More progress has been made on the chest of drawers.  Last time I made a post I left you with this pic.  Now I need to make the inner front and rear center stiles and the front upper rail.

 

The front upper rail is a part of a dovetail joint.  I started making the rail dovetail by sawing a cheek and two shoulder cuts.

 

Then I cut the dovetail profile using my table saw fitted with a 10-degree bevel saw blade and a shop made jig.  After two cuts and some chisel clean-up I have a nice dovetail.

 

Then I laid the front upper rail across the top of the two front legs and scribed their location using a scribing knife.

 

I used a small saw to help with the chisel work.  I found chiseling into white oak difficult, so I regrouped and used my router to make the socket for the dovetail.

 I’m happy with the initial fit.  After a little tweaking with a chisel, it will fit nicely.

 

Dry fitting with all the stiles and rails in place.  Sorry that I did not take pics for the inner front and rear center stiles.  The inner stiles will carry the weight from the #3,4,5,& 6 drawer slides.  The front stile has twin tenons on each end and twin mortises routed for 3 rails.  The rear stile has two half-lap joints and three single mortises.  The rear inner stile will be glued and screwed to the #3 & #6 rear rails during the final glue-up assembly.  Locating the mortises was a meticulous effort. 

 

I use a template and a compression router bit to route the profile to all the lower rails.

 

Time to dry fit all the pieces and get ready to trial install the under-mount draw slides.

 

The drawer slide will attach to the front leg and the rear rails using a bracket, after the rear legs are notched for each bracket, to allow for the proper clearances.   I will need to rout the twelve notches into the two rear legs and the inner rear rail.

 

Another shop-aid or template is made to help route the twelve notches.  I used my mortising jig to hold the legs and the template.  I used a ½” OD guide busing in my router along with a 1/8” dia bit.

 

The drawer slide is temporarily located looking for positive clearances.  I made shop aids to help hold the slide in the rear in the correct plane.

 

I made another shop-aid to locate the front of the drawer slide 1-1/8” from the front of the front legs.

 

The Chest of drawer top boards are milled to final thickness (7/8") and glued together.  The top still needs to be cut to size.

 

Next, making the L-hand door.

 

More mortise and tenon joinery need to be made for the door construction.

 

Doesn’t it look pretty?

 

I have a plan and a mock-up for the door pull installation.

 

AGAIN, thanks for looking.   Danl

 

 

 

You are gonna have a beautiful piece of furniture! 
 

Glad to see I’m not the only one who labels everything with blue painters tape 

 

7 hours ago, lew said:

 

Glad to see I’m not the only one who labels everything with blue painters tape 

 

I have to label because the memory does not work as well and chalk gets rubbed off.  Thanks  Danl

another thumbs up on blue tape to keep track of parts.  i keep several rolls in the shop for such use.

Your craftsmanship and attention to detail is inspiring Dan. Thanks for all the detailed pictures along with your techniques. This piece is going to be the jewel of your bedroom suite.

Edited November 25, 20232 yr by Grandpadave52

That's some beautiful work, Danl! You're going to have a fantastic piece when you're done. Thanks a lot for bringing us along on the build. Very interesting, informative and a joy to see.

You are so meticulous this is bound to be a very fine piece. 

11 hours ago, Danl said:

I have to label because the memory does not work as well and chalk gets rubbed off.

 

I too am a member of this club, others may, or may not admit it.  

My memory's so bad that I forget where I put the the tape.