Underbench Cabinet: Dados
We
left off with the case complete, dados ready for the drawer blades,
and the parts semi-prepared ...
With 10 drawers in 4 rows, there are a goodly number of joints to make for the drawer blades. Typically, these are made with mortice-and-tenon joinery, which has been my method to date. Today I decided to do something different .. use a Festool Domino. I purchased this four years ago to aid in building a multitude of frame-and-panel doors for our kitchen. It did a great job, and then it was retired to a shelf.
The rails for the drawer blades are all 45mm wide x 12mm thick. I used a 6mm x 40mm domino for each join. This is not the dimensions I would have used with M&T, where one tends to follow the 1/3 Rule. A centred 6mm domino leaves 3mm on each side ....
I was concerned whether this would create a stiff and rigid join, and made a couple of test pieces. No problem at all.
Not having any dedicated Domino hold downs, my bench did a sterling job ...
Fl
Flush the joins (not that there was much to flush) ...
Done x 3 ...
Time to fit these. Sliding them in to the ends of the dados ...
These is a large gap to the front of the case ...
My design calls for a 6mm set back for the drawer fronts. To ensure that this is even around the circumference, this is marked off with the help of blue tape (I really need to take out shares in this product) ...
The last step is to rebate the drawer fronts to move them forward in the dados.
The base is scored with a knife (note that the frames are a tight fit in the dados) ...
A cutting gauge is set to the line ...
Blue tape helps outline the rebate for old eyes. Note that the short side is sawn first. This is to prevent the long sawcut slitting off as the offcut is end grain and weak.
The cautious will sawn away from the line, and finish by paring with a chisel. I really do not fancy much paring in this really hard Jarrah, and decided to just saw to the line. The saw gods were smiling on me today ...
Now the drawer blades can be moved forward into their final position ..
The next step - for next time - is to begin the sliding dovetail drawer dividers.
Regards from Perth
Derek
December 2020