Another box WIP

[Dr.Al]

Here's my thinnest one. I have used it, but admittedly not often.

View attachment 35760

View attachment 35761

View attachment 35762

I expect Al will find one in a vide-grenier now!

I'm back home now and, as I expected, my smallest chisel isn't quite as thin as Andy's:

 

[Dr.Al]

Since getting back, I haven't managed to spend much time on the drawer box, but I did have a rummage around to try to find some material for the drawer sides. The only stuff that looked promising was in the form of a (somewhat excessively) large plank of sweet chestnut:

That's obviously far too much wood for the sides and back of two drawers, so I started by getting the big Ryoba out and chopping the end off:

I then started ripping it to (a bit over-) width using the big Ryoba but it was feeling hard work so I swapped to the little one and that went much quicker:

The big Ryoba was the one that I used to use for resawing before I bought my bandsaw, so those rip teeth have had a fairly hard life; I suspect they're not as sharp as they once were.

With the piece cut a bit smaller, I could plane both faces...

... and then plane both edges, making sure one edge was square to one face and the other square to the other:

I could then use the face/edge pairs as references against the bandsaw fence and table and chop the plank into three bits, two with one planed face and one with none:

Those pieces should give me plenty of stock for the sides and back of the drawers. The next job will be to plane them all round, but I expect that'll be next weekend, which at least has the advantage of allowing them a bit of post-resaw time to bend/twist or whatever else they want to do before I plane them.

 

[Dr.Al]

It's been a very long time since I last posted in this build thread. We left the action a little over two months ago with me having chopped the end off a big lump of sweet chestnut and chopped it up into pieces.

A few days later, I spent a little time with a couple of planes to clean up the faces of those pieces and bring them to an even thickness:

While I was at it, I also planed the inside faces of the drawer fronts: these faces will be used as references when making the drawers:

I didn't want to plane the outside faces too early as they're covered in pencil marks reminding me what goes where. I'm glad I didn't as there was then a two month gap where I didn't do anything on the drawer box.

Today, I dug out a bit of sycamore to use as the bases for the drawers and planed its outside faces:

I then fed it through the bandsaw...

... and then planed the sawn faces of the two outside pieces down to about 4 mm thickness:

After labelling and drawing lines on the sweet chestnut pieces that will become the drawer sides and back, I clamped them to the edge of the bench and sawed slightly oversize with the Dozuki:

You'll notice the mix of clamps in that photo. I generally prefer the red handled quick clamp and would typically use two of them in a situation like this, but the pitch of holes in my bench was almost exactly wrong and the second clamp didn't have the right reach so I had to use the Gramercy hold-fast instead.

While I was at it, I also ripped the drawer fronts to slightly-over width, again needing to use the hold-fast for the same reason:

Finally, I chopped the back and side pieces up into individual pieces. I'd considered planing the edges while it was one long plank but decided it would be simpler to just chop it up now and handle each piece on its own:

That gives me this pile of pieces out of which I need to make two drawers.

I've got a spare length of the sweet chestnut, but if I make any mistakes with the other pieces I'll be most disgruntled!

 

[Cabinetman]

That’s all very nice with fine proportions Al, nothing worse than clunky drawers.

 

[Dr.Al]

Thanks Ian

 

[duke]

The sycamore is nice, Dr.Al.

 

[Woodbloke]

That’s all very nice with fine proportions Al, nothing worse than clunky drawers.

So many times on 'soshal meja' I see very competent makers from across the 'big wet' making their drawers sides from pine with 10 or 12mm thick sides which to me, looks clunky in the extreme. I do my best to edjumacate them, but more often than not my words of wisdom fall on deef ears. Only once has an 'murrican maker agreed and said he would try European style Oak drawer sides (6-8mm thick) with slips to contain the drawer bottom - Rob

 

[GaryR]

Keep up the good fight, Rob!

 

[Cabinetman]

So many times on 'soshal meja' I see very competent makers from across the 'big wet' making their drawers sides from pine with 10 or 12mm thick sides which to me, looks clunky in the extreme. I do my best to edjumacate them, but more often than not my words of wisdom fall on deef ears. Only once has an 'murrican maker agreed and said he would try European style Oak drawer sides (6-8mm thick) with slips to contain the drawer bottom - Rob

Well done, I should attack from over there and we’ll get them in a pincer movement.
One of the problems they have ( so I’ve been told) is the big jumps in humidity means they can’t fit drawers the way us good older uns have been trained to do, half the time they won’t open and the other half the drawers fit like whores drawers— slack, as my college lecturer used to say

 

[Woodbloke]

Well done, I should attack from over there and we’ll get them in a pincer movement.
One of the problems they have ( so I’ve been told) is the big jumps in humidity means they can’t fit drawers the way us good older uns have been trained to do, half the time they won’t open and the other half the drawers fit like whores drawers— slack, as my college lecturer used to say

Remember this, made earlier this year?



