Erin Raasch
10-24-2004, 9:24 PM
Wow - with the autumn leaves blazing red and gold against the blue, blue October sky, it was so beautiful today it 'bout took your breath away. We got a good soaking rain Friday and Saturday, which kind of put the kibosh on all my good intentions of gardening and yard work this weekend. Oh well, too wet to work outside, too warm to stay indoors . . . that only left one thing to do - out to the shop!
Made some good progress on my cabinet, I got all the drawer fronts cut and fitted, all the drawer sides cut and mostly fitted (final fitting to take place after the drawers are assembled). If the weather holds, I hope to get out to the shop tomorrow evening and cut the grooves in the fronts and sides to fit the drawer bottoms. The bottoms will be 1/8" Baltic birch ply. Since I don't have the right hand tool for the job, I'm going to cheat a little bit and cut the grooves on the table saw. Next step will be to cut the drawer backs, but I'm afraid I'm going to run out of 1/2" stock before I get all of them. Then it's back to the thickness planer to burn some more electrons.
Next step after that will be cutting the rabbets and dadoes - 2 of each for each drawer. Then cut the 1/8" x 3/4" drawer guides at the bottom of each side of each drawer, and the drawer bottoms. Once I've got everything cut and dry fitted, it will be indoors to the spare room to do the finishing. I'll have to finish the pieces before they're assembled because the fronts get a different finish from the sides & bottoms.
Then the assembly - which includes pegging the drawer sides to the fronts with 3 one-eight inch dowels through the rabbet joint on each side. Looks really nice, but some awfully fussy work.
The only thing I haven't got figured out is the drawer pulls. The Shakers used turned wooden knobs, which is what I'd like to do, but I don't have a lathe. Anyone know a supplier for wooden knobs? They'll need to be 5/8" in diameter, and I've already checked Van Dyke's and they don't have 'em that small.
I know the pictures don't show much - you can see the drawer fronts all laid out on top of the cabinet, and the sides set in place inside the cabinet. But you gotta keep those Picture Police happy, don't ya, Tyler? :p
Erin
Made some good progress on my cabinet, I got all the drawer fronts cut and fitted, all the drawer sides cut and mostly fitted (final fitting to take place after the drawers are assembled). If the weather holds, I hope to get out to the shop tomorrow evening and cut the grooves in the fronts and sides to fit the drawer bottoms. The bottoms will be 1/8" Baltic birch ply. Since I don't have the right hand tool for the job, I'm going to cheat a little bit and cut the grooves on the table saw. Next step will be to cut the drawer backs, but I'm afraid I'm going to run out of 1/2" stock before I get all of them. Then it's back to the thickness planer to burn some more electrons.
Next step after that will be cutting the rabbets and dadoes - 2 of each for each drawer. Then cut the 1/8" x 3/4" drawer guides at the bottom of each side of each drawer, and the drawer bottoms. Once I've got everything cut and dry fitted, it will be indoors to the spare room to do the finishing. I'll have to finish the pieces before they're assembled because the fronts get a different finish from the sides & bottoms.
Then the assembly - which includes pegging the drawer sides to the fronts with 3 one-eight inch dowels through the rabbet joint on each side. Looks really nice, but some awfully fussy work.
The only thing I haven't got figured out is the drawer pulls. The Shakers used turned wooden knobs, which is what I'd like to do, but I don't have a lathe. Anyone know a supplier for wooden knobs? They'll need to be 5/8" in diameter, and I've already checked Van Dyke's and they don't have 'em that small.
I know the pictures don't show much - you can see the drawer fronts all laid out on top of the cabinet, and the sides set in place inside the cabinet. But you gotta keep those Picture Police happy, don't ya, Tyler? :p
Erin