A Brit builds a cedar stripped teardrop

[MikeG2]

Glue drying:
I cleaned up the outsides with various planes, then went and got the biggest standard cereal box from the kitchen:

That located a support, necessary as a 600 ish by 500 ish 6mm ply base would otherwise sag. I thought I'd do a sliding dovetail...but one-side-only. The other will be bare faced. I cut a bit of scrap to length and width. then sawed a shoulder and pared a dovetail at any old random angle:

After transferring the depth and the angle to the drawer, I plunged in with a router:

It's only a very slight taper. I next chopped out at the stopped end:

That little manoeuvre allows you to saw all of the side walls to full depth:

It takes seconds to clean out the waste with a chisel:

You can't actually do a test fit until you've done both joints:

After gluing that in place I glued and pinned on the ply bases:

Fitting the drawer runners is too mundane to bother photographing, so here are the drawers in place:

Before I could hang the top drawer, I had reinforced the hole around the sink:

This was necessary because a bit of 4x1 was glued and screwed to the underside of the worktop to take the LH drawer runner of the top drawer, so had to screw into something solid.

 

[MikeG2]

I popped the face frames in with their doors. Then screwed the runners on, and fitted the drawer carcases into place:

 

[MikeG2]

This teardrop was always meant to be a bit of fun: some light-hearted workshop-time, and something a bit frivolous. Well a boring pair of plain pine drawers didn't quite fit in with that. So, I cut up some cardboard:

Time for some Dutchmen. I wouldn't want to see a mix of pine and sapele on the top edge of the drawer front when the drawer was open:

....and then once that was planed flush, some scraps on the top:

I had a board of 5-ish mm thick sapele, but it wasn't very big. I had to make the best of it I could:

I added lots more clamps......but that lot is very delicate.

 

[MikeG2]

Whilst the glue was drying, I darkened up the face of the ply:

I added 3 or 4 coats to that, and got it appreciably darker.

When the drawer front emerged from clamps, I cleaned it up with anything which would work. I was as careful as careful can be:

.......but not careful enough:

So, I scraped the dry glue off and tried again. There was a suspect joint at the other end which also got done a second time:

That was the week. It was so bits-and-pieces, with one glue-up after another having to wait for the previous to dry, that I didn't really achieve an awful lot.

With both false fronts finally glued and cut out, I took them to the router table to remove a margin from the back face, to allow the rattan to fit:

Then, I just played around a bit with various rasps and sandpaper until I had the inner shapes nicely fair and rounded (as per the RH one below):

After cutting out and hot-melt-gluing the rattan into place, it was time to glue the face on:

The face was located by some little scraps hot glued to the back:

........and finally all together in clamps:

 

[MikeG2]

Out of clamps:

I had left the top unshaped until it was glued, and then jig-sawed it, before using a spokeshave and sandpaper to round it all over and give it its final shape:

The bigger drawer had fallen a bit behind because of the breakages, so that was next:

.......before gluing up:

Whilst that was drying, I turned my attention to the cupboards inside the sleeping area. First, I took a pattern of the curved roof using a tick stick, and transferred it to some 6mm ply:

......then cut them out, before offering up and doing a final adjustment:

Here's where the cupboards will be going:

I declamped the drawer in due course, and did a final fit:

There'll be a panel in front of the sink eventually, but I'm out of rattan for the moment.

Back to the bedroom. I have decided to do a central area first, and have it stand slightly proud of the cupboards on either side. I want to avoid just a plain run of cupboards across the full width of the teardrop. The idea behind the middle unit is that it will have an open bottom shelf big enough to take an open lap-top, so that woodworking and shipbuilding videos can be watched at night before bed.

 

[MikeG2]

I got this far:

There are some real awkwardnesses to overcome if I'm to avoid seeing lots of ply.

 

[gearsoup]

Looking really nice! On the upper galley, with the short (and wide) door, how bad is the sagging on the hinges? I've got one of similar size and opted to go with an upward opening instead out of concern for hinge life

 

[KCStudly]

Again, I love what you are doing (did) with your face frames and drawer fronts. Fantastic work!

I am a little surprised that you used hot glue to retain the rattan mesh, instead of adding grooves for cane splines like what would typically be used for wooden chair seats. Wondering if your material thickness didn't allow for such a method. Beautiful work regardless.