Drawer Case Build (Part 1)

[Daniel Rode]

I finally settled on a design. The case is about 10" tall, 24" wide and 7" deep. It will have 3 rows of 3 drawers each. Each drawer will be about 7.25 wide, by 2" tall x 6" deep with a removable divider.

I started by preparing some stock. The drawers and supports will be made from recycled pine. The case is from a supply of 24" 1 x12s from the BORG (69 cents each).

Recycled pine 48 x 18 x 11/16.
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BORG pine shorts ripped to 7 1/2". Cupped and twisted as expected.
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I flattened one side and then sent it through the planer. I leave them slightly thick by maybe 1/128". Any snipe and planer marks are removed with my #6. After that, I squared an edge and ripped them to 7". Then I cross cut them to length and shot the edges square.

Ready for joinery.
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[Daniel Rode]

I dovetailed the case. Where it will hang, no one will see the dovetails but it's a strong joint visible or not. I'm not going into details on how to make dovetails. One pin, I sawed on the wrong side of the line. I could probably leave it, but I'll fill it in after I assemble the case. Otherwise, these went together with very little adjustment. Mostly right off the saw. Pine dovetails for shop pieces are fast and easy. Close is close enough :)

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The case will have a 1/2" flush inset back. That meant creating a 1/2" x 5/16" rabbet all the way around. Since I have no rabbet plane, I needed to be a little more creative. The top and bottom need stopped rabbets.

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This was slow going...

For the sides, I used my little Record 043 to cut grooves. This was much faster and easier. If I were to do this over, I'd have used the plow plane on all 4 pieces and just plug the ends when I was done. It's possible to make a rabbet with just a chisel, but it's not much fun.

I cleaned everything up with my router plane.
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[Daniel Rode]

Another manual job. I marked out stopped dados to hold the horizontal "shelves" that the drawers will sit on.

I knifed the edges and and worked along the line. Once I got about 1/16" deep, I used the router plane with a 1/4" cutter until I had 3/8" wide by 3/16" deep
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Below are the finished sides all ready for assembly.
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The case is glued up and the shelves are ready to be cut to length and fitted.
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As soon as I snapped this picture I realized that I forgot to make grooves to locate the vertical separators :(

These are 3/8" stopped dado's about 1/8" deep. They are similar to the sides but they can be shallower. The 3 shelves get 1/8" through dados to match. I'll probably cut these on the table saw. Even if I could figure out how, It would take me 'till winter to cut all 18.

I think I have enough room to cut the 6 (by hand) on the case with it assembled.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice Daniel! Coming along well.

[Judson Green]

Cool dude! Off to a good start

[Pat Barry]

I'm impressed. This is a great start and there is nothing wrong with filling in a dovetail or two. Keep up the good work and thanks for documenting the project

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for sharing your work.

More of my dovetails than I ever tried to count have been patched or filled.

That's how one learns to do repairs and restorations. :D

When you learn a few tricks about grain matching, no one will be able to spot the fix.

jtk

[Mike Allen1010]

Thanks Daniel -looking good!

[Thomas Schneider]

I don't think there is one person reading this thread that has hand cut dovetails that hasn't needed to patch one or two of them! It happens to the best of us! Thanks for taking the time to share your build it looks like it's coming along well.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Well done, sir. I can't believe I almost passed this thread by thinking it wasn't going to be interesting. You certainly proved me wrong. Chiseled rabbet. Nice.

[Daniel Rode]

I can't be sure it will remain interesting :) It's a simple project built with mostly simple tools. I plan to post all of my mistakes as well as the progress.

We have people here working by hand on beautiful projects that require amazing skill and sometimes specific tools. My build is geared more toward folks like myself who may have less experience.

[Barry Dima]

My build is geared more toward folks like myself who may have less experience.

And we appreciate and dig it.