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Oct. 12th, 2005 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI got the chest of drawers that was left in heroin-dealing tenant's apartment. It's in my house now and I've given it a good once-over to be bloody sure it's a project within the realm of the feasible and worthwhile.
The dresser, which is entirely (including drawer bottoms and the dresser back and everything) real wood, needs the following repairs:
Two drawer fronts need to be reglued to keep the dovetails (pristine!) in place.
Every single large drawer needs to have the bottom central guide bar (wooden) replaced inside the dresser. I have two (they were loose, in the drawers) and will need to make two from scratch.
One large drawer needs the bottom-of-drawer guide thingie glued back on, but I have it so that won't be undoable. The other three large drawers have theirs, as do the two small drawers.
All four large drawers need at least one side-rail inside the dresser. Two drawers need two side-rails. I have a model side rail, so no huhu there. (The side rails keep the drawers level instead of falling down in back when the drawers are slid all the way in.)
The bottom of the dresser has a decorative cut panel thingie that the tenants have pulled half-off. It is nailed on, from the inside, using teeny finish nails. It needs to be unattached and then reattached again, more solidly. I can do this.
The finish is beat to hell and can be scraped off with a fingernail. Oddly, the actual fucking WOOD is not dented or damaged. The actual fucking wood is in surprisingly good shape. There is a teeny scratch in the top, about an inch long, that I'm probably going to have to putty, but other than that, the wood (sides, drawer fronts, drawer pulls, top of dresser) is absolutely unmarred. The cigarette burns on the top of the dresser (They're on the edge, where you'd rest a butt while getting dressed. I smoked for almost twenty years. I know these things.) didn't go beyond the finish. What luck!
I realize that this is unreal, but no lie, dude. For real. This is going to be very cute when I get it done. It's a hell of a find and it cost me zero dollars. Huzzah! I think I'll also wax the rails so that the drawers have better gliding action. Yeah. I can so do this.
The wood pieces I need are not terribly complicated and, since I have models for all of the pieces I need, I can cut others with my l33t circular saw. I have suitable scrap wood in the book room. This is not a big deal. The replacement wood pieces will probably get attached using short, skinny screws, which will not be at all visible from the outside. (The old ones were glued on, which is why they've come right the fuck off after many years of hard use by white trash junkies. I can't be having with parts coming off. Screws are better. I have a power screwdriver. Screws are not terribly difficult and the dresser wood is thick enough to not split upon screwing stuff into it.)
If there is a sufficient amount of interest in seeing before pictures of the dresser, I'll see what I can do. It's going to be hard to photograph without letting ya'll see the rest of myclutter house and I'm not sure you can fully appreciate the decrapitude of the existing finish. Let me know.
The dresser, which is entirely (including drawer bottoms and the dresser back and everything) real wood, needs the following repairs:
Two drawer fronts need to be reglued to keep the dovetails (pristine!) in place.
Every single large drawer needs to have the bottom central guide bar (wooden) replaced inside the dresser. I have two (they were loose, in the drawers) and will need to make two from scratch.
One large drawer needs the bottom-of-drawer guide thingie glued back on, but I have it so that won't be undoable. The other three large drawers have theirs, as do the two small drawers.
All four large drawers need at least one side-rail inside the dresser. Two drawers need two side-rails. I have a model side rail, so no huhu there. (The side rails keep the drawers level instead of falling down in back when the drawers are slid all the way in.)
The bottom of the dresser has a decorative cut panel thingie that the tenants have pulled half-off. It is nailed on, from the inside, using teeny finish nails. It needs to be unattached and then reattached again, more solidly. I can do this.
The finish is beat to hell and can be scraped off with a fingernail. Oddly, the actual fucking WOOD is not dented or damaged. The actual fucking wood is in surprisingly good shape. There is a teeny scratch in the top, about an inch long, that I'm probably going to have to putty, but other than that, the wood (sides, drawer fronts, drawer pulls, top of dresser) is absolutely unmarred. The cigarette burns on the top of the dresser (They're on the edge, where you'd rest a butt while getting dressed. I smoked for almost twenty years. I know these things.) didn't go beyond the finish. What luck!
I realize that this is unreal, but no lie, dude. For real. This is going to be very cute when I get it done. It's a hell of a find and it cost me zero dollars. Huzzah! I think I'll also wax the rails so that the drawers have better gliding action. Yeah. I can so do this.
The wood pieces I need are not terribly complicated and, since I have models for all of the pieces I need, I can cut others with my l33t circular saw. I have suitable scrap wood in the book room. This is not a big deal. The replacement wood pieces will probably get attached using short, skinny screws, which will not be at all visible from the outside. (The old ones were glued on, which is why they've come right the fuck off after many years of hard use by white trash junkies. I can't be having with parts coming off. Screws are better. I have a power screwdriver. Screws are not terribly difficult and the dresser wood is thick enough to not split upon screwing stuff into it.)
If there is a sufficient amount of interest in seeing before pictures of the dresser, I'll see what I can do. It's going to be hard to photograph without letting ya'll see the rest of my
