A slow chest of drawers

[spb]

I love handtools but why not use a bandsaw for this? since having a bad back I've been forced to use it often.

My bandsaw (and planer/thicknesser) are both at my mum's house, otherwise I would be. As much as I'd like them for this, the project I have going on there involves two metre plus lengths of seasoned oak, so I decided I could make do over here for now.

 

[Mike G]

Move that Irwin on, then.

 

[spb]

Ironically, that was part of the idea behind getting the new one. I'll have a look next time I'm over Ridgeons' way, though I'm obviously trying to save up and do multiple things in one trip.

In the meantime, I finished off the cuts with the Irwin (mostly, except for a few times I switched to the Pax to check; I can see where those happened) in the name of progressing the project:



The edges planed up straight fairly easily, which is my main measure of success in these things.

 

[timothyedoran]

Ironically, that was part of the idea behind getting the new one. I'll have a look next time I'm over Ridgeons' way, though I'm obviously trying to save up and do multiple things in one trip.

In the meantime, I finished off the cuts with the Irwin (mostly, except for a few times I switched to the Pax to check; I can see where those happened) in the name of progressing the project:



The edges planed up straight fairly easily, which is my main measure of success in these things.

What sort of angle are you holding the saw at? I thin
k that will have a lot to do with the straightness of the cut. When I rip saw in my vice I have to kneel down the get the saw at a sensible low angle. Also not smashing the saw through the wood helps me, steady and slower works for me.

If anything, I tend to drift rightwards with the Irwin:

My sawing used to look like that. Only last year l learnt a better technique. I think it's in this video:
https://youtu.be/3O8DIi2HfKM
Basically don't just cut straight down, instead rotate the work around. I think he shows one rotation, but I often cut a bit on every side.
I was so pleased when after watching this that it worked that I took a photo. Not perfect but loads better. I would love to know if it works for you.

 

[timothyedoran]

:?
That saw might be posing for the photo but I find that too steep. And o have found the saw sort of whips around making for a wobbly cut.

I find this sort of angle better, but I'm happy to be corrected.

 

[spb]

My sawing used to look like that. Only last year l learnt a better technique. I think it's in this video:
https://youtu.be/3O8DIi2HfKM
Basically don't just cut straight down, instead rotate the work around. I think he shows one rotation, but I often cut a bit on every side.

Yes, I generally do that for joinery cuts or small crosscuts, where I can saw on a bench hook. Not so practical for long rips, though, which is where the problem is coming - but more on that later.

That saw might be posing for the photo but I find that too steep. And o have found the saw sort of whips around making for a wobbly cut.

You're right - that one's posing. The actual sawing angle is less than that.

 

[spb]

I decided to set aside the ripping problem for a while, and get on with gluing up the panels that will form the main cabinet body. I find the least-effort approach here is just a pair of parallel jaw clamps per panel, and some mini F clamps across the join at the end to keep them well enough aligned:



Now, I only have four of those parallel clamps, so that means I can glue up two at a time this way. There are plenty more options I could use, of course, but I'm not in any particular hurry here, so I stuck with the easy way. Yesterday I got two of them in clamps, and planed up the next two sets ready for glue. I went back in the evening to unclamp the first two and glue up the second to be clamped overnight.

Then today's work was to glue up the last panel, and flatten out the first four. That process revealed a small cock-up.



Need to think about that one - I don't have enough length spare to cut it off. If I tried to cut them apart and redo the glue up, it'd be touch and go on the width once they were planed straight again. I think it'll be hidden enough; we'll know for sure later on.

In any case, the output now is four glued up and flattened panels, with one more still in the clamps.



The colour matching isn't ideal on any of them, unfortunately, as a result of the material I had to work with. Broadly speaking there were wide boards (200-260) which were all paler, and narrower boards (~150) which were all darker. To get five panels at 350 wide, each one really needed to be one wide and one narrow board; there weren't enough wide ones to use only those.

