Oak Dresser

[Herb Stoops]

I had this oak dresser when I was a kid growing up. It came across the country from Pennsylvania to Washington state in a covered wagon in the late 1800's when My Grandmother was a child, her dresser.
It ended up in my Garage with used auto parts in it after I was married. It was a dirty brown color and I noticed a chip out of the top down to the wood, and saw it was oak.
So I stripped all the many(approximately 6-8) coats of paint down to the wood and refinished it in a danish oil finish because the wood was all dried out. It sucked up a quart of finish. There were coats of blue,red,pink,white,sky blue,beige, and last dark brown.
The drawers were hand dovetailed,(rough) anf the bottoms of the drawers were one piece of 1/4" poplar,which was warped and sagging.

[Herb Stoops]

I liked it so much, I decided to make a new one to go with it. The construction was panel on the sides with a 3/4" 1X3 that was grooved both edges and a 1/4" X 6" panel between. Here is the final project.
Herb

[RainMan]

Your definitely a wood artist Herb . Images the talent this younger generation will never have

[Stick486]

WOW Herb...
that's a mighty fine piece of craftsmanship you hav there...

what method dd you use to make up the panels???

[Herb Stoops]

Thanks for the comments.
The narrow parts of the panels were just grooved with a table saw. This is before I had a router table and I set a 3/4" piece against the fence and ran it thru,turned it around and ran it thru again then did the other edge and the ends, the round over was by the hand held router only one side. The wide panels resawn on the bandsaw to 5/16" and the back side ran thru the Table saw to thin it down to 1/4". The legs had a full length 1/4" mortise for the ends of the panels to enter into. Pretty simple, just stack them into the legs with some glue on them.
HErb

[Cherryville Chuck]

Both are nice Herb. One of the reasons they used hide glue way back was because you could take something apart later and fix it if it needed to be. It was a way to protect the time and money investment already put into the piece. The we'll throw it away and go buy another one at Ikea mentality came much later.

[HandyDan]

Gorgeous Herb. I like the color too.

[DaninVan]

Beautifully crafted, Herb!

[Herb Stoops]

Someone asked why I had a dust collection tube out the back of the new one.
That ,my friends is where I put the dirty clothes and when I get a couple of drawer full I turn it on and suck them out, blowing them into the washer. All I have to do is put in the soap and turn it on.
Herb

[old55]

Very nice Herb.

[Herb Stoops]

@CharleyL

Of course you noticed in the pictures the 3 different shades of color on the dresser. I just shot it with a Cannon 100 point and shoot camera. Not sure why the different colors. The last picture is the closest.
Herb

[CharleyL]

Point and Shoot cameras automatically adjust several parameters for the best picture in the light that it sees, with no comparison to the photo that it took before it. Even under the same light, moving the camera one way or another will vary the shadows, and the camera just averages the light levels that it is seeing to take that one picture. The next picture, with slightly increased shadows or bright light being seen by the camera will vary this average level and make a completely different photo.

Learning how to use a better camera with "manual" adjustment capability will let you set the camera based on the first photo, and then hold those adjustments for the follow-on photos. A feature called "TTL" (Through The Lens) helps get this first photo settings right, because it makes the flash adjustments by looking through the camera lens and stopping the flash as soon as the camera sees enough light. So you can take the first photo using the TTL setting, and then transfer these settings into the camera memory. Then switch the camera to "manual" and every shot after that will be with the same light level and color adjustment.

More expensive cameras and photo quality lighting do make a difference, if you know how to use them. One of the main things that I do with flash is to never attach it directly to the camera. When this is done, you get a well lit, but flat image. Moving the flash off camera to say 45 deg. left or right produces small shadows that give the image visual depth. I sometimes use 4-7 sources of light, to get the desired light. My flash units are all controlled via a radio transmitter that attaches to the hot shoe (camera flash attachment point). This transmitter not only triggers every flash, but it allows me to adjust every one of them from the camera location. It makes my life so much easier.

For my continuous lights (LED light panels with 480 LEDs in each one) that I use for video work, each has a WIFI name, and I have an App on my cell phone that lets me select each one and adjust it's color and brightness, and even turn it on and off individually from my cell phone. All without wires, other than the power cord to the ceiling mounted outlet strips. Since these lights are all at ceiling level, having this App control helps keep me off the stepladder.

There is almost never a power or signal cable on the floor of my studio, and if there is, it isn't there long. All of my strobe lights also receive power from ceiling power strips too, and my light tripods hang down from the ceiling too, eliminating the danger of tripping over a light stand tripod leg. The only tripod that usually sits on the floor is my camera tripod, and I frequently just hold the camera and not use the tripod.

I have a ceiling light in the center of my studio ceiling that I usually leave on, because I set my camera so it only sees light significantly brighter than this ceiling light. I don't work in the dark, but the camera doesn't see it.

Probably too much info for a point and shoot camera user, but maybe it'll keep the total post count shorter. There are definite benefits to better cameras with more adjustments and better lighting.

Charley

[Herb Stoops]

I knew you could explain it, even though I only get the gist of it. It takes a lot of experience to understand it all, and put it to use. I know you have that experience. Thank you for taking the time to explain it.
HErb