A Little Upgrade..

[Gary Zimmel]

So with the knee being screwed up still I don't want to be hauling 4X8 sheets of ply around to make some tops...
Plan B will to be to get a few of the drawers out of the way.
First 6 rough machined.



Spent the last of the night running these again through the jointer and planer.
We are a thick 1/8" from final thickness.
Final dimensioning will be done in a couple of days just in case these move a bit. And a few will...

Glenn have you got that plane ticket??
We got a few drawers to do in a couple of days...


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[Gary Zimmel]

Happy New Year to everyone!
With my knee still screwed up I thought it was not a good thing to be hauling 4x8 sheets of plywood around my shop to do a few tops.
So instead we will do a few drawers.

These drawers will have through dovetails, with the boxes made of aspen.
All the parts machined and cut to size for the first six.
I have spent the time to mark and set them in order so no grain will be running the wrong way.
This aspen really isn't going to be an issue, but I have got into the habit which really helps with other woods.



I love to build little toys for the grandkids.
But it seems the cut offs from my projects are a bigger hit with them than the toys....
We will be a hit when we go over to the kids house next time.



The backs of the drawers will have a sliding dovetail joint.
Sides go to the back of the cabinet but the drawers will only be 14" deep.
The extra length will help the drawer not to tip a bit when being open and will let me know how far only to open it.



With the drawer parts done we have to sharpen a few tools.
I use shapton glass stones. 1000 and 16,000 will be needed to put a new edge on the chisels and plane irons.



And a quick shot of the hand tools I use for dovetailing....



I haven't done a dovetail in probably a year so I want do a few practice ones.



Keen eyes will see a few things went wrong with this first one..
Should of taken a couple more swipes with my 4 1/2 to remove the pen and scribe lines and when I was doing the left shoulder I screwed it up...
And the shoulders are a bit heavy for the pin size. But all in all not bad for the first one in a year....
Working with this aspen for the pin boards is not my favorite thing. It's pretty soft.
To help with this I have a set of chisels that are ground to 17 degrees.

A couple more practice ones and will will see how we can butcher a real one...


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[Bill Satko]

Gary, I heard that Aspen was the softest wood grown in North America. What has been your experience with it as drawer material?

[John Daugherty]

WOW Gary! I just caught up with this thread. Your work is outstanding. I really like the design of your cabs.

[Gary Zimmel]

It's cheap so thats why I use it Bill... And you are right how soft it is.
Downside of using it is your tools have to be real sharp as it will tear rather then slice with a not so sharp chisel..
It's really a test of ones patience when using it for drawers.
That why the 17 degree angles on a chisel. These angles can't be used on a wood thats hard and for sure can't be used to take off big chunks, the tip will just fold over.
Using it for tail boards I really like as the end grain the chisels see is very minimal. Especially if one like real small pins as I do.

[Gary Zimmel]

Thanks John.

[Gary Zimmel]

So the next little while will be quiet in my shop. No tailed tools...
Tonight we started on the tail boards for these six drawers.
Lots of different ways to do a dovetail. This way I am comfortable with and most times real happy with the result.
Tails first for me.
Good lighting is a must... I have a bench light to give these old eyes some extra help.

With all my stock cut to size I first clean the edges up at my shooting board.
This makes the scribed lines more visible.



Next we adjust the depth on my tite mark gauge and scribe some line around the tail and pin boards.
These will be my reference lines when sawing and using the chisels.
The chisels will sit in the scribe line to give one a nice straight baseline.



I put a little ledge on the backside of the tail boards. This will help line the tail board up with the pin board.
Makes scribing the pins a snap. For this I use a LN 140.



To mark out the layout of the pins and shoulders I use two dividers.
One set for the shoulders and one set for the pins. If I use two the they will be set for all the layout of these drawers.
No going back to rest anything.



After the shoulder points are marked we step off the two pins (starting from the shoulder hole. And then step them off from the other side, once again starting from the shoulder mark.
This gives me the width of the pin. Wider pins we open the dividers up tiny ones we close them a bit.




To give me my layout lines I just put a pen in the tiny divider hole and use a dovetail marker.
For soft woods I use the 6:1 side.



Before I do any sawing I make sure the board is level. Level, not square to my bench. It's not level....



When I saw I do one angle first and then go back and do the other one. I find I am more consistent doing this.
After the sawing most of the waste is removed with a fret saw. The closer one gets to the line, without going by the baseline, the quicker the chiseling is...



Next we lay the tail board level on its side and chop off the shoulder.
Once again the closer we are to the line the quicker the cleanup...
A sharp chisel is used to clean up the shoulder.



And with a bit of cleanup with a 17 degree chisel we have one tail board..




Can't beat a night in the shop and all you hear is the radio.
The next few nights we will do the other 11 tails boards and then go on to the pin boards.

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[Rob Keeble]

Gary you make it seem effortless. thanks for showing us how you do it. Following along

Me thinks between you and Allen you two have inspired a bunch of shop reno work.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

[Bill Satko]

Your instruction looks great Gary, but aren't you holding the saw and plane in the wrong hand?

[allen levine]

Id not insult gary like that.
garys shop is a display of what fine woodworking and excellent craftsmanship can produce.
my shop is arranged for production work(on my level of craftsmanship,again, not comparing it to the garys of the world) and mostly for my handicap of being neurologically impaired.
I do believe we have one thing in common.
I agree turning on a radio in the shop and enjoying music while you work is tops.