Entry hall table for a niece: Part 10

[Derek Cohen]

Any discussion of the design, build methods, joinery ... or is this too boring? Two responses in Part 9, and more viewers to comment on a pair of dividers. What is going on in this forum??


Part 10:

It's time for the drawers. Once again there is a challenge. The design calls for drawer fronts that stretch across the front without being broken by drawer dividers. In other words, "lipped drawers". 
 
There are two ways to do this. The easy way is to used "planted fronts", that is, attached fronts to the front of a box ...
 

 
The hard way is to make the drawer front a single piece. This requires rebating the drawer front and forming a half blind dovetail in the side of the rebate. Courtesy of Christian Becksvoort ...
 

 
I've chosen the high road (sigh).
 
Today I spent my time preparing for three drawers. Why three and not two, as in the original design? Simply because I can build them narrower, and this will make them less likely to rack. They'll end up somewhere around 280mm wide and 290mm deep. I anticipated that 375mm wide and 290mm deep would be a disaster waiting to happen. The only way drawers that dimension could work is on runners, which I do not do.
 
The wood for the drawer front is more Fiddleback Jarrah (by request), while the remainder of the drawer is quarter sawn Tasmanian Oak (which is actually a Eucalyptus, and is quite unstable unless quarter sawn. I keep a stock for drawers). It is a lot like US White Oak in appearance and hardness.
 
I have a bunch of narrower boards, which I re-sawed to make 7mm thick drawer sides, and glued together two to get the height needed ...
 

 
No clamps, just blue painter's tape, which is stretched across. It pulls the edges together.
 

 
This is enough for 4 drawer sides (one spare) ...
 

 
The drawer bottoms will be 1/4" (6.35mm) thick  ..... I cannot go metric here as my plough blade is imperial
   .... this is re-sawn from a wide board, which saves some effort as only two boards are needed for the bottoms (the grain runs across the drawer) ...
 

 
Same trick with the blue tape, and cauls are also added to keep it flat. This will be sawn up at the time it is needed, and the panel will remain in the cauls until thn.
 

 
The narrow drawer sides necessitate using drawer slips, which is a strip added to the sides with a groove for the drawer bottom. This also adds extra width as a runner.
 
The slips are made with a plough plane. In this case, I used both a Veritas Small Plow (to plough the groove) and the Veritas Combination Plow (to plough a bead - the bead lies at the join of the slip and drawer bottom). Setting up both save time switching set ups back and forth, and once begun, making these slips was a quick process ...
 
First plough the bead ...
 

 
A tip on how to avoid over-planing the bead. This comes from David Charlesworth. Scribble pencil along the top of the bead, and when it is gone, the bead is complete ...
 

 
Now flip the board around to plane the groove ...
 
The first line is where the groove begins, which is 3mm below the bead. There will follow a 1/4" groove, and there will be 4mm below this to support the groove/drawer bottom. This makes the slip a smidgeon over 12mm high. It is 10mm deep, which allows for a 5mm deep groove.
 

 
As mentioned, once set up, no further marking is necessary. Just plane ...
 

 

 
... and then rip off the slip on the table saw.
 

[Derek Cohen]

This is a mock up: the bead at the top and the groove on the side ...



I have a strategy to fit the drawer fronts, so that the edges align with each other. It is all about accurate marking out. This will hinge on getting the opening exact, and transferring the respective measurements to their drawer fronts.

First order of the day was to fit (what will become) drawer backs to the front between the drawer dividers. This is what the result looked like ...



The table saw can cross cut really close, but only a shooting board will get the final dimension ...





On to the all-important drawer fronts!

I was heartened that all the verticals were indeed vertical still ... well, except for one (if you look carefully, you will see light in the top half) ...



This meant a slight adjustment of that side .. again a job for the shooting board.

Set one, mark the angle with a small sliding bevel ...



... transfer this to the side of the board, and head for the shooting board. As the side is no longer square, a shim is used to create the needed angle ...



A good result ...



This is the join I need to manage ...



These are the fronts fitted in sequence ...



And here were are now, waiting for the next build day ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

[hbmcc]

That looks very nice Derek! The first photo had me questioning your sanity until you came to the material for drawer sides. Tricky going, to keep the corners protected now!

The slip beading must be a builder's detail.

[Bill Holt]

I really like the color and figure in the drawer fronts.  I remember you using the wood before.  Not a lot of it here in Texas.

It is a well known fact, I am dumber than dirt.  I do not understand the need for the bead and groove piece.  Does the drawer ride in the groove or on top of the bead or none of the above?

[Derek Cohen]

Bill, the bead aids in blending the junction of slip and bottom.

Here is the slip ...



and the bottom ...





Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bill Holt]

Oh!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Derek.

[JohnnyEgo]

It took me a moment to get what the bead was for as well, but the pictures provide a lot of clarity. I am not a frequent poster, but I do follow along on these sorts of thread in lurk mode quite a bit. I know silence doesn't give you a good gauge of how well you are holding interest, but rest assured, people are reading these and getting value from them, even if we do not give voice to it. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Johnny.

No apology for ranting at the start. It is not that I want all and sundry to read my posts. What I want is for there to be some discussion about using tools rather than owning tools, per se. I also do not expect everyone to use their tools - tool collecting is an acceptable hobby. But I have witnessed a decline in this forum (website?) over the past few years. There used to be intense discussions and debates about technique and more, and now there are more viewers (as distinct from responders - what are those?) to mundane showings of common tools than projects here. Only Steven and myself post regularly about builds.

It will be interesting to see if anyone even notices this rant continued, as few will read it. I will continue to post (for now) for the few who are interested in building furniture, and mourn the slide into nothingness of this once active forum.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[mdhills]

Derek,
  Looks great.

What is your plan for opening the drawers?  (I recall an early poll as you were considering this, but don't remember the resolution)

What is needed to prevent the drawer fronts from sticking in the case with seasonal changes?  How much does this species move?

Matt

[C. in Indy]

Thanks Johnny.

No apology for ranting at the start. It is not that I want all and sundry to read my posts. What I want is for there to be some discussion about using tools rather than owning tools, per se. I also do not expect everyone to use their tools - tool collecting is an acceptable hobby. But I have witnessed a decline in this forum (website?) over the past few years. There used to be intense discussions and debates about technique and more, and now there are more viewers (as distinct from responders - what are those?) to mundane showings of common tools than projects here. Only Steven and myself post regularly about builds.

It will be interesting to see if anyone even notices this rant continued, as few will read it. I will continue to post (for now) for the few who are interested in building furniture, and mourn the slide into nothingness of this once active forum.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Derek, 

Actually I do also post about my project builds as well as my tools.   But usually I get a very tiny amount of project feedback on this forum.   I cannot keep up with the major build-posting folks here in terms of number of projects; I just don't have the time to build that much stuff.   (Hoping that when my job-commutes and schedule improve one day, I'll do better.)

On a humorous note, I have a retired friend who pursues a very non-orthodox type of cosmology studies, I think it's called Catastrophe Theory.   All his mutual-interest friends say they have to have 'brass ones' to put up with the lack of popular support. 


Chris