With them mostly planed up and the light at that angle, though, it really brings out the striped effect from the interlocking grain. I think it'll look alright in the end; the most mismatched panels aren't going to be the ones on show.

 

[spb]

And with the panels done, I came back to the problem of ripping straight. I remembered a thread from UKW a while ago where someone was having trouble with a brand new Lynx saw - different brand, but same manufacturer as the Pax - leaving a rough kerf because it was overset from the factory. Looking again at the comparison board from last time, the kerf was relatively large and messy as well as not straight, so I thought it was worth a try.

Before and after taking a gentle hammer to the teeth:



On the left is me trying consciously to keep the saw in line and still drifting. Not seen in that image is that the cut was around 3mm off at the back. On the right is the after, with a cleaner kerf, straighter, and the back also with 1mm of the gauge line. I think that's an improvement, and makes me a lot happier about using it on pieces that matter.

 

[spb]

Well, while nobody may know for sure how to keep the C-U-F away, there are some definite ways to invite it in. One of them is thinking "it's getting a bit late, maybe I should pack up for the night... oh, I'll just finish cutting these panels to length first, there's only two left."

These two should have been the same length, and of course they should have been the longer length.



The genius that I am marked one of them at 1050 instead of 1150. I see a few options:

1. Attempt some horrible bodge to fix a bit back on the end
2. Make the entire thing 100mm shorter than planned (these were the upright side panels). The height was planned to allow a shirt to comfortably hang in the right hand section, though, so I'm not keen on this.
3. Remake the part, via some creative rearranging.
   
   The part in question is (should be) 1140x350. My spare boards are 2250x260 and around 1050x200 - not quite enough to fit another try of this panel. There's one part, though, that hasn't been cut to length yet, needs to be 980x100, and is currently 1250x115. If I repurpose that, combined with just over half of the spare, I can make it fit. Unfortunately that was supposed to be a mostly invisible part so I used the most boring board, and the side panel that needs replacing will be one of the most visible pieces after the drawer fronts. It'll also make an even starker colour difference, I think, than the existing ones.
   
4. Buy more wood, without being able to choose it or bring it home myself. Unless the local builders' merchant has it, delivery might be prohibitive here.

Of course, if there are other options I've missed, I'm all ears. As things stand, I think I'm going to investigate option 3 tomorrow and see how the matchup looks, though I'm not massively optimistic.

 

[Woodbloke]

[*]Remake the part, via some creative rearranging.

The part in question is (should be) 1140x350. My spare boards are 2250x260 and around 1050x200 - not quite enough to fit another try of this panel. There's one part, though, that hasn't been cut to length yet, needs to be 980x100, and is currently 1250x115. If I repurpose that, combined with just over half of the spare, I can make it fit. Unfortunately that was supposed to be a mostly invisible part so I used the most boring board, and the side panel that needs replacing will be one of the most visible pieces after the drawer fronts. It'll also make an even starker colour difference, I think, than the existing ones.

[*]Buy more wood, without being able to choose it or bring it home myself. Unless the local builders' merchant has it, delivery might be prohibitive here.[/list]

Of course, if there are other options I've missed, I'm all ears. As things stand, I think I'm going to investigate option 3 tomorrow and see how the matchup looks, though I'm not massively optimistic.

Welcome to the club Stephen! The 'fuf' has struck again! Commiserations offered and if I had a round pound for every time I've done that I've done that little trick I'd be driving a Rolls :lol:
Option 3 seems to be sensible, but I'd worry a little about the colour variation. You may find that once it's complete, that difference in colour will be too much to tolerate and the whole piece would irritate you intensely. More importantly, you stand a very good chance of loosing the bucket of brownie points that you might have won from SWIMBO, so personally I would 'adapt and overcome' and make the job a little smaller - Rob

 

[Mike G]

You don't have a skirting?

