From this to....you'll see.

[holsgo]

So, It's been a few hours and, before it gets cold tonight. I brought it in. Rubbing out the finish will take place in a few days after it's cured. In the meantime I'm going to make the brass handles.
Here is the front.
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Right side
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Drawer design.
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Lessons learned are:
1-Damn run in the finish. On a leg and I'll have to sand it out when I sand the whole thing.
2-Shooting in the 50's, even with a heater when brought inside is a pain.
3-The gloss shows every imperfection.
4-In bright light, like in front of a window, subtle changes in black, between mediums do show. So, only use the different mediums within a drawing and not outside of it, where black on black can be seen. You can't see unless up close and in bright sunlight but it's a lesson.
5-Dust. You can see it already settling on the piece but it's not in the finish.

[Gene Howe]

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!
Thanks a lot for all the pictures and accompanying comments. This is going to be in my bookmark favorites.

[holsgo]

Thanks Gene. BTW. I will show all of the panels after I finish. They won't look right until a bit more work. But, Each design is actually copied from real Baltimore furniture from the period. I didn't make any of it up. For example, the Federal shield on the leg in the pic is from a piece Dolly Madison had. Now where she had it is troubling since everything supposedly burned at the white house during that time. But, you get the idea. I can put up some scans of the original stuff or you can just search the internet.

[holsgo]

I thought I would update on the polishing technique if anyone is interested. If you are a woodworker who has finally mastered spraying out a poly, lacquer etc you can get a baby smooth finish and high reflectivity if you move to polishing. There are a ton of methods and I'm only going through mine but the products are available and inexpensive, the buffer attachment I made cost about $9 and the finish is great. Poly is not the hardest finish out there but you can still polish it. Polishing is not that difficult for those of you unaware and the rewards are pretty deep. So first are my papers, from 320 up to 1500. Then on to the 3 compounds and finally the buffer attachment. The attachment is nothing more than a pack of hand buffers and a 5 inch sanding disk backer that fits in a drill. Use velcro on the pad and you have the buffer that works well, and has good control.
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[holsgo]

So here is the drawer front after 4 or more coats poly. You saw the reflection in a previous pic as well. See how the light is poorly reflected.
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I have wet sanded with dishwasing soap and water from 320 to 400 to 600. Here I begin 800. I have left some of the unsanded low spots in so you can see them as we move along. I can go back and touch things up but this is for you to see.
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From here I finish out from 800 to 1000 to 1500. Then I move on to rubbing compound. I take the drawer out to the garage and clamp it in my vice. I have a torsion box workbench with holes drilled all around the sides that allows pipe clamps to become part of the clamping mechanism. I can hold odd and large items in it.
This pic is after the rubbing compound. Buff just like a car, using one side to move forward and back at a fairly high speed. You should end with this. Terrible pic but you can see the scratches.
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[holsgo]

Now, this process applies for all of the polishes. I put the polishing compound and a spray of water on the drawer. Then I get to the buffer. Flip the pad. Do not use the same pad for all of the polishes.
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See some scratches left by the rubbing fade.
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Do the same for the ultimate polish and then compare. You can see the faint scratches left by the buffer but you can see the difference when compared right next to an unpolished piece.
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Then up to the light. What I'm looking for is a good reflection. I don't have one here but remember, we had some high and low spots. The point is, that wet sanding isn't done until you have really broken down those spots. The rubbing compound will take care of quite a bit though. The faint scrathes can be hand buffed a bit.
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So, it's not just in looks though, it's far more pleasing to the hand to feel a polished piece.
I hope this helps someone.

[holsgo]

Well, I've pissed my wife off to no end. Not only was I wet sanding this for a few days in the kitchen but when I started in on the high speed buffer I think she's had enough.
So, I went back and hit the sandpaper sanding out more imperfections and then rebuffed using the drill, the pad in the first pic and the polishes. Then came the high speed buffer and wool pad...and it came to life. The high speed swung ultimate polish all over the kitchen, I was fine with it...guess who wasn't. It's been waxed with car wax which just really makes it look slick. Only polished the top and drawer fronts to this high of a sheen. I think my real issue was orange peel which was because the temps weren't right. Had to sand all of it out.
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Anybody have any luck with any other very fine polish? I have rottenstone and pumice as well but didn't use those on this project.
Next up is turning the pulls on the lathe.

[holsgo]

I had the day off so went to the metal store. Picked through the scrap and found a 36 inch rod of 1/2 inch brass to make some pulls for the drawers, tambour door and finally the drawer pull.
Much fun. Couldn't find what I wanted for pulls so I made these small cones at about 3/4 projection with a finished diameter of .421 inches.
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Cut the taper by just turning the cross slide to about 15 degrees. Used some HSS cutters.
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Well, here are three of them. Not bad. I'll drill and tap then polish them up a bit and install.
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Machine speed was magna dado. Any slower and you get a ton of chatter. I'm sure faster would work as well. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.

[gilamonster]

Wow! I am totally impressed! With the amount of work that went into this project, and with the quality!

Well Done! Can't wait to see the finished result...

[holsgo]

Yesterday I spent my allotted shop time cutting a blank for a drawer pull. As you can see from below, I took a 1/2 inch rod and turned it down on 2 ends and milled a square section in the middle. Eventually, this will form the pull as I heat and bend the ends to fit into brackets that attach to the drawer.
Chucked up and milled. Brass is very easy on the shopsmith. Very little strain of the machine.
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Here you can see the blank, ready to be bent into its final form. The square section will be the bottom of the bail style pull.
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