Resuming this build series from Part 2, I'd just finished dry filling the side & back panels. As I was fitting the back panel, the reality of its size became apparent... this was going to be a pretty big build...
Thankfully, the fit went well. One of the things you might notice in the above photos is a little bit of discoloration on the stiles. That is just the tannins in the oak reacting to the environment. It is a "flaw" unless I was doing some very dark coloration to the wood. But my planed finish was a sort of medium, and the discoloration would be visible. But I decided to work with it anyway, and even with some other "less than perfect" material, because I wanted to approach this from a practical "we need a wardrobe" perspective, rather than a "this should be in a gallery or museum" standard. I want to embrace that approach more in my work - making good furniture with great craftsmanship, but not getting obsessive about getting a glass finish on the underside the feet. Any examination of fantastic pieces in museums, historic homes, etc, will show you that is the approach craftsmen of yore took - the backs of cases, the underside of drawers are usually raw and unfinished. Our modern "every single unseen surface should be gallery perfect" approach is over the top, and I hope to remain practical in that light.
To that end, I put the slightly "off" pieces and parts in places that would rarely, if ever be seen, and have no effect on the functionality of the piece. Here's an example of the pieces I used for the bottom panel; there was a nail removal chunk (done by the sawyers) missing from the middle of the glued up panel. Instead of ditching the material, I did a patch repair, and that area is on the underside of the bottom of the wardrobe. Good luck lifting up this huge, fully loaded wardrobe and seeing that.
Next, I did more panels, this time the two large doors. The same as the sides and back. I saved the prettiest pieces and panels for the doors - the most visible part of the piece.
With all the panels dry fit, it was time to get into the PITA part of doing solid panels vs plywood panels (discussed in Part 1) - finishing the panels before assembly (as well as the inner edges of the frames). I got all the parts labeled, knocked apart, and ready to go.
twelve panels
a zillion rails & stiles
The finishing process was some light shade of brown water based dye, followed by several coats of amber shellac. I had to come up with a way to store the twelve panels as they dried, as well as the zillion rails and stiles. The rails and stiles just ended up on my "assembly table" (aka, my table saw + outfeed table), and the panels ended up in this dowels + 2x4 rack I improvised. The rack worked well, as I shellacked one face at a time, left it it dry, then did the other face.
dowels and 2x4 drying rack
inner edges of the rails & stiles being finished
This took a while to do, and with some real life interruptions, longer than I liked. But after the finishing was done, glue up & assembly went fine. And that's how the wardrobe stayed, for a long time, as other projects cut in line ahead of it. More in part 4...
wardrobe pieces (doors, sides, back, top, bottom, and inner divider) taking up shop space - I ended up stumbling over them and moving them back and forth, working around them, for the next several months.