My first hand cut dovetail drawer

[OneStaple]

Hey all,

I posted a few months ago about practicing my first hand cut dovetails. Now I wanted to show the first actual drawer that I've completed. Well, I'm a bit behind, so I've now technically made four with four more close to being done (and nine more coming after that).

Wood is white oak. Sides and back are about 1/2" thick and 2.5" tall. Front is about 3/4" thick. I opted to go with rabbeted half blind dovetails for the front. I learned quickly that it makes chopping out the waste a little more challenging since you can't saw nearly as far as with a standard half blind.

Yes, the slides are standard ball bearing slides, that I'm sure some won't think go with the dovetails. But this is a tool cabinet for the garage that will mainly be for me to enjoy and part of the purpose is to practice cutting dovetails, not make it a masterpiece.

I'm pretty happy return how these are turning out. There are still some gaps and things I can improve, such a where the two boards for the HB dovetails butt together. Maybe someday I'll up the challenge and try the mitred through dovetails that Derek has been showing recently.

Tyler

[OneStaple]

Sorry, photos aren't posting. I've never had issues with it in the past, but can't seem to use the forum feature to add photos at the moment for some reason.

[OneStaple]

Eh, can't get images to show up on here at the moment, so you'll have to go through the links. Sorry.

Tyler

[Philip1231]

You should be quite proud of those: many talk dovetails, few actually do dovetails, and even fewer do them as well as you have done. Bravo!

[bandit571]

Look good to me.

Photos .....Try the resize options, as this site does have a size limit for pictures...

   

[tablesawtom]

You should be quite proud of those: many talk dovetails, few actually do dovetails, and even fewer do them as well as you have done. Bravo!

I agree with Philip 150 per cent. The look prefect to me.  Very very well done.

Tom

[Arlin Eastman]

You did a very good job

[grwold]

Very nice!

.... 17

[adamcherubini]

Looks good. Little London style. Typically, when drawers had what we call London style pins, they were only in the front of the drawer, not the back. My theory is that the intention was to cover the maximum amount of drawer front end grain. With full DTs I think the intention was to match the exposed end grain so the pieces would move together.

Another nice 18th c feature that might have worked well here is keeping the drawer sides a bit lower than the front. Almost always in those cases, the sides are planed with a hollow plane to round over the top of the side. It’s a thoughtful elegant feature.

Not sure what you did at the back?? Looks like you trapped the bottom in? 18th c bottoms were very often nailed up from underneath, often back and sides. Front was grooved. My advice would be, if you are going to groove the sides and front, hold the back up so you can slide the panel in from the rear.

[Derek Cohen]

Hey all,

I posted a few months ago about practicing my first hand cut dovetails. Now I wanted to show the first actual drawer that I've completed. Well, I'm a bit behind, so I've now technically made four with four more close to being done (and nine more coming after that).

Wood is white oak. Sides and back are about 1/2" thick and 2.5" tall. Front is about 3/4" thick. I opted to go with rabbeted half blind dovetails for the front. I learned quickly that it makes chopping out the waste a little more challenging since you can't saw nearly as far as with a standard half blind.

Yes, the slides are standard ball bearing slides, that I'm sure some won't think go with the dovetails. But this is a tool cabinet for the garage that will mainly be for me to enjoy and part of the purpose is to practice cutting dovetails, not make it a masterpiece.

I'm pretty happy return how these are turning out. There are still some gaps and things I can improve, such a where the two boards for the HB dovetails butt together. Maybe someday I'll up the challenge and try the mitred through dovetails that Derek has been showing recently.

Tyler

Tyler, any self-respecting furniture maker would be proud to own those dovetails. Excellent work. 

Lipped (rabbeted) half blind dovetails is pretty advanced stuff. Most starting out would have made through dovetails and glued on a front. So well done again!

No problems with the dimensions of the drawers for a tool cabinet. For house furniture I would make the drawer sides 1/4-3/8" thick (erring on the thinner side), and I would not use slides (but in the shop they make perfect sense). 

Regards from Perth

Derek