The drawers were made and fitted in a very toasty summer; they fitted quite nicely, both running smoothly with no 'wobbles'. The 'Silver Chest' has been kept in an unheated bedroom and with the advent of the cooler, wetter, more humid Autumn weather the top drawer still slides smoothly but the bottom one has seized almost solid. The integral drawer runners won't fit into the semi circular recesses and there is no longer a shadow gap between it and the upper drawer...both are in contact!

The heating has now been turned on so once the current project is dun n'dusted, this one will be out to the workshop again for some very careful 'fettling' - Rob

 

[Cabinetman]

I must have just been lucky up to now!

 

[Dr.Al]

I managed a couple of hours on the box this afternoon. I started by dimensioning the drawer fronts to be a snug fit end-to-end and a loose fit top-to-bottom in the carcase:

I then used the shooting board to bring the back to the same size:

I also used it to bring the sides to the same height (width) but didn't do anything about the length of them for now. Finally, I planed the drawer fronts to what will be their final thickness (about 14 mm). I could then start marking out and sawing the tails at the front end of the side boards:

Three little chisels then finished the tails:

I haven't cut the tails on the backs of these boards yet as they're still too long. Once the first joints are done, I'll figure out how long they need to be.

I marked the sockets in the usual way:

You'll notice that I'm keeping my life simple by not trying to narrow pins on the drawers. It was an interesting exercise to do it on the carcase but I wanted an easy life this time. The marked up sockets:

This is the first one done:

At that point the darkness was feeling awkward with seeing what I was doing (despite the myriad of cool white LED lighting in the garage) and it was getting chilly so I decided to retire to the house for the evening. More tomorrow hopefully.

 

[Mike G]

.....I planed the drawer fronts to what will be their final thickness (about 14 mm).....

This little sentence, I feel, reveals how far your skills have come on in a very short time. Thicknessing boards by hand is no trivial matter, particularly when there are multiple boards all aiming to be the same thickness. How about you give us a short description of how you set about doing this?

 

[NickM]

This little sentence, I feel, reveals how far your skills have come on in a very short time. Thicknessing boards by hand is no trivial matter, particularly when there are multiple boards all aiming to be the same thickness. How about you give us a short description of how you set about doing this?

I'd also like to hear how Al does this.

The way I was shown to do it at Edward Barnsley with hand tools was to measure the four corners of the board with callipers. If the face side was flat and the side being thicknessed is flat, then measuring the corners is enough. Their rule of thumb was to get it within 0.1mm.

 

[Dr.Al]

This little sentence, I feel, reveals how far your skills have come on in a very short time.

Thanks Mike

Thicknessing boards by hand is no trivial matter, particularly when there are multiple boards all aiming to be the same thickness. How about you give us a short description of how you set about doing this?

My general approach varies a bit depending on how much has to come off and how off-flat the board is. If loads and loads needs to come off then it starts with the bandsaw. If quite a bit needs to come off, then I start with a pin type marking gauge and scribe a line all the way around the perimeter of the plank and then scrub plane followed by jack plane to get it down to the point where the furriness of the pin gauge line is starting to show all round, then smoothing plane to finish it off.

For boards like this where there isn't that much to remove (or boards where there was so much to remove that the bandsaw has done most of the work), my weapons of choice are (similar to Nick) these:



The little vernier one is the one that goes in the travel toolkit; the digital one is what I use at home. Incidentally, note the lack of an "in/mm" button on that digital caliper - it's metric only so there's no chance of an accidental button press taking you back into the 19th century

For the drawer fronts, I wasn't shooting for a specific dimension particularly, just smooth, even thickness and the two boards being about the same. One of them had a little bit missing from one of the arrises (no idea how it got there, presumably clumsiness on my part), so I started with that one and planed it down with the #5 until that had gone. I then measured the corners. Two were higher than the other two, so I treated it like I would a twisted board and planed a bit more on the high corners and checked again. On about the third measure it was looking pretty flat so I also checked halfway along the long edge just in case: for small boards where the face doesn't need to be perfectly flat this is quicker than putting a straight edge on it as the calipers are already in your hand. Finally, the smoothing plane was used for a clean-up pass. I'm generally happy with max deviation of about 0.2 mm so perhaps I would fail the Edward Barnsley test!