 

[Dr.Al]

Well, while nobody may know for sure how to keep the C-U-F away, there are some definite ways to invite it in. One of them is thinking "it's getting a bit late, maybe I should pack up for the night... oh, I'll just finish cutting these panels to length first, there's only two left."

These two should have been the same length, and of course they should have been the longer length.

Commiserations. I know exactly how that feels. bscene-drinkingbuddies:

I think I'd go with option 3 but make sure the side panel is one the side that'll be least visible when in situ (i.e. not the side you see when you walk in the door). There's never a good option in these situations is there?

 

[spb]

You don't have a skirting?

I suppose that's option 5 - add a skirting to hide it.

However, the design called for continuous sides down to the floor with a slightly set-back base panel at the front and back, and the sides notched out at the bottom to sit over the room's skirting board. I didn't want to put an external skirting on it because it's going in a corner where space is tight already and I didn't want it to have to sit away from the wall and waste space. If I did that I'd probably have to reduce the width and depth of the main piece to keep the same footprint.

 

[spb]

Commiserations. I know exactly how that feels. bscene-drinkingbuddies:

I was just thinking of your post while writing up mine, as it happens. Cheers.

I think I'd go with option 3 but make sure the side panel is one the side that'll be least visible when in situ (i.e. not the side you see when you walk in the door). There's never a good option in these situations is there?

Annoyingly I'd sort of already done that - carefully chosen the better-matched panel to be the most visible - and cocked up the good one. Wouldn't be a proper cock-up otherwise, would it?

 

[spb]

Welcome to the club Stephen! The 'fuf' has struck again! Commiserations offered and if I had a round pound for every time I've done that I've done that little trick I'd be driving a Rolls :lol:

Thanks, and I'm sure there'll be plenty to follow. There were a few such instances in the construction of my understairs storage, but those being in 3x2 and redwood with plenty of spare didn't sting as much. Hardwood's a bit different.

Option 3 seems to be sensible, but I'd worry a little about the colour variation. You may find that once it's complete, that difference in colour will be too much to tolerate and the whole piece would irritate you intensely. More importantly, you stand a very good chance of loosing the bucket of brownie points that you might have won from SWIMBO, so personally I would 'adapt and overcome' and make the job a little smaller - Rob

Yes, option 3 is to be approached carefully, but I think if I didn't at least investigate it I'd be wondering whether it would have worked.

 

[spb]

The morning has brought another idea.

As I mentioned above, the original design was for continuous sides down to the floor, with the bottom panel housed (or sliding-dovetailed) in to them to form the box structure. If I instead dovetail the box on all four corners, and sit the whole thing on a separate base to raise it off the floor (somewhat like this chest inherited from my father, then I'd only have to make it 20mm narrower instead of 100mm shorter. Plus, if in future it moves to a less space-constrained location and I decide a skirt would look better, the base could be replaced with a new one quite simply.

I think this one might end up the winner; it achieves the immediate goal without permanently compromising the finished piece since the option of adding a skirt is still there.

 

[TrimTheKing]

I might not be understanding correctly but how does that buy you back your internal length for short hanging?

 

[spb]

It'd mean the side panel wouldn't have to go down to the floor, but could start 100mm up and go up to the same final height.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Ah okay, I get you. Ta.

 

[spb]

A shorter session on this today. A new set of garden tools arrived, so a good chunk of the evening was spent using those; it would have been rude not to.

The morning has brought another idea.

Well, I'm committed to this one now - I've cut both the side pieces to the shorter length now. Which means the next job is the one I've not been looking forward to.



Time to sharpen up the scrub plane. This is mine:



It's an old grotty No. 4 with no lateral adjuster (it should have, it was just missing when I acquired it) and negative life in the iron (again as I acquired it) - if I squared the edge off, the top of the bevel would hit the cutout comfortably. Still, it works quite well as a scrub, where I want that sort of camber anyway. Of course, that means there's no close-set chipbreaker here...



...with completely predictable results on this tricky grain.



