drawers. But I needed to know I could do these type drawers and the casework will have curved parts that have to match the drawers, so it seemed to be a no-brainer to do it this way. But for now the casework will have to wait, spring is here and my yard is screaming for attention so I'll get to it as time allows.

Edited April 3Apr 3 by Fred W. Hargis Jr

Beautiful work, Fred!