Wednesday, April 27, 2011

7- Drawer Chest--Part 2 By Eric Johnson's Furniture

I believe I began this post on my blog before the Artistic Roots blog was launched.  If you are missing the first part, click here:



Hello again,

It’s time for the second post about the 7-drawer chest. 

After I cut and fit the dovetails in each corner of the case, I glued the case together.  If you remember in my last blog about the chest, I mentioned cutting dados across the case sides where the drawers will be.  This is where I fit the dividers.  I cut the dividers to length, then on the table saw I cut out the dovetails.

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 This picture shows me scribing the dovetail to the case sides. 
Once I have the tail laid out on the case side, I transfer the line down the side to the depth I want--in this case about an inch.  Now all I have to do is cut close to the line.  I don’t need to be right on because I will pare it to fit with a chisel.

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Once I cut down to the depth I want, it’s nothing to pop the piece out
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Now comes the part where you need a sharp chisel and some patience.  The key is to not take too big of a bite but to slowly and carefully pare to your line.
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Once you get close, mark some pencil lead onto the leading edge of the dovetail and try to fit it.  If it’s too tight simply remove the board and shave off where the pencil lead is showing.

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Once you get a good fit, you are done. And you can move onto the other ones.
 IMG_0716a This post was fairly difficult to write because I wanted to give a brief overview of making and installing the dovetail stretchers but found it was difficult to leave things out.  If any of you would like a more in-depth discussion on how I did this, let me know and I will write a more involved article.

The next blog will be about the finishing process.  At some point I will be describing how I dovetail and build the drawers, but I think it will be a completely separate blog, so stay tuned.

Thank you again for stopping by.  If you have any questions or comments, or have a suggestion of what you would be interested in me writing about, just let me know.

Until next time,

Eric
http://www.ericjohnsonsfurniture.com/
(603)726-4980
Campton, NH

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