Good thing that's all going to disappear soon. With the edges beveled down to just above the line all around, I decided not to repeat last night's mistake and called it a night there.

 

[spb]

Well, I did say this would be slow. It's not been abandoned, just shelved while I was informed I had more pressing projects to attend to. After getting back from Christmas with the family, though, and with weather that wasn't favourable to fixing the back garden, I managed to pick it up again.

Of course, putting a half-cut joint away for eight months brings its own set of problems:



Clamping the pieces to a bit of oak that was straight and square fixed it up, though. I used the same method to mark out the remaining joints for the case.




Everyone who said this was tricky timber to work with, you weren't wrong. I think it was the coping saw that did this, but I didn't notice until later, and couldn't find the piece to glue it back in. Luckily it's on the inside of the case and shouldn't be visible in the end.



With the four large dovetails cut, I thought I'd cut the rebates for the back panel. Since they needed to be stopped on both ends, I used electricity in the name of speeding things up a bit, but didn't take photos. What I did get pictures of, though, was the CUF's next visit, which always seem to coincide with me deciding that power tools will work faster than hand tools.

This was the housing for the vertical divider panel, cut into the top and bottom panels and supposed to be stopped 20mm from the front. Of course, having decided that I needed to rotate the panel so that I was routing in the right direction, I didn't account for the fact that I was now starting the cut at the front.



I'm sure there'll be a close-enough matching piece in the dovetail waste somewhere to fill it in. Fortunately that's the bottom panel, so won't be quite as visible as the top. What it should have looked like:

 

[spb]

Finally it feels like a bit of actual progress is happening. Having routed out the housings for the centre divider, and had the CUF visit that always seems to come when I reach for power tools out of laziness, the tongues were done by hand, with a #78:



Of course, the timber continued to be difficult, and even with the nicker freshly sharpened would not happily leave a clean edge.



The initial fit was... almost OK:

I couldn't get a good photo of the detail, but the problem was that the shoulders of the tongue were sloping away slightly. A bit of cleanup with a chisel, some fettling of the dovetails (with a rasp rather than a chisel, due to the splintery nature of the timber), and I finally have a dry fit of the carcass. The clamp on the front is unfortunately needed to pull the top and bottom panels flat, since they decided to cup over the course of the lengthy delays.



If I'd anticipated this I might have thought of using a sliding dovetail instead of a plain tongue in a housing, but it's a bit late for that now. It doesn't take a whole lot of force to close it up, so in the absence of any bright ideas I'll just have to hope the glue will be enough in the final thing.

Next job is the drawer runners, which means it's back to everyone's favourite part of the process, squaring up and thicknessing stock by hand.

 

[Mike G]

I'd forgotten all about this one. Nice to see some progress, Stephen.

 

[NickM]

Looking good. I’m sure the little errors/bits of breakout can be repaired. Obviously getting everything perfect first time is the goal, but learning how to hide the inevitable mistakes is an important aspect. It is to me at least

 

[Alf]

Ack, that stuff's a bugger to plane crossgrain. You did a good job under the circumstances. :eusa-clap:

fwiw (not much) I think I might have gone with pre-scoring with a gauge or knife, and then follow up with a knife as you progress rather than try and persuade the nicker to cooperate. It may have contributed to the sloping shoulder problem. More often it's technique though, but no idea how #78-savvy you are and really don't want to offer up egg-sucking lessons!

 

[spb]

fwiw (not much) I think I might have gone with pre-scoring with a gauge or knife, and then follow up with a knife as you progress rather than try and persuade the nicker to cooperate. It may have contributed to the sloping shoulder problem. More often it's technique though, but no idea how #78-savvy you are and really don't want to offer up egg-sucking lessons!

The answer to that one is 'not very'; this is the second or third project I've used it on, and the first that wasn't in nice compliant redwood. I did pre-score with the marking knife, but didn't then repeat the process, which may well have contributed.

