Lesson Learned

[cwarner]

Making Drawer # 5 of 7 for the lingerie chest I'm building the wife.  My first project hand cutting half blind dovetails.  Its been going fairly smoothly, even though it looks like a beaver cut some of the DT's, but its getting there.   Get the DT's fitting, then grab the plow plane to cut the groove for the drawer bottom,  do the left side, the front then the right side, making sure I have the bottom of the drawer side against the plane's fence.  Get them all done and go to fit the drawer together.  I put the left side and front together and looking good.  Grab the right side and something doesn't look right ..... I cut the groove on the OUTSIDE of the drawer side!



Put tools away, go inside and shower.  I'm done for the night.  I see two ways out of this.  Either glue in a block to fill the groove and re-cut the groove on the inside.  I dont like this option as the maple I'm using has grey streaks through it and a straight line patch would stick out horribly.  

Option two, re-use this side as a left side on the next drawer down, and remake a new side, cutting the tails from the drawer front (pins first).  I've never cut pins first but I like this option much better as no patch will be necessary.  Trying to get my head around balancing a 17" long drawer front on the side to transfer the pin location but I'm thinking I'll give this route a try.

[TomFromStLouis]

Option One isn't really an option.

This whole episode is only a slight momentum change. I expect one or two for any project the size of yours.

[Arch_E]

Perhaps add a nice dark piece of wood to fill that groove gap, . . . and call it a designer piece.

Good for you for walking away and waiting to sort things out. Patience is tough trait to develop. Well done!

[hbmcc]

I vote for #2. You are already not-happy about the DT cutting. Don't add a visible flaw.

[Adnick]

Know it's hard to believe, but I've done the same thing, ;-) and I normally cut tails first also....

My solution was option 2, it makes the most sense and conserves materials.

Best of luck on the rest of your project,

Andy

[Brent V.]

Option 3: Since you've never cut pins first, you may not want to try a new method in the middle of the project, especially with the drawer front you have hand chosen to match the other drawer fronts. Instead, save that incorrectly-grooved side for another project. Cut two new drawer sides to match the front in the same method you have made all the others. 

Option 4: Cut the pins off the side with the incorrect groove. Cut the other side the same length to match. Make that one drawer about half an inch shorter than the rest. Once you have the drawers installed, you'll likely never notice, and no one will be the wiser. (Edit: I realize now you have already cut the first side and dovetailed it. Still, if you decide to take this route, you could trim the opposite side at the back, and do your pins first on the standard dovetails, not the half-blind at the back of the drawer.)

[cwarner]

Brett,

I had not considered your option #4 and it may work.  I'm just housing the drawer back in a dado, which I have not yet cut into the sides.  I have left the drawer sides long until the front is fitted to the sides so that then I can cut the sides to proper length based on the drawer front.   I could flip the side and dovetail what was to be the back.  This would make this first set of tails the "back" and would rarely be seen being buried at the back of the drawer.  I'll have to see if I have enough length in the side to make that an viable option.  Thanks for the idea!

[Stwood_]

#2...

[MikeLemon]

Why are you balancing a board to mark from the pins, why not just transfer marks using the flubbed piece clamped to the new?

[cwarner]

Well I went with option #2, and I must say that I am very happy with the results!  Transferring the pins was very easy and I used a pencil line.  I found it somewhat easier to saw to the pencil line than the knife lines I had been using.  After cleaning up the baseline the joint went together with a few mallet taps right off the saw.. onward and upward!