I MADE IT UP: An update on my sideboard

by Carl D. Clarke, Jr.

I continue to have so much fun restoring my oak sideboard.  You may remember from several columns back that it had been stored in the damp under my front porch for 50 years, and all of its glue joints came apart.  I am in the process of reassembling it from its many pieces.  In fact, since it was made of glued-up wood, each piece is now four pieces which have to be glued back together. 

It also got dry-rotted at the base.  So far, I have only had to remake one piece, a small rail about one inch by four inches by a foot long.  I don’t mean a rail like in a banister. In the furniture business, a rail is a horizontal frame member.  A vertical member is called a stile.

Anyway, I needed to remake and fit this rail.  It occurred to me that it would be appropriate if I made the oak rail from wood right here on my place. So I got Associated Tree Services to cut down a dead oak tree in my back woods.  Given the amount of wind and storm damage we have had, I was lucky to get them for $2000.
Then I got a guy with a portable sawmill to come cut the trunk into slab planks about 12” wide.  He only charged $228 for 10 usable planks.  Now I have plenty of fresh cut lumber in case I need to make another rail.  And, because it was dead, the planks are already cured and dry.
A portable sawmill leaves the surfaces of the plank rough. There just happened to be a planer at an auction three weeks ago, and I snapped it up for $240, cheap at the price.  I had to buy the drill press new, and got one on sale at Lowe’s for $319 and tax. 
I used the drill press to drill holes for the dowels. I couldn’t find my doweling jig, so I had to cough up another $32 for one of those.  Somehow, I can never find what I need when I need it.  I also bought another four bottles of TiteBond glue. 
My wife Sweetness has been very patient.  She knows that I love what I am doing and likes to see me happy.  She doesn’t resent the hours I am spending, and doesn’t seem bored when I try to explain the problems I have had and how I solved them. 
“It’s gonna be the most beautiful piece of furniture in the house,” I told her the other day.
“And the most expensive,” Sweetness said.

Carl D. Clarke, Jr. from Abingdon is a weekly columnist for the Washington County News.  He may be reached at