Alan Turner
01-15-2006, 6:13 AM
Well, I got dumb (happens often), and mis-glued up 3 drawers. These are trapezoidal drawers as they are for the reconstruction (resizing) of a country made table of wormy maple, poss. from the Southeast US.
The front joints of the drawers are just rabbits, hide glued, and to be nailed with Tremont cut nails. This is the way the piece was made originally. I did DT the rear joints for strength. Used hide glue to size the end grain, and then a bunch of hide glue for the actual glue up. Hide glue is gap filling. This 18th century country piece has nary a single straight or flat board; not one. Across the width of the front, there is a sag of about 3/4" in 43", so all of the drawer fronts are not square at all. I built new drawer runners in, and made them square, and in the same plane (each in its own plane), planning to have the drawers run smooth, but with the fronts offset so that they filled the openings with an approximately even reveal. Given the nature of the wood, I am not sure I could have done the math to measure or mark the dovetails. As it was, I had to hand cut the rebates in the drawer fronts, and bring them in with a shoulder plane as there is nothing to register off of to do this with electrons.
So, with the drawer boxes made and glued, I went to attach the fronts, and of course I forgot what I was doing and glued them up, all 3 that is, with the incorrect registration. Enter electron magic.
I grabbed my wife's steam buggy cleaner while she still slept and steamed the joints apart. Very cool. No damage to the wood. Hard to believe how strong this only end grain joint was. (I know this is what John Townsend and John Goddard would have done for the disassembly, each claiming to have invented the method.) I will now let the wood dry thoroughly and try again, maybe tomorrow morning. Sometimes electrons are handy, even on the dark side. BTW, I have now marked the correct registrations. Sure hope it works better next time.
As a side note, these are now very clean drawers. :)
The front joints of the drawers are just rabbits, hide glued, and to be nailed with Tremont cut nails. This is the way the piece was made originally. I did DT the rear joints for strength. Used hide glue to size the end grain, and then a bunch of hide glue for the actual glue up. Hide glue is gap filling. This 18th century country piece has nary a single straight or flat board; not one. Across the width of the front, there is a sag of about 3/4" in 43", so all of the drawer fronts are not square at all. I built new drawer runners in, and made them square, and in the same plane (each in its own plane), planning to have the drawers run smooth, but with the fronts offset so that they filled the openings with an approximately even reveal. Given the nature of the wood, I am not sure I could have done the math to measure or mark the dovetails. As it was, I had to hand cut the rebates in the drawer fronts, and bring them in with a shoulder plane as there is nothing to register off of to do this with electrons.
So, with the drawer boxes made and glued, I went to attach the fronts, and of course I forgot what I was doing and glued them up, all 3 that is, with the incorrect registration. Enter electron magic.
I grabbed my wife's steam buggy cleaner while she still slept and steamed the joints apart. Very cool. No damage to the wood. Hard to believe how strong this only end grain joint was. (I know this is what John Townsend and John Goddard would have done for the disassembly, each claiming to have invented the method.) I will now let the wood dry thoroughly and try again, maybe tomorrow morning. Sometimes electrons are handy, even on the dark side. BTW, I have now marked the correct registrations. Sure hope it works better next time.
As a side note, these are now very clean drawers. :)