today i'll show you how i made this mid-century nightstand with 3D hexagon
pattern drawers i'll walk you through everything from
making the carcass the base the drawers the slides the drawer faces
and how to get this deep black finish without hiding the grain this nightstand
i'm using rough sawn ashwood mostly because the grain will really pop
with the finish i plan to use but also mainly because i've never
worked with ash before i'll use a total of four
six quarter eight foot long boards i cut each board into four sections to make it
easier for milling i start by running each board on the
jointer a few times until the face is nice and flat
i then flip the board upwards with the flat side running along the fence
to get a nice square edge after that it's over to the planer where
i run all my boards through flat side down
to make all the boards parallel and flat at this point i'm just taking off enough
to make it flat without worrying about the thickness
i want three quarter inch boards to build the nightstand's carcass so here
i'm resawing the boards on my bandsaw aiming for slightly over three quarters
at this point in order to allow for additional milling
i'll also be able to use the leftover pieces for the drawers later on
for now i'm just going to work with the thicker pieces to make the carcass
so i'll save these other pieces for later
the bandsaw left some marks on the board so i'll clean those up using my planar
and get them all to equal thickness i can then rip down all the boards to an
even width which is the last step before gluing up the panels
moving on to the glue up now's the perfect time to talk about the sponsor
of this video and that's Bessey Tools you've seen me use Bessey clamps in many
of my videos and you know how much i love these parallel clamps
but they've got a whole lineup of quality clamps to choose from
i'll leave links in the description below for all the clamps that i use so
be sure to check those out here you saw me just making sure to
alternate the grain rings to avoid any potential cupping
my clamping process for these panels is to add a generous amount of glue
and lightly tighten the clamps and if i feel it's necessary
i'll add some mini f-clamps at the seams to keep them all aligned
before going back to fully tighten the clamps
after letting the panels dry i use a scraper to remove any glue before
running them through the planer you'll notice that the panel just fits
into my planner and that was due to careful planning on my part
i ran each panel through on both sides until i reached the final thickness of
three quarters of an inch i then sanded the boards to 120 grit
before moving on to the next step which is squaring up the boards and
cutting the beveled edges my crosscut sled isn't big enough to
support my panels so i have this piece of plywood here that i'll use as a
support i want to first square up one side of
the panel so i can use that as a reference edge up against my
fence with that done i tilted my blade to 45 degrees
then with the squared edge up against the fence i could make the first bevel
cut
after that i could flip it around and cut the second bevel
and cut the board to its final size
before assembly i'm going to cut a small groove at the back of the panels
just 1 8 of an inch deep to accommodate the back panel
you can do this after assembly but i find it easier to do beforehand
with that done i laid out the panels in a row so i could mark for the biscuits
i'll be using for assembly
i find that biscuits make it much easier to assemble mitered carcasses not to
mention they add strength to an otherwise weak joint
fyi i'm using the smallest setting here number zero
anything bigger and you'll punch through the board
i made three biscuit slots on both ends of each board
then grab my strap clamp and got ready for the glue up the glue up was a little
nerve-wracking but using a strap clamp to hold everything together while i
added parallel clamps and squeezed the joints together
was like having an extra set of hands i read an article in the woodworkers guild
of america that tested various wood glues for open
time and the winner was elmer's glue all believe it or not with 37 minutes of
open time so i decided to go with that and give myself plenty of time here
i'll leave a link to that specific glue and the article down below
once dry i used my router with a small round over bit to help make the miter
joints disappear i then sanded away any tool marks left
by the router and in the end i was really happy with
the result
at this point i cut a back panel to size out of 1 8 plywood and did a test fit
i'll come back later to secure it with brad nails but first i want to apply my
finish so let's get to that if you follow me on instagram you'll
have seen me apply this black finish it's not stain
it's not paint it's called india ink and it's used mostly in calligraphy