 

[Alf]

Yeah, the wood doesn't help at all. Sometimes I think we're too hard on ourselves and don't make allowances for the fact we're often having to use timber that Ye Olde Hande Toole User would have never dreamt of having anything to do with.

Anyway, keeping the blessed thing vertical is usually most of the battle. IME don't be tempted to get your right hand to "help" by trying to push slightly right-wards in a misguided attempt to keep the fence tight - you'll just end up tipping the plane. Equally don't try pushing with the guiding hand on the fence because you risk pulling the fence away from the work. Both hands should contribute to keeping everything vertical, but some people have found a stick-in-the-fence visual indicator useful:


Basically it exaggerates any tipping and, er, "tips" you off. . Very handy when you're labouring against some uncooperative wood and finding a good rhythm difficult to achieve.

 

[spb]

Thanks - the basic principle is something I'd figured out, and it sounds like it's just a question of practice to actually do it. Maybe in some less cantankerous timber.

 

[NickM]

I like the stick in the fence idea!

I never think about grain direction enough in advance. When I come to cut a groove (in the long grain) I always seem to to be cutting against the grain! It’s infuriating.

 

[spb]

Another short session today, but getting on for an important part. Over the last week or so, in between family duties and storm damage, I'd been dimensioning the front drawer runners - the ones that will be visible. Only the front and top surfaces are really critical for these, so I was a bit lax with the thicknessing stage - as long as the front edge is parallel and there aren't any high spots to bind on the drawer below, I'm not too bothered if the thickness isn't completely consistent.

With those done, it was time to get them in place, and that means finalising the drawer sizes. One of the many useful things on WoodBin is a drawer size calculator, which I used to get some ideas. As much as I like the Hambridge method in theory, the sizes it suggested were a bit too different for this application (and my widest board is a bit less than 260mm...)



A geometric progression with a ration of 1.1 seemed more reasonable:



I tweaked them a bit into more convenient numbers, and wrote those down along with the height from the base to the top of each runner. You can't mislay your notebook if it's your workbench:



The exact layout for the joints that fix them to the case is also worth getting down for reference. This is what it's going to be, referenced from the front edge of the case and the top of the runner:



My plan here is to cut the tenons on one end of all the runners, then offer them up to the case to mark the shoulder lines on the other ends. While laying them out, I realised that I really don't have enough marking gauges - since I'm cutting four of them before I can lay out the shoulder lines on the other four, I want to keep the settings for both sides of the tenon on the mortice gauge, but that leaves only one to mark the two ends. Fortunately, while the thickness of the tenon is crucial, its width isn't, so that line can just be measured with a ruler and cut by eye.

This is also a slightly unusual M&T joint in that the mortices run across the grain, not along, so there's no benefit to setting the width by the available chisel and I can use whatever's convenient for other reasons. In this case, I want 10mm setback from the front edge to keep well clear of the visible parts, and then the rest of the dimensions are just to get the largest most robust tenon while still having a clear shoulder all round.

Remember how I said I wasn't worried about the thicknessing being too accurate?



With them all laid out, I sawed the shoulders, started chiselling the cheeks, and was immediately glad of following the rule of halves.



I considered sawing the cheeks as well at this point, but there's something quite satisfying about the way the waste curls away from a paring cut.



With one tenon cut on each of the four runners, it was time to pencil the runner heights on to the case - I'll do the proper marking with a knife later, with the two opposite panels clamped together, but for now I need the case still assembled in order to mark the lengths - offer them up, and mark the opposite shoulders.

Unfortunately, that was the point that my worklight batteries ran out, so it has to wait for next time.

 

[Mike G]

......The exact layout for the joints that fix them to the case is also worth getting down for reference. This is what it's going to be, referenced from the front edge of the case and the top of the runner:

.....

