Entry hall table for a niece: Lipped Drawers
This
is the part where we begin building one-piece lipped drawers (as
contrasted with applied fronts).
In preparing for this
part of the build, my research uncovered exactly one article on
dovetailing lipped drawer fronts. This is by Christian Becksvoort in
Fine Woodworking magazine (#263-Sep/Oct
2017 Issue).
Interesting that.
Why lipped drawer fronts? Simply because
the three drawers must run continuously across the front, without a
gap between them.
The
lipped sides will wrap around the drawer dividers, and these will
double as drawer stops. This will be illustrated in a short
while.
The lipped ends create a challenge to form the
pins/sockets for the tailed drawer sides since it becomes difficult
to saw. I have a novel solution
We
begin by marking where the lipped sides will be. This is knifed in
through from the rear of the case ...
The
marks are knifed with a cutting gauge.
The distance from
the edge is exactly the same for each board - 6mm. The side spacers
are 6mm wide and the two central drawer dividers are 12mm thick, of
which each lip is half this thickness.
The
drawer front is rebated with a moving filletster plane ...
With
both sides rebated, the centre must fit snuggly between the drawer
dividers ...
...
and leave exactly half of the dividers remaining
...
Side-by-side,
perfect fit ...
The
rebates are fine-tuned with a cutting gauge, ensuring that they are
even and square ...
This
measure is transferred to the drawer side ...
I
took the time to lay out the dovetails on a scrap as a template. This
saves a lot of repeated layouts ...
Tails
done ...
The
tail board with be placed here, but with the lip extending past
...
This
is what it would look like if dovetailed ...
To
make it easier to see what I am sawing, I am using blue tape
...
Transferring
the tails to the pin board is made a little easier as the rebate is a
handy stop ..
Marked
out produces this ...
And
that is where it stops being straight forward as this is as much as
it is possible to saw inside the lines ...
I
decided that, if I could not saw it, I would chop it. This gives new
meaning to "chopping dovetails"
The
pin board is clamped (to avoid any splitting), and the kerfing chisel
is used to deepen the existing half-kerf, and then extend it across
the socket ...
Now
the waste is chopped out ...
This
picture of a fishtail chisel cleaning the corner of the socket is for
bill
Does
it fit? Oh, the suspense!
Two
more to go.
Regards from Perth
Derek
February 2020