Read on if you're interested in the ongoing saga.

I've got the first draft of my plans done. I use Powerpoint to do the scale drawings -- I use the object properties to define the size of the objects (in this case the drawing is to 1/2 scale).

Marcie's friend Rose connected me up with Pat O'Loughlin who was selling some cherry that he had cut down in southern Minnesota. So I've got some nice personal wood to make the big pieces out of. Here's a picture of the two rough-cut boards I bought from him (they're the two on the top of the rack, tipped up on their sides because they're so wide they'd fall off the rack if they were laid horizonal -- these are BIG pieces of wood).

This winter, the "big project" was to try out making a dresser. This is my first foray into the realm of boxes -- and this dresser has 7 of 'em! The big box of the dresser case, plus six little boxes for the drawers. The big lesson learned is that making things square in two dimensions is a lot easier than making them square in three. The big box is out of square about an eighth of an inch and that wound up driving me nuts for the whole project thereafter -- constant corrections.

I built this dresser following (slightly modified) plans from Bill Hylton's Chests of Drawers book. A great book -- filled with plans that are mostly way too advanced for me, but very clear and good at helping navigate the rough patches.

Here's a picture of the big box, just after I glued it up. It was at this point that my fateful eighth of an inch out-of-square crept into the scene. I got too cute -- I used mortise and tenon joints instead of the loose tenon joints that Bill describes in the book and paid the price for deviating from the instructions of the Maestro.

Now the "big box" is basically done. The top isn't structural, it's going to get hooked on with those little angle irons you use to put solid-wood tops on tables.

These are the blanks for the drawer handles. Another "first" on this project was to learn how to do pattern cutting with the router. Now that's a gizmo! I can tell I'll be having a lot of fun with that router bit in days to come.

Now the six "little boxes" are done and mounted. This dresser uses drawer-mounting hardware like you'd find in kitchen cabinets. I'm still a little too ham-handed to make a real dresser where the drawers fit in the dresser frame directly. Maybe some day, but only after I get better at square. One neat thing about this hardware is that it's got a little gizmo that "self closes" the drawer in the last 3 inches of its travel -- sorta like the trunks on fancy cars.

All done. I like it a lot, and Marcie does too. I've adjusted that one drawer-front that's a little out of whack in this picture so everything's looking pretty good unless you know exactly where to look for that dreaded eighth of an inch.