12 Drawers of Tedious Repetition

I'm not good at repetition which is why I always decline when someone sees something I have made and tells me I should make more to sell. The only time I have listened was when I built a second batch of inbox drawers for desks but I needed one anyway for personal use and I thought, why not build a couple more while I'm at it. I don't mind the work of cutting and assembling but when it comes to sanding, I always regret my decision. So when it came down to making the drawer front for my 12 drawer dresser, I wasn't terrible thrilled because I knew it would be a lot of repetition.

Above is the beginning of the drawer fronts. Since they are just going to be plain flat oak without adornment, they shouldn't be too bad. It is fairly easy to sand flat things fairly quickly. The only real concession I made was that I kept things ordered so I can grain match the drawer fronts. Essentially every row of drawer is cut from the same board and in order so when assembled, the grain will flow smoothly from left to right. Since I had to have an individual board for all four rows, I picked through the stack at my local LoNards Depot to find four that were not too bad. They had a whopping 7 boards to choose from so it won't be perfect but should be adequate.

The next step however, was quite tedious. My wife wanted wooden pulls for the drawers and so I used some of the scraps of walnut from various parts of the build to make my own drawer pulls. This required cutting to size, routing the details of the profile and drilling holes for attaching. All that wasn't bad but I knew the sanding would be a bear and indeed it was. I probably spent close to eight hours over two days sanding those things. A four hour sanding session, spaced out to two sessions with a lengthy break in-between is about all my hands can withstand before cramping takes over. Above are the raw drawer pulls after the joinery work was done but before any sanding had taken place. The one saving grace is that bluetooth noise cancelling ear muffs allow me to do tedious work like this while listening to a podcast or music, trying to ignore the cramping in my fingers and wrists.

You might notice in the above two pictures that there are more than 12 drawer pulls. Because I knew there would be a fair amount of work going into them, and that someday soon, I'm sure I'm going to be building a pair of nightstands to match the dresser, and I have future plans for at least one more piece of furniture with a couple drawers or doors, I decided to make some extra. That of course only ramped up the tedious factor of making them.

Here is a closeup of some of them on the left after I applied two coats of finish onto them. I think they turned out fantastic and I don't regret the time spent meticulously sanding all the various contours and shapes but I'm not likely to do this again anytime soon. They aren't perfect because the wood I used wasn't perfect but I have come to love flaws in my projects. I think it emphasizes that it was handmade and adds some character that my skill isn't able to add. I'm pleased with the results. 

I have a little more sanding to go on the drawer fronts themselves and then apply some coats of finish to them and I can move onto the final assembly of the project and soon cross it off my list and move onto something else. As much as I've enjoyed this build, I can't wait to move onto something else for awhile.