Erik Christensen
03-14-2010, 12:29 PM
The blum tandem undermount slides I am trying for the first time require a very precise notch in the back side of the drawer. Basically you notch out the back side up to the drawer bottom and start flush with the side.
I am using baltic ply for all drawer parts and half blind dovetails. I thought it would better to cut the notch before drawer assembly - use a jig & backer board on the table saw, cut lots of pieces at once with no tearout - simple & fast. So that is what I did after cutting the dovetails.
Problem is the back pinboard has a dovetail piece that: after you take out the dado for the drawer bottom & one for the undermount slide you are left with a tiny orphan piece that in ply just pops off - so now the joint has a big hole - not exactly the kind of craftsmanship I want to show off with undermount slides.
So what do you guys do? cut the notch for the drawer slide after assembly? change the dovetail setup to have a large tail at the bottom to hide the drawer dado? i know this has to work because i see this combo all the time but can't figure out best way to turn our a quality box.
I am using baltic ply for all drawer parts and half blind dovetails. I thought it would better to cut the notch before drawer assembly - use a jig & backer board on the table saw, cut lots of pieces at once with no tearout - simple & fast. So that is what I did after cutting the dovetails.
Problem is the back pinboard has a dovetail piece that: after you take out the dado for the drawer bottom & one for the undermount slide you are left with a tiny orphan piece that in ply just pops off - so now the joint has a big hole - not exactly the kind of craftsmanship I want to show off with undermount slides.
So what do you guys do? cut the notch for the drawer slide after assembly? change the dovetail setup to have a large tail at the bottom to hide the drawer dado? i know this has to work because i see this combo all the time but can't figure out best way to turn our a quality box.