That quite a large mortice in that width of timber. Leaving 3mm cheeks is something of a gamble. In fact, you'll do well to chop them all out without one or two blowing out. The normal rule of thumb is about one third of the width of the wood, so in your case around 7mm, but that's a bit fiddly, so I would up that to 10 so that I could chop the ends out in one hit with a 10mm chisel.

Can you explain again what you mean by these joints being across the grain. I didn't follow.

 

[spb]

That quite a large mortice in that width of timber. Leaving 3mm cheeks is something of a gamble. In fact, you'll do well to chop them all out without one or two blowing out. The normal rule of thumb is about one third of the width of the wood, so in your case around 7mm, but that's a bit fiddly, so I would up that to 10 so that I could chop the ends out in one hit with a 10mm chisel.

Can you explain again what you mean by these joints being across the grain. I didn't follow.

That layout is for where the visible drawer runners - running side to side - join the case panels. The vertical line on the right-hand side of the diagram is the front edge of the case, and that's the grain direction for those panels.

The joints between the runners, where the pieces are equal thickness, will have smaller mortices to fit the material, and will be chopped conventionally so sized to the chisel.

 

[Mike G]

Ah, OK, I've got it now. So the 3mm shoulders are only on the tenons. In effect you are doing a stopped housing joint. So, this is where you might try a sliding dovetail for the fun of it, thus making a mechanical fixing rather than relying on glue.

 

[AndyT]

I was puzzled too, but I've looked back at the drawing in your opening post and I think I understand now.

Your side to side supports will be mortised into the solid sides of the chest and that's the joint you just showed. You'll then cut front to back drawer runners and mortise those into the side to side supports, which they will match in thickness.

That brings a potential problem if you glue all the joints. The ends, being wide, solid boards, will vary in with with the seasons. If the runners are fixed into those boards at both ends, you could get cracking, since the runners won't shrink in length.

There are at least two ways round this. One is to house the runners into the sides, unglued, except at the front, with a slotted screw at the back for support.

The other is to cut the runners a little short and leave the back M&T unglued, so it can open up a bit if needed, hidden away unseen.

You can also combine those methods.

Apologies if you know all this and have got it planned out, but I wouldn't want you to regret a mistake later.

 

[spb]

The other is to cut the runners a little short and leave the back M&T unglued, so it can open up a bit if needed, hidden away unseen.

This is roughly the plan - side-to-side pieces at the front and back, morticed / housed into the side panels and supporting the front-to-back ones via unglued M&T joints. I think the back ones will have housings that extend from the back edge to ease assembly, but at the front I want the joinery to be hidden.

 

[AndyT]

That's reassuring, I thought you'd have a plan. I reckon anything that will ease assembly will be worth it.
I've only made one chest of drawers and it was a lot smaller than yours. Even though I could pick it up and turn it around, glue-up was fiddly. Yours will be interesting to watch, especially in a small workspace.

 

[spb]

It's been a while since I updated this one. It's not abandoned, just (as the thread title suggested) slow. Last time I was cutting tenons on the front side-to-side drawer supports, with very narrow cheeks as they were going to go into the sides of the vertical panels. The joints that connect the drawer frames together are more conventionally proportioned:





Having looked a bit closer at my stock of timber, I decided there wasn't enough maple to make the drawer sides, but there was enough for the non-visible parts of the drawer runners. Since it's significantly harder-wearing and a lot easier to work than this sapele, I decided to do that.

With the joints cut for the front ends of the runners, I was able to mark the length of each one - as is often the case, it's the shoulder line, not the overall length of the workpiece, that matters. What actually matters, of course, is the shoulder-to-shoulder line of the runner plus the width of the front and back pieces, so that's what I measured:



Of course, they didn't all go to plan...



Fortunately, that bit of blow-out (which happened on more than one piece) will be completely hidden inside the joints once everything's assembled. I knew when marking out that that area would be delicate, but also knew it wouldn't matter if they did break off.

