Entryway Furniture

From J:

Next woodworking project: entryway furniture. Our old key hook was a (admittedly) college-worthy item that I won (while in college). Add on to that some coat hooks that left hoops on our coats from being too pointy and it was pretty clear that our entryway could use an upgrade. Luckily, I know a guy who can now make furniture: me.

Wood of choice: American cherry. It's gorgeous and machines well.
Construction technique of choice: mortise and tenon. It's time consuming but incredibly strong and should last forever. It is also something of a challenge compared to other techniques (like pocket screws or biscuits/dowels) and a good skill to learn/practice.

So, I went to the local hardwood supplier and bought about $400 dollars of cherry. It was on sale, and I couldn't help myself! Nice wide boards, very pretty grain on them. 47 board feet worth - enough to do these projects and with plenty left over for some other items.

Next step: get the cherry home. I like having an SUV.

I also had to upgrade my workshop to store 47 board feet of cherry, which meant adding in some brackets. Two brackets into the studs later, and I have some wood storage!

 

Now, on to the construction. I dimensioned up the lumber using mostly my circular saw and crosscut sled. I'll be upgrading my crosscut sled after this project, since it was only able to handle boards that are less than ~10" wide - some of these boards were bigger. Learning curve!

I took the cutoff from the widest board (for the top of the coat rack) and dimensioned it up a little bit further for the key rack parts. Then, I had to add the mortises and tenons. Mortises were cut using my plunge router with a 3/8" bit. This was the first time I'd ever used the plunge router and it went quite well. I used an old piece of plywood for an edge guide to keep my cuts in line. The edges of the mortises were cleaned up with a chisel to make them nice and square.

 



Here's one of the side pieces for the coat rack with the mortises cut, waiting for the curve to be jig sawed.



Tenons were cut on the table saw with a dado blade. Nothing fancy.

 

 

Time for the first dry fits!

 

 

Dry fits were pretty good - I had to go back and clean up the edges of the tenons a bit to make sure that they fit well. No big deal, I was really pleased with how well it came together. I routed a chamfer on the edges for some visual interest. Next comes...glueup. This was a nightmare for the coat rack. The wood glue I used will swell the tenons slightly as it's absorbed, which made it very tough to get together. There's a huge time crunch as well since the working time isn't very long. After some...persuasion...with my rubber mallet, it went together.

Everything was given a final sand to clean up any glue spots or roughness, then I finished with some General Finishes Arm-R-Seal urethane varnish. Three coats on the coat rack, four on the key rack (I expect it to get abused more), buffing between each coat with 0000 steel wool. So pretty.

Hanging the coat rack was a challenge due to its size and weight, but I used a combination of keyholes and figure-8s to mount it into three studs and one anchor. It's not going anywhere.

The hardware on everything is cast iron colonial-style hooks that I found online. They work perfectly! Wifey found the wicker baskets locally. This is my first real "fine" furniture and I'm extremely proud with how it turned out! The cherry should naturally darken over the next year or so to a richer brown.

Total cost: ~$200 ($100 wood, $80 hardware/hooks, $20 finish and consumables). Took about a month from start to finish, with a break for holiday travel in the middle.

Project highlights: This was an intimidating investment in wood up front, so anything that looked decent at the end was going to be a success in my book. I think everything looks great. I'm particularly proud with how I recovered from a couple of mistakes. I know where they are, but wifey hasn't been able to find them yet. A good sign!

Places for improvement: Better cuts on the tenons to begin with to limit fine adjustments later. I learned a lot during glue up, as well. I'll be using epoxy or doing partial glueups to avoid the hectic situation I found myself in. Learning curve!