Fixing my Mistake

[Bud hill]

Hoping for some words of wisdom. I had trouble with my glue up. One corner of the draw opening came out 1/16" higher than the other. Is there any good way to fix this? I don't see away of adding wood and not have it show. The drawer front is nice and square. I was hopping for a 1/16" gap for the final drawer. I am in southern Arizona so am not to concerned about changes in humidity. Even though we had 3" of rain Monday. This is my first time trying to make nice furniture and the first time I am making something for my Dad. I am having fun but its not as easy as it looks.

[Pat Barry]

Its not always easy to tell from a picture due to camera angles, however, I'm thinking that right now the gap at the bottom is tighter than you want, so I would be looking to cheat it upward a bit. That will reuce the gap on the top. Then you could plane the top edge to match the top rail. Similar to question Prashun is asking in this thread.http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?221591-Planing-drawers

[Keith Hankins]

There is no such thing as a mistake, only design changes. That one's easy. I'd do one of two things. Make the other drawers match, or had shim wood to the bottom of that drawer of that side and hand plane it down to match. I noticed you have no gap at the bottom, put a relief cut on the bottom 1/16th deep to give the look of an equal gap all the way around. As Charles Neil says "looks the same is the same". That's my two cents worth that and a buck fifty will get you a cup of coffee.

[Brian Kincaid]

The piece looks really nice. If the drawers function well don't mess with it. I had to zoom in to your picture to even figure out what you were talking about. What I mean is that your 'mistake' is not really noticeable, even when you point it out.

Since you mention this is your first nice piece, I will advise you to let go of perfection a little. And when you show the piece to others don't point out your mistakes (it is hard to do for some reason).

-Brian

[Robert LaPlaca]

Flush fit drawers are the toughest drawers to fit, those are what you have in your chest of drawers. The "devil in the details" with flush fits is to arrive at a drawer whose front is flush with the drawer dividers and has an even reveal at all the edges.

Having said all that, your fit looks very good right off the glue up, if it still bothers you, a little tweaking with a nice sharp smoothing plane can do wonders with the reveal.. if I am seeing the issue correctly, it looks like a few passes on the top right edge of the left drawer front should even things out.

I like how you used the same piece of walnut for the left and right drawer fronts, that's a nice touch.

[Keith Weber]

You're probably the only one that will notice it, but if you're anal (like me) and figure that you have to fix it, there are a few options. You don't mention what your drawer construction is. If the drawer faces are screwed onto a drawer mounted on mechanical slides, you could stand to adjust them up a bit to get a gap on the bottom. Then you could trim the top of your drawer face to get the gap you want at the top. I'm guessing though (because of the lack of lower gap), that that's not the case, and the drawer has no slides -- the drawer itself just slides into the opening.

If that's the case, then it's a little trickier. You could build a new drawer, or a new drawer face if it's not glued to the drawer. But, it looks like you might have tried to match the grain in the two drawers by cutting from a single board. I'll assume the drawer face is square, but the opening is not. If that's the case (and you have the option of building a new drawer, then just make the top of the drawer face out of square to match the opening. If the gap is uniform, nobody will be able to pick out that it's not square.

If a new drawer is not an option, a simple and easy solution would be to trim the tops of all 4 drawers so that the top gap is the same dimension as the gap where your mistake is (again, matching the out of square shape on the top, left drawer. The gaps on the tops of the drawers will look bigger than the sides, but it will look fine.

Or... just leave it as it is and nobody else will notice!

Keith

[Michael W. Clark]

I agree, looks really nice and had a little trouble seeing what you were referring to.

If you have to fix it, one way may be to glue a piece of walnut on the top edge of the drawer face. Best if you can find the offcut from where you made it since the left and right drawers match, but as long as the grain is close, it should be fine. Make the glued on strip thicker than the drawer face and wide enough to completely cover the opening (maybe 1/4 to 3/8"). After you glue it on, plane or sand it flush on both sides, then rip or plane it down until the left hand side fits. Sweeten the right hand side with a plane to maintain your reveal across the top.

[Bud hill]

Thanks for the help everyone. I did not make it clear that what you are seeing is just the drawer fronts sitting in the openings. I have not made the drawers yet. After I get the drawers made I think I will try hand planing the bottom right side and then make the gap on the the other drawers to match. I'll post pictures when I get the drawers in.

[Pat Barry]

Thanks for the help everyone. I did not make it clear that what you are seeing is just the drawer fronts sitting in the openings. I have not made the drawers yet. After I get the drawers made I think I will try hand planing the bottom right side and then make the gap on the the other drawers to match. I'll post pictures when I get the drawers in.
Hi Bud, I am confused as to why you would actually plane the bottom right corner. Maybe I misunderstood, after all I'm an engineer (inside joke). It looks perfect on the bottom, just a small gap on the top left. I personally would not do anything to the bottom right based on your image. Of course, you are there and can see it firsthand. By the way, the walnut looks really sweet. I'd love to see the finished product. One last thing, I bet the appearance of the gap looks way less apparent when the finish is applied just due to the optical effect of the darker color the wood will have.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I typically make the drawer front a very tight fit in the drawer opening for a flush fit drawer, all the massaging of the reveal gaps are done after the drawer front is glued to the drawer box. I use a very sharp smoother for the job for the top and side reveals, for the bottom reveal I use a shoulder plane..

[Prashun Patel]

A ha!!! So, to create the lower reveal you plane the lower edge of the front so the sides sit proud of it! This seems obvious now, but I had not considered this!!! Thanks, Robert.

[Robert LaPlaca]

A ha!!! So, to create the lower reveal you plane the lower edge of the front so the sides sit proud of it! This seems obvious now, but I had not considered this!!! Thanks, Robert.

Yes this keeps the drawer front bottom from dragging on the lower drawer divider... You could also use a rabbit block plane or a rabbit smoother, the trick is to not lower the bottom drawer sides...