Phase III - Drawer Construction
Drawer construction consists of making and joining 75 main components, 15 hand-carved drawer pulls and over 200 hand-cut pegs, as well as pre-finishing and assembly, which was another reason I decided to tackle the drawers as a separate phase of construction. As mentioned earlier, there were also some common set-ups between the chest and the dresser and the issue of space in my workshop which also weighed heavily on the decision.
The rough stock was brought down in stages to the finished thicknesses, ¾” for the fronts and 5/8” for the sides and backs. Between each stage the parts were stickered and allowed to dry for a day or more to minimize any twisting or cupping later. Then the fronts and backs were cut to final length and one end of each side was squared up ready for joinery.
The rough stock was brought down in stages to the finished thicknesses, ¾” for the fronts and 5/8” for the sides and backs. Between each stage the parts were stickered and allowed to dry for a day or more to minimize any twisting or cupping later. Then the fronts and backs were cut to final length and one end of each side was squared up ready for joinery.
Using
my box joint jig, I set up the finger spacing for the drawer height being
worked on. The drawer fronts are machined on one side of the jig, ensuring that
the bottom edge is always placed against the stop. The sides are machined with
a different router set-up on the opposite side of the jig, again ensuring that
the bottom edge is always against the stop. After machining all the pieces with
a particular drawer height, the fingers of the jig are loosened and a shim of
paper placed between the first and second fingers and the fingers re-tightened.
The sides are then machined a second time using the same router set-up which
removes the thickness of the paper shim from one side of each finger and makes
the box joint easy to assemble, as well as allowing some space for glue.
After all the box joints are successfully cut and test fitted, the sides are cut to final length. Then a groove is cut with the dado set at the table saw along the bottom of each side, front and back to accommodate the plywood drawer bottom. Stop blocks are positioned to ensure that the grooves do not penetrate entirely through the fronts of the box joint fingers of the sides. The stop block is positioned beyond the dado blade for the right-hand side of each drawer and before the dado blade for the left-hand side.
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A similar method is used to cut dados on the outsides of the drawer sides for the slides that were fitted in the carcasses. I cut a test piece first to confirm my set-up. The stop blocks were positioned this time so that the cut made by the dado blade would end along the same line as the finger joints. By happy accident, the front of the drawer slides in the carcasses were set far enough back that the dado cuts in the sides could be left without further work and the curved taper on opposite sides helped to centre the drawer in the opening while allowing it to be pushed in sufficiently.
The dado set width was adjusted to 5/16” to cut the interlocking groove and rabbet joints between the backs and sides of all the drawers – one set-up for the sides and one for the backs of all 15 drawers this time. That’s a lot of cuts to keep organized, especially since the left and right-hand sides of the drawers are mirror images of each other for the most part.
Next, the fingers of the box joints on the sides that protrude beyond the front of the drawers are “pillowed” to remove all the sharp corners and provide a pleasing tactile effect. The pillowing is done in several steps at the small belt sander and then by hand using progressively finer sandpaper and a sanding block, down to 220 grit.
The top edges of all the drawers in the top row of the dresser and the chest are profiled to match the corresponding top rails on the carcasses. This is done by marking from the templates made at the beginning, rough cutting at the band-saw and finish profiling using the templates at the router table. The templates are positioned and held during machining using double-sided adhesive tape and I was careful again to flip them over to the opposite side of the piece to avoid making climb cuts with the router.
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The next step was to make the drawer pulls. I decided to make the ones for the chest and the centre column of the dresser 5” wide, the same size as the ones used on the night-stands. The wide chest drawers use two pulls per drawer and the others have a single pull. The pulls for the wider outside columns of drawers in the dresser are made using the same profile at the ends but are 7” wide. The blanks are profiled at the table saw using the rip blade angled and adjusted to the required heights. The centre portion is blended to the finished curvature by hand sanding.
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The drawer fronts are also masked where the pulls will be glued in place later and then the water based aniline dye, same as used for the other pieces of the suite, is applied to all the parts to be coloured.
The green oil based glaze is then applied to all the coloured parts and rubbed into the grain pores, as before. Then the excess is wiped off and the parts are left to dry for a few days before applying the protective finish.
The protective finish of satin polyurethane is applied in three coats as described for the carcasses. |
The bottoms of the drawers were cut from ¼” Baltic Birch plywood to fit inside the grooves previously cut at the bottoms of the drawer fronts, sides and backs. I took the extra precaution at the belt sander to slightly reduce the width of the bottoms at the front edge in case there was interference with the curved portion of the dado. Then the process of final assembly began. Again, I did the glue-ups in stages, starting with glue in the joints between the back and sides of each drawer and with the fronts dry-fitted. This allowed me to square up the drawer boxes as well as to keep them flat to my bench so they would not twist. The clamping locations were varied depending on the particular drawer size and height. After the glue had cured in the back joints I dis-assembled the clamps and applied glue to the front box-joints and clamped them up, checking again for square corners and flatness.
Before adding the decorative pegs, I drove 1-1/4” #7 finishing screws through two of the peg holes of each side into the corresponding front for additional joint strength. Then the pegs were glued and tapped into place. The pegs on the sides are flat on the top and driven flush with the surface of the joint finger whereas the pegs on the fronts are pillowed and set proud of the surface. |
I applied my maker’s brand to the backs of each drawer and also to a location inside each carcass. I also added self-adhesive bumper pads to the backs of the drawers which help to position the fronts of the drawers flush with the face frames of the drawer dividers in the carcasses as well as reducing the noise when the drawers are pushed all the way in. |
The finished drawers were stacked up in the same arrangement that they will fit in the carcasses, for a final photo to end this phase of the construction.
Please go to Phase IV - The finished Dresser and Chest to see photos of the completed pieces.