The second board was then offered up to the first and I could see I had (unsurprisingly) a few millimetres to remove so I just attacked it with the jack plane, using nothing more metrological than a quick look at each edge/end to see if it looked roughly parallel. Once it was closer to the right size I measured it and did as above. Again I was aiming for about 0.2 mm deviation, but was less fussy about whether the nominal was the exactly same as the other board. I think they ended up about 0.3 mm out, but I wouldn't have worried about a bit more than that. No-one is ever going to offer the two boards up to each other and check they're the same.

 

[Dr.Al]

I only had an hour out in the garage this morning but I've done the rest of the half-lap dovetails:

I noticed after doing them that I'd been a little dense and arranged two of the side planks such that they will be planed back-to-front instead of front-to-back. They're slightly oversize at the moment so that I can plane the sides down to match the width of the front pieces. Having arranged two of them that way round I'll have two options I think. Either I'll clamp some sort of off-cut to the front of the box so that it supports the trailing edge, or I'll plane with a high angle plane and hope that is sufficient to prevent tear-out. Sweet Chestnut is quite forgiving compared to, say, Ash, so I'm leaning towards the latter for simplicity.

I've got a few errands to run now, but hopefully I'll get some time this afternoon to shorten the side boards to length and then cut the rear dovetails.

 

[Dr.Al]

When I made it out to the workshop this afternoon, I started on the remaining joints for the drawer sides. With the drawer sides dry fitted to the fronts the drawer won't go into the box (as I still need to plane the sides down flush with the front and back, which I'll do after gluing). Instead, I got a scrap of ash and shoved it into the carcase. I could then knife a line on it where it met the front of the walnut piece:

That ash piece could then be used to transfer the depth onto the side pieces:

The ends got sawn off...

... and then shot to the transferred knife line:

A little bit of sawing and chiselling later (done in the same way I usually do so I didn't bother with photos) and all the dovetails are done:

One of the advantages of half-lap dovetails (as on the drawer front joints) is that, if you think about it beforehand, you can arrange the ploughed groove for the drawer base to come out in the chiselled out pocket. In combination with a mitred dovetail at the back you can then plough all the grooves with a plough plane.

However, if you're a bit frazzled in the run up to Christmas and don't think about it in advance, then the best place for a groove ends up being in the pin area rather than the tail area. Ploughing the grooves in the sides is still easy...

... however, the front and back need to have stopped grooves. I could have still done a mitred dovetail at the back but given I was doing a stopped groove at the front I figured I just do the same at the back. I started by marking the two sides of the groove with a pair of marking gauges:

I then chopped down on the shoulder line with a 4 mm chisel and then used the router plane to work down until the groove was deep enough:

Finally, I extended the groove out into the pin with the 4 mm chisel (I didn't do the full length in one go as I didn't want to risk blowing out the end of the groove):

The bases still needed cutting to size, which I did with saw and shooting board:

I could then do a dry fit:

If I were starting again I think I'd reduce the thickness of the sides and back a bit more (they're about 8 to 9 mm from memory but for such a small drawer they could easily have been smaller), but I'm not going to start again so they'll have to do!

I'm going to do something similar to a previous drawer box for the pull: an indent with a knob set into that indent. I'm aiming for a fairly "rustic" finish on the indent. I started by drilling a blind 4 mm hole with the pillar drill. I then inserted a 35 mm Forstner bit into the central hole and twisted it gently by hand to give me a diameter guide:

The first pass was done with a fairly big gouge. That left a fairly nice finish and I'm sure I could have cleaned it up with a few more light cuts:

However, cleaning it up would be a bit pointless given I then wanted to get a rippled finish with a smaller gouge:

Before gluing the box together, I gave the drawer fronts a quick squirt with some water to check I was happy with the look:

I then glued it together with this stuff, warmed in a bath of hot water:

I didn't get any photos of it glued and clamped together and I can't be bothered to go back out and take another photo so you'll have to use your imagination!

 

[Mike G]

Excellent, Al.

 

[Dr.Al]

Excellent, Al.

Thanks Mike

 

[Dr.Al]

This morning I've been cleaning up the sides and back of the boxes. With the grain direction being "wrong" on two of the sides, I decided to use a backer board rather than a high angle plane, with the box held in the two-screw "Moxon"-style vice in my Portable Workbench:

Where there was a tiny bit of glue squeeze-out still visible around the joints I used a card scraper to tidy it up locally:

The back got a chamfer with my block plane and a light pass with a card scraper was enough to bring everything flush:

The rims were mostly flush with one another but in the one or two corners where I could feel a slight ridge, I again used the card scraper:

Does anyone else chamfer internal corners with a card scraper?