but it can also be used to ebonize wood i'll leave a link to the one i used down
below i applied it just like paint using a foam brush with even strokes
then just let it dry i only applied one coat and that was enough
the beauty is that unlike paint it leaves the grain visible
and in my opinion looks really really good
after it was dry i applied a wipe on clear coat finish and here i'm just
buffing it out i was worried that the ink might rub off
and it did a tiny bit but nothing to affect the finish i'll
let that dry and move on to the base
so here's a prototype of the base that i mocked up out of scrap plywood
and hot glue i like the overall look and size so i'll go ahead and make one out
of ash the advantage of making a prototype is
you can use it as a template as i'm doing here
i set my miter gauge to 10 degrees and then i'll essentially cut the top and
bottom angles of the legs
with that done i'll grab my tapering jig oh and by the way i have a video on how
to build this simple jig if you're interested
i used my template piece to set up the jig just right with the edge flushed
with the side of the jig so now i can drop in my blank and lock
it down here's a better view from the
back now you'll see in the next shots that
i'm getting some burning on the wood and i think that's because i was going way
too slow on these cuts you can't tell because i've sped up the
footage quite a bit but i'm fairly confident that's why i'm seeing those
burn marks not to worry i'll be able to clean those
up with my sander later on
so after cutting the legs i decided to use one of them to set the angle on my
miter saw to cut the stretcher that'll connect the legs
in hindsight i'm not sure this was the best design
i think i should have cut the top part of the leg so that the stretcher
connected at 90 degrees but in any case after confirming the
angle was right with a test piece i moved on to cutting the stretchers all
right so here's the base upside down but before assembling it i
want to cut the slots i'll use to attach the base to the carcass
i'll use zed clips for this in order to allow for wood movement
in order to figure out the distance for the slot i cut a few test pieces until
the z-clip was parallel to the slot when screwed down
this is a little tip i learned from jay bates and it essentially ensures that
the piece will be able to move freely with the seasons
is it zed-clips or zee-clips? hey, i'm Canadian. with the slots cut i moved on to
assembling the base and for this i'll use dowels
i first made two lines perpendicular to the joint ensuring my dowels would fit
without poking through i then used my dowel jig to drill all
the holes
assembly was pretty straightforward applying glue in the holes and to the
surface areas as well
because the legs are on an angle though i used the offcuts with some
double-sided tape to hold them in place and make it easier to clamp the legs
once dry i sanded it all down nice and smooth and here you can see those slots
i made for the z clips i'll use i laid out the base and made some more
dowel holes in order to finish assembly i added some glue and let it dry before
sanding it some more and applying india ink just as before
and added a clear coat on top of that
after the finish had dried it was time to attach the base
i flipped over the carcass and centered the base
in retrospect using these zed clips probably wasn't necessary given the
small footprint of the base i probably could have just screwed it
down it's not like a large table that's likely to expand and contract with the
seasons for that you need to use these sort of
clips to allow for the wood to move without splitting
but in any case i finished screwing it down and with that
we have the frame complete
now's a good time to insert the back panel that i also stain black
and that'll secure simply using a few brad nails
all right at this point i want to get started on the hexagon pattern drawer
fronts for this i'll use the leftover pieces
from the resawing i did earlier on i don't really care about the thickness
in fact i'm counting on them being different so i'll end up with a 3d
pattern which i think will look really cool
to cut the hexagons i'm using my hexagon cutting jig i have a video that shows
you how to make this jig and how to use it
and you can watch that by hitting the link in the top right corner of your
screen this jig was made to cut hexagons with 2
inch sides so roughly 4 inches wide but you could make
one to cut hexagons any size after the first cut is made and the stop
is clamped back into place you simply rotate the piece clockwise as
you go until you have a perfect hexagon it's
super easy to use and what i love about this jig is
that you get consistent results no matter how you lay them out it's
always a perfect nice tight fit
to glue up these hexagons and make them into drawer fronts i cut a piece of
