Sawdust on the Floor

Only a couple more tasks to complete and then I can move on to applying the finish to the bedroom dresser. The frame has been built, and all eight drawers are completed.  All that remains is the installation of the top and installing the eight drawers, and then finally the trim pieces can be applied to cover the exposed plywood.  The top is just a larger version of the glued up tops that were installed on the nightstands. 6/4 Cherry edge glued with the joints reinforced with biscuits. Everything was done the same way, why change something that works? 

The drawers, however, were really different. From the exterior the drawers look the same, inset drawers with the exactly the same hardware as the nightstand drawers. The interior of the drawers is where we see changes. The nightstand drawers featured a drawer lock joint, while the dresser uses dove tail joints. The other main difference is that on the dresser I elected to use full extension side mounted drawer guides instead of the center mounted drawer guides used on the nightstand. These changes were made due to the increased weight loads that the dresser drawers may see. And the amount of times that the dresser drawers are opened and closed, as compared to the times the nightstand drawers are operated. 

Over the years I have installed quite a few side mounted drawer guides.  The concept is really simple. However getting the #@&^%$ things installed so that the drawer opens and closes smoothly is only part of the issue.  Read more…

Good Morning. Today I would like to get a couple more things done on the bedroom dresser, that I started building last time.  As you recall the carcass of the dresser is done, the only remaining steps to be completed are the eight drawers and the  6/4 top.  Before I began work on the drawers, I decided to address the trim work that is needed to cover the exposed plywood, and the end grain of the side panels.  I had planned to make and install the trim at this point, however in a moment of total clairvoyance, it became clear to me that the trim had to wait to be installed until after the drawers were made and installed. So I moved on to the  building of the drawers themselves. 

Now on to the fun part of this project, the drawers. Unlike the nightstands, whose drawers will only get limited usage, the drawers of the dresser will be opened and closed several times a day.  Which translates to the joinery in these drawers needing to be stronger than those in the nightstands. Other than a failure of the slide mechanism, the most common failure mode of a drawer is that it simply pulls apart at the joints.  Most joints, even the drawer lock joint I used on the nightstands, rely mainly on the strength of the glue itself, where as the dovetail joint is designed so the parts of the drawer are interlocked and can not pull apart. This is why the dovetail joint was chosen for these drawers. 

The dovetail joint is made of two parts, a tail and a pin. These two parts interlock to create the joint.  Now I have seen professional woodworkers who were capable of hand cutting these joints with a hand dovetail saw and a sharp chisel Read more…