I ended up using the card scraper to break most of the edges (internal and external) as it was easier to just keep that in my hand and work round everywhere.

For test fitting, I added a bit of masking tape with a big doubled-over section on the top:

I could then shove the drawers into their holes safe in the knowledge that I'd be able to pull them back out again!

After taking that photo, I also chamfered around all the edges of the fronts of the drawers: that makes the expansion gap above the bottom drawer less obvious I think.

The next job is to tidy the bench up and then get the lathe out to turn the drawer pulls.

I also need to decide what (if anything) to do about feet. On the last drawer box I made, I stuck some bits of maple on the bottom (see this photo). I'd be interested in opinions as to whether I should do the same (with walnut feet) on this one or just to leave the box sitting flat on its base.

 

[AndyT]

Does anyone else chamfer internal corners with a card scraper?

I have done, but then I discovered that it's one of those rare jobs for which a bullnose rebate plane, held at 45° both ways works really well, so I generally use one of those.

(Or even a bit of sandpaper on a scrap of wood, but I keep quiet about that. )

 

[Mike G]

Does anyone else chamfer internal corners with a card scraper?

Yep, but you can make a mess with a scraper on an arris chamfer quite quickly if the grain doesn't go your way, so I am cautious. There's generally a blunter bit of scraper to be found somewhere so that you can test the waters.

 

[AndyP]

Feet?
What surface will this likely be put on? Raising it up as much as those maple feet invites detritus to collect underneath. I am sure the base is flat enough so that it wont rock so perhaps just a felt pad inset in each corner?

 

[Dr.Al]

Feet?
What surface will this likely be put on?

If I'm happy with it when it's finished, then it'll probably go on my desk at work, with the top drawer holding pens/pencils/small screwdrivers and the bottom drawer holding a few random bits of electronics that tend to clutter up the desk.

Raising it up as much as those maple feet invites detritus to collect underneath. I am sure the base is flat enough so that it wont rock so perhaps just a felt pad inset in each corner?

Hmmm, a felt pad sounds an interesting idea. How would you attach it? Gluing it before oiling seems like a recipe for an oily felt rag on the bottom whereas gluing it after oiling could be result in glue not sticking.

 

[AndyP]

Surely you can oil top and sides without getting oil underneath? Masking tape on the base 1cm back from edge. Glue, or sticky backed felt.

 

[Dr.Al]

Surely you can oil top and sides without getting oil underneath? Masking tape on the base 1cm back from edge. Glue, or sticky backed felt.

Yes, I suppose I can. I've always oiled everything (usually, but not always including the inside surfaces as well) - partly to protect it all - but I guess the bottom could stay un-oiled. One advantage of oiling the bottom though is that it'll be protected when I inevitably spill a cup of coffee on my desk and it goes everywhere!

Another option (as opposed to felt) might be some small leather pads.

 

[AndyT]

If you just do the oiling and wait for it to fully cure, your leather pads will stick on nicely.

A proper round punch is ideal for cutting out circles

But squares are just as good!

 

[Dr.Al]

If you just do the oiling and wait for it to fully cure, your leather pads will stick on nicely.

A proper round punch is ideal for cutting out circles

But squares are just as good!

I have got a few round punches (and Carolyn has some more). What glue would you use for the leather-on-oil?

 

[AndyT]

I used UHU when I stuck some on an oilstone box I made - they've not come off yet.

 

[Dr.Al]

The first stage in making the drawer pulls was to clear the bench and set up the lathe. I also installed a newly acquired poly-backed cotton dust sheet to hang over the tool wall and save me a bit of dusting later:

Some off-cuts of Sycamore were used for the pulls. This was the first one:

I ended up making four of them. They all went quite smoothly, but the first two were a bit different in size/shape so I made a couple more and then picked the closest two:

The chosen two got glued and clamped in place:

While the drawer pulls are gluing, I brought the carcase in and put it in my new 3D printer (which has a laser cutter option). The box is getting near the size limit for the printer:

My logo has now been engraved onto the back of the box:

The next job will be to oil the box and the drawers and then I think I'm going to stick some leather feet to the bottom of it.