With four such frames made up, there was just the matter of the top one being different - this one's going to have two drawers side by side, so needs a vertical divider and an additional pair of runners in the centre. I made that pair of runners out of a single wider piece, with a double tenon - for some reason this picture is after sawing but before cleaning up.



The reason for the double tenon is more obvious when you see the corresponding mortice layout...



The central runner comes in from behind, with the vertical divider joining from the top. The double tenon keeps the mortices out of each others' ways. With that cut twice, front and back, I ended up with a stack of drawer frames dry-assembled:



Next step was to fit them into the side panels. At this point hopefully all the questions from six months ago can be answered:



Mortices at the front, set back from the front edge. Those pieces will be glued in and fully captive. Open housings at the rear, both for movement room and to allow for assembly in multiple stages. The saw cuts that extend beyond the housings will be hidden by the runners once assembled - quite apart from those same runners being hidden by the drawers themselves. The whole lot fits together dry:



I don't have any pictures of the glue-up, because apart from the complexity of getting the drawer dividers in place between the side panel and divider, it's now over a year since the large panels were prepped and they've all bowed to some degree or another. That made the dry fit somewhat tricky, let alone with the added time pressure. However, the case is now glued up, scraped, sanded...



... and with a small repair made where my depth stop slipped while drilling the mortices in the side panel. Of course it was on the most visible one, at the top front on the outside panel. It's not a perfect fix (the plug snapped off while being hammered in, so it's very slightly below the surface and I didn't get a chance to rotate it properly), but just about holds up from a distance:



So, the case is now sitting on my secondary work surface, which is actually just a set of metal-and-MDF garage shelves sitting side by side instead of stacked on top.

The extra wood you can see stacked in front of it is some 15mm European Oak from Thorogoods, planed to 9mm thick, and waiting to become the drawer sides.

 

[Bearwoodcraft]

You on instantgram as well?

 

[spb]

Well, in the last two and a half months I've had any number of distractions and a few good chunks of time spent resting, recovering, and not woodworking. But in between, I've managed a few sessions.

I've never attempted traditional drawers before this, so decided to do one on its own to prove the concept and figure out what works and what doesn't before going into production mode. First, we have some pieces of thin oak sized to match the drawer front (with Dr. Al's shooting handle visible in the background, which has been incredibly helpful in making shooting these wide-ish pieces a much more pleasant task):



At this point I decided that (a) with the sides being a bit under 9mm I was going to use drawer slips, and (b) I'd make them next. This was the first outing for the plough plane that I've had for a little while, with a 1/8" straight and a 1/8" beading cutter. On a piece of stock just under half an inch square, this required a new workholding approach; the regular planing stop on the bench top wasn't going to work. First I tried just putting some double sided tape along the edge of the bench, like so:



...which really didn't work at all. It would either slide along or just pop off the tape at any opportunity. It was time to do this properly, with some scraps of plywood, redwood, and a few screws:



This worked much better. Next time I'll pay more attention to the grain direction, but I think this one will clean up OK with some sandpaper:



With that out of the way, I didn't have anything left to delay my first attempt at lapped dovetails. Apparently I didn't get any particularly good photos of the process, but I did get to stop in the middle and make a new tool.



That's just a piece cut from an offcut of 0.8mm stainless in a walnut handle, which works pretty well in the roughly 0.7mm kerf of my dovetail saw. The 'blade' is generously waxed to avoid binding.

The fit was pretty decent for a first go:



I decided to cut them with the tails deliberately slightly proud, so that it could be flushed up afterwards without reducing the width of the drawer front, which was already sized to the opening.

Repeat for the other side, cut some easier through dovetails for the back, and all that's left is a significant amount of fettling to make it fit properly.



There's still a bit of work to do on the front - it's a little proud on the right hand side, but overall I'm pretty happy with that one. Of course, despite having made the slips first of all, I've still not fitted them. I'll get to that at some point, but overall I'm happy enough with the process for that one to carry on and do the rest.

 

[AndyP]

I’d say that it has been well worth the wait Stephen.