Sawdust on the Floor

Today I want to work on the three drawers for the new bathroom vanity.  Work on the drawers began with rough cutting the stock to size. Each drawer is 19 1/2″deep, 8 ” tall and have an overall width of 9 1/8″.  I planned to make the drawers out of 1/2″ oak.  Because all of my on hand stock is 4/4 or 1″ thick, I was unable to re saw it.  There simply is not enough thickness  to allow for the kerf of the band saw blade, while leaving two 1/2″ thick pieces.  So I had to plane all of the pieces down to a 1/2″ thickness.  I hated to waste the wood, but this was really the only option available to me. 

Before any of the stock was run thru the planer, at least one edge on each piece of stock, was run across the jointer, to ensure that I had one good edge to work from. After it was all planed down, I took it back  to the tablesaw where it was ripped to it final 8″ height.  Planing all of that stock produced a tremendous amount of sawdust. Thankfully, my Dust Collection system handled it without fail. Well, let me correct  that statement.  It worked really well, until I forgot to keep an eye on the collection bag.   When it became full the motor on the dust collector kept running but it stopped working as a vacuum.  I ended up wearing at lot of sawdust, because the planer just threw it back at me.  I guess I just got caught up in moving stock through the planer. 

While I had the dust collection system working I also had my air filtration system cranked up.  The dust collection unit takes care of the larger pieces while the air filtration unit handles the smaller, more harmful to you and me, particles.  The unit I have has a timer that allows me to keep the air filtration unit running for a specific time.  A real useful feature when it comes to applying finishes.  You can set the timer for up to four hours after you leave the shop.  Meaning you don’t have to worry about dust particles that are always floating in the air being trapped on the surface of your project while the finish sets up. 

There is a 1/4″ deep by 1/2″ wide dado cut horizontally along the front edge of the six drawer sides.  There is also another horizontal dado cut 1/2″ from the back edge of the sides. The first one is for the front panels, while the second one is for the back of each drawer.  These were all cut on the table saw.  I used the rip fence as a guide and hand cut each of the dados, by making repeated passes over the blade.  Yeah I know I could have used a dado blade, but the one I own doesn’t produce flat bottom dados.  Because of that I very seldom use it.  If I have a lot of dados to cut I will normally use my plunge router and an all in one clamp, but the number of dados I needed to make really didn’t justify setting up a router.  

The drawer was assembled with a little glue and #6 by 3/4″ brass screws.  I  normally use small nails fired from one of my nail guns to join the sides, but lately I have began to worry about the long time holding power of the these small nails.  So this time I decided to use screws instead. I predrilled the sides and also counter sunk the screw holes.  I also lubricated the screws with screw lubrication.  Remember brass is a soft material, which can and will strip out easily.  So pre-lubrication is a must.  I have seen a lot of old time woodworkers use bathroom soap as a lubrication, but I don’t recommend doing that as the acids in the soap can cause discoloration on the wood which will bleed through your finish.  I used some good 1/4″ plywood for the bottoms of the drawers.  These were also attached to the drawer using more of the brass screws. 

Now for the fun part.  Mounting the drawer guides.  In almost every other project that I have built that included drawers, there were always divider rails between the individual drawers.  Not this time. The drawers will be mounted much like inset doors, with no horizontal dividers between them. This design change presented me with a new challenge.  I have gotten used to using the Kreg Drawer jigs for mounting and setting drawers. But without the horizontal rails, I couldn’t find a way to make them work.  Believe me, I tried several times. I couldn’t figure out a good way to clamp the jigs to the vanity, that didn’t twist the jigs out of alignment. 

So it was back to the old fashion method of using a combination of a level, a couple of different sized squares and a couple of tapes measures, oh and I almost forgot, a lot of trial and error to get the metal drawer guides installed correctly.  Once I got the bottom drawer installed and aligned, getting the middle and top drawers aligned was some what easier. I was able to use the bottom drawer as a support for the middle drawer while I attached it’s metal drawer guides.  The same was true for the top drawer, the center drawer supported it while I attached the guides for the top drawer. 

 A lot of woodworkers will build drawers so the front of the drawer is actually the drawer face.  My father in law taught me to build the drawer box first, making sure that it was true and square and then attach the face to the drawer.  I know that this adds an additional step, but it is the way I was taught and old habits are some times hard to beat. So I built three drawer faces.  

Each of the faces are made of the same 2″ wide stock that was used to form the door rails and stiles.  I wanted to try and keep the same grain patterns along the front of the project.  They also have the same  !@#$#@^&^%$$(*&  bead detail on the inside edge of the pieces that the door and right hand side panels have.  So I had the same amounts of fun with these panels that I had building the doors and the side panel.  Only this time it was a little more difficult due to the small size of the drawer faces.  Thankfully, I had not changed the settings on my shaper, so I could make more of the beads.  And I also was able to find my “master” for cutting the beads off of the drawer faces so I could connect the rails and stiles of the drawer faces together.  (it was in my scrap bin, I can’t figure how it got there).  With the “master” I was able to recreate the setting on my tablesaw without having to recalibrate everything.   Again, I used the auxiliary cut off fence shown above for safety when I performed this action. 

The faces were all pre sanded before they were attached to the drawer boxes.  Getting the faces aligned so that the margins around all three drawers was the same took some time. Once I was happy with the fit and alignment they were attached to the drawer boxes using several screws from the inside of the drawer boxes into the back of the drawer faces. 

Wow, for such a simple looking project, this vanity has created a lot of frustration and consternation. Adding something as simple as the bead detail to the drawers, doors and panel definitely added to the visual appeal of the project.  We both really like the effect that the bead adds, it makes the piece more elegant.   So will I use the bead again, almost certainly now that I have figured out how to go about incorporating it without sacrificing the structural integrity of the joints used. 

 So now that the vanity is done, I have a lot of final sanding to do, before I apply a finish coat to it.  We have settled on a green tinted stain, that will be top coated with several coats of polyurethane.  Since we have never used this particular stain before, I think I will play around with the stain and several pieces of scrap lumber before we apply the stain to the vanity. I want to know for sure how the strain needs to be applied.  Once it is on the final project it’s way too late to discover some little hidden secret, either good or bad. 

As for the top of the vanity, the jury is still out on that.  My wife still is campaigning for the granite top with the vessel sink, me being a woodworker still am entertaining the idea of a Teak top sealed with a spar urethane.   I think the only way this will be resolved is with a trip to the local granite dealers and to the hardwood suppliers so we can compare the relative costs of each.  

Until we have made a final decision on the top, I guess I will continue to work on applying the finish to the vanity, and then move on to making the mission style mirror that will be mounted above the sink.  We are still kicking around other ideas over for the bathroom such as maybe adding some type of warming blanket under the new tiled floor, or maybe a towel warmer.  How about checking back and seeing what decisions we finally make.

Related posts:

1. Woodworking Projects – Bathroom Vanity Part 4
2. Woodworking Projects – Bathroom Vanity Part 3
3. Woodworking Projects – Bathroom Vanity Part 2
4. Woodworking Projects – Bathroom Vanity
5. Woodworking Project – Bathroom Vanity