 

[duke]

This morning I've been cleaning up the sides and back of the boxes. With the grain direction being "wrong" on two of the sides, I decided to use a backer board rather than a high angle plane, with the box held in the two-screw "Moxon"-style vice in my Portable Workbench:

Where there was a tiny bit of glue squeeze-out still visible around the joints I used a card scraper to tidy it up locally:

The back got a chamfer with my block plane and a light pass with a card scraper was enough to bring everything flush:

The rims were mostly flush with one another but in the one or two corners where I could feel a slight ridge, I again used the card scraper:

Does anyone else chamfer internal corners with a card scraper?

I ended up using the card scraper to break most of the edges (internal and external) as it was easier to just keep that in my hand and work round everywhere.

For test fitting, I added a bit of masking tape with a big doubled-over section on the top:

I could then shove the drawers into their holes safe in the knowledge that I'd be able to pull them back out again!

After taking that photo, I also chamfered around all the edges of the fronts of the drawers: that makes the expansion gap above the bottom drawer less obvious I think.

The next job is to tidy the bench up and then get the lathe out to turn the drawer pulls.

I also need to decide what (if anything) to do about feet. On the last drawer box I made, I stuck some bits of maple on the bottom (see this photo). I'd be interested in opinions as to whether I should do the same (with walnut feet) on this one or just to leave the box sitting flat on its base.

I like the recessed area for the drawer pulls Al.

 

[MattS]

Excellent work, drawer pulls in the recesses works a treat. Out of interest which 3D printer did you go for when you upgraded?

 

[Dr.Al]

Excellent work, drawer pulls in the recesses works a treat. Out of interest which 3D printer did you go for when you upgraded?

Roll up, roll up, read all about it!

I must get round to updating that thread with some of the latest results from my experimentation.

 

[Dr.Al]

During the evenings of the week I applied a few coats of Mike's Magic Mix to the box and drawers (inside and out) and also a coat of paste wax to the sides of the drawers (as I figured it might help with them sliding smoothly in and out). After letting the finish have a couple of days to dry, it was time to get on with the leather feet.

Carolyn lent me one of her punches (a 3/4" / 19 mm diameter one) and some off-cuts of some brown leather:

I'm going to use the "furry" side of the leather as the outside surface. Part of the aim of the feet is to stop the box moving around when you pull the drawers out. I took the leather scraps into work (this box will eventually end up on my desk) and the furry side had a lot more friction on the desk surface than the shiny side.

I used the punch to make the feet (along with quite a few spares in case of later errors or just losing the little circles!)

I then gave them to Carolyn who (and I quote) "burnished the edges with Tokonole (a Japanese edge-finishing and burnishing agent) along with a wooden burnisher and some canvas". The one on the right in the following photo hasn't had its edges treated and I hope you can see the difference:

I didn't trust myself to do a neat job of fitting the feet so I decided to give myself as much assistance as I could. I started by peeling off a length of double-sided tape, throwing the tape away (but keeping the backing) and sticking some masking tape to the backing:

The same punch as before was then used to make a series of holes in the masking tape and backing:

In preparation for this job, the 3D-printer had made this little cutting guide, which has a shallow raised section of the same diameter as the feet:

That got held down onto the masking tape and the edges used as a reference for a knife cut all the way round:

The little masking tape pieces could then be peeled off the backing and applied to the bottom of the box with the edges lined up with the edges of the box. To help the glue stick I used my thinnest card scraper to roughen up the surface slightly (taking some of the finish off) within the circle and then I applied some contact adhesive:

I also applied some contact adhesive to the shiny side of the leather feet:

The feet could then be pressed firmly into place and then the masking tape peeled away:

The finished underside and back of the box:

This photo shows the drawer joinery and that fabulous looking (in my opinion) grain "pouring" over the rim:

Rear view:

Straight on at the front:

Some more:

 

[Mike G]

Very good Al. Another nice project ticked off.

 

[AndyT]

Wow, that's much more care and precision than the feet on my little oilstone box!



Which I now see are rubber, not leather, but effective enough in use.

 

[Dr.Al]

Wow, that's much more care and precision than the feet on my little oilstone box!

Probably way more than necessary if I'm honest, but once I've put this much effort into a project I get very nervous about messing something up!

 

[AndyP]

The leather feet locating jig deserves an award.
Yep the flowing grain pattern is really clever…by chance or design?

 

[Dr.Al]

The leather feet locating jig deserves an award.
Yep the flowing grain pattern is really clever…by chance or design?

Thanks Andy. I'd say somewhere between chance and design. Obviously I couldn't claim credit for the patterns in the wood, but the pieces came out of a bit I cut into slices (and hence made it easy to get continuous grain) and I spent a while arranging them to get the best pattern on the top corners, as seen in this image from earlier in this thread:

 

[Dr.Al]

I thought that grain was worthy of a close-up photo: