Robert Reece
04-25-2010, 6:14 PM
Today I decided to make one drawer for my kitchen to make sure my drawings are accurate. I choose one of the drawers that is going to use 30" Blum slides so I could make sure those work like I think they do.
Here is the drawer spec: 30" deep x 35 1/2" wide x 4 3/8 high (big silverware drawer). 5/8" poplar sides, 3/8" baltic birch bottom, dadoed into sides. Blum slides require that the bottom panel be up 1/2" from the bottom of the drawer sides. Drawer sides are butt jointed and screwed with countersunk screws. They will be plugged, but I didn't do that today. See attached picture of the final product.
Here are the minutes of how long this drawer took. If any of this seems completely out of line, let me know so I can figure out what I am doing wrong and how I can speed it up. Obviously I will speed up when I can make multiple drawers at once.
17 minutes - pull rough 4/4 poplar out of stack, measure, mark and crosscut 4 drawer pieces.
44 minutes - face joint, plane to final thickness (5/8"), saw to final width (4 3/8"), joint edges to remove saw marks
12 minutes - setup dado and get it dialed in
4 minutes dado drawer sides for drawer bottom
4 minutes to change dado blade back to rip blade
2 minutes to rip dado off drawer back
17 minutes to crosscut draw sides to length
14 minutes to cut plywood bottom
39 minutes to sand all parts (RO sanding @ 150, hand sand @ 150, break all edges)
30 minutes to drill countersunk holes & pilot holes in drawer sides
5 minutes to assemble 4 sides into box
8 minutes to glue in drawer bottom and screw to back of drawer
At this point I only have to plug the screw holes and then it is ready to finish, so I call it complete. It took me 196 minutes. I think I could do it in 142 minutes if I took out the various machine setup time.
I found I had to hand sand the parts quite thoroughly in order to get out the machine marks left by my planer. Possibly I could try the slower speed on my planer, or I could use my performax drum sander. I could also save some time in the planing since I had to go from 7/8 down to 5/8. I did it in 1/32" inch passes, but it seems like I could really hog it off until the last two passes. Then take a light pass on each side to get it down to finish size. How much can a 3 hp 15" planer take off of poplar in one pass?
Here is the drawer spec: 30" deep x 35 1/2" wide x 4 3/8 high (big silverware drawer). 5/8" poplar sides, 3/8" baltic birch bottom, dadoed into sides. Blum slides require that the bottom panel be up 1/2" from the bottom of the drawer sides. Drawer sides are butt jointed and screwed with countersunk screws. They will be plugged, but I didn't do that today. See attached picture of the final product.
Here are the minutes of how long this drawer took. If any of this seems completely out of line, let me know so I can figure out what I am doing wrong and how I can speed it up. Obviously I will speed up when I can make multiple drawers at once.
17 minutes - pull rough 4/4 poplar out of stack, measure, mark and crosscut 4 drawer pieces.
44 minutes - face joint, plane to final thickness (5/8"), saw to final width (4 3/8"), joint edges to remove saw marks
12 minutes - setup dado and get it dialed in
4 minutes dado drawer sides for drawer bottom
4 minutes to change dado blade back to rip blade
2 minutes to rip dado off drawer back
17 minutes to crosscut draw sides to length
14 minutes to cut plywood bottom
39 minutes to sand all parts (RO sanding @ 150, hand sand @ 150, break all edges)
30 minutes to drill countersunk holes & pilot holes in drawer sides
5 minutes to assemble 4 sides into box
8 minutes to glue in drawer bottom and screw to back of drawer
At this point I only have to plug the screw holes and then it is ready to finish, so I call it complete. It took me 196 minutes. I think I could do it in 142 minutes if I took out the various machine setup time.
I found I had to hand sand the parts quite thoroughly in order to get out the machine marks left by my planer. Possibly I could try the slower speed on my planer, or I could use my performax drum sander. I could also save some time in the planing since I had to go from 7/8 down to 5/8. I did it in 1/32" inch passes, but it seems like I could really hog it off until the last two passes. Then take a light pass on each side to get it down to finish size. How much can a 3 hp 15" planer take off of poplar in one pass?