Some Assembly Required

 

Due to possible wood expansion due to changes in humidity and temperatures, I applied a coat of oil on the floating panels before assembly. This allows things to change and you won't see any unpainted parts of the side panel. With that done, I was able to glue up both end assemblies and let the cure.

Despite having tons of clamps, I didn't have any clamps long enough for the next step. But not too long ago, while watching a YouTube video about something, I saw someone just put a coupling between two of their pipe clamps to turn it into a much longer pipe clamp. Realizing that I had plenty of pipe clamps that I rarely use because they are heavy to wield without damaging a project being clamped and can easily exert enough pressure to damage whatever is being clamped, I decided that perhaps with some care, I could just repurpose them as long clamps. So I purchased some couplers for ninety-nine cents each, much cheaper than a clamp that was long enough for this project by a good pile of cash, and with some scraps of cardboard and my current stay-at-home spouse's two hands, I was able to glue in the long rails so that the dresser frame is more or less assembled. 

The back rails which will be ultimately screwed on because they are unseen and will allow me to maximize space and for the dresser to sit tight to a wall, so they were just temporarily clamped in place just to help everything hold it's shape until the glue dries.

My next step is to apply finish to the frame and then carry it indoors for now out of the way. Then I will have plenty of space to make the internal structural dividers that will hold all the drawer runners before attaching them in place. As a teaser, I priced out walnut boards for the top including shipping them to my house from my online source and then another way of creating the top without gluing up a lot of boards from a different source and found that there wasn't much of a cost difference and so I place an order for the material that I will use to make the top. If all goes well, it will really up the wow factor of this piece when it is done.