Nana the Nightstand

H, the girlfriend, wanted a rimu nightstand to replace the one she was still borrowing from our former flatmate, so i said i'd make her one for our anniversary, if she drew a plan. She did

and i promptly started work on it.

I found legs, bracing, some wide stock, and a drawer in my reclaimed wood collection —recycle, recycle, recycle— then got more wide stock from a secret place. I cut the pieces (not all pictured) with my trusty ryoba

and, the funnest part, trimmed the drawer.

I planed off the old varnish, some with a hand plane and some with the power plane at Hackland, chamfered the legs, and sanded. Ugh, sanding. One day i'll learn how to hand plane without tear-out and skip the sanding.

In the meantime, H changed her mind and said a second drawer would look better than a shelf at the bottom. Luckily i had one more drawer from a previous demolition that matched the top one.

I joined the carcass with pocket hole screws, because they are so easy and appropriate, then fit the drawers, leaving about 4 mm of wiggle room on the top and 2 mm on each side.

This was my first time making a carcass, and surprisingly, everything fit together as planned! OK, i needed one thin shim.

Lastly on the build, i attached rimu faces to the drawers and made handles.

Then i finished the piece with boiled linseed oil and paste wax. Presto!

H loves it and calls it "Nana" after the dead lady from whose granddaughter we got the top.

Lessons learned:

• Carcasses aren't that difficult to make if you use pocket hole screws and remember to build in slop.
• Next time, cut the drawers from the same stock so the grain matches, and beware strange streaks in the wood, which get accented with finishing.
• Don't put the nicest piece of wood on the back!
• Use tung oil instead of boiled linseed oil for a lighter, water-mold--mildrew-resistant, and three-times-more-expensive finish.