davepolaschek

drawerfronts

Jan 7, 2022

Step zero for the morning was to get the hot hide glue going. Figured I was going to need it today.

Drawer with countersink, plug-cutting and twist bits

When I left off yesterday, the short drawer I was working on looked like the photo above. When I came back to the shop, I realized I have 3 VIX bits I need to have a home for, so I got another piece of pine and started carving.

Drawer with countersink, plug-cutting and VIX bits with the twist bits moved to the top

I also wanted the drawer to be a bit shorter. There's no good reason for the trays to be a full ¾ thick, so I set the fence in the bandsaw to about ⅜ inch and resawed them.

Resawing the tray for the plug-cutting bits to ⅜ thick

I also took ⅜ inch off the top of the drawer box with one of my larger backsaws.

Cutting ⅜ inch off the top of the drawer

And then I set the two drawers in their cubby to make sure they'd fit with the runners in place, and got ready to glue the runners in. By this point, the glue was up to temperature. [brief break in the narrative while I run out to the shop and unplug the crock pot for the day, and put the glue back in the fridge]

Two drawers in the cubby with spacers to hold them apart

I set the lower drawer in place with some spacers, then did a rub-joint with the runners until the glue grabbed.

Lower drawer in its cubby with runners glued to the side walls above it

That's that pair of drawer boxes complete. I looked through the bits I have remaining, and it looks like the rest are just getting tossed into various drawers for now.

Tapered tenon cutter, some twist bits, and a set of twist bits in a yellow DeWALT case, filling a drawer

A few auger bits, a grey case which holds a set of calipers, a small jar of vaseline, and a couple screwdriver bits in the bottom of a drawer

And with the drawer boxes done, I started laying out the drawer fronts. I took my piece of resawed elm that's going to be the fronts, and decided which way it'll be oriented, then planed one of the edges square as a reference surface.

Jointing the edge of the two reason elm boards

Then I cut both boards to width and cut off the last ¾ inch from the end so I'd have a square surface there to measure from.

The two boards with the smooth surfaces up

Then I laid out the drawers on each of the boards, and called it a day. I'll double-check my work tomorrow before making any of these cuts, as once I start cutting, I'm committed to this plan. I think you'll be able to see the marks on the boards. The plan is that the drawer fronts will butt up against each other, leaving bookmatched grain on the two rows of drawers, and continuous grain from left to right along the row. The wood lost to kerfs should be just enough that the drawers won't rub against each other.

The two boards with the drawer positions marked on them

Contents #woodworking #storage #drawer #drawerFronts

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