Saga of the Drawers

Things to Remember next time:
1. Need more clamps.
2. Need more space to clamp
3. Need more clamps.
4. Coffee is not Hide Glue.
5. Glue is messy.
6. Dog should not sleep next to bench.
7. Dog should not sleep in front of band saw.
8. Dog likes to chew wood that falls to the floor.
9. Don't let wood that is needed fall to the ground.
10. Socket chisels fall off handles.
11. Wear closed toe shoes.
12. Make extra parts.
13. Mistakes happen.
14. Make extra parts.
15. Identify parts.
16. All parts look alike.
17. Identify parts.
18. All parts look alike.
19. Think before cutting.
20. Make extra parts.
21. Mistakes happen.

Saturday was a long day. I got in the shop around 8:00 am and left around 10:30pm. It was productive for me too. All of the drawers, except one was completely cut out and ready for the bottoms to be made.
Sunday I got back out in the afternoon and evening and began sanding and gluing up drawers.

Progress.

The secret drawer.

Spice Box Drawers

I have made drawers before, but eleven at one time? The beauty of doing so many is repetition.

Working on these drawers has reminded me that to be fast, which I aren't, it is best to do the same thing over and over.

Saturday I thought I would be cutting dovetails, but I spent the day carefully sizing the drawer fronts and milling the sides and backs. 

On Sunday, I cut one drawer's dovetails but I may redo it because I think I can do better. The pins in the drawer front turned out great, the sugar pine though was soft and crushed under the saw and the chisels. (Even after I resharpened them!) If the other drawers look better, then I'll revisit that one. In the picture, they look better than in real life. I realize now why poplar is used.

Later in the evening I went out to the shop and tried to finish up all the little things that need to be done before cutting the actual dovetails. I cut all the sides to exact length, scribed all my lay out lines, cut dadoes for the drawer bottoms on the larger drawers and began cutting another drawer's dovetails. 

It was getting late and I had to retire, I do have a day job that requires me to show up.

The Home Stretch

Some days are just fun. Today we made it to the home stretch. The door is sanded and glued up, the drawer fronts have been selected and cut to size. Perhaps we will get this wedding present done in time. Only 11 drawers to cut dovetails for. No problem, oh I have to hang the door, cut the mortise for the lock, stain and oil it, glue the feet on... well maybe I have a bit of work to do. I have two more
Saturdays, I can do it.

Drawer Fronts being sized.

The door is glued!

Getting there!

My Finish Sander.

My son tuning up my Grandfather's Stanley #6.

The Door

The last three days has been a challenge for me. To build the door I first needed to resaw boards to make the stiles and rails. I also resawed the board for the bookmatched panels.
Hand planning to thickness was called for because the curly maple did not plane well. This was not too bad but I am sore.
My son helped out by chopping out the mortises for me while I cut the tenons.
Today I cut the panels and now I am ready for glue.

My Son Came to Work

Today was a good day. First day of our Thanksgiving Break and it was nice. My son came in to town and he helped me mill the wood for the door and drawer fronts to the Spice Box. It took some time to figure out how I wanted to cut the board to get the best figure for the door panels. I think it is going to be nice. We planed them down and with each stroke of the plane the grain looked better.

Book Matched with practice door stiles and rails.

My son working on the door panels.

I felt a bit like Tom Sawyer with the planing. He wanted to help and well, I have plenty to plane so help he did.

Top of Chest. Tops of Dovetailed tails.

Curly Maple for the door, This will be book matched.

Spice chest ready for the door and drawers.

Attaching molding

Still Working....

The job that pays the bills has been getting in the way lately but I have made some progress.When I assembled the spice chest the first time, I must have been tired or in a hurry because it was out of square big time.

So....I had assembled it with hide glue and decided to test the reason I used hide glue by taking every thing apart. It worked! Sort of. I had one side of dovetails that I did not soak enough in hot water and a couple of tails broke.

As luck would have it, they were on the top and the most visible. Well if the mark of a good craftsmen is hiding his mistakes, I must be getting close to being one because I think I did a fair job.I grabbed my new Bosch Pin router and routed away the tails and inserted patches. The sides will be covered by the trim so I only had to worry about the top 1/4 inch or so. The router made short work of everything.

I made the trim the other day using my new Bosch router and a bit that I had laying around, plus the table saw and my shoulder plane. Although I would have liked to have made the trim with hand tools only, time is running out and I had to make do. I am fairly happy with the results.





Another job I tackled was making the tongue and groove back for the Spice Chest. I used Eastern Pine because I like the smell of it.

I used my LN 1/2" T and G plane for this task. There is a learning curve to using this plane. I found out quickly that the proper way to plane is to begin at the far end of the  work and work backwards. This creates a grove or a tongue, depending which part of the joint you are working with, for the plane to track. Otherwise it is easy for the plane to drift off and ruin the joint.

Yesterday my son and I made a trip to a new lumber yard, The Wood Yard, ran by Rick Wood. His store has been up and running in Griffin, Georgia for about 2 years or so. This was my first trip. I was not disappointed. He has a good selection of exotic and domestic woods and has everything arranged so that it can be easily picked through. I was looking for curly maple and I am pretty sure he has the largest selection I have seen in the Atlanta area so far. We took our time there looking and talking to Rick, who not only sales wood, but is a woodworker himself. I came home with the curly maple I needed (I almost bought more than I needed!) and a board of curly maple with a fungus on it that I plan to use book matched for the door.I plan to head back to The Wood Yard as soon as I can because I spotted some exotic wood I would like to try. First, finish the Spice box. I gotta keep focused.