Week 5: Who knew a drawer could be so…

jcheveran

Week 5: Who knew a drawer could be so…

…frustrating and challenging, but glad I conquered it before I ran out of wood.

Monday was a holiday so no school, and so it was a lazy retirement day at home…yay! 🙂

Dovetails Up Close – Don’t worry, not finished! 🙂

Tuesday was back at school, with a substitute teacher since our instructor was still out. But Nick was scheduled to be back on Wednesday so that is good news for us and him.  Bob was our sub, and who makes a mean marking gauge, is also very nice and instructor at the school.  This day was about finishing our drawer and thankfully Nick told us to leave the drawer sides “long” just in case we messed up while doing the tails of the half-blind dovetails in the front…because you definitely don’t want to be in a position where you need to start over on your drawer front. It is in the primary wood, and it was cut specifically to fit the opening and the other parts based of it. Don’t want to cross that bridge, and I did not!

However, I had a rough Tuesday as I messed up a few times and then needed to cut off the work and start over cutting the tails off and trying again. In the end, I actually had two restarts which while frustrating, was good practice and learning. Practically speaking, when you trim them off you are only removing about half an inch from the drawer sides. , in fact I had to cut the tails a couple of times (two restarts, as when you restart you have to cut both sides to length.  But I ended up in the right place, so I will chalk all this up to learning. If you are interested in learning more and seeing an example, check out this video but keep in mind I don’t operate this quickly or cleanly yet! 🙂

As you can see, I did finish drawer after a number of tries, and it fits perfectly!

Wednesday was focused finishing the drawer parts by cutting the through dovetails with the sides and the back parts.  Again, this whole thing requires precision and since your milled parts are to your specific your piece and its unique dimensions and quirks, you can’t just go mill up another part without a lot of very careful work.  Something I learned when I mess up on my back…luckily I had extra lumber that was already milled to the exact height and thickness (very lucky when you have an off-cut that is already almost fully milled). 

Thus, I just had to cut to width to the exact width because if not, the drawer would not be square, not to mention the back is cut to a very specific width – the same as the front and matching the opening on the nightstand itself.  I love all this, and in the end I am finding the joy in the small mistakes, because as both Bob and Nick say, there are not mistakes, only learning!

When you think about hide glue, it does make you think…exactly how was this discovered? 🙂
After milling, and smoothing and fitting the joint, here is my top after a glue up.

Thursday After a couple of couple hours in the morning to finish the drawer parts, it was time to glue up (always nerve wracking…although I have come to love hide glue, which is the original furniture glue and actually a bit more forgiving).  In fact, if you have an old piece of furniture is it likely glued with hide glue.  And the advantage is that it has a bit more time to work the glue up vs the Titebond PVA and the like, which I have used in all my previous work (was introduced to hide glue in a course I took 16 years ago…more on that later, as I need to finish that project).  But with hide glue you can heat it and undo the bond to clean and redo.

My top sized, top beveled, and smoothed. This is a total blast!! BTW, this is the bottom of the top.

The rest of Thursday afternoon was cleaning up the cabinet with smoothing plane plus final milling for our top and ended the day with a glue up of the top using a spring joint

Here it is all put together, the top, drawer fitted, and base…now ready for finishing!!! I’m sure finishing will be a snap, I mean how hard could it be?!? Stay tuned to next week…. :0

Friday was taking the tops of our clamps and then smoothing the surface with our planes.  I brought in my Lie-Nielsen 4 1/2 which is a No 4 with a wider blade and soul, plus a higher angle for the plane iron.  And it worked its magic on my crazy walnut which has figure and groin running around like a group of 5-year-olds on the soccer field chasing the ball.

It was then cutting the top to size and learning to do the large bevel cut using another jig on the table saw and what a difference it makes to the look of the nightstand with that beautiful thin edge on what is actually 3/4” top.  Anyway, the fun just continues.

We finished the day being introduced to the specifics of our cabinet on a stand project, and encouraged to explore design ideas, wood selection, etc.  There is a lot to consider, and my mind is racing.  Of course, Nick managed our enthusiasm by saying he wants to review our plans to make sure they are doable, but encouraged us to aim high!

Reminder, this is the cabinet on a stand example project…we do get a few more degrees of freedom on this one, any guesses if I stick with the standard design or add a few bobbles??
NBSS Entrance…Founded in 1881, inspiring!

Also, I talked to the director of admissions about the full-time program, and I’m excited to say I have thinking that is where I might be spending the next two years of my life…we will see, as need to let it set in, but we will see.  I still want to do some other work, like board work, consulting, maybe advisory in start-ups like one I am already involved with, just not sure if a full-time corporate gig is the answer…will see.

Dateline: NBSS Three-Month Furniture Intensive, Oct 10-14 (Week 5)