backer board from 1 8 ply and then laid out the hexagons into a
pattern that i liked you'll notice two pieces with blue tape
and that's so i'll remember not to glue those ones down for now i'll
just hold them in place using double sided tape
i want to be able to remove them later since they'll be used as dryer pools
that'll make more sense later to glue these up and make sure all the
joints stay tight i'm going to do it in small
batches one ring at a time i'll start with the inner ring applying some glue
to each piece then use some bottles i have on hand to
act as clamps while it dries and pushing the other pieces against the
sides to help keep everything tight once that dries i'll work my way out one
section at a time until all the pieces are glued down
after it dried i use my track saw to square up the board on one side
then with the help of a square i lined up my track to cut a perpendicular edge
with one corner squared up i could take it over to the table saw and square up
the other sides once all the sides were squared i could
start cutting it down to its final dimensions
now here's where i realized my mistake when i glued down the hexagons i only
applied glue to the center because i wanted to avoid squeeze out on the edges
but because of that when trimming the board here you'll see that the little
corners come loose and become a serious kickback hazard not
good luckily i noticed it and was able to
safely finish the cut and then glue those little bits back on
and do one more final clean cut
all right i'll put this aside for now and get to work on the dryers
i'm keeping it simple and using plywood to make the drawers
very mid-century i know half inch would have been ideal but i had three quarter
on hand so i went with that after cutting all the sides i moved over
to my homemade router table i'm going to make a dado into the sides
of the drawers and use wooden drawer slides
i used a three-quarter inch straight bit for this and raised the bit
progressively until the data was about 3 8 deep
you could also do this on the table saw with a dado stack to assemble the
drawers i'm again keeping it simple and using pocket holes
after making the holes with my pocket jig i applied some glue
and with the help of a few bessie trigger clamps to keep all the parts
aligned i assembled the box with some pocket
screws next i cut a thin piece of ply that i'll
add to the bottom i grabbed my nail gun applied a bead of
glue and drove in some brad nails to secure the bottom
and with that we have two dryers and it's time to move on to the dryer slides
as i mentioned before i decided wooden slides would be more fitting for this
nightstand than metal ones so i cut the slides out of some scrap
maple i had on hand the idea was to get a snug fit with no
side to side play but with enough room for the slide to do
just that slide back and forth i pre-drilled and countersunk the slides
then used a spacer to set the slide in space
and transfer the pilot holes to the carcass
i could then screw the slides in place making sure the screw heads were flush
beneath the surface i installed the other side and tested
the fit then installed the upper drawer using the same method
i'll come back later and add some paste wax to the slides to keep the drawers
moving smoothly with that done it's back to the dryer
fronts where we left off i can now cut my top dryer to size now
if you remember i didn't glue down the piece with the blue tape and that's
because i'm going to create a void here that will act as a dryer pool
i use my bandsaw to help remove most of the plywood
getting close to the hexagons without touching them i could then use a router
with a flush trim bit and bottom guide to remove any leftover
material a little sanding and this will be good
to go
when came time to cut the bottom jar i was disappointed to realize i had made a
mistake and my bottom jar wouldn't be the same size as my top one
i had based my dimensions on my sketchup model but my hexagons turned out to be a
bit bigger which threw everything off if i were to
do it again i'd make the drawer fronts first
then use that to figure out the carcass dimensions and not the other way around
like i did it i tested the fit for the drawer front
using playing cards to get the spacing even
working with gravity i started with the bottom drawer and was able to get a
small clamp on to hold the front in place
allowing me to pull out the drawer i made some pilot holes and secured the
dryer front using some screws
i again use the cards to position the top drawer with even spacing
then use the clamp to hold it tight so i could remove it and secure the front
with some screws
all that's left now is to add a clear coat finish to the dryer fronts and this
project's a wrap
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comments down below until next time thanks for watching see
you soon